WQAD-DT3

WQAD-DT3
Moline–Rock Island, Illinois/
Davenport–Bettendorf, Iowa
United States
City Moline, Illinois
Branding My TV 8-3
News 8 (newscasts)
Slogan The Quad Cities News Leader (primary)
Live. Local. Latebreaking. (secondary)
Channels Digital: WQAD-DT 38.3 (UHF)
(to move to 31.3 (UHF))
Virtual: 8.3 (PSIP)
Affiliations MyNetworkTV
Owner Tribune Broadcasting
(sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group pending)
(WQAD License, LLC)
Call letters' meaning QuAD Cities
Transmitter power 1,000 kW
Height 334 m (1,096 ft)
Class DT
Facility ID 73319
Transmitter coordinates 41°18′44.5″N 90°22′46.2″W / 41.312361°N 90.379500°W / 41.312361; -90.379500
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.mytv8-3.com

WQAD-DT3 is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Quad Cities area of northwestern Illinois and southeastern Iowa in the United States. It is a third digital subchannel of Moline, Illinois-licensed ABC outlet WQAD-TV that is owned by the Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary of Tribune Media Company. Over-the-air, the station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 38.3 (or virtual channel 8.3 via PSIP) from a transmitter in Orion. On cable, WQAD-DT3 is available on Mediacom channel 3 in standard definition and on digital channel 716 in high definition.[1]

History

The WQAD-DT3 logo used from December 2011 to March 2017.

Northwest Television, the original owner of Galesburg-licensed WMWC-TV, had applied for a license to broadcast a digital signal on channel 53 and had planned to sign on September 1, 2001 as the UPN affiliate for the Quad Cities television market, with operations for the proposed station to be handled by Second Generation of Iowa, owner of Fox affiliate KFXA in Cedar Rapids. However, the application for the new station was challenged by Grant Broadcasting System II, then-owner of KLJB-TV and KGWB-TV.[2] In May 2002 after receiving permission to begin broadcasting an analog signal on UHF channel 26, the predecessor of this digital subchannel station began transmitter tests and on June 1, signed-on as WBQD-LP with the UPN network affiliation that was originally to have gone to WMWC. The owner of the low-power television station was Four Seasons Broadcasting; a partnership between Malibu Broadcasting in Cleveland, Ohio and Venture Technologies Group, LLC in Los Angeles, California. In November 2004, it was announced that WBQD would enter into a joint sales agreement with WQAD.[3] On September 5, 2006, WBQD became a MyNetworkTV affiliate.[4] It adopted the nickname "My TV 16" in reference to its channel number on Mediacom.[5] WBQD's over-the-air signal did not reach the entire market due to its low-power status, but most viewers watched WBQD via its simulcast on this station, WQAD's third digital subchannel, which covers the entire market.

WBQD had a construction permit for a low-power digital transmitter on VHF channel 7 with the calls WBQD-LD. However on June 30, 2009, Four Seasons Broadcasting, the owner of the station, filed for digital displacement relief and requested to move its digital channel assignment to UHF channel 14 instead.[6] After an engineering study, it was determined that even as a low-power digital station, WBQD would cause and/or receive more than acceptable interference to and from KWWL in Waterloo, Iowa and KHQA-TV in Hannibal, Missouri, both of which are full power digital television stations that broadcast on channel 7 and had "flash-cut" to their former analog channels after the digital transition.[7]

While transmitting an analog signal, Four Seasons Broadcasting initially operated WBQD outright from 2002 to 2004. However, they had WBQD operated through a local marketing agreement (LMA) by WQAD's former owners, The New York Times Company from 2004 to 2007, and by Local TV LLC from 2007 to 2011. This made it a sister outlet to WQAD and the two outlets shared studios on Park 16th Street, in the Prospect Park section of Moline. However, some internal operations of WBQD (such as the maintenance of program logs) were actually based at the shared facilities of co-owned MyNetworkTV affiliate WAOE as well as ABC/CW affiliate WHOI and NBC affiliate WEEK-TV in East Peoria. WBQD's analog signal aired from a transmitter on 70th Street, next to Black Hawk College, near the Poplar Grove section of Moline.

