WBQT

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WBQT-TV
Springfield - Holyoke, Massachusetts
Slogan	Pioneer Valley's CW
Channels	various (cable) analog, n/a digital
Affiliations	The CW (via The CW Plus)
Owner
Founded	2001
Call letters meaning	WB = old affiliation
Former affiliations	The WB (via The WB 100+) (2001-2006)
Website	yourcwpioneervalley.com

"WBQT-TV" "Pioneer Valley's CW" is the CW affiliate for the Springfield - Holyoke, Massachusetts television market. The call letters are fictional, as it is a cable-only station. It broadcasts exclusively on cable as part of The CW Plus. On Comcast cable systems in the market, the station is located on channel 16 in most areas or channel 11 in others. Channel placement on Charter Communications and other providers, however, is variable. WBQT offers The Daily Buzz newscast weekday mornings from 6 to 9 AM.

As a WB affiliate, WBQT was a rarity among stations in The WB 100+ station group in that it was not aligned with an established off-air station in the market. The practice currently continues with the station being a CW affiliate and part of The CW Plus. This non-alignment may have played a role in the slow establishment of the station as opposed to other stations in the WB and CW cable-only stations group (see below).

[edit] History

WBQT began late in 1998 alongside the launch of The WB 100+. Unlike many other similar stations, initially the station did not replace out-of-market WB affiliates (such as WPIX from New York, WBNE from Hartford and WLVI from Boston) on local cable systems. This approach led the station to develop slowly given that most cable systems in the market saw higher viewership on the out-of-market affiliates as opposed to WBQT. A blow was struck in 1999 when WBQT was taken off of the AT&T Broadband systems which serve the majority of the Springfield market.

When Comcast took over the AT&T Broadband cable systems in 2001, the cable company began a push to expand WBQT's reach. In late 2001, WBQT replaced the out-of-market WB affiliates on most systems with near total replacement taking place by 2003.

[edit] The CW

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced they will merge together to make a new network called The CW. WBQT was chosen to become the Springfield's CW affiliate after months of confusion as to what the station would do as a resilt of the merger. After the merger, the station started branding as Pioneer Valley's CW. It has yet to change its fictional call letters with the network switch. Since the merger took place, the new logo has aired on most on-air promos on the station and even appears on WBQT's page on The CW Plus website. Now, according to The CW local station website, WBQT has its own web address, "yourcwpioneervalley.com". However, it points to a generic website for CW Plus stations that features a programming grid with WBQT's current logo.

In 2005, Springfield's NBC affiliate WWLP purchased W28CT, channel 11, a low-power television station in Hartford, Connecticut, from Communications Site Management LLC. The station was moved to Springfield, given a new channel location on channel 28, and renamed WXCW-CA with talk that it would be an affiliate of The CW when channel 28 goes on the air in 2007. [1] This would have ended WBQT's future as a broadcasting channel, however in August of 2006, channel 28's call letters changed again to WFXQ-CA, matching speculation that it would be a FOX network affiliate instead when it launches. Since there is currently no MyNetworkTV affiliate in the Springfield market, WFXQ-CA could make the station a secondary affiliate or digital subchannel. [2] The Springfield television market currently gets FOX programming from WTIC-TV in Hartford and MNTV from WCTX in New Haven.

[edit] External Links

• "WBQT" Website
• The CW Television Network