WQAD-TV
Encyclopedia
WQAD-TV is the ABC
-affiliated television station
for the Quad Cities
area of West-Central Illinois
and Eastern Iowa
that is licensed to Moline, Illinois
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 38 from a transmitter in Orion, Illinois.
Owned by Local TV
, the station operates low-powered MyNetworkTV
affiliate WBQD-LP
(owned by Four Seasons Broadcasting) through a local marketing agreement
(LMA) and the two share studios on Park 16th Street in Moline. WBQD-LP is operated by WQAD out of the WQAD facilities in Moline under a technical services and local marketing agreement between WQAD and the owners of WBQD-LP. All WBQD programming originates from the WQAD studios. Program logs and programming decisions are made by Four Seasons Peoria, the FCC licensee of WBQD-LP. Syndicated
programming on WQAD includes: Dr. Phil
, The Ellen DeGeneres Show
, and Live with Regis and Kelly
.
channel 14. This was created in 2001 and featured its "Exclusive Live Triple Doppler" and weather updates every fifteen minutes. Since then, the station has added the five and fourteen day outlook with the latest weather around the region with an "L Bar". As of May 2009, the "Quad Cities Weather Channel" had been powered by The Local AccuWeather Channel
. As of August 13, 2007, its main competitor was the "KWQC 24-7 Weather Channel" which is offered by rival NBC
affiliate KWQC-TV
.
On March 5, 2011, WQAD discontinued the "Quad Cities Weather Channel" and digital channel 8.2 became affiliated with Antenna TV
; a network which broadcasts classic television programming and feature films. WQAD's subchannel affiliation with Antenna TV is the second classic TV service available in the Quad Cities with the subchannel affiliation of WHBF-TV
with Retro Television Network
being the first. Hence, "WQAD-ATV" and "RTV 4" are now competitors against each other.
On WQAD-DT3 is a standard definition
digital signal of WBQD-LP
since that channel does not have one of its own due to its low-powered status.
(now WHOI
on channel 19) delayed sign-on for two years. Before WQAD signed-on, ABC programming had been split between WOC-TV (now KWQC-TV
) and WHBF-TV
. From day one, WQAD aired ABC programming in color. Cowles Communications
of Des Moines, Iowa
purchased WQAD in 1978.
In 1985, the Cowles family sold off their various media interests with WQAD going to The New York Times Company
. On May 7, 2007, Local TV (a subsidiary of Oak Hill Capital
) officially took over the Times' nine television stations including WQAD. At 3:59 in the morning on June 12, 2009
, WQAD shut off its analog signal on channel 8 continuing digital broadcasts on its pre-transition channel number 38 using PSIP
to display on digital televisions as virtual channel
8. Also at the same time, the "WQAD-TV" call sign was transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 8 to digital channel 38 and the "WQAD-DT" calls were discontinued.
WQAD was branded in the early-1980s as "Active 8, Your 24 hour News Source" or "The Best News Around" and did hourly news cut-ins even during the overnight hours. WQAD was the first television station in the Quad Cities to be on the air 24 hours a day in the late-1980s and early-1990s. For awhile, it was the only 24-hour station in the Quad Cities as local competitors KWQC and KLJB continued with their nightly sign-off and daily sign-on rituals either part of the time or all the time until the fall of 1997 when both channels finally followed suit and launched 24-hour schedules as well. Local PBS
member station WQPT-TV
finally became a 24-hour station in mid-August 2010. Competitor WHBF is now the only remaining television station in the Quad Cities market to sign-off late at night, leaving its transmitter on all night and airing a test pattern
with station identification
superimposed over the pattern until sign-on.
for two tours of reporting on local troops. He was long the staple on the anchor desk and was known for his "On The Road" series of reports and for his longtime role as the emcee of the station's annual Muscular Dystrophy Association
telethons from 1971 to 1998. He died of a heart attack while shoveling his sidewalk on January 2, 1999.
