television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ear ...
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelv ...
affiliate for the
Quad Cities
The Quad Cities is a region of cities (originally four, see History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are th ...
area. It is owned by
Mission Broadcasting
Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 20 television stations in 17 markets in the United States. The group's Chair is Nancie Smith, the widow of David S. Smith, who founded the company in 1996 and died in 2011. All but ...
, which maintains a
shared services
Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group, where that service had previously been found, in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and th ...
agreement (SSA) with
Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 tele ...
, owner of
Rock Island, Illinois
Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is now called Arsenal Island. The population was 37,108 at the 2020 census. Located on ...
WHBF-TV
WHBF-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Rock Island, Illinois, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Quad Cities area. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Burlington, Iowa–licensed CW owned-and-operated ...
(channel 4) and
Burlington, Iowa
Burlington is a city in, and the county seat of, Des Moines County, Iowa, Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. The population was 23,982 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, a decline from the 26,839 population in 2000 United States ...
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
KGCW
KGCW (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Burlington, Iowa, United States, serving the Quad Cities area with programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Rock Island, Illino ...
(channel 26), for the provision of certain services. The stations share studios in the Telco Building on 18th Street in downtown Rock Island, while KLJB's transmitter is located near Orion, Illinois.
History
Early history
The station signed on July 28, 1985, with the calls KLJB-TV. It was the Quad Cities' first
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independe ...
outlet and aired an
analog
Analog or analogue may refer to:
Computing and electronics
* Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable
** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals
*** Analog electronics, circuits which use analo ...
signal on UHF channel 18. It became a Fox affiliate upon its launch on October 9, 1986 but reverted to an independent after a year, on March 20, 1988, following a dispute between
General Manager
A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all ...
Gary Brandt and the network. This occurred because Brandt was frustrated by the low ratings for Fox's Saturday night lineup and bumped it to overnight in favor of more profitable syndicated programming, and marks the first independent station to end its affiliation with Fox, charging that the network was poorly organized and had a few hit shows. From then on, cable systems in the Quad Cities would pipe in Fox programming from KDSM in
Des Moines
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...
and
WFLD
WFLD (channel 32) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed MyNetworkTV o ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
. However, following the success of ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'', which entered the top 20, KLJB rejoined Fox on September 2, 1990. Due to
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...
rules, with KLJB's return to Fox, KDSM and WFLD were dropped from cable systems.
On
July 4
Events Pre-1600
* 362 BC – Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans.
* 414 – Emperor Theodosius II, age 13, yields power to his older sister Aelia Pulcheria, who reigned as regent and proclaim ...
, 1987, the station premiered '' Live on Tape'' (a late night
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and ...
show) which aired Saturday nights at 10 p.m. until 1990. It was produced at the station's studios in Davenport and was the area's only local entertainment show at that time, as well as the only original sketch comedy show produced in the
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. ...
.
Grant Broadcasting ownership
Former owner Grant Broadcasting (overseen by Milton Grant) purchased KLJB on September 15, 1992. In 1996, the company obtained KJMH (now KGCW) in Burlington, Iowa, which then began to simulcast KLJB. That station had been a separate Fox affiliate serving the southern portion of the Quad Cities market but suffered interference and duplication from KLJB. In 2001, it broke off, becoming the area's first WB affiliate and adopted the call sign KGWB-TV.
From September 14, 2004, until September 12, 2005, it aired the ''Acri Creature Feature'', which consisted of a personality from Acri Company hosting the show during a movie. It aired after ''
MADtv
''Mad TV'' (stylized as ''MADtv'') is an American sketch comedy television series originally inspired by '' Mad'' magazine. In its initial run, it aired on Fox from 1995 to 2009. After a one-off reunion show in 2015 to celebrate the twentiet ...
