KWQC-TV (channel 6) is a
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 earth ...
licensed to
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...
, United States, serving 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 t ...
area as an affiliate of
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 are l ...
. Owned by
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 ...
, the station maintains studios on Brady Street in downtown Davenport, and its transmitter is located near
Orion, Illinois
Orion ( ) is a village in Henry County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,861 at the 2010 census. It is the site for transmitters for many of the Quad Cities' radio and television stations, including KLJB, KWQC-TV, WMWC-TV, WQAD-TV, ...
.
History
KWQC first signed on the air on October 31, 1949, as WOC-TV. The station was founded by
B. J. Palmer, founder of 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 ...
(located directly across the street from the station's studios) along with WOC radio (
1420 AM and 103.7 FM, now
WLLR-FM
WLLR-FM (103.7 MHz) is a radio station licensed to Davenport, Iowa, United States, whose format is modern country music. The station broadcasts at a power of 100 kW.
WLLR is owned by iHeartMedia, with studios located in Davenport. Its tran ...
). The WOC stations were also
sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement.
Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
s to
WHO-AM/
FM/
TV 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 Moines, ...
. According to local legend, the WOC calls stood for "Wonders of Chiropractic", though the Palmer family never acknowledged the phrase in print or otherwise. WOC-TV has the distinction of being considered both Iowa's and the Quad Cities' first television station, carrying programming from all four networks at the time: (NBC,
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
,
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
and
DuMont). However, it has always been a primary NBC affiliate owing to WOC radio's long-standing affiliation with the
NBC Radio Network
The NBC, National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network it was ...
. Originally on channel 5, WOC-TV moved to channel 6 in 1952 because of interference with both
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...
's
WOI-TV
WOI-DT (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Ames, Iowa, United States, serving the Des Moines area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside CW affiliate KCWI-TV (channel 23), also licensed to Ames. Both station ...
in
Ames
Ames may refer to:
Places United States
* Ames, Arkansas, a place in Arkansas
* Ames, Colorado
* Ames, Illinois
* Ames, Indiana
* Ames, Iowa, the most populous city bearing this name
* Ames, Kansas
* Ames, Nebraska
* Ames, New York
* Ames, Ok ...
, and WNBQ-TV (now
WMAQ-TV
WMAQ-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo outlet WSNS-TV (c ...
) in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. During its early years, original programming on WOC-TV included the daily ''Show Boat'' children's show hosted by
Cap'n Ernie from 1964 to 1974.
[Hollis, Tim (2001). ''Hi There, Boys and Girls! America's Local Children's TV Shows.'' Univ. Press of Mississippi, ][Stein, Jeff (2004). ''Making Waves: The People and Places of Iowa Broadcasting''. WDG Communications, ]
WOC-TV lost CBS when
Rock Island–based
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 The CW, CW owned-and-op ...
(channel 4) was launched in 1950. The two stations shared ABC until
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, an ...
(channel 8) signed on from
Moline in 1963, and has since served as an exclusive NBC station. The station was also affiliated with the short-lived
Paramount Television Network
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
; in fact, it was one of that network's strongest affiliates, carrying programs such as ''Dixie Showboat'',
''Hollywood Reel'',
and ''Hollywood Wrestling''.
Channel 6 remained with the Palmer family's broadcasting division after Dr. Palmer's death in 1961. In 1986, Palmer Communications sold its Quad Cities radio properties to Vickie Anne Palmer and her then-husband J. Douglas Miller. 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 jurisdiction ...
(FCC) rules at the time, channel 6 changed its calls to the current KWQC-TV on December 8 so as not to confuse the two properties. KWQC was sold to Broad Street Television in 1989 and to
Young Broadcasting
Young Broadcasting, LLC was an American media company that owned or operated 12 television stations in 10 markets with a total U.S. television household coverage of 5.9%. The company was formerly known as Young Broadcasting Inc. and was the outgr ...
in 1995.
On June 6, 2013,
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' ...
announced they would acquire Young Broadcasting in an all-stock deal.
The merger was completed on November 12.
The addition of KWQC to Media General's portfolio marked a return to Iowa for Media General, who had owned
KIMT
KIMT (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Mason City, Iowa, United States, serving North Central Iowa and Southeast Minnesota as an affiliate of CBS and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on ...
in
Mason City from 2000 to 2006, though they would regain ownership of that station upon acquiring
LIN Media
LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the six major U.S. television networks. One of the remaining stations was a low powered weather station in Ind ...
in 2014. In September 2015, Media General announced the acquisition of
Meredith Corporation
Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...
in a cash and stock deal valued at $2.4 billion.
