michigan see wdiv tv . for local 4 news in amarillo texas see kamr tv . whbf tv rock island the molines illinois davenport bettendorf iowa united states city rock island illinois branding local 4 general local 4 news news slogan local 4 you general channels digital 4 vhf virtual 4 psip subchannels 4.1 cbs 4.2 the cw 4.3 grit 4.4 escape translators 47 uhf rock island affiliations cbs owner nexstar broadcasting group nexstar broadcasting inc. first air date july 1 1950 ; 66 years ago 1950 07 01 call letters meaning where historic black hawk fought a reference to chief black hawk whose tribe once occupied the area that is now the quad cities sister station s kljb & kgcw former channel number s analog 4 vhf 1950 2009 digital 58 uhf 2003 2009 former affiliations both secondary abc 1950 1953 as blue tv & 1953 1963 as abc tv dumont 1950 1956 transmitter power 33.7 kw height 409 m facility id 13950 transmitter coordinates 41 32 48.8 n 90 28 37.7 w 41.546889 n 90.477139 w 41.546889 ; 90.477139 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.ourquadcities.com whbf tv channel 4 is a television station licensed to rock island illinois usa which serves as the cbs affiliate for the quad cities television market comprising rock island and moline illinois and davenport and bettendorf iowa . whbf tv is owned and operated by nexstar broadcasting group as part of a duopoly with cw affiliate kgcw . nexstar also operates fox affiliate kljb owned by marshall broadcasting . the studios for all three stations are located in the telco building on 18th street in downtown rock island . the transmitter for whbf tv is located in bettendorf . contents 1 history 2 programming 3 digital television 3.1 digital channels 3.2 analog to digital conversion 3.3 post transition digital signal issues 4 news operation 4.1 ratings 5 references 6 external links history edit the studios for whbf television in downtown rock island . whbf tv signed on the air on july 1 1950 . it is the fifth oldest surviving station in illinois and the oldest outside chicago and next to the state of iowa across the mississippi river . it was owned by the potter family publishers of the rock island argus along with whbf radio 1270 am now wkbf and 98.9 fm now wlku . whbf tv has been a cbs affiliate since its inception but carried secondary affiliations with abc and the dumont television network . after dumont s demise in 1956 whbf shared abc programming with woc tv channel 6 now kwqc tv up to the time that the new station wqad tv channel 8 signed on as an abc affiliate in 1963 . during the late 1950s the station was also briefly affiliated with the nta film network . 1 the potters broke up their media holdings in 1986 ; at that time citadel communications acquired whbf tv and the radio stations moved out of the telco building . the following year lynch entertainment acquired a stake in the station ; at that time coronet communications company was formed as a partnership between citadel and lynch . 2 on january 29 2007 whbf tv rebranded as cbs 4 . 3 4 it also adopted a variation of the circle logo shared with citadel s other major network affiliates . whbf tv was the first station in the area to use color radar and now uses the state of the art weather system known as esp live exclusive storm prediction . this allows the station to alert the quad cities about any potential weather hazards . 4 citadel s other stations also use the esp live branding . from 1982 to 2011 whbf tv didn t carry either cbs news up to the minute nor its predecessor cbs news nightwatch . instead the station joined its fellow citadel stations in signing off every night making whbf one of the few stations in the country to still do so . however as of the mid 2000s whbf ran its transmitters all night airing a test pattern with station identification superimposed over the pattern . digital channel 4.2 has operated 24 7 since the retro television network debut on december 1 2008 . whbf tv finally added up to the minute to its programming lineup in october 2011 . up to the minute was replaced by the cbs overnight news on september 21 2015 . 5 the move left iowa public television station kqin as the last quad cities television station to sign off . on january 16 2012 whbf tv along with all citadel stations launched an affiliation with the live well network on its dt2 subchannel . 6 7 from december 1 2008 to january 15 2012 the station carried the retro television network on dt2 . 8 prior to that whbf had been simulcasting its main programming in sdtv on the dt2 subchannel . from march 5 2011 to january 15 2012 whbf tv s subchannel affiliation with the retro television network had a local competitor in the quad cities as the dt2 subchannel of wqad tv became an affiliate of antenna tv after wqad discontinued their quad cities weather channel service . on september 16 2013 citadel announced that it would sell whbf tv along with woi dt in des moines and kcau tv in sioux city iowa to the nexstar broadcasting group for 88 million . nexstar immediately took over the station s operations through a time brokerage agreement . 9 the deal followed citadel founder and ceo phil lombardo s decision to slow down as well as a desire by lynch entertainment to divest its investments in whbf and woi . 