History
Construction permit
WCZU-LD's application history dates back to February 2010. The station was assigned call letters W39CZ-D, but in 2013, they were changed to the current WCZU-LD before the station took to the air, under license to King Forward, Inc.[2] Its elected transmitter site was originally located in central Edmonson County, Kentucky, on KY 1365 (Grassland Road) off KY 70 (Morgantown Road) just northwest of Brownsville.[3] That tower served as an AT&T long-lines microwave tower from the early 1970s until the mid-2000s as part of the AT&T Long Lines wire, cable, and microwave relay system. That tower can be seen in various areas of Edmonson County from Windyville to Sweeden as well as the north side of Brownsville, therefore making the structure a familiar landmark to area residents.
WCZU takes to the air
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On December 20, 2013, the station's operator, DTV America, announced the station would go on air in early 2014 as a MyNetworkTV affiliate, with Antenna TV programming surrounding MyNetworkTV's prime time schedule.[4] WCZU-LD took to the air on March 4, 2014, and was discovered to be on the air no later than April 26, 2014. Most people did not know the station existed until sometime in either late April or May of that year.[5] Upon signing on, WCZU became the first station in the Bowling Green market to provide programming from a digital multicast specialty network, since the station began with a primary Antenna TV affiliation, with upstart healthy-lifestyle specialty network Doctor TV Channel (DrTV) being carried on WCZU's second subchannel. It also became the first low-power digital station to sign on in the Bowling Green market. In May 2014, WCZU's transmitter site was relocated to a tower near the Wingfield community in southwestern Edmonson County along KY 1749 (Wingfield Road). It now shares space on the tower with Brownsville-licensed adult hits radio station WKLX.[6]
From the time of the station's inception in March 2014, WCZU also had a secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV, a sister channel to the Fox network that was created in 2006 to provide an alternative to going independent station to any former UPN and WB affiliate not slated to become an affiliate of fellow-upstart network The CW upon its launch that same year; the cable-only "WBWG", which relaunched onto the DT3 subchannel of ABC/Fox dual affiliate WBKO (channel 13) is the area's CW affiliate as part of The CW Plus. With MyNetworkTV finally becoming available locally through WCZU, Ion Television became the last major network or syndication service not available directly from an outlet in Bowling Green; Nashville's Ion owned-and-operated station WNPX-TV (originally licensed to Cookeville, now licensed to Franklin) is the default Ion outlet for the market. Prior to the sign-on of WCZU, the Bowling Green market had to rely on WUXP-TV in Nashville as the default MyNetworkTV affiliation for area; that station, which was available on Bowling Green cable systems as early as 1988 (during that station's stint as Fox affiliate WCAY-TV),[7] also served as the default UPN affiliate during that network's existence from January 1995 until UPN's merger with The WB to create The CW in September 2006. This was because UPN was never fully available from a local station in Bowling Green; the only UPN programming that was seen locally from Bowling Green area stations were the first season of Star Trek: Voyager, which aired on WBKO in early 1995,[8] and the Disney's One Too block, which aired on NBC affiliate WNKY (channel 40) during that station's final two years as Bowling Green's original Fox affiliate.[9] Like most of Nashville's other full-power UHF digital stations, WUXP could still be received in parts of the Bowling Green market using an outdoor antenna. The only Bowling Green area cable system that still carried WUXP at the time of WCZU's sign-on was WesternCable, the on-campus cable system in classrooms and residence halls at Western Kentucky University; the station was dropped in 2020.[10]
For unknown reasons, WCZU did not air MyNetworkTV programming in late June and early July 2014. Programming from that service returned sometime during the week of July 7–12, 2014. MyNetworkTV programming returned permanently on August 4, 2014. It disappeared again in March 2015, also for unknown reasons. In times when MyNetworkTV programming was not run on WCZU, WUXP would serve as a backup MyNetworkTV affiliate assuming one could pick up that station's signal.
On August 15, 2014, DTV America, which has been operating the station since its inception, purchased the station from King Forward to become the station's outright owner and operator.
After the first year (2015–2017)
In December 2014, Glasgow, Kentucky-based South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative and DTV America Corporation reached an agreement for the SCRTC to carry both of WCZU's digital subchannels, making WCZU available to the SCRTC's customers in the Bowling Green market only, including Barren, Metcalfe, and Hart counties.[11][12] This made the SCRTC the first cable provider in the Bowling Green market to reach such an agreement, and to carry either of WCZU's subchannels of the time. Later on in the same month, the Glasgow Electric Plant Board also reached an agreement with DTV America to carry both of WCZU's subchannels.[13][14][15][16][17] Both providers began carrying WCZU's two subchannels in January 2015. Salem, Indiana–licensed WMYO in Louisville was dropped by both cable providers to make way for WCZU. Since Antenna TV was also available on WCZU's main channel, both subchannels of Louisville Fox affiliate WDRB (WMYO's sister station) were also dropped, making WBKO-DT2 the sole Fox affiliate on Glasgow-area cable. Hence, WCZU-LD claimed market exclusivity on both cable systems in terms of MyNetworkTV affiliates.