On December 9, 2011, WBQD-LP notified the FCC that they went silent after losing their tower lease on the Black Hawk College campus in Moline. This occurred more than a year after Black Hawk College sold public broadcasting station WQPT-TV to Western Illinois University-Quad Cities though there is no indication of any connection to this. However, on June 6, 2013, the FCC cancelled the license of WBQD-LP, after being off the air for over a year.[8] After WBQD went silent in December 2011, this station, WQAD-DT3, which had for years been simulcasting WBQD's programming and MyNetworkTV affiliation in 480i 4:3 standard definition, began operating the Quad Cities' MyNetworkTV affiliation outright,[9][10] rebranding it as "My TV 8.3" in reference to the station's virtual channel location WQAD-DT3 would later tweak their branding to the current "My TV 8-3." As WQAD-DT3 is continuing to broadcast WBQD's MyNetworkTV and syndicated programming, and cable providers used 8.3 as their signal source for the station for years, the low-powered license for WBQD-LP was practically all but redundant On October 9, 2012, the cable channel assignment for WQAD-DT3 on Mediacom moved from channel 16 to channel 3.[11]

WMWC-TV was eventually granted its construction permit on July 20, 2007,[12] and it finally signed on in August 2012 as a religious station affiliated with TBN. WMWC is broadcast in digital on VHF channel 8 (WQAD's former analog allocation) but through the use of PSIP remaps to virtual channel 53 as that was WMWC's pre-transition digital-only allocation. As of December 2012, WMWC is now owned and operated by the TBN network.[13]

On July 1, 2013, Local TV LLC announced that all of their stations, including WQAD, would be acquired by the Tribune Company.[14] On April 22, 2014, WQAD-DT3 began broadcasting in high definition, utilizing MyNetworkTV's standard 720p format.

In early March 2015, it was announced that WQAD-DT3 would broadcast 45 Chicago Cubs games and 55 Chicago White Sox games to Quad City area baseball fans during the 2015 Major League Baseball season. This was due to the baseball games no longer being available on a national basis to cable and satellite viewers via WGN America. The origination of the baseball broadcasts was split between Chicago's CW affiliate (now independent station WGN-TV (which is a direct sister station to WQAD under Tribune ownership) and ABC O&O WLS-TV.[15] During the latter part of March 2015, it was revealed that the Quad Cities' CW affiliate KGCW would air the 24 remaining Cubs games not broadcast by WQAD-DT3. The broadcasts originating from WGN-TV were aired on WQAD-DT3 while the games broadcast by WLS-TV were aired on KGCW.[16]

On October 4, 2015, WQAD-DT3 announced the expansion of their sports programming into the winter months which included televised broadcasts of the Chicago Bulls during the 2015–16 NBA season and the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2015–16 NHL season. 37 out of 46 telecasts (combining both teams) were aired on WQAD-DT3 with eight of the remaining nine telecasts airing on parent station WQAD-TV and one telecast airing on WQAD-DT2.[17] As with the Cubs and White Sox baseball broadcasts, the originating station of the Bulls and Blackhawks telecasts was WGN-TV. Prior to the fall of 2015, telecasts of both the Bulls and Blackhawks were aired nationally on WGN America prior to that station cancelling all of its sports telecasts.

Programming

Syndicated programming on WQAD-DT3 includes What Went Down,[18] Dr. Phil, Just for Laughs,[19] Tosh.0,[19] The Jerry Springer Show,[19] The Steve Wilkos Show,[19] Judge Faith,[19][20] Judge Judy,[19][21] Celebrity Name Game,[19] Bridezillas, Cougar Town, Raising Hope, The King of Queens, Rules of Engagement, Cops Reloaded, Right This Minute,[22] Sport Science, The Tim McCarver Show, The Walking Dead, Elementary, Person of Interest, Corrupt Crimes,[19] Cheaters,[23] Haven, Sanctuary, Rizzoli & Isles, Extra, Access Hollywood,[24] On the Money, Real Green,[25] Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls, Hometime, Designing Spaces, and Branson Country USA.

Also, as required per the Children's Television Act of 1990, WQAD-DT3 airs three or more hours of educational and informational programming on Sunday mornings, including Into the Outdoors,[26] Live Life and Win, Biz Kid$, DragonflyTV, Missing,[27] Wild America, and Pets.TV.

As of the 2014–2015 TV season, WQAD-DT3 broadcasts Midnite Mausoleum, a locally produced horror host program featuring horror films. The hosts of the show are Marlena Midnite and Robyn Graves. Midnite Mausoleum airs every Friday and Saturday evening at 10:30 pm.[28][29]

WQAD-DT3 is affiliated with the Raycom Sports-operated ACC Network and airs live broadcasts of college football and college basketball events from the Atlantic Coast Conference.[30][31]

On December 27, 2015, WQAD-TV news anchor and reporter Angie Sharp revealed the addition of a new live half-hour 9 pm newscast to WQAD-DT3 beginning on January 4, 2016.[32][33] The new 9pm newscast will directly compete against the 9 pm hour-long newscast on local Fox affiliate KLJB, which is owned by Marshall Broadcasting and operated through a SSA by Nexstar Media Group (owners of local CBS affiliate WHBF-TV which now produces the KLJB newscasts). Previously, WQAD-DT3 had aired rebroadcasts from WQAD's 5 pm and 6 pm newscasts during the 9 pm time slot.