WQAD was one of the organizations which founded the Quad City Open Golf Tournament in 1971. The PGA
tournament is now called the John Deere Classic
and has been the topic of special broadcasts on the television station for more than 35 years. Quad-Cities baby boomers fondly remember WQAD's weekly midnight Chuck Acri Creature Feature showing early Creature Features
films including science fiction
and monster movie
s. WQAD's early days are also remembered for being the local outlet for Romper Room
and its host Miss Peggy. For much of the time since 1988, this station has carried the syndicated program Live with Regis and Kelly weekday mornings at 9 which is produced by WABC-TV
in New York City
and distributed nationally by that channel's corporate sibling Disney-ABC Domestic Television formerly known as Buena Vista Television.
s including Loving
, The City, and the first few months of Port Charles
. It also frequently pre-empted ABC's morning talk shows such as Mike and Maty
, which had previously occupied the same time slot on ABC that is now occupied by The View, in favor of higher rated syndicated programming. Also from August 1997 until September 1999, WQAD even pre-empted the first two seasons of The View choosing instead to air The People's Court
during the 10 o'clock time slot. WQAD finally added The View to its weekday morning lineup in September 1999.
Today, WQAD rarely ever pre-empts any programming from ABC or any of its local or syndicated programming. The only notable exception to this is the traditional Muscular Dystrophy Association
telethon which begins the Sunday night before Labor Day
at 10:35 after the 10 o'clock newscast and ends at 6 p.m. on Labor Day. In the process, all regularly scheduled programming from its Sunday late-night and overnight lineup of syndicated programming to the Labor-Day Monday editions of World News Now
, America This Morning, and Good Morning America
and all regularly scheduled daytime network and syndicated programming all the way up to 6 p.m. including ABC World News are pre-empted by WQAD in favor of the telethon.
However, the Labor Day editions of the soap opera
s on ABC are aired during the late-night and overnight hours of Monday night with All My Children
airing at 12:35 followed by One Life to Live
at 1:35 and General Hospital
at 2:35 with the World News Now being joined in progress at 3:35. Also, local newscasts Good Morning Quad Cities, News 8 at 11, and News 8 at 5 are pre-empted on Labor Day as the station's news anchors are instead emceeing the local portions of the MDA telethon.
in Des Moines. WQAD also uses WHO's chopper usually during severe weather or flooding. WQAD is also an affiliate with CNN
and uses footage from the network on WQAD News 8 at 6:30. On September 4, 2007, its weeknight 6 o'clock newscast started re-airing on WBQD at 9. Its hour long midday newscast, News 8 at 11, debuted on September 22, 2008 and anchored by the weekday morning team. The station had dropped its midday newscast called Newsday in 1996. WQAD is not the only station to have a midday broadcast as KWQC has an hour newscast at noon.
On August 6, 2010, it was announced that this station would enter into a news share agreement with Fox affiliate KLJB. This resulted in a nightly prime time broadcast at 9 for a half-hour on that channel on September 6. Previously, KLJB had its prime time broadcasts produced by the Independent News Network
which is based in Davenport. WQAD has since dropped the re-airing of the 6 o'clock show at 9 on WBQD.
On September 12, 2011, WQAD became the last major news operation in the Quad Cities market to upgrade its newscasts to high definition
. The KLJB newscasts were included in the upgrade.
Storm Team 8
Sports team
Reporters
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for the Quad Cities
Quad Cities
The Quad Cities is a group of five cities straddling the Mississippi River on the Iowa–Illinois boundary. These cities, Davenport and Bettendorf and Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline , are the center of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area, which, as of 2010, had an estimated population of...
area of West-Central Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
and Eastern Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
that is licensed to Moline, Illinois
Moline, Illinois
Moline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 45,792 in 2010. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities has a population of...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 38 from a transmitter in Orion, Illinois.
Owned by Local TV
Local TV
Local TV LLC is a limited liability corporation, owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners , which operates 18 local network-affiliated television stations in the United States.-History:...
, the station operates low-powered MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate WBQD-LP
WBQD-LP
WBQD-LP is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Quad Cities area of Eastern Iowa and West-Central Illinois that is licensed to Davenport, Iowa. It broadcasts a low-powered analog signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter on 70th Street next to Black Hawk College near the Poplar...
