WMQF

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WMQF
Marquette, Michigan
Branding	Fox 19
Channels	19 (UHF) analog, no digital
Affiliations	Fox, My Network TV
Owner	Equity Broadcasting (Marquette Broadcasting)
Founded	February 2, 2003
Call letters meaning	W Marquette's Fox
Former affiliations	UPN
Transmitter Power	500 KW
Website	www.wmqf19.com

WMQF is the newest TV station in the Marquette market, providing Fox and My Network TV programming to the central Upper Peninsula.

Other than the transmitter itself, WMQF has no physical presence in the region -- it's owned and operated by Equity Broadcasting, who operates all its stations via satellite from Little Rock, Arkansas. As a result, the signal and picture quality on channel 19 was sub-par for the first few months, and most cable systems in the region took the signal directly off the satellite. To this day, it is still challenging to receive a signal over the air -- some living close to the station's transmitter attest that the signal is snowy at best.

Prior to WMQF's sign-on in 2003, Fox programming was seen on cable from either Cadillac's WFQX or Green Bay's WLUK. Marquette's WLUC also had secondary relations with Fox in the early-1990s. UPN never got full coverage in the UP, but it was seen in the Crystal Falls area on WUPT-CA channel 49, later channel 25. WUPT folded in 2003 after losing the UPN affiliation to WMQF.

In the fall of 2006, WMQF added MyNetworkTV programming.

[edit] Digital television

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997 [1], the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead, on or before February 18, 2009, which is the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, WMQF will be required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut").

[edit] External link

• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMQF