WMWC-TV

{{Infobox television station

| callsign = WMWC-TV

| city = Galesburg, Illinois

| logo =

| branding =

| digital = 8 (VHF)

| virtual = 53

| subchannels =

| affiliations = {{TBN DTV/text|53}}

| founded = July 20, 2007

| airdate = {{start date and age|2012|8|20|p=y}}

| last_airdate =

| location = {{ubl|Galesburg–Moline–Rock Island, Illinois|Davenport–Bettendorf, Iowa}}

| country = United States

| callsign_meaning =

| former_callsigns = WMWC (2012–2013)

| former_channel_numbers =

| owner = Trinity Broadcasting Network

| licensee = Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.

| sister_stations =

| former_affiliations =

| erp = 23 kW

| haat = {{convert|330|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}

| coordinates = {{coord|41|18|44|N|90|22|46|W|type:landmark_scale:2000}}

| facility_id = 81946

| licensing_authority = FCC

| website = {{URL|https://www.tbn.org/}}

}}

WMWC-TV (channel 53) is a religious television station licensed to Galesburg, Illinois, United States, serving the Quad Cities area as an owned-and-operated station of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).[http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=603877 Tower work could take local TV stations off air next week], The Dispatch / The Rock Island Argus August 10, 2012. The station's studios are located on 44th Avenue in Moline, and its transmitter is located in Orion, Illinois.{{Cite web|url=https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/tv-profile/wmwc-tv|title = TV Station WMWC-TV - FCC Public Inspection File}}

History

WMWC originally planned to go on the air on September 1, 2001, as the UPN affiliate for the Quad Cities market. Although Northwest Television owned the station, operations were to have been handled by Second Generation of Iowa, owner of Fox affiliate KFXA in Cedar Rapids.{{cite news|title=Station delayed by petition|newspaper=The Gazette (Cedar Rapids)|date=August 17, 2001|agency=Associated Press}} However, Grant Broadcasting System II, then-owner of KLJB-TV and KGWB-TV, filed a petition to deny the application, and the construction permit was not granted until July 20, 2007—nearly a year after UPN (which affiliated with WBQD-LP in 2002) closed down.

WMWC never signed on an analog signal prior to June 12, 2009. As a result, when it took to the air on August 20, 2012, it became the first television station in the Quad Cities to have signed on as a digital-only station, more than three years after full-power stations ended analog broadcasts. On June 5, 2012, the station was assigned the call letters WMWC.{{ cite web |title=Call Sign History |work=FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database|url=http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/call_hist.pl?Facility_id=81946&callsign=WMWC}} A TBN affiliate from its sign-on, WMWC was acquired from Northwest Television by the network in December 2012.{{cite news|last=Seyler|first=Dave|title=Trinity picks up television stations in two markets|url=http://rbr.com/trinity-picks-up-television-stations-in-two-markets/|access-date=June 16, 2013|newspaper=Television Business Report|date=October 23, 2012}} On June 13, 2013, TBN added the "-TV" suffix to the station's call sign.

Technical information

=Subchannels=

{{TBN DTV|53|digital=1}}[http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WMWC#station RabbitEars TV Query for WMWC]

=Analog-to-digital transition=

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997,{{Cite web|url=http://www.transmitter.com/FCC97115/ILatwch.html|title=6TH R & O DTV Channel Allotments - Illinois}} the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead, at the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, WMWC would have been required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut"). WMWC's original analog allocation was UHF channel 67, though the application was subsequently amended to specify digital operation on channel 53;{{cite web|last=Kreisman|first=Barbara A.|title=Order on Reconsideration|url=http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-256A1.pdf|publisher=Federal Communications Commission|access-date=June 16, 2013|date=February 17, 2010}} however, both channels were removed from the TV bandplan at the end of the digital television transition in the United States. Since WQAD-TV elected to stay on its pre-transition digital UHF channel 38 allocation after the digital transition, Northwest Television, the original owners of WMWC, elected WQAD's former analog channel allocation, VHF channel 8, as the channel on which to broadcast WMWC's post-transition digital signal. As WQAD uses virtual channel 8 because of its former analog allocation, WMWC legally could not use it; the station instead uses virtual channel 53.