KWCH-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita area as an affiliate of CBS.

It is owned by Gray Media alongside CW affiliate KSCW-DT (channel 33) and maintains studios on 37th Street North in northeast Wichita and a transmitter facility located east of Hutchinson in rural northeastern Reno County.

KTVH was the third-rated news outlet in the area until the owners of two of the other three KBS stations purchased it, changed the call letters to KWCH in 1983, and successfully led it to first place in the local ratings.

On June 30, 1952,[2] Wichita-Hutchinson Company, Inc., filed an application for a construction permit to build channel 12 in Hutchinson, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted on January 7, 1953.

[11] The Star & Tribune Company expanded channel 12's Wichita presence in 1956 by purchasing the former studios of KEDD, the first station to be built in that city, which had just closed.

[2] The new owners also made a second effort at seeking permission to identify more closely with Wichita in 1958; the station's president, Joyce Swan, cited confusion from national advertisers, who thought the dual designation of Wichita and Hutchinson signified separate markets, and stated that "it is obvious that an advertising media that covers a large area must cater to the largest metropolitan market".

KWGB-TV aired CBS and NBC programs, while KTVC and KAYS-TV were ABC affiliates engaged in a regional hookup with KAKE-TV known as the "Golden K Network".

[18] The Star & Tribune Company announced the sale of KTVH to the WKY Television System of Oklahoma City, owned by the Gaylord family, for $4.4 million in December 1968.

[20] The decision was met with dissension even from FCC chairman Rosel H. Hyde, who complained that the majority's conclusions that the acquisition of the Hutchinson station would give the Gaylord interests too much media power and that it might downgrade program service were prejudicial.

[2] In response, channel 12 purchased the Wichita studio site outright after having leased it for 20 years; it also bought an adjacent tract of land and embarked on an expansion of the facility that more than doubled its size.

[24] By 1982, Cowles Media—as the Minneapolis Star & Tribune Company was renamed that year to reflect its media diversification—owned two television properties: KTVH and WDRB, an independent station in Louisville, Kentucky.

Beach and Schmidt hired a new general manager, Ron Bergamo,[27] and set out to turn around a station stuck in third place in the local news ratings (particularly in the Wichita metro itself[28]) and with a staid reputation.

The turnaround attracted the interest of Michigan-based Smith Broadcasting, who made an unexpected and unsolicited $45 million purchase offer for KBS that Beach and Schmidt accepted that same year.

[31] Among Smith's first actions were to appoint part-owner Sandy DiPasquale, who later became the CEO of Newport Television,[32] as president and general manager and to change the call letters on the western and central Kansas stations to designations that incorporated "KBS".

[b] In 2009, Schurz further expanded its operations by entering into an agreement with Entravision Communications, which was preparing to launch Univision affiliate KDCU-DT, to provide local advertising sales, technical functions, and transmitter tower space.

[51] Similarly, the local news in Dodge City was trimmed back from a full program to inserts and then to reports in KWCH's own newscasts.

[55] Beyond local news programs, KWCH operates the high school sports outlet Catch It Kansas, which includes a website and a weekly show aired on KSCW.