Nexstar Media Group in the context of KRON-TV

WGN-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, that serves as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is sister to the company's sole radio property, WGN (720 AM), a news-talk and sports station. WGN-TV's studios are located on West Bradley Place in Chicago's North Center; it is Chicago's only major commercial television station whose main studio is based outside the Chicago Loop. Its transmitter is located atop Willis Tower in the Loop.

The station began broadcasting in 1948, when it was owned by the newspaper Chicago Tribune. WGN-TV became one of the earliest superstations; on November 9, 1978, it became the second U.S. television station to be made available via satellite transmission to cable and direct-broadcast satellite subscribers nationwide. The superstation, which was later renamed WGN America, was converted into a conventional, basic cable network in December 2014, enabling it to be added to local cable providers. It was soft re-launched as NewsNation in September 2020. WGN-TV was a charter affiliate of The WB and its successor network The CW; it became an independent station in 2016 and returned to the network in 2024.

Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, the company is the second-largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations after Nexstar Media Group, owning or operating 193 stations across the country in over 100 markets, covering 40% of American households.

Sinclair is the largest owner of stations that are affiliated with Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, MyNetworkTV, The CW, and The CW Plus. Sinclair owns four digital multicast networks, Comet, Charge!, The Nest, and Roar, and the sports-oriented cable network Tennis Channel. In June 2021, Sinclair became a Fortune 500 company, having reached 2020 annual revenues of US$5.9 billion, equivalent to $7 billion in 2024.

The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as the CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the first letters of the names of its two founding co-owners CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Nexstar acquired a 75% controlling stake in the network on October 3, 2022, with Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery (CBS Corporation and Warner Bros.'s respective successor companies) each retaining a 12.5% ownership stake.

The CW debuted on September 18, 2006 as the successor to UPN and the WB, which had both shut down that month. Its first two nights of programming—on September 18, 2006 and September 19, 2006—consisted of reruns and launch-related specials. The CW marked its formal launch date on September 20, 2006, with the two-hour premiere of the seventh cycle of America's Next Top Model. The network's programming lineup is intended to appeal mainly to viewers between the ages of 18 and 34, although from 2008 to 2011 the network shifted its programming to appeal to women in that demographic. As of August 2017, the network's audience was evenly split between men and women.

WCIU-TV (channel 26) is an independent television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is the flagship television property of locally based Weigel Broadcasting, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to two low-power stations: independent outlet WMEU-CD (channel 48) and MeTV/Heroes & Icons flagship WWME-CD (channel 23). The stations share studios on Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood; WCIU-TV's transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower in the Chicago Loop.

WCIU-TV was previously an affiliate of The CW; it was the largest CW affiliate by market size that was not owned or operated by Nexstar Media Group, which owns 75% of the network. This changed on September 1, 2024, when The CW returned to Nexstar-owned WGN-TV. Gray Media–owned WPCH-TV in Atlanta now holds the title.