As of the 2016 Major League Baseball season, WQAD-DT3 once again airs telecasts of Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox games originating from WGN-TV.[34][35][36][37]

During overnight hours, the station airs paid programming from Corner Store TV. However, as of the 2014–2015 television season, there were more hours of regular programming overnight which included the syndicated programming lineup of WQAD-DT3 and fewer hours of infomercials. As of the 2015–2016 television season, WQAD-DT3 airs infomercials on weekends only, as the weekday schedule includes all regular syndicated programming in addition to the MyNetworkTV schedule.[19]

Sources

  1. ↑ Channel Lineup: Bettendorf, Davenport, Durant, Eldridge, LeClaire, Long Grove, Mount Joy, Panorama Park, Park View, Pleasant Valley, Princeton, Riverdale & Scott County, IA
  2. ↑ "Station delayed by petition". The Gazette. Associated Press. August 17, 2001.
  3. ↑ Burke, David (2004-11-19). "WQAD will sell advertising for WBQD". Quad-City Times. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 2015-01-03.
  4. ↑ Burke, David (2006-03-18). "Fox's new division is on a Q-C station". Quad-City Times. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 2006-06-20.
  5. ↑ Burke, David (2006-07-31). "Few changes in local TV schedules". Quad-City Times. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 2006-08-03.
  6. ↑ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101319809&formid=346&fac_num=167296
  7. ↑ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=767551&formid=346&q_num=5100
  8. ↑ FCC letter to Four Seasons Peoria, LLC, June 6, 2013.
  9. ↑ Broadcasting News-June 2013
  10. ↑ Iowa Media News 2013
  11. ↑ Nelson, Shellie (October 8, 2012). "MyTV Moves to Mediacom Channel 3". WQAD-TV. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  12. ↑ Kreisman, Barbara A. (February 17, 2010). "Order on Reconsideration" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  13. ↑ Seyler, Dave (October 23, 2012). "Trinity picks up television stations in two markets". Television Business Report. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  14. ↑ Channick, Robert (July 1, 2013). "Acquisition to make Tribune Co. largest U.S. TV station operator". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  15. ↑ "WQAD picking up 45 Cubs, 55 Sox games". Quad-City Times. Lee Enterprises. 2015-03-05. Retrieved 2015-03-07.
  16. ↑ "KGCW picks up remaining 24 Cubs games". Quad-City Times. Lee Enterprises. 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2015-03-26.
  17. ↑ "Blackhawks, Bulls available on local TV". The Dispatch / The Rock Island Argus. The Small Newspaper Group. 2015-10-04. Retrieved 2015-10-10.
  18. ↑ Where to Watch | What Went Down
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Burke, David (2015-07-25). "Judy, Judy, Judy". Quad-City Times. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 2015-10-03.
  20. ↑ Judge Faith - Where to Watch
  21. ↑ Showtimes for Judge Judy
  22. ↑ TV Stations | RTM - RightThisMinute
  23. ↑ Cheaters | Air Times
  24. ↑ Find My Station | Access Hollywood
  25. ↑ Real Green - The official website of Telco Productions television series
  26. ↑ Broadcast Guide - Into The Outdoors
  27. ↑ Missing - The official website of Telco Productions missing persons television series
  28. ↑ Midnite Mausoleum - Official Website
  29. ↑ Midnite Mausoleum Video Promo
  30. ↑ "ACC Football on the ACC Network: Wake Forest at Syracuse". Atlantic Coast Conference. September 12, 2015. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  31. ↑ "ACC Football on the ACC Network: Northwestern at Duke". Atlantic Coast Conference. September 19, 2015. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  32. ↑ Sharp, Angie (2015-12-27). "The Sharp Side on WORKIN' WEEKENDS: Actually, That's About To Change". WQAD-TV. Tribune Broadcasting. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  33. ↑ Ortega, Roly (December 28, 2015). "WQAD is ready to switch from a rebroadcast to LIVE at 9:00 p.m. on its MyTV digital subchannel". The Changing Newscasts Blog. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  34. ↑ WQAD-DT3 2016 Chicago Cubs Schedule
  35. ↑ Jaster, Ryan (2016-04-05). "2016 Chicago Cubs TV broadcast schedule in Quad Cities". Quad-City Times. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 2016-05-08.
  36. ↑ WQAD-DT3 2016 Chicago White Sox Schedule
  37. ↑ Jaster, Ryan (2016-04-05). "2016 Chicago White Sox TV broadcast schedule in Quad Cities". Quad-City Times. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 2016-05-08.

See also

Preceded by
WBQD-LP		 MyNetworkTV affiliate for the Quad Cities Television Market
2011–Present 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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