If the deal was completed, KWQC and KIMT would have become Meredith's first television stations in its home state of Iowa.
Media General announced on January 27, 2016, that it was terminating the Meredith deal, and also announced that it was being acquired by
Nexstar Broadcasting 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 te ...
with the new company named Nexstar Media Group. As Nexstar already owns WHBF-TV, and since both WHBF and KWQC rank among the top four stations by daily ratings in the market, 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, the company was required to sell either KWQC or WHBF to another company. WHBF's sister station
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, Illin ...
was not affected, and could have either remained in its
duopoly
A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...
with WHBF or created a new duopoly with KWQC, as its ratings are below the top-four threshold.
On June 3, 2016, it was announced that Nexstar would keep its existing assets 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 ...
for $270 million. It represents a reunion of sorts as Gray previously managed the station when Young was encountering financial difficulties, but this time Gray acquired the station outright. That makes KWQC a sister station to
KCRG-TV
KCRG-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States, serving Eastern Iowa as an affiliate of ABC, MyNetworkTV, and The CW. Owned by Gray Television, the station has studios on Second Avenue Southeast in do ...
in
Cedar Rapids,
WIFR
WIFR-LD (channel 23) is a low-power television station in Rockford, Illinois, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. The station is owned by Gray Television, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on North Meridian Road in ...
in
Rockford and fellow NBC affiliate
WMTV
WMTV (channel 15) is a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW. The station is owned by Gray Television and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Forward Drive on Madison's southwest sid ...
in
Madison Madison may refer to:
People
* Madison (name), a given name and a surname
* James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States
Place names
* Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...
.
The sale was completed on January 17, 2017.
On February 1, 2021, Gray Television announced its intent to purchase
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...
–based
Quincy Media
Quincy Media, Inc., formerly known as Quincy Newspapers, Inc., was a family-owned media company that originated in the newspapers of Quincy, Illinois. The company's history can be traced back to 1835, when the ''Bounty Land Register'' was one of ...
for $925 million. The deal was completed on August 2, 2021,
placing KWQC under common ownership with fellow NBC affiliates in several Illinois and Iowa markets, including
WEEK-TV
WEEK-TV (channel 25) is a television station in Peoria, Illinois, United States, affiliated with NBC, ABC, and The CW Plus. The station is owned by Gray Television, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Springfield Road (along ...
in
Peoria,
KTIV
KTIV (channel 4) is a television station in Sioux City, Iowa, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station has studios on Signal Hill Drive in Sioux City, and its transmitter is located near Hinton, ...
in
Sioux City
Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...
,
KTTC
KTTC (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Rochester, Minnesota, United States, serving Southeast Minnesota and Northern Iowa as an affiliate of NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Television, which provides certain services to ...
in
Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota, the city is the home and birthplace of the renowned Mayo Clinic.
Acco ...
–Mason City, and
WGEM-TV
WGEM-TV (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Quincy, Illinois, United States, serving the Quincy, Illinois–Hannibal, Missouri–Keokuk, Iowa market as an affiliate of NBC, The CW Plus, and Fox. Owned by Gray Television, it is a ...
in Quincy (the long-time flagship television station of Quincy Media). Only
KWWL in
Waterloo–Cedar Rapids needed to be divested to a third party, as Gray Television already owns that market's ABC affiliate KCRG-TV, and had elected to keep KCRG-TV and sell KWWL due to the ownership conflict in that market.
On April 29, Gray announced that it would divest KWWL, along with fellow NBC affiliate and Quincy Media sister station
WREX
Urdnot Wrex is a fictional character in BioWare's ''Mass Effect'' franchise, who serves as a party member (or "squadmate") in the first game of the ''Mass Effect'' trilogy. He is a krogan, an alien race near-sterilised by other galactic races f ...
in Rockford, to Allen Media Broadcasting, a subsidiary of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
based
Entertainment Studios
Entertainment Studios, Inc., also known as Allen Media Group, is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved in the production and d ...
, for $380 million.
WREX's divestiture was optional as FCC regulations would permit common ownership of WREX and WIFR-LD as WIFR-LD is a low-power station but the sale of KWWL was required as KWWL and KCRG-TV are both full-power stations.
Subchannel history
KWQC-DT2
KWQC-DT2 is the
Ion Television
Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented enter ...
–affiliated second digital subchannel of KWQC-TV, broadcasting in
standard definition
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
on channel 6.2.
