When the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened up bids for channel 7 in Waterloo, it was obvious that the license would either go to Sonderling Broadcasting, owner of
KXEL (1540 AM), or R.J. McElroy and his Black Hawk Broadcasting Company, owner of KWWL (1330 AM, now
KPTY). After a long legal battle, Black Hawk won the license, and KWWL-TV signed on for the first time on November 26, 1953. The station was originally affiliated with NBC and the
DuMont network. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the
NTA Film Network. In 1980, Black Hawk agreed in principle to merge with Forward Communications. However, the FCC told Black Hawk and Forward that the combined company would have to sell either the radio stations–KWWL radio and
KFMW–or channel 7. The KWWL stations had been grandfathered under a 1970s FCC rule banning common ownership of radio and television stations. When Forward decided to keep the radio stations, Black Hawk sold channel 7, along with then-sister station
KTIV in
Sioux City, to
AFLAC just before the merger closed. In 1997, AFLAC sold its entire broadcasting division, including KWWL, to
Raycom Media. In 2006, Raycom sold KWWL and a handful of other stations following its purchase of the
Liberty Corporation in late 2005.
Quincy Newspapers became owner of KWWL on July 1, 2006. The merger made QNI the owner of four of the NBC affiliates serving Iowa, along with flagship station
WGEM-TV in
Quincy, Illinois,
KTTC in
Rochester, Minnesota, and Black Hawk/AFLAC sibling KTIV, which had been sold to QNI in 1989. KWWL shut down its analog signal, over
VHF channel 7, on February 17, 2009, the original target 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). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition
UHF channel 55, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to VHF channel 7. The "KWWL" callsign was legally transferred from the now-defunct
analog channel 7 to the new digital channel 7, with the "KWWL-DT" callsign being permanently discontinued. On November 1, 2010, the FCC granted KWWL a construction permit for a 300-watt digital fill-in translator on channel 7 (the same frequency as their main channel). The translator would serve the immediate part and areas northwest of Dubuque. The permit was later canceled on June 6, 2013. On January 7, 2021, Quincy Media announced that it had put itself up for sale. A few weeks later,
Gray Television announced its intent to purchase Quincy for $925 million. As Gray already owns the market's
KCRG-TV and both stations rank among the top four in ratings in the Cedar Rapids–Waterloo market, it intended to keep KCRG-TV and
divest KWWL in order to satisfy FCC requirements. On April 29, 2021, it was announced that Allen Media Group would acquire KWWL and the remaining Quincy stations not being acquired by Gray Television for $380 million. The sale was completed on August 2 the same year, making KWWL a
sister station to
CBS affiliate
KIMT in nearby
Mason City. Gray's decision to sell KWWL came as an ironic twist, given that they had acquired the station's previous owner Raycom in 2019. On June 1, 2025, amid financial woes and rising debt, Allen Media Group announced that it would explore "strategic options" for the company, such as a sale of its television stations (including KWWL).
Studio renovation In late 2014, the KWWL building underwent a major renovation project, which involved extensive interior and exterior work. The neighboring
American Legion building was demolished to make way for a new parking lot. This also led to the building's "front" changing from the 4th Street side to the 5th Street side. Further exterior work restored the 4th Street side to how it appeared when the building was first constructed in the early 1900s. This included restoring original trim and detail work, as well as the large windows which surrounded half the building. On the interior, the newsroom and studio were relocated to the newly renovated and updated second floor. The new KWWL set debuted on October 26, 2016. A week later, demolition and remodeling of the first floor began. In July 2017, the remainder of KWWL's departments (Marketing, Sales and Administration) moved to their new location on the first floor. The full renovation of the studio building was completed on September 20, 2017. ==KWWL-DT2==