On December 8, 2015, WCZU replaced DrTV with the Buzzr network on its second subchannel, featuring a whole library of classic games shows owned by FremantleMedia.[18] This made WCZU the first station in Kentucky to affiliate with that network. In terms of commercial TV stations, WCZU-LD2's switch to Buzzr was also the first affiliation change in the Bowling Green market since WNKY's switchover from Fox to NBC in March 2001. On January 27, 2016, the station launched its DT3 subchannel as an affiliate of Bounce TV, a multicast network that is specifically geared towards the African American population.
On May 27, 2016, after MyNetworkTV's Friday night lineup, DrTV, which once occupied the second subchannel, returned to the station but on the main subchannel as a result of a technical error. Antenna TV returned the following Sunday morning, May 29, in time for that network's marathon of racing-inspired movies that commemorated the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.
More subchannels on WCZU
There was some speculation that WCZU would launch two additional subchannels, WCZU-LD4 and WCZU-LD5, which would have served as affiliates of Katz Broadcasting-operated gender networks Grit and Escape, respectively, at some point in late 2016 or early 2017. Escape was rebranded as Court TV Mystery in 2019, and was renamed Ion Mystery in 2022.[19][20] Both networks' channels at the time were considered the "Gender Networks" targeting people in the 25–54 age group. On August 24, 2016, WCZU-LD4, alone, was launched as an affiliate of the SonLife Broadcasting Network, which makes it the first religious network to have an affiliate in the Bowling Green market, although WPBM-CD, in nearby Scottsville (technically in the Nashville market) is also a religious-formatted station.
Grit and Escape– the latter of which is now Ion Mystery– were simultaneously launched on WCZU's LD5 and LD6 subchannels, respectively, on September 23, 2016. This made WCZU the first station in the market to offer six or more digital subchannels since Kentucky Educational Television (KET) offered six subchannels on all of their satellites in the mid-2000s. However, the WAVE-DT3 feed of Grit remained available on SCRTC Cable until sometime in 2017. On January 6, 2017, a seventh subchannel was launched to carry the NBCUniversal-owned Cozi TV network.
WCZU on Spectrum Cable
The Bowling Green Daily News added WCZU to its TV Listings page on January 9, 2017.[21] This was done in response to Time Warner Cable (now Charter Spectrum) making WCZU's main channel available on its cable system in the Bowling Green area in that month.[22]
Simulcast of another MyNetworkTV affiliate
For the station's first three years on the air, there were certain times WCZU did not air MyNetworkTV programming and continued Antenna TV programming during prime time. Since December 2017, as a solution to that problem, WCZU-LD began simulcasting its MyNetworkTV programming schedule with the DT2 subchannel of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware–based NBC affiliate WRDE-LD from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Central time, and also airs its local commercials. This is done to prevent accidental blackout of MyNetworkTV programming due to technical errors. This is part of an agreement between WRDE and DTV America.
New ownership and change of affiliation
WCZU was one of several dozen DTV America stations that were purchased by HC2 Holdings (now part of Innovate Corp.) in October 2017.[23][24] In May 2019, WCZU, along with the parent company's other MyNetworkTV affiliates, began to simulcast the service's prime time schedule with KWWE-LD in Lake Charles, Louisiana, including the latter station's commercials. In early June 2019, the station's affiliations with both Antenna TV and MyNetworkTV were replaced with the full-time schedule of the newly relaunched Court TV. The market would be once again without a local MyNetworkTV affiliation until the October 18, 2019, sign-on of the area's current MyNetworkTV/Biz TV dual affiliate, the Glasgow-licensed WDNZ-LD, which has also taken the Antenna TV affiliation to air it on a separate subchannel, thus finally bringing the full-time Antenna TV schedule to the Bowling Green area.[25]
2020s
Throughout its history, WCZU was known to be forced off the air for prolonged periods of time due to either a severe storm or a power outages at the transmitter. However, on July 27, 2022, the station suffered damage to one of the pallets on the transmitter. As a result, the station filed for Silent Special Temporary Authority for allowance of time to repair the transmitter. The station returned to the air on August 15.[26]
