WQAD-TV

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced it would acquire Tribune Media for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune. Had the deal received regulatory approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, the transaction would have brought WQAD under common ownership with several stations owned and/or operated by Sinclair in adjacent markets, including: KGAN/KFXA-TV in Cedar Rapids, KHQA-TV in Quincy, WMSN-TV in Madison, WUCW in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, WVTV/WCGV-TV in Milwaukee (which would have become co-owned with Fox affiliate WITI through the deal as well), and fellow ABC affiliates KTVO in Kirksville–Ottumwa, KDNL-TV in St. Louis (barring a sale to alleviate conflicts with Tribune-owned Fox affiliate KTVI and CW affiliate KPLR-TV), WICS in Springfield (and its satellite station WICD in Champaign), as well as former fellow ABC affiliate WHOI in Peoria (which converted into a Comet O&O in a separate affiliation transaction involving Quincy Media in November 2016).[9][10][11][12]

Less than one month after the FCC voted to have the deal reviewed by an administrative law judge amid "serious concerns" about Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain conflict properties, on August 9, 2018, Tribune announced it would terminate the Sinclair deal, intending to seek other M&A opportunities. Tribune also filed a breach of contract lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court, alleging that Sinclair engaged in protracted negotiations with the FCC and the Department of Justice (DOJ) over regulatory issues, refused to sell stations in markets where it already had properties, and proposed divestitures to parties with ties to Sinclair executive chair David D. Smith that were rejected or highly subject to rejection to maintain control over stations it was required to sell.[13][14][15][16][17][18]

On December 3, 2018, Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Media Group—which has owned CBS affiliate WHBF-TV since March 2014, the CW affiliate KGCW (channel 26) since December 2014 and has operated Fox affiliate KLJB (channel 18) through a shared services agreement (SSA) with Marshall Broadcasting Group in concurrence with the completion of its acquisition of KGCW—announced it would acquire the assets of Tribune Media for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. Nexstar was precluded from acquiring WQAD directly or indirectly, as FCC regulations prohibit common ownership of more than two stations in the same media market, or two or more of the four highest-rated stations in the market. (Furthermore, any attempt by Nexstar to assume the operations of WQAD through local marketing or shared services agreements would have been subject to regulatory hurdles that could have delayed completion of the FCC and Justice Department's review and approval process for the acquisition.) As such, Nexstar would be required to sell either WQAD or both WHBF and KLJB (separately as it would break the grandfathered LMA) to separate, unrelated companies to address the ownership conflict. KGCW could either be retained by Nexstar (tied with either WQAD or WHBF) or sold to the new buyer if WHBF is sold, as KGCW does not rank among the four highest-rated stations in the Quad Cities market.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]

On March 20, 2019, McLean, Virginia-based Tegna Inc. announced it would purchase WQAD-TV from Nexstar upon consummation of the merger, as part of the company's sale of nineteen Nexstar- and Tribune-operated stations to Tegna and the E. W. Scripps Company in separate deals worth $1.32 billion; this would make WQAD the first television property in Iowa for Tegna and its first television property in Illinois since the group (under its pre-2016-split structure as the broadcasting arm of the Gannett Company) sold WREX in Rockford, Illinois to the Gilmore Broadcasting Corporation in 1969.[29][30] The sale of WQAD to Tegna was completed on September 19, 2019.

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.[31] 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 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.[32] On September 5, 2006, WBQD became a MyNetworkTV affiliate.[33] It adopted the nickname "My TV 16" in reference to its channel number on Mediacom.[34] 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.[35] 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.[36]

While transmitting an analog signal, Four Seasons Broadcasting initially operated WBQD outright from 2002 to 2004. However, they had WBQD operated through an 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 it had been off the air for over a year.[37] After WBQD went silent in December 2011, 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,[38][39] 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 had long been committed to broadcasting the schedule of 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.[40]

WMWC-TV was eventually granted its construction permit on July 20, 2007,[41] and it finally signed on in August 2012 as a religious station affiliated with the Trinity Broadcasting Network (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 a TBN owned-and-operated station.[42]

On April 22, 2014, WQAD-DT3 began broadcasting in high definition, utilizing MyNetworkTV's default 720p format.

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

The "Quad Cities Weather Channel" was a 24-hour weather service provided by WQAD and had been available to television viewers on digital channel 8.2 and on Mediacom channel 14. This was created in 2001 and featured its "Exclusive Live Triple Doppler" and weather updates every fifteen minutes. On March 5, 2011, WQAD discontinued the "Quad Cities Weather Channel" and digital channel 8.2 became affiliated with Antenna TV.

WQAD-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, at 3:59 a.m. 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 38.[44][45] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 8. Also at the same time, the "WQAD-TV" call sign was transferred from now-defunct analog channel 8 to digital channel 38 and the "WQAD-DT" calls were discontinued.

As required by 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,[46] Live Life and Win, Biz Kid$, DragonflyTV, Missing,[47] 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, Cat Ziggy, and Elizadeath. Midnite Mausoleum airs Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30 p.m.[48][49]

During overnight hours, the subchannel 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.[50]

WQAD-DT3 was previously affiliated with the Raycom Sports-operated ACC Network and aired live broadcasts of college football and basketball events from the Atlantic Coast Conference.[51][52]

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.[53] 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.[54]

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 WQAD's main channel and one telecast airing on WQAD-DT2.[55] 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, select Bulls games were aired nationally on WGN America prior to that station canceling all of its sports telecasts.

• Hoda Kotb - now co-anchor of Today