KWTX-TV

CBS affiliate in Waco, Texas

KWTX TV (channel 10) is a television station in Waco, Texas, United States, serving Central Texas as an affiliate of CBS and Telemundo. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Belton licensed CW affiliate KNCT (channel 46). The two stations share studios on American Plaza in Waco; KWTX TV's transmitter is located near Moody, Texas. KWTX TV offers Telemundo programming on its second digital subchannel. This subchannel started on January 23, 2006, as an UPN affiliate ("UPN Waco") and changed its branding to "CW 12 Central Texas" on September 15, 2006. The subchannel switched to Telemundo on January 2, 2019, after Gray Television moved its CW affiliation to former PBS member station KNCT, which it had just acquired from Central Texas College. KBTX TV (channel 3) in Bryan–College Station operates as a semi satellite of KWTX TV. As such, it simulcasts all network and syndicated programming as provided through KWTX TV but airs separate commercial inserts, legal identifications, local newscasts and Sunday morning religious programs, and has its own website. KWTX TV serves the western half of the Waco–Temple–Bryan market while KBTX serves the eastern portion. The two stations are counted as a single unit for ratings purposes. Although KBTX TV maintains its own studios on East 29th Street in Bryan, master control and some internal operations are based at KWTX TV's facilities.

KWTX TV first signed on the air as an independent station on April 3, 1955. It was originally owned by Texoma Broadcasting, a holding company owned by businessman Milford N. "Buddy" Bostick alongside KWTX radio (AM 1230 and FM 97.5). At the time, crosstown KANG TV (channel 34) had the ABC, CBS and DuMont affiliations. KWTX picked up ABC in time for the fall 1955 TV season, and DuMont's closure left KANG as a full time CBS station. Long plagued by financial difficulties due to being the only UHF station in the market at a time when UHF tuners were rare, KANG, owned by Texas Broadcasting Company, shut down at the end of 1955. Texoma bought KANG's assets and sold a 29 percent stake in KWTX TV to Texas Broadcasting. KWTX TV picked up the CBS affiliation as a result of the merger with KANG, and has been a primary CBS affiliate ever since. It shared a secondary ABC affiliation with KCEN TV (channel 6) until September 1, 1977, when KWTX TV and KBTX TV became primary ABC affiliates. The two stations then returned to CBS in 1983. KCEN became a primary ABC affiliate in 1984, only to reaffiliate with NBC at the end of 1985. Texoma purchased KXII in Sherman in 1958. A year before, KBTX TV in Bryan took to the air as semi satellite of KWTX serving the Brazos Valley.

Beginning December 6, 1955, KWTX TV televised the murder trial of Harry L. Washburn, marking the first live telecast of a courtroom trial in the United States. The telecast earned near universal praise from the legal community. District Judge D. W. Bartlett praised the station's crew for its unobtrusiveness: "I have not noticed anything that would in any way interfere with the administration of justice. I don't think anyone could object to the television being run while this is on. It is perfectly quiet, it's outside the jury, and there's been perfect decorum of all concerned, and I don't think there would be any reflection on any court to have this television carried on as it has been carried on in this court."

Just before the Mount Carmel raid on February 28, 1993, Davidian learned that they were facing not a service of warrants, but a shootout. KWTX TV cameraman James Peeler asked directions of Davidian David Jones, who was driving his postal truck. David Koresh's attorney Dick DeGuerin told reporters that Peeler told Jones, "Well, you better get out of here because there's a United States National Guard helicopter over at TSTC (Texas State Technical College) and they're going to have a big shootout with the religious nuts." Peeler was distressed to see Jones immediately drive to Mount Carmel Center and left the area to call his superiors. According to the Treasury report, Jones told DeGuerin that "Peeler warned him not to go near the Compound as there were going to be 60 to 70 TABC (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission) guys in helicopters and a shoot out would occur'." And Peeler himself confessed to the Treasury review team that he had told Jones there would be "some type of law enforcement action" and that "the action was likely to be a raid of some type and that there might be shooting." KWTX TV cameraman Dan Mulloney testified that KWTX TV's initial information came from law enforcement agents he refused to name—something the Treasury report failed to reveal—as well as from a private ambulance driver working with BATF. (Similarly, BATF agent Ballesteros admitted that it was non BATF law enforcement that tipped off the Waco Tribune Herald.) Therefore, BATF agents' expectations of a shootout were directly transmitted to the Davidians. Mulloney, Peeler, and reporter John McLemore, along with reporters from the Waco Tribune Herald, were the only non combatants at Mount Carmel that day. Mulloney shot the TV footage used around the world of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms storming the Davidians' home. Mulloney and McLemore later used their vehicle to transport injured ATF agents away from the shootout. McLemore received letter of commendation from the ATF Director for his bravery that day. However, KWTX reporters became easy targets for blame during the subsequent trials following the botched raid, particularly because Koresh learned about the approaching raid from Jones, the postal worker from which Peeler asked directions. On August 28, 2018, it was reported that the Central Texas College Board of Trustees had voted to assign the broadcast license of PBS member station KNCT to Gray, which would create a duopoly with KWTX TV. This was possible because KNCT broadcasts on a channel not reserved for non commercial broadcasting. The sale was approved by the FCC on December 12, and it was completed on December 17. KNCT returned to the air on January 2, 2019, taking CW programming from KWTX TV.