(owned by Four Seasons Broadcasting) through a local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
(LMA) and the two share studios on Park 16th Street in Moline. WBQD-LP is operated by WQAD out of the WQAD facilities in Moline under a technical services and local marketing agreement between WQAD and the owners of WBQD-LP. All WBQD programming originates from the WQAD studios. Program logs and programming decisions are made by Four Seasons Peoria, the FCC licensee of WBQD-LP. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on WQAD includes: Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil (TV series)
Dr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002...
, The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBC Universal. For its first five seasons, the show...
, and Live with Regis and Kelly
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
.
Digital programming
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 MediacomMediacom
Mediacom is a cable television and communications provider in the United States. Founded in July 1995, it serves primarily smaller markets in the Midwest and Southern United States. Formerly a publicly traded firm, it went private in a $600.0 million transaction in March 2011 and is, as of 2011,...
channel 14. This was created in 2001 and featured its "Exclusive Live Triple Doppler" and weather updates every fifteen minutes. Since then, the station has added the five and fourteen day outlook with the latest weather around the region with an "L Bar". As of May 2009, the "Quad Cities Weather Channel" had been powered by The Local AccuWeather Channel
The Local AccuWeather Channel
The Local AccuWeather Channel is a 24-hour, weather-oriented, commercially sponsored broadcast and cable television network in the United States owned and operated by AccuWeather, Inc., which is headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania....
. As of August 13, 2007, its main competitor was the "KWQC 24-7 Weather Channel" which is offered by rival NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate KWQC-TV
KWQC-TV
KWQC-TV, virtual channel 6 , is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Quad Cities television market . It is licensed to Davenport and is owned by Young Broadcasting...
.
On March 5, 2011, WQAD discontinued the "Quad Cities Weather Channel" and digital channel 8.2 became affiliated with Antenna TV
Antenna TV
Antenna TV is an American digital broadcast television network, primarily featuring classic television series from the 1950s to the 1990s, along with some feature films. It is owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company...
; a network which broadcasts classic television programming and feature films. WQAD's subchannel affiliation with Antenna TV is the second classic TV service available in the Quad Cities with the subchannel affiliation of WHBF-TV
WHBF-TV
WHBF-TV, channel 4, is a television station licensed to Rock Island, Illinois, which serves as the CBS affiliate for the Quad Cities television market...
with Retro Television Network
Retro Television Network
The Retro Television Network is a system of television stations that airs classic television shows as well as more recently produced programs...
being the first. Hence, "WQAD-ATV" and "RTV 4" are now competitors against each other.
On WQAD-DT3 is a standard definition
Standard-definition television
Sorete-definition television is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either enhanced-definition television or high-definition television . The term is usually used in reference to digital television, in particular when broadcasting at the same resolution as...
digital signal of WBQD-LP
WBQD-LP
WBQD-LP is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Quad Cities area of Eastern Iowa and West-Central Illinois that is licensed to Davenport, Iowa. It broadcasts a low-powered analog signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter on 70th Street next to Black Hawk College near the Poplar...
since that channel does not have one of its own due to its low-powered status.
| Channel | Video Display resolution The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection... |
Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.1 | 720p 720p 720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan... |
16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ... |
WQAD-HD | Main WQAD programming / ABC American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948... |
| 8.2 | 480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC... |
4:3 | WQADATV | Antenna TV Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital broadcast television network, primarily featuring classic television series from the 1950s to the 1990s, along with some feature films. It is owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company... |
| 8.3 | WBQD-LP WBQD-LP WBQD-LP is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Quad Cities area of Eastern Iowa and West-Central Illinois that is licensed to Davenport, Iowa. It broadcasts a low-powered analog signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter on 70th Street next to Black Hawk College near the Poplar... |
Digital simulcast of WBQD-LP | ||
History
WQAD-TV signed-on for the first time on August 1, 1963. It was owned by the Moline Television Corporation, a group of 24 local investors. They had actually won the license in 1961. However, concerns about interference with WIRL-TV in PeoriaPeoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
(now WHOI
WHOI
WHOI may refer to:* Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a research and graduate degree educational institute in Massachusetts* WHOI , a television station licensed to Peoria, Illinois, United States...
on channel 19) delayed sign-on for two years. Before WQAD signed-on, ABC programming had been split between WOC-TV (now KWQC-TV
KWQC-TV
KWQC-TV, virtual channel 6 , is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Quad Cities television market . It is licensed to Davenport and is owned by Young Broadcasting...
