WMWC-TV (channel 53) is areligious television station licensed toGalesburg, Illinois, United States, serving theQuad Cities area as anowned-and-operated station of theTrinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).^[2] The station's studios are located on 44th Avenue inMoline, and its transmitter is located inOrion, Illinois.^[3]

WMWC originally planned to go on the air on September 1, 2001, as theUPN affiliate for the Quad Cities market. Although Northwest Television owned the station, operations were to have been handled by Second Generation of Iowa, owner ofFox affiliateKFXA inCedar Rapids.^[4] However,Grant Broadcasting System II, then-owner ofKLJB-TV andKGWB-TV, filed a petition to deny the application,^[4] and the construction permit was not granted until July 20, 2007—nearly a year after UPN (which affiliated withWBQD-LP in 2002) closed down.^[5]

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.^[6] A TBN affiliate from its sign-on, WMWC was acquired from Northwest Television by the network in December 2012.^[7] On June 13, 2013, TBN added the "-TV" suffix to the station's call sign.^[6]

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

^[8]

Because it was granted an originalconstruction permit after theFCC finalized theDTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997,^[9] the station did not receive a companion channel for a digitaltelevision 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 wasUHF channel 67, though the application was subsequently amended to specify digital operation on channel 53;^[5] however, both channels were removed from the TVbandplan at the end of thedigital television transition in the United States. SinceWQAD-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 usesvirtual channel 8 because of its former analog allocation, WMWC legally could not use it; the station instead uses virtual channel 53.

• WBQD-LP, thelow power television station which ultimately ended up with theUPN affiliation for the Quad Cities market, and later became the area'sMyNetworkTV affiliate; station is nowdefunct
• WQAD-DT3, the thirddigital subchannel of WQAD-TV which was previously asimulcast of WBQD-LP and is now theMyNetworkTV affiliate for the Quad Cities television market
• WQAD-TV, theABC affiliate for the Quad Cities television market and the parent station of WQAD-DT3; also the formeranalog occupant of theVHF channel 8 allocation in the Quad Cities area

• Official website

• 2012 establishments in Illinois
• Merit TV affiliates
• Religious television stations in Illinois
• Television channels and stations established in 2012
• Television stations in the Quad Cities
• Trinity Broadcasting Network stations

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