rock island illinois united states city davenport branding kwqc tv 6 general kwqc tv 6 news newscasts slogan serving illinois and iowa everyday general channels digital 36 uhf virtual 6 psip subchannels 6.1 nbc 6.2 ion television 6.3 cozi tv affiliations nbc owner media general sale to gray television pending young broadcasting of davenport inc. first air date october 31 1949 1949 10 31 call letters meaning welcome to the quad cities call letters modified to resemble former woc tv call letters and tie in to regional nickname former callsigns woc tv 1949 1986 former channel number s analog 5 vhf 1949 1952 6 vhf 1952 2009 digital 56 uhf 2003 2009 former affiliations dt1 all secondary cbs 1949 1950 dumont 1949 1955 abc 1949 1963 dt2 24 7 weather info 2007 2015 transmitter power 1000 kw height 329 m facility id 6885 transmitter coordinates 41 18 44 n 90 22 46 w 41.31222 n 90.37944 w 41.31222 ; 90.37944 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website kwqc.com kwqc tv virtual channel 6 is a television station licensed to davenport iowa usa which serves as the nbc affiliate for the quad cities television market comprising davenport and bettendorf iowa and rock island and moline illinois . kwqc tv is owned by media general with studios located on brady street in downtown davenport and transmitter located in orion illinois . contents 1 history 1.1 july 2015 carriage dispute with mediacom 2 transmitter 3 digital television 3.1 digital channels 3.2 analog to digital conversion 3.3 analog nightlight service 3.4 kwqc 6.2 3.5 cozi tv 6.3 4 programming 5 news operation 5.1 kwqc radio content 5.2 kwqc kljb partnership 5.3 ratings 6 references 7 further reading 8 external links history edit kwqc originally signed on the air on october 31 1949 as woc tv . the station was founded by b. j. palmer founder of the palmer college of chiropractic located directly across the street from the station s studios along with woc radio 1420 am and 103.7 fm now wllr fm . the woc stations were also sister stations to who am fm tv in des moines . according to local legend the woc calls stood for wonders of chiropractic though the palmer family never acknowledged the phase in print or otherwise . woc tv has the distinction of being both iowa s and the quad cities first television station carrying programming from all four networks at the time nbc cbs abc and dumont . however it has always been a primary nbc affiliate owing to woc radio s long affiliation with nbc . originally on channel 5 woc tv moved to channel 6 in 1952 due to interference with iowa state university s woi tv in ames . during its early years original programming on woc tv included the daily show boat children s show hosted by cap n ernie from 1964 to 1974 . 1 2 woc tv lost cbs when rock island based whbf tv channel 4 was launched in 1950 and the two stations shared abc until wqad tv channel 8 signed on from moline in 1963 . the station was also affiliated with the short lived paramount television network ; in fact it was one of that network s strongest affiliates carrying programs such as dixie showboat 3 hollywood reel 4 and hollywood wrestling . 5 channel 6 remained with the palmer family s broadcasting division after dr. palmer s death in 1961 . in 1986 palmer communications sold its quad cities radio properties to vickie anne palmer and her then husband j. douglas miller . due to federal communications commission fcc rules of the time channel 6 changed its calls to the current kwqc tv on december 8 so as not to confuse the two properties . kwqc was sold to broad street television in 1989 and to young broadcasting in 1995 . on june 6 2013 media general announced that they would acquire young broadcasting in an all stock deal . 6 the merger was completed on november 12 . 7 the addition of kwqc to media general s portfolio marked a return to iowa for media general who had owned kimt in mason city from 2000 to 2006 though they would regain ownership of that station upon acquiring lin media in 2014 . in september 2015 media general announced the acquisition of meredith corporation in a cash and stock deal valued at 2.4 billion . 8 if the deal was completed kwqc and kimt would have become meredith s first television stations in its home state of iowa . media general announced on january 27 2016 that it was terminating the meredith deal and also announced that it was being acquired by nexstar broadcasting group with the new company named nexstar media group . as nexstar already owns whbf tv and since both whbf and kwqc rank among the top four stations by daily ratings in the market in order to comply with fcc ownership rules as well as planned changes to rules regarding same market television stations which would prohibit future joint sales agreements the company will be required to sell either kwqc or whbf to another company . whbf s sister station kgcw would not be affected and could either remain in its duopoly with whbf or form a new duopoly with kwqc as its ratings are below the top four threshold . 9 10 on june 3 2016 it was announced that nexstar would keep its existing assets and sell kwqc to gray television for 270 million . it will represent a reunion of sorts as gray previously managed the station when young was encountering financial difficulties but this time gray will acquire the station outright . that will make kwqc a sister station to kcrg tv in cedar rapids wifr in rockford and fellow nbc affiliate wmtv in madison . 