WQCW

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WQCW
Portsmouth, Ohio
Branding	Q
Slogan	Who Do You Love?
Channels	30 (UHF) analog, 17 (UHF) digital
Translators	WVCW-LP (45, UHF), Huntington, West Virginia WOCW-LP (21, UHF), Charleston, West Virginia
Affiliations	The CW (2006-Present)
Owner	Commonwealth Broadcasting (sale to Lockwood Broadcasting pending.)
Founded	1984
Call letters meaning	W Quality television, the CW
Former callsigns	WUXA (1984-97), WHCP (1997-2006)
Former affiliations	Independent (1984-1995) The WB (1995-2006) UPN (2000-2006)
Transmitter Power	WQCW: 2,040 kW Analog 19.1 kW Digital STA 50 kW Digital CP ----------------------- WVCW-LP: 20.8 kW Analog ----------------------- WOCW-LP: 25 kW Analog
Website	www.wqcw.com

WQCW is the CW affiliate for the Huntington/Charleston, West Virginia television market. It is licensed to Portsmouth, Ohio and is the only commercial station in the market licensed outside of West Virginia. Its transmitter is located in West Portsmouth, Ohio. The station operates two low-powered repeaters: WOCW, channel 21 in Charleston and WVCW, channel 45 in Huntington.

Contents 1 History 2 Local Programming 3 Previous Logos 4 External links

[edit] History

The station signed on 1984 as WUXA, an independent station. It became a WB affiliate in 1995 and changed its calls to WHCP (W Huntington-Charleston-Portsmouth) in 1997. UPN programming was added in 2000 after it was dropped from WVAH-TV, although The WB was its primary affiliation, hence its on-air name, WB30. It showed WB programming in-pattern, with UPN programming at odd hours, sometimes after the WB primetime programming ended or on weekends.

Channel 30's transmitter, despite its over 2 million-watt ERP, was (and still is) not strong enough to cover the entire Huntington-Charleston market, even though it identifies itself on-air as "Portsmouth-Charleston." The market, the largest geographic market east of the Mississippi River, covers 31 counties in central West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southern Ohio. Most of this territory is a very rugged dissected plateau, making UHF reception difficult. WVAH faced similar problems when it originally signed on in 1981 on channel 23, forcing it to move to channel 11 in 1989. WHCP, on the other hand, couldn't move to another channel or increase the power on its transmitter because it would interfere with digital television stations in Roanoke, Virginia and Knoxville, Tennessee. Shortly after it became a WB affiliate, it signed on a low-power satellite in Huntington, WBWV, on channel 69. In 1998, it signed on a low-power satellite in Charleston, WOWB, on channel 53. Even with these satellites, it still has to rely on cable for most of its viewership, especially in the market's share of Kentucky. The station's digital signal, on channel 17, has far better reception.

The station was not carried on DirecTV's Huntington-Charleston local feed when DirecTV began airing local channels because its signal did not meet DirecTV's technical requirements. However, DirecTV added WHCP to its lineup on January 25, 2006. It has always been carried on Dish Network's local feed, however.

When CBS and Time Warner announced formation of The CW in January 2006, it was generally expected that WHCP would join the new network. On March 9, WHCP officially agreed to become a CW affiliate.

On May 26, WOWB and WBWV became WOCW channel 21 and WVCW channel 45, respectively. WHCP followed suit on May 31, changing its calls to WQCW.

On 20 January 2007, Commonwealth Broadcasting, the parent of Television Properties, Inc. (the actual holder of all three licenses), sold the three stations to Lockwood Broadcasting(but the website is still using the Commonwealth Broadcasting era format. It is expected that the site will be updated shortly.) All of Lockwood's stations are either primary CW stations or have the CW on a digital subchannel.

[edit] Local Programming

In the last few years, WQCW has been offering more local programming, mostly sports-related. The station offers local professional wrestling on Saturday afternoons, from Portsmouth-based promotion Revolutionary Championship Wrestling. During the fall and winter, WQCW is airing taped high school football and basketball games from 9-11 p.m. on Saturday nights. The Monkey Bar is a musical theme performace show shown on late-Saturday night showing off local music talents.

On November 7, 2005 WHCP began airing newscasts at 6 and 10 p.m. with popular, but controversial local anchor Tom McGee at the helm. The newscast was regarded as very amateurish, with no teleprompters, no IFB system and generally sloppy presentation. Even worse, WHCP never even subscribed to The Associated Press newswire. Not surprisingly, it never seriously threatened the "Big Three" newscasts at 6 p.m. or WVAH's newscast at 10 p.m.

On February 21, 2006, McGee quit the newscast. He claimed that the station made false promises made to the employees over health insurance which never even went into effect and paid some employees with food coupons. He also had a dispute over the addition of a news helicopter. Two days later, on February 23, the entire news staff was fired and the 4-month-old newscast was cancelled. The manager cited low ratings and recent shakeups in the newscasts. However, WQCW still offers a 30 second weather report.

[edit] Previous Logos

First WB30 logo, as WHCP.

Version of later WB30 logo with the WHCP call letters.

The previous logo only with the WQCW call letters. Used from June to August 2006.

WQCW logo used since August. "The CW" label is in the right part of the "Q" logo.

[edit] External links

• WQCW
• Revolutionary Championship Wrestling
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WQCW
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WOCW-LP
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WVCW-LP
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WQCW-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WOCW-LP
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WVCW-LP