On August 13, 2007, KWQC launched a local digital weather service called the "KWQC 24/7 Weather Channel" on over-the-air digital subchannel 6.2 and on Mediacom digital channel 247 in the Quad Cities and surrounding areas. The subchannel's display was similar in format to Young Broadcasting's other digital weather subchannel offerings on sister stations
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 ...
and
WTEN
WTEN (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Albany, New York, United States, serving the Capital District as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is a sister station to Fox affiliate WXXA-TV (channel 23, also licens ...
: Radar feeds from the station's computer system, local weather conditions (also from the computers) on the right side of the screen, a seven-day forecast below the radio/video window, and a
news ticker
A news ticker (sometimes called a "crawler", "crawl", "slide", "zipper", or "ticker tape") is a horizontal or vertical (depending on a language's writing system) text-based display either in the form of a graphic that typically resides in the lo ...
at the bottom of the screen. Forecasts and weather maps were played on a 10-minute loop, with public service announcements and some local advertising a part of the subchannel. Per FCC guidelines requiring three hours of
E/I programming per week on digital subchannels, KWQC-DT2 ran children's oriented programming Mondays thru Saturdays at 5:00 p.m. The subchannel also featured same-day rebroadcasts of ''Paula Sands Live'' at 7:00 p.m. Subchannel 6.2 initially broadcast programming in a
4:3 aspect ratio before converting to a
16:9 widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
format (to match that of modern widescreen television receivers) in Fall 2011.
On November 1, 2015, the KWQC 24/7 Weather Channel was discontinued and replaced with entertainment programming from Ion Television.
The switch made KWQC the earliest of several Media General-owned stations to
affiliate a subchannel with Ion in markets where Ion does not have an
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 affiliate ...
. KWQC also moved subchannel 6.2 back to its original 4:3 aspect ratio. Ion Television programming and network promos are seen in a 16:9
letterbox
A letter box, letterbox, letter plate, letter hole, mail slot or mailbox is a receptacle for receiving incoming mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private ...
while
commercials
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
and
infomercial
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...
s are center-cut to match the 4:3 aspect ratio of the subchannel.
KWQC-DT3
KWQC-DT3 is the
Cozi TV
Cozi TV (stylized on-air as COZI TV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations division of NBCUniversal. The network airs classic television series from the 1960s to the 2000s.
The network origina ...
–affiliated third digital subchannel of KWQC-TV, broadcasting in 16:9 widescreen standard definition on UHF channel channel 6.3.
In June 2013, KWQC began testing a third digital subchannel (6.3) with an ID still. The still was replaced on Labor Day of that year with programming from
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primari ...
-owned classic television network Cozi TV. The channel is also available on Mediacom cable channel 106.
Heroes & Icons (6.4) and Start TV (6.5)
On February 1, 2019, the station added
Weigel Broadcasting
Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 25 television sta ...
's
Heroes & Icons
Heroes & Icons (H&I) is an American Digital terrestrial television, digital broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Usually carried on the digital subchannels of its affiliated television station in most markets, the network ai ...
and
Start TV
Start TV is an American free-to-air television network owned as a joint venture between Weigel Broadcasting and the CBS News and Stations subsidiary of Paramount Global. Predominantly carried on the digital subchannels of its affiliated televis ...
to their subchannel lineup on channels 6.4 and 6.5, respectively.
Programming
In January 2008, KWQC began broadcasting
syndicated programs, and NBC network programs in high definition. The first two programs aired in the format, ''
Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'' and ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or ''Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Art
* ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-Jo ...
'', are recorded and broadcast in high definition every weekday. The Saturday evening reruns of ''Wheel of Fortune'' are also broadcast in high definition. KWQC's local programs soon followed, converting their broadcasts to HD on October 27, 2010.
The station also produces a half-hour daytime talk/discussion program called ''Paula Sands Live'' at 3:00 p.m. weekdays. Hosted by weeknight 6:00 p.m. news anchor Paula Sands, the program focuses on current events in the Quad Cities area, along with a variety of other segments.
On December 2, 2020, KWQC chose not to air a rare Wednesday late afternoon
Baltimore Ravens vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game, which had been originally been a
Thanksgiving night matchup for ''
NBC Sunday Night Football
''NBC Sunday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''SNF'') is an American weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC and Peacock in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006, with the Pro Football Hall of Fa ...
'' that was postponed three times in one week due to
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
issues. Instead, Sands' daytime show and local newscasts aired as usual, with the station justifying the decision to provide local news and a platform for local businesses during the pandemic that would have been delayed due to a game without any overall regional interest.