10 on november 6 nexstar announced that it would purchase the stations owned by grant broadcasting including kljb and kgcw for 87.5 million . due to fcc ownership regulations kljb was spun off to marshall broadcasting but is operated by nexstar through a shared services agreement forming a virtual triopoly with whbf . 11 the sale for whbf was completed on march 13 2014 . 12 the deal reunited whbf with two of its former citadel sister stations wivt in binghamton new york and wvny in burlington vermont . on january 27 2016 nexstar announced that it would acquire media general owner of kwqc tv for 4.6 billion . the new name of the combined company will be nexstar media group . due to fcc regulations which prohibit ownership of two or more of the top four tv stations in any television market nexstar will be required to sell either whbf or kwqc to another company . kgcw can remain under nexstar ownership in its existing duopoly with whbf or create a new duopoly with kwqc as that station is ranked below the top four ratings threshold . 13 14 on june 3 2016 nexstar revealed that it would keep whbf and its green bay sister station wfrv tv and sell media general stations kwqc and its green bay sister station wbay tv to gray television for 270 million . 15 16 programming edit whbf carries the complete cbs schedule and broadcasts all cbs network programming as well as syndicated programming in high definition . syndicated programming on whbf tv includes inside edition 17 entertainment tonight 18 the insider the dr. oz show 19 kickin it with byron allen and republic of doyle . 20 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is once again multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 21 4.1 1080i 16 9 whbf dt main whbf tv programming cbs 4.2 480i 4 3 kgcw sd sd simulcast of kgcw 4.3 grit 4.4 escape analog to digital conversion edit whbf tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 4 at 6 01 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 relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 58 which was among the high band uhf channels 52 69 that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition to its analog era vhf channel 4 . 22 23 whbf tv is now one of the very few tv stations in the united states to broadcast its digital signal on a low vhf channel assignment alongside sister station woi dt in des moines iowa and abc o & o station wpvi tv in philadelphia pennsylvania . on its second digital subchannel the station affiliated with the retro television network from december 1 2008 to january 15 2012 . 8 on january 16 2012 whbf along with all of its sister stations switched to the live well network 6 7 carrying the network in a 16 9 letterbox format while preserving the 480i resolution and 4 3 aspect ratio of the subchannel ; scaled down from live well network s 720p master signal . exactly two years later on january 16 2014 before nexstar which historically dropped all live well network affiliations upon the purchase of acquired stations took control of whbf 24 the station dropped the subchannel entirely . it was the only area station without a subchannel for a period of sixteen months . in november 2014 while nexstar was still waiting for the completion of its sale of kljb to marshall broadcasting there was speculation by other local media that kgcw might move to a whbf subchannel . 25 on may 14 2015 nexstar relaunched whbf s digital subchannel 4.2 with a standard definition simulcast of kgcw . due to the fact that kljb is now owned by a separate company than kgcw the simulcast of kgcw which was previously aired on kljb s 18.2 subchannel moved to whbf s 4.2 subchannel as nexstar owns whbf and kgcw where marshall broadcasting owns kljb . 26 post transition digital signal issues edit during the summer of 2009 june 12 2009 whbf tv being broadcast as it s in digital on a low vhf channel assignment encountered numerous reception problems and received several reception related complaints in its first two months alone of being broadcast digitally on vhf channel 4 . as a result the station s then owner citadel filed an application for a digital uhf fill in translator on channel 47 27 and also sought permission to increase the erp output of its main digital signal on vhf channel 4 from 24.1 kw to 33.7 kw . 28 the fill in translator is located on the station s rock island tower at the telco building based studios in downtown and operates at an erp of 2300 watts . sister stations woi dt in des moines and kcau tv in sioux city iowa as well as former sister klkn in lincoln nebraska all of which returned their digital broadcasts to their former analog channel assignments in the vhf spectrum at the end of the digital transition in 2009 as well are going through a similar process and they have all set up fill in translators themselves . as of september 8 2009 whbf has been operating its main digital signal on vhf channel 4 at an effective radiated power of 33.7 kw . also as of october 22 2009 whbf has been operating its digital fill in translator on uhf channel 47 from its studio location in downtown rock island . news operation edit whbf tv s previous logo used from 2007 until 2015 from 1950 to 2011 whbf unllike most cbs affiliates didn t air a morning newscast . instead a weather forecast was aired during the cbs morning news and the early show time slot now occupied by cbs this morning each weekday morning between 6 00 and 9 00 am . previously whbf had local news updates during the cbs morning news and the early show but later on it