The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on North Main Street in northwest Wichita (near downtown); its transmitter is located in rural northwestern Sedgwick County (east-southeast of Colwich).

On May 7, 2012, the LIN TV Corporation announced that it would acquire the New Vision Television station group, including KSNW and its four satellite stations, for $330.4 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt;[5] the sale – which was approved by the FCC on October 2[6] and was completed 1+1⁄2 weeks later on October 12 – marked a re-entry into Kansas for LIN, which briefly owned the licenses of KAKE and its satellites in 2000, before selling them to Benedek Broadcasting shortly after the purchase was finalized.

Like the earlier acquisition of KSNW by LIN, this deal marked Media General's re-entry to the market, as it previously owned KWCH from 2000 to 2006.

[10] On September 28, 2015, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced it had offered to purchase Media General and its stations, including KSNW and its satellites.

Despite being the first television station in the market to build a network of semi-satellites in the western and central parts of the state, KSNW's newscasts had lagged far behind rivals KWCH and KAKE for several decades.

In recent years, however, KSNW has waged a spirited battle with KAKE for second place behind long-dominant KWCH, with the two stations regularly trading the runner-up slot in several timeslots.

Although the three KSN satellites originated their own newscasts for many years, their local operations were progressively cut back from the mid-1980s onward.

On April 26, 1991, as an F2 tornado approached their vehicle, a KSNW news crew took shelter underneath an overpass in Butler County.

On October 31, 2010, KSNW began broadcasting its local newscasts in widescreen standard definition; in-studio, field and other station camera feeds were upconverted to a 16:9 format in the control room.

These stations air virtually the exact programming as KSNW, apart from local news inserts and advertisements targeted to their respective viewing area.

As a result, both stations are the only ones to have been part of the Kansas State Network in some capacity to maintain their own separate programming and news departments to this day.