On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced the two networks would cease broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The CW launched on September 18 and "WBWG" became affiliated with The CW via The CW Plus (a similar operation to The WB 100+). After becoming available on a new third digital subchannel of WBKO, it dropped the faux calls in favor of WBKO-CW. "WBWG" (now WBKO-DT3) had been carried on all cable systems in the Bowling Green market since its 1998 inception.