'' from 11 p.m. until 1 a.m. From September 18, 2005, to May 9, 2007, KLJB broadcast ''Zomboo's House of Horror Movies'', a similar program produced by
KOLO-TV
KOLO-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Reno, Nevada, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Incline Village–licensed low-power Telemundo affiliate KXNV-LD (channel 26). The two st ...
in
Reno, Nevada
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...
. It initially aired after ''MADtv'', but starting in fall 2006, the show was shown after '' Talkshow with Spike Feresten''.
Prior to KGCW's
digital conversion
The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is con ...
, its Burlington-based analog signal only operated at an
effective radiated power
Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ...
of 200
kilowatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after Jame ...
s at a height of only 96 meters. This resulted in a limited coverage area compared with most full-powered UHF channels in the United States. Later, it experienced interference from low-powerWBQD-LP in the Quad Cities, which broadcast on the same UHF channel 26 frequency. From 2001 until early 2015, the inadequacy had been made up by KGCW being available on cable systems in the area through a
fiber optic
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparency and translucency, transparent fiber made by Drawing (manufacturing), drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a Hair ...
link and a standard definition
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simult ...
on KLJB-DT2.
Nexstar ownership
On November 6, 2013,
Irving, Texas
Irving is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. Located in Dallas County, it is also an inner ring suburb of Dallas. The city of Irving is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. According to a 2019 estimate from the United States Census Bur ...
–based Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the Grant stations, including KLJB and KGCW, for $87.5 million. Due to
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...
(FCC) ownership regulations (Nexstar was also in the process of acquiring
WHBF-TV
WHBF-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Rock Island, Illinois, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Quad Cities area. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Burlington, Iowa–licensed CW owned-and-operated ...
), KLJB was to then be spun off to
Mission Broadcasting
Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 20 television stations in 17 markets in the United States. The group's Chair is Nancie Smith, the widow of David S. Smith, who founded the company in 1996 and died in 2011. All but ...
, but operated by Nexstar through a
shared services
Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group, where that service had previously been found, in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and th ...
agreement. However, on June 6, 2014, Nexstar announced that it would instead sell KLJB and two other Fox stations to Marshall Broadcasting Group—a new, minority-controlled company headed by Pluria Marshall Jr., for $58.5 million. While this company acquired much of the station's assets, Nexstar entered into a shared services agreement to provide non-programming resources (such as master control) and advertising sales for Marshall's three stations. The sale was completed on December 1, 2014.
In November 2014, while Nexstar was still waiting for the completion of its sale of KLJB to Marshall Broadcasting, there was speculation by other local media that KGCW might move to a WHBF subchannel. On May 14, 2015, Nexstar relaunched WHBF's
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compressi ...
4.2 with a standard definition simulcast of
KGCW
KGCW (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Burlington, Iowa, United States, serving the Quad Cities area with programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Rock Island, Illino ...
. Because KLJB is now owned by a separate company than KGCW, the simulcast of KGCW, which was previously aired on KLJB's 18.2 subchannel, moved to WHBF's 4.2 subchannel as Nexstar owns WHBF and KGCW, where Marshall Broadcasting owns KLJB.
On January 27, 2016, Nexstar announced that it would acquire
Media General
Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch ...
, who owns rival
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...
station KWQC with the combined company was to be named by "Nexstar Media Group". As such, in order to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as planned changes to rules regarding same-market television stations which would prohibit future joint sales agreements, Nexstar was required to sell either KWQC or both WHBF and KLJB (separately as it would break the grandfathered LMA) to separate, unrelated companies to address the ownership conflict. Likewise, to address the ownership conflict, KGCW could either be retained by Nexstar (tied with either KWQC or WHBF) or sold to the new buyer if WHBF is sold, as KGCW does not rank among the four highest-rated stations in the Quad Cities market. On June 3, 2016, it was announced that Nexstar would keep WHBF-TV, KGCW and the SSA for KLJB and sell KWQC to
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
, in a group deal that saw Gray acquiring the Green BayABC station
WBAY-TV
WBAY-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located on South Jefferson Street in downtown Green Bay (across from the historic ...
for $270 million. The sale was completed on January 17, 2017.
