KHQA-TV

KHQA-TV

Hannibal, Missouri Quincy, Illinois Keokuk, Iowa United States
City	Hannibal, Missouri
Channels	Digital:22 (UHF) Virtual:7
Branding	KHQA-CBS;KHQA News KHQA-ABC (on DT2)
Programming
Affiliations	7.1:CBS 7.2:ABC for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group (KHQA Licensee,LLC)
History
First air date	September 23, 1953(1953-09-23)
Former call signs	KHMO-TV (CP, 2/18/1953–4/23/1953)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:7 (VHF, 1953–2009) Digital:29 (UHF, 2001–2009), 7 (VHF, 2009–2024)
Former affiliations	All secondary: DuMont(1953–1955) ABC (1960–1969) UPN(1995–2006)
Call signmeaning	Keokuk Hannibal Quincy Area
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	4690
ERP	750 kW
HAAT	271 m (889 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	39°58′22″N91°19′55″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	khqa

KHQA-TV(channel 7) is atelevision stationlicensed toHannibal, Missouri,United States, serving theQuincy, Illinois–Hannibal, Missouri–Keokuk, Iowamarketas an affiliate ofCBSandABC.The station is owned by theSinclair Broadcast Group,and maintains studios on South 36th Street in Quincy; its transmitter is located northeast of the city on Cannonball Road nearI-172.

History

KHQA went on-the-air September 23, 1953. The station was originally owned byLee EnterprisesofDavenport, Iowa,along with theHannibal Courier-Postand WTAD radio (AM 930and FM 99.5, nowWCOY). Despite the common ownership, Lee was unable to use the WTAD-TV calls becauseFederal Communications Commission(FCC) rules of the time did not allow stations to share common base callsigns if they were licensed in different cities. While licensed to Hannibal (hence accounting for the "H" in its callsign, as well as its callsign beginning with a "K" ), its studios have long been located across theMississippi Riverin Quincy; the station signed on after the FCC allowed a station to base its main studio outside its city of license.

Channel 7 received itsDuMonttransmitters on July 27, 1953. They arrived on the same truck as the transmitters for future rivalWGEM-TV(channel 10). The two stations' crews raced to be the first television station in the Tri-State.Ultimately, WGEM-TV won the race, signing on September 4, more than two weeks before channel 7.

KHQA has always been a primary CBS affiliate, although it had a secondary affiliation withDuMontbetween 1953 and 1956. The station shared a secondary ABC affiliation with WGEM-TV in the 1960s. KHQA also aired a number ofUPNprograms during late-night hours between 1995 and 2006.Lee sold theCourier-Postin 1969, but held onto its Quincy broadcasting cluster until December 1986 when the company sold KHQA to A. Richard Benedek, whose television holdings eventually becameBenedek Broadcasting.The radio stations were sold to Eastern Broadcasting. At the time of the sale, KHQA was the smallest station in Lee's TV portfolio.

Benedek declared bankruptcy and sold most of its stations toGray Televisionin 2002, but KHQA was sold to Chelsey Broadcasting; Gray would ultimately acquireQuincy Media,parent company ofWGEM AM–FM–TV, in 2021. KHQA,WHOIinPeoria,andWEYI-TVinSaginaw, Michigan,became the first three stations owned by the newly formedBarrington Broadcastingin April 2004. In early 1998, KHQA left its longtime home in the WesternCatholicUnion building in downtown Quincy. The station moved into a new state-of-the-art facility located on South 36th Street. On August 28, 2007, KHQA announced that a new second digital subchannel would begin carrying ABC for the Tri-States, replacing sister stationKTVO(which had been ABC's affiliate of record in the Quincy market). This was launched on September 30.

On February 28, 2013, Barrington announced that it would exit from broadcasting and sell off its entire group, including KHQA-TV, toSinclair Broadcast Group.The sale was completed on November 25.

On February 26, 2020, it was revealed that KHQA would undergo the same transition as Sinclair sister stationsWNWO-TVinToledo, Ohio,andWOLF-TVinScranton, Pennsylvania,having their newscasts hubbed by another station. News management, production, and anchors would be moved toWICDinChampaign, Illinois.Weather and some reporters would be allowed to stay local, with an unspecified number of other employees allowed to move to Champaign. These changes went into effect later in the year.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of KHQA-TV

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
7.1	1080i	16:9	CBS	CBS
7.2	720p		ABC	ABC
7.3	480i		Comet	Comet
7.4			TBD	TBD

Before KHQA-DT2 started, sister stationKTVOinKirksville, Missourihad served as the default analog ABC affiliate for the area. KTVO launched a CBS-affiliated second digital subchannel on May 15, 2010 effectively marking the network's return to that station after a 36-year absence. KHQA-DT1 was eventually upgraded from720pinto1080i.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KHQA-TV shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionUHFchannel 29 to VHF channel 7.

External links

• Official website