Tribune Move Marking Near End Of The CW?

Tribune-owned stations have begun removing The CW name from its stations across the country, including WGN and KTLA, according to Variety, and even gone as far as changing the call letters of a station in Houston to remove the "CW" reference.

There have been talks for months that the partnership between CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. to create The CW following the demise of both The WB and UPN networks was failing, and that bringing in shows with popular names like "90210" was almost a last gasp to keep the network up and running despite falling ratings and minimal buzz.

At the same time, some observers say Tribune's moves are nothing more than the whim of Tribune's new owner, Sam Zell, and a feud he's been having with The CW. At the same time, however, Tribune was stripping UPN off its networks a few years ago just ahead of the announcement that the network was shuttering.

Most of the Tribune stations have changed their identity from names like "CW39" to "Channel 39." The Houston station that changed its call letters is now known as KAIH, formerly KHCW.

One station that is keeping its CW name for now, it seems, it WPIX, Tribune's New York station, which is known as CW11.

There is still no word on whether there will be more CW programming on a network known as CW for the 2009-10 season.

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