KCWK was one of two Pappas stations required to both end analog broadcasting and install new equipment to begin digital transmission (a flash-cut) on the 2009 DTV deadline. As full-service stations established after digital companion channels were assigned to existing full-service broadcasters, KCWK and Pappas-owned WWAZ-TV in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin had no existing digital transmitter facilities. KCWK remained silent, while Pappas negotiated several items with the FCC and ABC Owned Television Stations to allow WWAZ to return to the air eventually as WIWN while ABC's WLS-TV took its former digital channel slot to provide UHF digital television service to Chicago. All other full-service Pappas television stations had been simulcasting in both analog and digital formats long before the company entered chapter 11 bankruptcy and therefore had sufficient equipment on hand to continue to broadcast their signals digitally in 2009.