News operation
KWQC is known by Quad Cities residents for the ''Highlight Zone'', an
Emmy award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
-winning Friday night sports segment (which airs during the station's 10:00 p.m. newscast from roughly late August through early March, with a break in December), showcasing highlights from area high school football and basketball games. The segment debuted in 1989, and its format has since been copied by many stations around the United States. Each member of the news anchor staff, along with the meteorologist who does weather forecasts on that particular evening, take turns recapping a featured game. The camera crews invite fans from each of the games they cover to participate in a skit related to the night's theme. The theme usually centers on a holiday (e.g.,
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...
) or local promotion (e.g., The Student Food Drive, an initiative by area high schools to collect food for the needy).
On July 31, 2007, KWQC debuted drastic changes to its graphics and newscast music, dumping
Frank Gari
Frank Daniel Garofalo (born April 1, 1944), known professionally as Frank Gari, is an American singer-songwriter and composer.
Early life
Gari was a popular singer and songwriter from the late 1950s and early 1960s. His best known songs as a ...
's "Hello News" package that had been in use since 1990. KWQC added a "cube" ID graphic (similar to the on-screen logo bug used by
Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
), which stirred up some controversy among viewers. Eventually, KWQC slowed the cube down as a result of a vote by nearly 2,000 people on its website. KWQC began using "U-Phonix", a syndicated music package composed by
Stephen Arnold Music. Just eight weeks later on September 24, KWQC switched back to the "Hello News" package, making KWQC the first station to use a syndicated music package for the least amount of time. KWQC was the only station that continued to use the original "Hello News" package, but on January 16, 2012, it was dropped once again and was replaced by "Breakthrough" by 360 Music as the music package for its newscasts.
On September 25, 2008, KWQC introduced a new graphics package during its 5:00 p.m. broadcast, which also brought significant changes to its weather forecast presentation. The station introduced a new graphics system that allows the First Alert Weather team to provide more interactive weather forecasts and severe weather coverage, through animation,
touch-movement and wireless transition of graphics. KWQC also introduced a revised station logo, the first change to its on-air logo since 1990. While it was similar to the one previously used, the "-TV" suffix was replaced with a "-DT" suffix (for digital television), though KWQC-TV remained as the station's official call sign.
On October 27, 2010, beginning with the 5:00 p.m. newscast, KWQC became the first television station in the Quad Cities market and the first station owned by Young Broadcasting to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. A high definition-ready news set was constructed for the newscasts (a "compact" news desk was temporarily placed in the newsroom during the construction phase so that only three on-air staffers could be seen at a given time). Logos, call signs and on-air graphics were changed as well to refer to its newscasts as ''KWQC-HD News''. The station returned to their original ''KWQC-TV 6 News'' branding in 2012 after all the market's stations converted to high definition news operations.
On November 4, 2013, KWQC introduced brand new weather graphics. The whole Young Broadcasting Association had been working on the new graphics for over six months. The change brought a new banner to the top of the screen, entitled "KWQC Weather", not "First Alert", though "First Alert" is still the official name of the weather on KWQC. The radar, 7 Day Forecast, Current Temperatures, and Watches/Warnings were all given a new look. Some new features include being able to put pictures from
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
right on the screen and being able to put LIVE video of the meteorologists right over the radar or other image. On December 12, 2013, KWQC took away the KWQC Weather logo and replaced it again with the First Alert logo.
![qctlogo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Qctlogo.jpeg)
Starting on September 6, 2014, KWQC introduced ''Quad Cities Today: Weekend Edition''. It runs before NBC's ''
Today Show
''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...
'' at 6:00 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. A half-hour newscast follows at 8:30 a.m. Saturdays, and a 60-minute newscast airs at 8:00 a.m. Sundays. ''
Meet the Press
''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...
'' has been moved to 9:00 a.m. Sundays; and ''This Week in Agribusiness'' and ''U.S. Farm Report'' airs at 5:00 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays. KWQC had canceled its Saturday morning newscasts in 2008 due to financial struggles.
In July 2017, KWQC reinstated the longtime slogan "The Station that Cares for You" for KWQC special coverage of the Quad Cities Times Bix 7 Road Race. The slogan was used from the early 1990s until being phased out during the station's HD switch in 2010. The slogan was featured on news team T-shirts and was introduced in different promos and station commercials.