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of Chicago-based
Tribune Media
Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 t ...
WQAD-TV
WQAD-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Moline, Illinois, United States, serving the Quad Cities area as an affiliate of ABC and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Park 16th Street in Moline, and ...
(channel 8) operated since December 2013—for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. Nexstar was precluded from acquiring WQAD directly or indirectly, as FCC regulations prohibit common ownership of more than two stations in the same media market, or two or more of the four highest-rated stations in the market. (Furthermore, any attempt by Nexstar to assume the operations of WQAD through local marketing or shared services agreements would have been subject to regulatory hurdles that could have delayed completion of the FCC and Justice Department's review and approval process for the acquisition.) As such, Nexstar was required to sell either WQAD or both WHBF and KLJB (separately as it would break the grandfathered LMA) to separate, unrelated companies to address the ownership conflict. KGCW could either be retained by Nexstar (tied with either WQAD or WHBF) or sold to the new buyer if WHBF is sold, as KGCW does not rank among the four highest-rated stations in the Quad Cities market.
On March 20, 2019, it was announced that Nexstar would keep WHBF-TV, KGCW and the SSA for KLJB and sell WQAD to
McLean, Virginia
McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proxi ...
–based Tegna Inc., as part of the company's sale of nineteen Nexstar- and Tribune-operated stations to Tegna and the E. W. Scripps Company in separate deals worth $1.32 billion; this would make WQAD the first television property in Iowa for Tegna and its first television property in Illinois since the group (under its pre-2016-split structure as the broadcasting arm of the
Gannett Company
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.WREX in Rockford, Illinois to the Gilmore Broadcasting Corporation in 1969.
On December 3, 2019, Marshall Broadcasting Group filed for
Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whet ...
bankruptcy protection.
Mission Broadcasting
Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 20 television stations in 17 markets in the United States. The group's Chair is Nancie Smith, the widow of David S. Smith, who founded the company in 1996 and died in 2011. All but ...
, another company associated with Nexstar Media Group, agreed to purchase Marshall Broadcasting's stations for $49 million on March 30, 2020. The transaction was completed on September 1, 2020.
Programming
Syndicated programming
Syndicated
Syndication may refer to:
* Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system
* Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips
* Web syndication, ...
programming on the station include ''
The Big Bang Theory
''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...
'', ''
Young Sheldon
''Young Sheldon'' is an American coming-of-age sitcom television series created by Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro for CBS. The series, set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is a spin-off prequel to ''The Big Bang Theory'' and begins with the ...
'', ''
Family Feud
''Family Feud'' is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson. It features two families who compete to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes.
The show has had three separate runs, the ...
On December 31, 1999, KLJB launched a thirty-minute prime time newscast known as ''Fox 18 Nine O'Clock News''. Airing every night except Saturday, it was the flagship production of the Independent News Network (INN). The station served as the first customer for the Davenport-based centralized newscast operation which still has its own production facility on Tremont Avenue near KLJB's now former 53rd Street studios. News anchors, meteorologists, and sports anchors were provided by INN and other personnel from the outsourced production company would fill-in as needed. The station maintained two news reporters of its own who would contribute Quad Cities-specific content to the show which were taped in advance.
Monday through Saturday mornings at 5, sister station KGCW replayed ''Fox 18 Nine O'Clock News''. On September 4, 2007, ABC affiliate WQAD-TV began repeating its weeknight newscast at 6 later in the evening at 9 on WBQD. However, since this was ultimately not live, there was not much competition to KLJB's broadcast. In a report in the Macon, Georgia ''
Telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
'', it was announced the Independent News Network filed for Chapter 7bankruptcy and would end all news productions (including those for KLJB) by January 9, 2009. According to the newspaper, all INN broadcasts would then be reinstated under ownership of Fusion Communications (also based in Davenport).
