KCCI (channel 8) is a CBS-affiliated television station in Des Moines, Iowa, owned by Hearst Television, with studios in downtown Des Moines and a transmitter in Alleman. It first signed on the air on July 31, 1955, as KRNT-TV, launched by the Cowles family, publishers of the Des Moines Register, and has been a CBS affiliate throughout its entire history. The station changed its callsign to KCCI in 1974 (standing for Cowles Communications, Inc.) due to FCC ownership rules, and later passed through H&C Communications and Pulitzer before joining Hearst in 1998. Technologically, KCCI began broadcasting in high definition in 2002, launched a 24-hour local weather channel in 2006, and replaced it with MeTV in 2011. The station's website, originally known as theiowachannel.com, switched back to kcci.com in 2005, and the station has also weathered staffing reorganizations, including a notable round of layoffs in 2008.