WMWC-TV

WMWC-TV, virtual channel 53 (VHF digital channel 8), is a TBN owned-and-operated television station[1] licensed to Galesburg, Illinois, United States, serving the Quad Cities area of northwestern Illinois and southeastern Iowa. The station is owned by the Trinity Broadcasting Network. WMWC-TV's studios are located on 44th Avenue in Moline, and its transmitter is located in Orion, Illinois.[2] On cable, the station is available on Mediacom channel 17 in the Quad Cities[3] and on Comcast Xfinity channels 98 and 277 in Galesburg.[4]

WMWC-TV
Galesburg/Moline/Rock Island, Illinois/
Davenport/Bettendorf, Iowa
United States
CityGalesburg, Illinois
ChannelsDigital: 8 (VHF)
Virtual: 53 (PSIP)
Programming
Affiliations53.1: TBN (O&O)
53.2: Hillsong Channel
53.3: Smile
53.4: Enlace
53.5: Positiv
Ownership
OwnerTrinity Broadcasting Network
(Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.)
History
First air dateAugust 20, 2012 (2012-08-20)
Former call signsWMWC (2012–2013)
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID81946
ERP23 kW
HAAT330 m (1,083 ft)
Transmitter coordinates41°18′44″N 90°22′46″W
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
Websitewww.tbn.org

History

The station originally planned to go on the air on September 1, 2001 as the UPN affiliate for the Quad Cities market. Although Northwest Television owned the station, operations were to have been handled by Second Generation of Iowa, owner of Fox affiliate KFXA in Cedar Rapids.[5] However, Grant Broadcasting System II, then-owner of KLJB-TV and KGWB-TV, filed an petition to deny the application,[5] and the construction permit was not granted until July 20, 2007—nearly a year after UPN (which affiliated with WBQD-LP in 2002) closed down.[6]

WMWC never signed on an analog signal prior to June 12, 2009. As a result, when it took to the air on August 20, 2012, it became the first television station in the Quad Cities to have signed on as a digital-only station, more than three years after full-power stations ended analog broadcasts. On June 5, 2012, the station was assigned the call letters WMWC.[7] A TBN affiliate from its sign-on, WMWC was acquired from Northwest Television by the network in December 2012.[8] On June 13, 2013, TBN added the "-TV" suffix to the station's callsign.[7]

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming
53.1720p16:9TBN HDMain TBN programming
53.2HillsngHillsong Channel
53.3480i4:3SMILESmile
53.4EnlaceEnlace
53.516:9PositivPositiv

TBN-owned full-power stations permanently ceased analog transmissions on April 16, 2009.[9]

Analog-to-digital conversion

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997,[10] the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead, at the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, WMWC would have been required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut"). WMWC's original analog allocation was UHF channel 67, though the application was subsequently amended to specify digital operation on channel 53;[6] however, both channels were removed from the TV bandplan at the end of the digital television transition in the United States. Since WQAD-TV elected to stay on its pre-transition digital UHF channel 38 allocation after the digital transition, Northwest Television, the original owners of WMWC, elected WQAD's former analog channel allocation, VHF channel 8, as the channel on which to broadcast WMWC's post-transition digital signal. As WQAD remaps to virtual channel 8 because of its former analog allocation, WMWC legally cannot keep the virtual channel mapping at 8; instead. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display the station's virtual channel as 53.

See also
  • WBQD-LP, the low power television station which ultimately ended up with the UPN affiliation for the Quad Cities market, and later became the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate; station is now defunct
  • WQAD-DT3, the third digital subchannel of WQAD-TV which was previously a simulcast of WBQD-LP and is now the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the Quad Cities television market
  • WQAD-TV, the ABC affiliate for the Quad Cities television market and the parent station of WQAD-DT3; also the former analog occupant of the VHF channel 8 allocation in the Quad Cities area

References
  1. Tower work could take local TV stations off air next week, The Dispatch / The Rock Island Argus August 10, 2012.
  2. https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/tv-profile/wmwc-tv
  3. Channel Lineup: Bettendorf, Davenport, Durant, Eldridge, LeClaire, Long Grove, Mount Joy, Panorama Park, Park View, Pleasant Valley, Princeton, Riverdale & Scott County, IA
  4. http://tvschedule.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?method=decideFwdForLineup&zipcode=61401&setMyPreference=false&lineupId=IL12444:X&isDescriptionOn=true&aid=tvschedule
  5. "Station delayed by petition". The Gazette (Cedar Rapids). Associated Press. August 17, 2001.
  6. Kreisman, Barbara A. (February 17, 2010). "Order on Reconsideration" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  7. "Call Sign History". FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.
  8. Seyler, Dave (October 23, 2012). "Trinity picks up television stations in two markets". Television Business Report. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  9. RabbitEars TV Query for WMWC
  10. http://www.transmitter.com/FCC97115/ILatwch.html
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