) and WHBF-TV
WHBF-TV
WHBF-TV, channel 4, is a television station licensed to Rock Island, Illinois, which serves as the CBS affiliate for the Quad Cities television market...
. From day one, WQAD aired ABC programming in color. Cowles Communications
Cowles Media Company
Cowles Media Company was a newspaper, magazine and information publishing company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. The company operated Cowles Business Media, Cowles Creative Publishing and Cowles Enthusiast Media units. The McClatchy Company purchased Cowles Media in 1998...
of Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
purchased WQAD in 1978.
In 1985, the Cowles family sold off their various media interests with WQAD going to The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company is an American media company best known as the publisher of its namesake, The New York Times. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. has served as Chairman of the Board since 1997. It is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City....
. On May 7, 2007, Local TV (a subsidiary of Oak Hill Capital
Oak Hill Capital
Oak Hill Capital Partners is a private equity firm headquartered in New York, New York with more than $7 billion of committed capital from leading entrepreneurs, endowments, foundations, corporations, pension funds and global financial institutions...
) officially took over the Times' nine television stations including WQAD. At 3:59 in the morning on June 12, 2009
DTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
, WQAD shut off its analog signal on channel 8 continuing digital broadcasts on its pre-transition channel number 38 using PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
to display on digital televisions as virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
8. Also at the same time, the "WQAD-TV" call sign was transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 8 to digital channel 38 and the "WQAD-DT" calls were discontinued.
WQAD was branded in the early-1980s as "Active 8, Your 24 hour News Source" or "The Best News Around" and did hourly news cut-ins even during the overnight hours. WQAD was the first television station in the Quad Cities to be on the air 24 hours a day in the late-1980s and early-1990s. For awhile, it was the only 24-hour station in the Quad Cities as local competitors KWQC and KLJB continued with their nightly sign-off and daily sign-on rituals either part of the time or all the time until the fall of 1997 when both channels finally followed suit and launched 24-hour schedules as well. Local PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
member station WQPT-TV
WQPT-TV
WQPT-TV is the PBS member station for the Quad Cities region of northwestern Illinois and eastern Iowa, broadcasting on digital channel 23 . It is owned by Western Illinois University-Quad Cities, which is located in Moline, Illinois; where the station is licensed...
finally became a 24-hour station in mid-August 2010. Competitor WHBF is now the only remaining television station in the Quad Cities market to sign-off late at night, leaving its transmitter on all night and airing a test pattern
SMPTE color bars
The SMPTE color bars are a type of television test pattern, and is most commonly used in countries where the NTSC video standard is dominant, such as those in North America. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers refers to this test pattern as Engineering Guideline EG 1-1990...
with station identification
Station identification
Station identification is the practice of radio or television stations or networks identifying themselves on air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name...
superimposed over the pattern until sign-on.
Programming
WQAD's early years are closely linked to the station's prominent anchor/reporter, Jim King. He was the station's main anchorman from the day the station first signed-on until 1998 and doubling as News Director for most of that time. His sign-off at the end of his newscasts was always "Thank you for inviting us into your home." King took cameras and gear to VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
for two tours of reporting on local troops. He was long the staple on the anchor desk and was known for his "On The Road" series of reports and for his longtime role as the emcee of the station's annual Muscular Dystrophy Association
Muscular Dystrophy Association
The Muscular Dystrophy Association is an American organization which combats muscular dystrophy and diseases of the nervous system and muscular system in general by funding research, providing medical and community services, and educating health professionals and the general public...
telethons from 1971 to 1998. He died of a heart attack while shoveling his sidewalk on January 2, 1999.