KWQC radio content
KWQC has news and weather updates broadcast for iHeartMedia's Quad Cities stations, among them
KMXG, WLLR-FM, and its former sister station WOC (AM). The news updates are mostly heard in the morning, from ''Quad Cities Today'' anchor David Nelson and Morgan Ottier. KMXG morning personalities McFadden & Evans also present the entertainment-themed "Showbiz Buzz" segment daily during ''KWQC-TV6 News at 4''.
The audio of the Monday through Friday 5:00 p.m. News is rebroadcast on WOC 1420 at 5:30 p.m.
KWQC/KLJB partnership
On September 29, 2012, KWQC announced they would be partnering with Fox affiliate KLJB to produce a 9:00 p.m. newscast starting New Year's Eve and planned to expand the news staff to accommodate the move. The fate of this partnership was unknown with the June 2014 announcement that KLJB would be purchased by
Marshall Broadcasting Group
Marshall Broadcasting Group, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company that owned three full power television stations in Iowa, Louisiana and Texas. The company was founded on December 1, 2014 by Pluria Marshall, Jr. All three of its tel ...
; competitor station WHBF from
Citadel Communications
Citadel Communications Ltd. is an American private broadcasting company. It is based in Bronxville, New York and owns 1 Low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power television station on which it operates a regional 24-hour news cycle, 24-hour Un ...
was acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, which universally operates Marshall Broadcasting Group stations through LMA and JSA agreements. On December 30, 2015, KWQC announced that its contract to produce KLJB's newscast had expired and that KLJB chose not to renew it.
On December 31, 2015, WHBF took over production of KLJB's ''Fox 18 News at Nine'' and expanded the newscast to a full hour. Nearly 13 months earlier, the sale of KLJB to Marshall Broadcasting Group was completed, and Nexstar (which already owned WHBF and KGCW at the time) entered into its existing SSA with KLJB.
Ratings
KWQC has been the ratings leader in the Quad Cities for most of its history. It briefly lost the lead to WHBF in the mid-1970s but regained it in 1980, and its newscasts have been the highest-rated in the market ever since. According to the ''
Des Moines Register
''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa.
History Early period
The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cabin by the junction ...
'' in the November 2007 books, KWQC had the third highest-rated newscast among all stations in the top 100
media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
s. In 2015, KWQC's newscasts remained number one in total viewers in every time slot. As of 2013–2014, Nielsen's DMA rank for the Quad Cities was 100.
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 ...
:
Analog-to-digital conversion
After the shutdown of the KWQC-TV analog nightlight signal on June 26, 2009, the KWQC-TV
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
was legally transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 6 to the new digital channel 36 and the KWQC-DT call sign was officially discontinued. However, until mid-November 2009, the
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 AT ...
identifier continued to identify the main channel 6.1 as KWQC-DT. This finally changed before
Thanksgiving Day
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...
in late November and the PSIP now identifies the main channel on 6.1 as the station's legal callsign, KWQC-TV.
KWQC-TV shut down its analog signal, over
VHF channel 6, at 11:59 p.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date when full-power television stations in the United States
transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station shut off its pre-transition digital signal on channel 56 just after midnight on June 11–12. The station returned to the air on channel 36 around 1:00 a.m. on Friday, June 12. Through the use of PSIP, 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's ...
as its former VHF analog channel 6. Most of the station's programming on the broadcast day of June 12, 2009, was actually broadcast both on analog channel 6 and the new digital channel 36, until 11:59 p.m. when KWQC used analog channel 6 to provide a Nightlight service to those remaining analog-only television viewers without a digital TV set or
digital converter box for the two weeks following the digital transition.
KWQC's audio signal transmitted on a frequency of 87.76
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
(+10 kHz shift) and was picked up on the lower end of the dial on most
FM radios
FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...
in most of the Quad Cities until 11:59 p.m. on June 12, 2009. As of 11:59 p.m. on June 12, 2009, the station's main programming is no longer heard on 87.75 MHz on FM radios.
Analog nightlight service
After June 12, KWQC continued using its analog channel 6 for Nightlighting for the next two weeks strictly for the purpose of informing the public about the need to switch over to digital. This included the details on purchasing and installation of DTV converter boxes and television sets, as well as how digital TV works. This service is known as "Nightlighting." The national PSAs, produced by the
National Association of Broadcasters, as well as a locally produced version by the station itself, was a joint effort between KWQC and the other broadcasters in the Quad Cities, including WHBF-TV, WQAD-TV,
WQPT-TV
WQPT-TV, virtual channel 24 ( UHF digital channel 23), is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Moline, Illinois, United States, serving the Quad Cities area of northwestern Illinois and southeastern Iowa. The s ...
