14 Facts About WKOW

WKOW is a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Allen Media Broadcasting.

WKOW-TV was launched on June 30,1953, as Madison's first television station.

The WKOW call sign was an acknowledgment to Wisconsin's dairy industry, and featured a smiling bovine alongside the emphasized "K-O-W" of the call sign.

WKOW-AM-TV shared studios on Tokay Boulevard on Madison's west side beginning in 1953.

WKOW-TV remained with CBS until 1956, when CBS moved to the new WISC-TV.

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From January to August 1958, WKOW was part of the short-lived, Wisconsin-oriented Badger Television Network, alongside Milwaukee's WISN-TV and Green Bay's WFRV-TV.

WKOW has been a pioneer of sorts in the world of digital terrestrial television.

WKOW is still regularly used for digital television experiments, including an October 2014 test involving one of the competitors for the ATSC 3.

WKOW serves as the originating station for broadcasts of Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association championship events.

WKOW carries games for the Wisconsin Badgers football team that are selected to be broadcast by ABC.

WKOW debuted a news department on the first day of its broadcasting in summer 1953.

On October 26,2010, WKOW became the third station in Madison to upgrade newscasts to high definition, following WISC-TV and WMTV.

WKOW shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 27, at 1 pm on February 17,2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate.

WKOW serves as the master hub for Allen Media Group's five-station network of ABC affiliates throughout western and northern Wisconsin.