WQAD was one of the organizations which founded the Quad City Open Golf Tournament in 1971. The PGA
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
tournament is now called the John Deere Classic
John Deere Classic
The John Deere Classic is an American professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in July, the week before the British Open, at the TPC at Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois....
and has been the topic of special broadcasts on the television station for more than 35 years. Quad-Cities baby boomers fondly remember WQAD's weekly midnight Chuck Acri Creature Feature showing early Creature Features
Creature Features
Creature Features was a generic title for a genre of horror TV format shows broadcast on local U.S. television stations throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s...
films including science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and monster movie
Monster movie
Monster movie is a name commonly given to movies, which centre on the struggle between human beings and one or more monsters...
s. WQAD's early days are also remembered for being the local outlet for Romper Room
Romper Room
Romper Room is a children's television series that ran in the United States from 1953 to 1994 as well as at various times in Australia, Canada, Japan, Puerto Rico, New Zealand and the United Kingdom...
and its host Miss Peggy. For much of the time since 1988, this station has carried the syndicated program Live with Regis and Kelly weekday mornings at 9 which is produced by WABC-TV
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and distributed nationally by that channel's corporate sibling Disney-ABC Domestic Television formerly known as Buena Vista Television.
Pre-emptions
During the 1980s and 1990s, WQAD pre-empted some of ABC's lower-rated daytime programing. It did not air low-rated soap operaSoap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s including Loving
Loving (TV series)
Caden Grant Carlton loves Mika Ayako Ryan more.Loving is an American television soap opera which aired on ABC's daytime lineup from June 26, 1983 to November 10, 1995 for 3,169 episodes...
, The City, and the first few months of Port Charles
Port Charles
Port Charles was a daytime soap opera which aired on ABC from June 2, 1997 to October 3, 2003. It is a spin-off of the serial General Hospital, which has been running since 1963 and takes place in the fictional city of Port Charles, New York...
. It also frequently pre-empted ABC's morning talk shows such as Mike and Maty
Mike and Maty
Mike and Maty was a daytime talk show that aired on ABC from April 11, 1994, to June 7, 1996. It was aired weekdays at 11:00 a.m. and was a 60-minute show. ABC aired it as a replacement for The Home Show, a daytime/nighttime informational talk show that aired on ABC from 1988 to 1994.It ran for a...
, which had previously occupied the same time slot on ABC that is now occupied by The View, in favor of higher rated syndicated programming. Also from August 1997 until September 1999, WQAD even pre-empted the first two seasons of The View choosing instead to air The People's Court
The People's Court
The People's Court is a US television court show in which small claims court cases are heard, though what is shown is actually a binding arbitration....
during the 10 o'clock time slot. WQAD finally added The View to its weekday morning lineup in September 1999.
Today, WQAD rarely ever pre-empts any programming from ABC or any of its local or syndicated programming. The only notable exception to this is the traditional Muscular Dystrophy Association
Muscular Dystrophy Association
The Muscular Dystrophy Association is an American organization which combats muscular dystrophy and diseases of the nervous system and muscular system in general by funding research, providing medical and community services, and educating health professionals and the general public...
telethon which begins the Sunday night before Labor Day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
at 10:35 after the 10 o'clock newscast and ends at 6 p.m. on Labor Day. In the process, all regularly scheduled programming from its Sunday late-night and overnight lineup of syndicated programming to the Labor-Day Monday editions of World News Now
World News Now
World News Now is an American overnight news program broadcast on American Broadcasting Company's television network. Its tone is often lighthearted, irreverent and humorous...
, America This Morning, and Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
and all regularly scheduled daytime network and syndicated programming all the way up to 6 p.m. including ABC World News are pre-empted by WQAD in favor of the telethon.
However, the Labor Day editions of the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s on ABC are aired during the late-night and overnight hours of Monday night with All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
airing at 12:35 followed by One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
at 1:35 and General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
at 2:35 with the World News Now being joined in progress at 3:35. Also, local newscasts Good Morning Quad Cities, News 8 at 11, and News 8 at 5 are pre-empted on Labor Day as the station's news anchors are instead emceeing the local portions of the MDA telethon.