11 12 july 2015 carriage dispute with mediacom edit on july 14 2015 kwqc tv and its digital subchannels were pulled from mediacom cable systems in the quad cities region due to a carriage dispute over retransmission consent fees between mediacom and kwqc owner media general . 13 this carriage dispute was part of an ongoing disagreement nationwide between mediacom and media general which saw media general stations in 14 television markets in the united states pulled from mediacom cable systems and even three fox affiliates owned by media general were lost to mediacom subscribers in hampton roads virginia terre haute indiana and topeka kansas just before the start of the 2015 major league baseball all star game . 14 on july 30 2015 mediacom and media general reached a new agreement thereby restoring kwqc and its digital subchannels to quad city area mediacom subscribers . 15 transmitter edit kwqc broadcast center the kwqc tv tower is a 1 381 foot 421 m high guy wired aerial mast for the transmission of fm radio and television programs in bettendorf west of the scott community college campus . geographical coordinates 41 32 49 n 90 28 35 w 41.54694 n 90.47639 w 41.54694 ; 90.47639 . it was built in 1982 . in addition to the former kwqc analog signal whbf tv and radio stations woc and wllr fm both former sister stations of kwqc tv as woc tv as well as religious wdlm fm and npr member station wvik transmit their signals from this site . kwqc s digital transmission tower is located in orion illinois . the transmitter for kwqc dt 56 had been operating at half of its assigned effective radiated power erp since 12 45 pm on december 16 2008 due to the need to convert one of the power amplifier cabinets from channel 56 to channel 36 . 16 at 12 02 am on friday june 12 2009 the digital over the air signal on channel 56 was turned off and this lasted for about an hour or so in order to change the transmitter to antenna connections from the remaining dt 56 cabinet to the newly converted dt 36 cabinet . kwqc returned to the air an hour later on kwqc dt 36 and continued to operate at half power on channel 36 for about a week or so while the other cabinet was converted from channel 56 to channel 36 . kwqc estimated that the other power cabinet would be fully converted and that its new digital signal on channel 36 would be operating at its fully licensed erp of 1 million watts around june 19 2009 one week after the dtv transition was complete . 17 it is not known when exactly the station returned to full power on digital channel 36 . cable viewers particularly mediacom subscribers in the quad cities did not notice any interruption to the kwqc analog or digital hdtv signals on the cable systems as kwqc s signals have been sent to the cable companies via a direct fiber optic link instead of the older and more traditional method of being picked up by the cable companies over the air antennas 18 ever since well before the 2009 digital tv transition . also kwqc no longer transmits a signal from bettendorf as orion is now its new permanent home for transmission facilities as of june 12 . kwqc s analog transmitter in bettendorf was broadcasting the quad city market s nightlight service around the clock until june 26 2009 and during the two week nightlight period none of the station s regular programming was broadcast on the analog signal . as of june 26 2009 the analog signal is now permanently gone . the aforementioned radio stations in the top paragraph of this section as well as whbf tv are continuing to transmit from bettendorf . whbf is the only quad cities television station to transmit from bettendorf while kwqc and everybody else are transmitting from orion 19 with the exception of kgcw . this means many viewers in and around the quad cities market need either a rotor or two separate antennas to receive all their local tv stations . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 20 6.1 1080i 16 9 kwqc tv main kwqc tv programming nbc 6.2 480i 4 3 ion ion television 6.3 16 9 cozi tv cozi tv analog to digital conversion edit after the shutdown of the kwqc tv analog nightlight signal on june 26 2009 the kwqc tv callsign was legally transferred from the now defunct analog channel 6 to the new digital channel 36 and the kwqc dt callsign was officially discontinued . however up until mid november 2009 the psip identifier continued to identify the main channel 6.1 as kwqc dt . this finally changed right before thanksgiving day in late november and the psip now identifies the main channel on 6.1 as the station s legal callsign kwqc tv . kwqc tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 6 at 11 59 p.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 shut off its pre transition digital signal on channel 56 just after midnight on june 11 12 . the station returned to the air on channel 36 around 1 a.m. on friday june 12 . 21 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 6 . most of the station s programming on the broadcast day of june 12 2009 was actually broadcast both on analog channel 6 and the new digital channel 36 up until 11 59 p.m. when kwqc used analog channel 6 to provide a nightlight service to those remaining analog only television viewers without a digital tv set or digital converter box for the two weeks following the digital transition . kwqc