desertv said:
It's common for UHF stations to use their cable channel instead of their UHF channel...using the UHF #s makes the station sound rinky-dink I guess
I've seen VHF stations that give their cable channel along with their OTA channel as well.
When the majority of your viewership gets cable through one provider, I guess that would make sense. In Phoenix, I think that most English-speaking households have cable, and the overwhelming majority of them get their cable service through Cox. Qwest, the biggest competitor, seems to match Cox's cable positioning of the local full-service stations. Eg., when Cox changed KUTP from channel 16 to channel 9, Qwest followed.
Myself, I think it would have been better to brand as WB61, cable 6, or now CW61, cable 6. Although with KASW having to give up their analog channel 61 in favor of DTV channel 49, I wonder if they were trying to de-emphasize the "61" brand. (As it turns out, it wouldn't have made a difference, since KASW will still map to channel 61, even after DTV conversion.)
With the advent of virtual channels in the DTV world, I wonder if KASW asks the FCC to let them map to channel 6 for OTA DTV service as well? All channels up to 99 are available for mapping and Tribune Media has already requested channel 75.