News operation
The station began news operations from the first day it signed on-the-air in 1963. At times, it shares news stories with sister station WHO-TVWHO-TV
WHO-DT is a television station that broadcasts on Channel 13 in Des Moines, Iowa. It is affiliated with the NBC television network and serves most of central Iowa. The station transmits from the WOI Tower in Alleman, Iowa, which is actually owned by WHO-DT's owners. WHO-DT brands itself as WHO-HD...
in Des Moines. WQAD also uses WHO's chopper usually during severe weather or flooding. WQAD is also an affiliate with CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
and uses footage from the network on WQAD News 8 at 6:30. On September 4, 2007, its weeknight 6 o'clock newscast started re-airing on WBQD at 9. Its hour long midday newscast, News 8 at 11, debuted on September 22, 2008 and anchored by the weekday morning team. The station had dropped its midday newscast called Newsday in 1996. WQAD is not the only station to have a midday broadcast as KWQC has an hour newscast at noon.
On August 6, 2010, it was announced that this station would enter into a news share agreement with Fox affiliate KLJB. This resulted in a nightly prime time broadcast at 9 for a half-hour on that channel on September 6. Previously, KLJB had its prime time broadcasts produced by the Independent News Network
Independent News Network
For the consortium of non-profit investigative news organizations, see .The Independent News Network, also known as INN, is a television news service based in Davenport, Iowa. It syndicates "localized" news programs for television stations across the country with little budget for news...
which is based in Davenport. WQAD has since dropped the re-airing of the 6 o'clock show at 9 on WBQD.
On September 12, 2011, WQAD became the last major news operation in the Quad Cities market to upgrade its newscasts to high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
. The KLJB newscasts were included in the upgrade.
Newscast titles
- News Scope 8 (1966-1975)
- Eyewitness News (1975-1978)
- Active 8 (1978-1994)
- NewsChannel 8 (1994-2009)
- News 8 (2009-present)
Station slogans
- "The Most Complete Coverage of the Two-State Area" (1984-1985)
- "The Best News of All" (1985-1992)
- "Your 24-Hour News Source" (1992-1997)
- "Live. Local. Latebreaking." (1997-2008, primary; 2009-present, secondary)
- "The Quad Cities' News Leader" (2009-present)
Current on-air talent
Anchors- Rae Chelle Davis - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
- Jason Fechner - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
- Matt Hammill - weeknights at 6:30 p.m.; also senior reporter
- Kim Johnson - weeknights at 9 p.m. (on KLJB); also weeknight reporter
- Jim Mertens - weekday mornings and 11 a.m.; also WQPT public affairs host, and heard on KUULKUULKUUL is a radio station licensed to East Moline, Illinois, whose format is oldies. The station's frequency is 101.3 MHz, and broadcasts at a power of 50 kW. Its transmitter is located in Port Byron, Illinois....
-FM 101.3 - Julie Sisk - weekday mornings and 11 a.m.; also health reporter
- Rebecca Smith - weekend evenings; also weeknight reporter
- Chris Williams - weeknights at 9 p.m. (on KLJB); also investigative and consumer reporter
Storm Team 8
- James Zahara (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Certified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast Meteorologist is a rating for meteorologists given by the American Meteorological Society.The Certified Broadcast Meteorologist program was established to raise the professional standard in broadcast meteorology and encourage a broader range of scientific understanding,...
Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 6:30 and 9 p.m. (on KLJB) - Cassie Heiter - meteorologist; Wednesday-Fridays at 11 a.m. and weekend evenings
- Anthony Peoples (NWANational Weather AssociationThe National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings and Monday-Tuesdays at 11 a.m. - Terry Swails (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
Sports team
- Matt Randazzo - Sports Director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m., and 9 p.m. (on KLJB)
- Kory Kuffler - Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, weekends at 10 p.m., and 9 p.m. (on KLJB)
Reporters
- John David - general assignment reporter
- Kristy Merganthal - weekday morning reporter
- Chris Minor - general assignment reporter
- Angie Mitchum- general assignment reporter
- Thom White - 6:30 p.m. entertainment reporter; also producer