KGCW (TV)

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KGCW
Burlington/Davenport, Iowa/ Rock Island/Moline, Illinois
Branding	Quad Cities CW
Channels	Digital: 41 (UHF)
Subchannels	(see article)
Owner	Grant Broadcasting System II, Inc. (Burlington Television Acquisition Licensing, LLC)
First air date	January 1988
Call letters’ meaning	Grant CW
Sister station(s)	KLJB
Former callsigns	KJMH (1988-2001) KGWB-TV (2001-2006)
Former channel number(s)	26 Analog (1988-2009)
Former affiliations	Fox (1988-2001) The WB (2001-2006)
Transmitter Power	500 kW
Height	388 m
Facility ID	7841
Transmitter Coordinates	41°8′8″N 90°48′30″W / 41.13556°N 90.80833°W / 41.13556; -90.80833
Website	www.kgcwtv.com

KGCW is a CW affiliate for the Quad Cities. The station, which is owned by Grant Broadcasting, is a sister station to the area's Fox affiliate, KLJB. It broadcasts a digital signal on UHF Channel 41 and is licensed to Burlington, Iowa. Its analog channel 26 transmitter, which signed off permanently on February 17, 2009, is located in Burlington and its digital transmitter is located near Aledo, Illinois, half-way in between Burlington and the Quad Cities.

KGCW's full-powered analog signal failed to cover the Quad Cities adequately, as low-powered MyNetworkTV affiliate WBQD-LP also broadcasts on channel 26, and the effective radiated power of KGCW's analog signal was only 200 kilowatts at a height of only 96 meters, giving the analog station less coverage than most full power UHF TV stations in the United States. However, since the launch of the WB affiliation in 2001 as KGWB, this has been made up by the station being available on cable systems in the area via a fiber optic link as well as over the air in standard definition on KLJB's DT2 subchannel.

[edit] Digital television

KGCW-DT broadcasts on digital channel 41.

At noon on Tuesday February 17, 2009, KGCW terminated its analog signal on channel 26 and continued digital broadcasts on channel 41.^[1] The digital signal on UHF channel 41 (which uses PSIP to display KGCW's virtual channel as 26) had been on the air since November 2008. The analog signal had broadcast at an effective radiated power of 200 kilowatts at a height of 96 meters from a tower on Wineguard Drive in Burlington. The remainder of the television stations in the Quad Cities Market terminated their analog signals on the new analog shutoff date of Friday June 12, 2009.

[edit] History

The former KGWB logo, used from 2001 until 2006, when they became KGCW-TV. Due to its ownership, the logo shares a style with the former WPSG logo (WPSG was once owned by Grant) and sister KLJB's logo.

KGCW signed on the air in 1988 as KJMH, a Fox affiliate serving the southern portion of the Quad Cities market. However, KJMH suffered interference and duplication from the area's primary Fox affiliate, KLJB-TV. Finally, in 1996, KJMH became a full-time satellite of KLJB. In 2001, KJMH broke off and became The WB affiliate for the Quad Cities, adopting the KGWB-TV call sign. In 2006, the station was picked as The CW Television Network affiliate for the area. To reflect this affiliation, KGWB changed its call letters to KGCW-TV on June 30, 2006.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KGCW
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KGCW-TV