WDCQ-TV
WDCQ-TV, virtual channel 19 (UHF digital channel 15), branded as Q-TV, is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Bad Axe, Michigan, United States and serving the Flint/Tri-Cities television market. The station is owned by Delta College in University Center, an unincorporated community in Frankenlust Township in southwestern Bay County. WDCQ-TV's transmitter is located in Quanicassee, in northwestern Tuscola County.
 | |
| Bad Axe/Bay City/Saginaw/Flint, Michigan United States | |
|---|---|
| City | Bad Axe, Michigan |
| Channels | Digital: 15 (UHF) Virtual: 19 (PSIP) |
| Branding | Q-TV PBS |
| Slogan | Straight from the Hub of the Thumb |
| Programming | |
| Subchannels | 19.1 PBS 19.2 World 19.3 Create 19.4 PBS Kids |
| Affiliations | PBS (1970–present) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Delta College |
| Sister stations | WUCX-FM |
| History | |
| First air date | October 12, 1964 (intellectual unit) December 31, 1986 (Bad Axe transmitter) |
| Former call signs | WUCX-TV (1986–1997) WDCP-TV (1997–2003) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 35 (UHF, 1986–2009) |
| Former affiliations | NET (1964–1970) |
| Call sign meaning | Delta College Quality Television |
| Technical information | |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 16530 |
| Class | DT |
| ERP | 200 kW |
| HAAT | 309 m (1,014 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°32′33″N 83°39′37″W |
| Links | |
| Public license information | Profile LMS |
| Website | www.deltabroadcasting.org |
History
The station first signed on the air on October 12, 1964 as WUCM-TV channel 19, licensed to University Center; the "UCM" stood for University Center Michigan. The station was initially affiliated with National Educational Television (NET) until 1970, when the present-day PBS replaced NET. In 1986, WUCM established a satellite, WUCX-TV channel 35 in Bad Axe, to better cover Michigan's Thumb area. In 1997, when the station first adopted the "Q-TV" branding, both stations changed their calls, with WUCM becoming WDCQ-TV, and WUCX becoming WDCP-TV.
The analog channel 19 transmitter was located on a 496-foot (151 m) tower on the campus of Delta College, near the corner of 4-Mile and Delta Roads in Bay County. The analog channel 35 tower was located just south of Ubly.
The WUCX calls are still used today for Delta College's NPR member station, WUCX-FM 90.1, Q90.1. That station is owned by Central Michigan University, and jointly run by Delta College and CMU.
WDCQ is currently the third most-watched PBS station in Michigan, behind WTVS in Detroit and WGVU-TV in Grand Rapids. As of 2017, Thomas Bennett is the general manager of WDCQ and WUCX-FM.
Programming
Programming on WDCQ consists of the general primary PBS fare, with some locally produced shows, such as Currently Speaking, a weekly, live current events discussion program hosted by Andy Rapp, who's been a personality at WDCQ since the early 1970s, when he hosted a daily discussion program, Day by Day, which ran on the old WUCM into the 1980s.
Starting in 2005, Q-TV began to produce local documentaries which looked at aspects of local history in the Great Lakes Bay Region and surrounding areas. These documentaries received many state and national awards including four Michigan Association of Broadcasters "Excellence in Broadcasting" Awards, numerous "Telly" awards among others. Documentaries produced include:
- Vanishing Voices of World War Two
- Sawdust & Shanty Boys - Logging the Saginaw Valley White Pine
- Margin of Victory - Saginaw Valley's Role in Winning World War II
- Tracks Through Time - Michigan Railroads - History & Impact
- Breaking New Ground - Women of the Saginaw Valley
- Restored to Glory - Classic Automobiles, Collectors & Their Stories
- The Korean War - Voices from the 38th Parallel
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WDCQ-DT | Main WDCQ-TV programming / PBS |
| 19.2 | 480i | 4:3 | World | |
| 19.3 | Create | |||
| 19.4 | PBS Kids |
Analog-to-digital conversion
With the impending end of analog broadcasting in the United States, Delta College decided to use one digital station to cover its entire coverage area. Since it was widely believed that digital signals would travel further than analog signals, Delta College anticipated this would make up for the main WDCQ signal's shortfall on the Thumb. When each analog station was assigned a digital channel, WDCQ University Center was assigned channel 18 while WDCP Bad Axe was assigned channel 15 for digital. For practicality and monetary reasons, school officials opted to activate only channel 15, from a location that was close enough to the Tri-Cities to provide city-grade coverage to the area. Accordingly, on November 28, 2003; the two stations switched callsigns, with channel 19 becoming WDCP, and channel 35 now WDCQ.
WDCQ-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 35, 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 15,[2] using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as channel 19—reflecting the analog channel position of WDCP. Even though FCC regulations regarding PSIP would usually mandate that WDCQ use "35" as its virtual channel, Delta College sought and received permission to use "19" instead. This is because most of its viewers live in the Flint/Tri-Cities area and had watched the station on channel 19 for almost half a century. However, WDCQ-TV is on channel 35 for DirecTV customers in its market.
References
- RabbitEars TV Query for WDCQ
- "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
External links
- WDCQ in the FCC's TV station database
- Query TV Fool's coverage map for WDCQ
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WDCQ-TV