History
KWSU signed on the air on September 24, 1962, as KWSC-TV (standing for Washington State College, the name of Washington State University until 1959), and changed its callsign to KWSU-TV in March 1969, a year before the launch of PBS. [2]
The station used the Washington State University cougar logo as its official logo until 1976.
KWSU signed on KTNW on channel 31 on October 18, 1987. The channel 31 allotment in the Tri-Cities was briefly used in the late 1950s by KTRX, based in Kennewick, Washington; after that station signed off, channel 31 in the Tri-Cities remained vacant until KTNW signed on.
KWSU discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on February 17, 2009, the original date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). [3] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 17 to its analog-era VHF channel 10.
From 2017 to 2018, KWSU and KTNW used the "nwptv" branding. Since 2018, both stations have switched to the "Northwest Public Broadcasting" branding, which was a modified version of the "Northwest Public Television" branding used from 2006 to 2017.
Washington State University and Northwest Public Broadcasting announced in October 2025 that KWSU-TV would cease operations on December 31; the closure followed the loss of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and a $1.8 million cut to NWPB's budget. NWPB's radio network (based at KWSU radio) and KTNW will continue operations; the station's donors will retain access to PBS Passport via KTNW, and other PBS programming will remain available in the Pullman and Spokane areas via KSPS-TV and Idaho Public Television. [4] [5]