On August 6, 2010, it was made public KLJB would be terminating its long standing partnership with INN and enter into a news share agreement with ABC affiliate WQAD (then owned by Local TV). On September 6, that station began producing a nightly half-hour prime time show on KLJB still known as ''Fox 18 Nine O'Clock News''. The newscasts began originating live from a secondary set at WQAD's studios on 16th Street in the Prospect Park section of
Moline, Illinois
Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island ...
. As a result of this arrangement being established, the repeat of news on WBQD was eventually dropped. KGCW continued to rebroadcast the previous night's KLJB show at 5 in the morning. On September 12, 2011, WQAD became the last major news operation in the Quad Cities market to upgrade its newscasts to
high definition
High definition or HD may refer to:
Visual technologies
*HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format
*HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format
*HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape
* HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...
. The KLJB broadcasts were included in the upgrade.
Production of ''Fox 18 Nine O'Clock News'' changed again on December 31, 2012, when it was taken over through a new outsourcing arrangement by
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...
affiliate
KWQC-TV
KWQC-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Davenport, Iowa, United States, serving the Quad Cities area as an affiliate of NBC. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Brady Street in downtown Davenport, and its ...
(then owned by
Media General
Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch ...
). There was a separate weeknight news anchor featured on KLJB that can report for KWQC; otherwise, most other personnel from KWQC were seen on KLJB. The nightly half-hour broadcast at 9 originated from the NBC outlet's primary set at its studios on Brady Street/
US 61
U.S. Route 61 or U.S. Highway 61 (U.S. 61) is a major United States highway that extends between New Orleans, Louisiana and the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River and is designate ...
(within the
Palmer College of Chiropractic
Palmer College of Chiropractic is a private chiropractic college with its main campus in Davenport, Iowa. It was established in 1897 by Daniel David Palmer and was the first school of chiropractic in the world. The college's name was original ...
campus) in downtown Davenport but with separate
duratrans Duratrans were invented by Eastman Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartere ...
indicating the Fox-branded show. The partnership between KLJB and KWQC ended on December 30, 2015.
On December 31, 2015, it was announced that KLJB's newscasts would be produced by KLJB's Nexstar sister station and SSA partner, CBS affiliate WHBF-TV, beginning with that evening's 9 p.m. newscast. Also, the KLJB newscasts were expanded from a half hour to a full hour. The newscasts are now branded as ''Fox 18 News at Nine'' as opposed to the previous ''Fox 18 Nine O'Clock News'' branding. Also, on September 5, 2017, it was made public that beginning on September 18, 2017, WHBF would begin producing a new two-hour weekday morning newscast for KLJB from 7 to 9 a.m.
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
On April 17, 2012, KLJB replaced the This TV simulcast on digital subchannel 18.3 with MeTV. KGCW digital subchannel 26.3 will serve as MeTV's primary affiliate for the Quad Cities market, while KLJB digital subchannel 18.3 will simulcast the network; This TV programming will continue to air on KGCW digital subchannel 26.2. However, as of Spring 2015, MeTV has been taken off of KGCW-DT3 and KLJB-DT3 and moved to KLJB-DT2.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KLJB began broadcasting its digital signal in high definition (network programming only) in January 2003. KGCW's digital signal on UHF channel 41 covers most of the market except for the far northern parts. As a result, that station continued to benefit from having its signal simulcasted on KLJB-DT2 until spring 2015, when the KGCW simulcast moved to WHBF-DT2.KGCW Facebook Page /ref>
KLJB-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 18, at noon on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 49. Through the use of
PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...
, digital television receivers display the station's
virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver' ...
as its former UHF analog channel 18. Also after the digital transition, KLJB officially removed the "-TV" suffix from the now-defunct analog signal and the "-DT" suffix from its digital signal. It then began using KLJB as its legal call sign without any suffixes at the end.