WHBF-TV

WHBF-TV
Rock Island - Moline, Illinois - Davenport - Bettendorf, Iowa
Branding	CBS 4 RTN 4 (on DT2)
Slogan	News For The Quad Cities (news) CBS For The Quad Cities (general)
Channels	Digital: 4 (VHF)
Subchannels	4.1 CBS 4.2 RTN
Translators	47 (UHF) Rock Island CP & STA
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Citadel Communications (Coronet Communications Company)
Founded	July 1, 1950
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)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 4 (1950–2009) Digital: 58 (2003–2009)
Former affiliations	ABC (secondary, 1950-1963) DuMont (secondary, 1950-1956)
Transmitter Power	24.1 kW 33.7 kW (Application for STA)
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
Website	www.whbf.com

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 (comprising Rock Island and Moline, Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa). WHBF-TV is owned by Citadel Communications (no relation to the Citadel Broadcasting Corporation), with studios located in the Telco Building in downtown Rock Island, and transmitter located in Bettendorf.

History

WHBF-TV signed on the air on July 1, 1950. It is the fifth-oldest surviving station in Illinois and the oldest outside Chicago. 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) until 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, and the radio stations moved out of the Telco Building. Citadel bought it in the mid-1990s.

On January 29, 2007, WHBF-TV rebranded the station as CBS4. It also adopted a version of the circle logo. Coronet's other stations adopted a similar branding identity.

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. This allows the station to alert the Quad Cities about any potential weather hazards.

On Monday December 1, 2008, WHBF-TV launched an affiliation with Retro Television Network on its DT2 subchannel. Prior to this date, the station had been simulcasting its main programming in SDTV on the DT2 subchannel.

Ratings

WHBF was a solid-runner-up to rival WOC-TV until the mid-1970s, when it surged to first place. It lost the lead to WOC-TV around 1980. The station was able to hold up the number 2 spot for the first part of the 80's, until WQAD took that spot. Since then, WHBF has clearly been the 3rd ranked station in the Quad Cities market. WHBF has had a hard time keeping on-air talent. Jay Kidwell, CBS4's Sports Director, has currently been at the station the longest, since 2001. Jay is known for his energetic personality and is becoming the Quad Cities' favorite for local sports coverage.

Digital television

WHBF-DT broadcasts on digital channel 4.

Digital channels

At 6:01am on Friday, June 12, 2009, WHBF-TV terminated its analog signal and moved its digital signal to channel 4.^[2][3] 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-TV in Des Moines, Iowa and ABC O&O station WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

HDTV

WHBF broadcasts all CBS Network programs in High Definition which are available from the network in HDTV.

Also, two Syndicated programs on WHBF's schedule are broadcast in HDTV. One of them is Entertainment Tonight, which is produced and distributed by CBS Television Distribution; a corporate sibling of the CBS Television Network under the CBS Corporation, including both the weeknight version at 6:30pm and the hour-long weekend version which airs locally on Sunday nights at 10:35 pm. The other syndicated program to be broadcast in HD is the all new "The Dr. Oz Show" by Sony Television Production, which premiered on Monday September 14, 2009, and is broadcast locally every weekday afternoon at 4:00 pm.

Post-Transition Digital Signal Issues

WHBF-TV, being broadcast as it is in digital on a low VHF channel assignment, has encountered numerous reception problems, and received several complaints in its first two months of being broadcast digitally on VHF channel 4. As a result, the station's owner has filed an application for a digital UHF fill-in translator on channel 47 ^[4] and has also sought permission for a Special Temporary Authority permit to increase the ERP output of its main digital signal on VHF channel 4 to 33.7 kW while the fill-in translator is being constructed.^[5] The fill-in translator would be located on the station's Rock Island tower at the telco building-based studios in downtown. Sister stations WOI-DT in Des Moines and KCAU-TV in Sioux City are going through a similar process.

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

• Action News (1970s-1985)
• 4 News (1985-1990)
• Channel 4 News (1990-2002)
• Channel 4 Eyewitness News (2002-2007)
• CBS 4 News (2007-present)

Station Slogans

• Get Ready for Channel 4 (1990-1991; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
• News For The Quad Cities (news)/CBS For The Quad Cities (general; 2007-present)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

References

1. ^ "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956, http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_111056-1 
2. ^ http://www.whbf.com/Global/story.asp?S=10446353
3. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
4. ^ https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101326660&formid=346&fac_num=13950
5. ^ https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101326657&formid=911&fac_num=13950

External links

• WHBF-TV website
• WHBF-DT2 "RTN 4"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WHBF-TV
• The Unofficial Grandpa Happy Website