, and
KLJB
KLJB (channel 18) is a television station licensed to Davenport, Iowa, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Quad Cities area. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Nexstar Medi ...
, to inform the remaining unprepared TV viewers about the need to take action to continue receiving over- the-air television broadcasting. The transmitter for KWQC analog channel 6 was shut down permanently at 11:59 p.m. on June 26, 2009. Being broadcast as it was in analog on VHF channel 6, the KWQC Nightlight Service was being heard on FM 87.76 MHz on FM radios during the two week Nightlight period instead of the KWQC main programming. Today, there is nothing but
static
Static may refer to:
Places
*Static Nunatak, a nunatak in Antarctica
United States
* Static, Kentucky and Tennessee
*Static Peak, a mountain in Wyoming
**Static Peak Divide, a mountain pass near the peak
Science and technology Physics
*Static el ...
on 87.7 FM on radios as well as
snow
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
on VHF channel 6 on analog TV sets.
Transmitter
The KWQC-TV Tower is a high
guy-wired aerial
mast for the transmission of FM radio and television programs in
Bettendorf, west of the
campus. (Geographical coordinates: ). It was built in 1982. In addition to the former KWQC analog signal, WHBF-TV and radio stations WOC (AM), and WLLR-FM, both former sister stations of KWQC-TV (as WOC-TV), as well as religious
WDLM-FM
WDLM-FM (89.3 FM) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to East Moline, Illinois, United States, and serving the Quad Cities area with a Christian radio format. The station broadcasts at an Effective Radiated Power of 100 kilowatts. WDLM ...
, and
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
member station WVIK
WVIK (90.3 FM) is the flagship National Public Radio station for the Quad Cities region of eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois. It is based in Rock Island, Illinois, and licensed to and owned by Augustana College. The studios are located on Au ...
, transmit their signals from this site.
KWQC's digital transmission tower is located in Orion, Illinois. KWQC no longer transmits a signal from Bettendorf, as Orion is now its new permanent home for transmission facilities, as of June 12. KWQC's analog transmitter in Bettendorf was broadcasting the Quad City Market's
"Nightlight" service around the clock until June 26, 2009. During the two-week "nightlight" period, none of the station's regular programming was broadcast on the analog signal. The aforementioned radio stations in the top paragraph of this section, as well as WHBF-TV, are continuing to transmit from Bettendorf. WHBF is the only Quad Cities television station to transmit from Bettendorf, while KWQC and the market's other stations are transmitting from Orion, with the exception of KGCW. This means many viewers in and around the Quad Cities market need either a rotor or two separate antennas to receive all their local TV stations.
July 2015 carriage dispute with Mediacom
On July 14, 2015, KWQC-TV and its
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 compress ...
s were pulled from Mediacom cable systems in the Quad Cities region because of a
carriage dispute
A carriage dispute is a disagreement over the right to "carry", that is, retransmit, a broadcaster's signal. Carriage disputes first occurred between broadcasters and cable companies and now include direct broadcast satellite and other multicha ...
over
retransmission consent
Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commercia ...
fees between Mediacom and KWQC's owner at the time, Media General. This carriage dispute was part of an ongoing disagreement nationwide between Mediacom and Media General, which saw Media General stations in 14 television markets in the United States pulled from Mediacom cable systems. Three
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'').
Twelve sp ...
affiliates owned by Media General were lost to Mediacom subscribers in
Hampton Roads, Virginia
Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic O ...
,
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...
, and
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka ( ; Kansa language, Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the Capital (political), capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the County seat, seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the ...
, just before the start of the
2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 86th edition of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The game was played at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio on Tuesday, July 14. It was televised nationally on Fox. The Americ ...
. On July 30, 2015, Mediacom and Media General reached a new agreement, thereby restoring KWQC and its digital subchannels to Quad City area Mediacom subscribers.
References
Further reading
*
*
KWQC On-Airaccessed 2007-04-03
*
*
External links
KWQC.com- Official KWQC TV-6 Website
*
WOC's Captain Ernie's Cartoon Showboat websiteThe Unofficial WOC Broadcast Center Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwqc-Tv
Television stations in the Quad Cities
NBC network affiliates
Ion Television affiliates
Cozi TV affiliates
Heroes & Icons affiliates
Start TV affiliates
Circle (TV network) affiliates
Newsy affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1949
1949 establishments in Iowa
Davenport, Iowa
Gray Television