WDCW (channel 50), branded on-air as DCW 50, is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Hagerstown, Maryland–licensed independent station WDVM-TV (channel 25); the two stations share studios on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington's Glover Park neighborhood. Through a channel sharing agreement with Univision station WFDC-DT (channel 14), WDCW transmits using WFDC's spectrum from a tower in the Tenleytown area of Washington's Northwest quadrant. The station began broadcasting in November 1981 as WCQR, culminating a 17-year struggle to get the station on air that included the death of the original permittee, bankruptcy, and years in the FCC's comparative hearing process. The station launched primarily as a vehicle for subscription television (STV) programming from Super TV, which served the Washington and Baltimore areas. After the station was sold in 1985, it became WFTY and dropped the subscription content, operating as the Washington area's third independent station. After a foreclosure sale in 1993, it affiliated with The WB in 1995, improving its programming and market standing, and was sold to Tribune Broadcasting. WDCW was one of the charter affiliates of The CW in 2006. Over the years, the station has had several partial attempts at airing or producing local newscasts; the most recent, DC News Now, debuted in 2022. History Pre-broadcasting history The history of channel 50 in Washington, D.C., began in 1964 when the first application was received for the channel from All American Television Features, owned by record executive and conductor Mitch Miller. That application was joined by three others. Theodore (Ted) Granik had once hosted The American Forum of the Air, a debate program on NBC. O. Roy Chalk, then-owner of DC Transit, applied through his company, Transportation Communications of America. The Greater Washington Educational Television Association, owner of WETA-TV (channel 26), sought to establish channel 50 as a second educational channel. WETA dropped out of the channel 50 race when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved channel 32 from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, to Washington for noncommercial educational use, but a fourth applicant, Washington lawyer Vincent B. Welch, entered the proceeding under the banner of the Colonial Television Corporation. Comparative hearings were held in January 1966. Though Miller did not exactly impress with his failure to recall the names of important D.C. public officials, he did enough to get the initial nod from