WBQT
Encyclopedia
"WBQT" is the CW
-affiliated television station
for the Pioneer Valley
of Western Massachusetts
. The call letters are fictional since it is a cable-exclusive station and part of The CW Plus
which is a special CW feed airing on cable and/or over-the-air on a digital signal. The station does not have an actual owner and has a signal provided to cable companies through a closed circuit satellite feed. WBQT can be seen on Charter
channel 13 and Comcast
channel 16. Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone
, it offers the nationally syndicated
morning show The Daily Buzz
on weekday mornings from 6 until 9.
and its cable-only affiliates. As a WB 100+ station, it was one of the few in the group that was not aligned with an established over-the-air station in the market
. This practice currently continues with the station being a CW affiliate as part of The CW Plus. WBQT did not initially replace out-of-market WB affiliates (such as WPIX
from New York City
, WBNE
from Hartford
, and WLVI-TV
from Boston
) on local cable systems.
In 1999, WBQT was taken off AT&T Broadband
systems serving the majority of the Springfield/Holyoke
market. When Comcast took over AT&T's cable system in 2001, the company began a push to expand WBQT's reach. In late-2001, it replaced out-of-market WB affiliates on most systems with near total replacement taking place by 2003. Throughout the station's affiliation with The WB, it was known on-air as "Pioneer Valley's WB 16" (named after its channel location) and had its own logo.
announced the two networks would shut down and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents CBS
(the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros.
unit of Time Warner
. During months of confusion, it was unknown what would happen to WBQT. Some WB 100+ stations in the United States
were being shut down as a result of over-the-air stations adding The CW as a secondary affiliation or on a new digital subchannel
. There was no over-the-air UPN affiliate in the Springfield/Holyoke market that would have most likely taken the CW affiliation as a result of WBQT being cable exclusive. By then, WBNE (now WCTX) had been serving the Pioneer Valley as the default UPN affiliate on cable.
There was an early-2006 sign-on of low-powered W28CT broadcasting from the summit of the old Mount Tom Ski Area
in Holyoke. After a short period of time, the station's call letters were changed to WXCW-CA. In August 2006, the call letters changed again to WFXQ-CA. The station (now WFXQ-CD) is currently a full-time repeater of NBC
affiliate WWLP
and co-owned by the LIN TV Corporation.
In late-Summer 2006, it was announced WBQT would become Springfield's CW affiliate. It was to be a part of The CW Plus, a similar operation to The WB 100+. The station began airing promotions of the new network with WBQT's branding becoming "Pioneer Valley CW". There was also a new CW logo given to the station. The official merge of The WB and UPN occurred on September 18. By this point, the new CW logo was airing on all on-air promos and WBQT started using its new branding. As a result of joining The CW, a new web address was created for the station. As a WB affiliate, it did not have a website. The new web address is formatted in a generic website for CW Plus stations featuring a programming grid with WBQT's updated logo being present.
Although its two cable channel locations are seen in the logo, the station does not identify them as part of its branding. The CW remains the only network not offered over-the-air in Springfield.
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
-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 Pioneer Valley
Pioneer Valley
The Pioneer Valley is the colloquial name for the U.S. Commonwealth of Massachusetts's portion of the Connecticut River Valley. The Pioneer Valley consists of three counties in Massachusetts which collectively feature much of New England's most fertile farmland...
of Western Massachusetts
Western Massachusetts
Western Massachusetts is a loosely defined geographical region of the U.S. state of Massachusetts which contains the Berkshires, the Pioneer Valley, and some or all of the Swift River Valley. The region is always considered to include Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden counties, and the...
. The call letters are fictional since it is a cable-exclusive station and part of The CW Plus
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a group of primarily digital sub-channels, analog, and non-broadcast cable television outlets for the CW Television Network, for markets below the top 99 television media markets in the United States....
which is a special CW feed airing on cable and/or over-the-air on a digital signal. The station does not have an actual owner and has a signal provided to cable companies through a closed circuit satellite feed. WBQT can be seen on Charter
Charter Communications
Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 4.7 million customers in 25 states. By revenues, it is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications...
channel 13 and Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
channel 16. Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
, it offers the nationally 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...
morning show The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated breakfast television news and infotainment program. The show is produced by Fisher Communications and is owned and distributed by ACME Communications; it is broadcast every weekday morning from studios at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida...
on weekday mornings from 6 until 9.
1990's
WBQT began in late-1998 alongside the launch of The WB 100+The WB 100+ Station Group
The WB 100+ Station Group was a group of primarily non-broadcast local cable television outlets for The WB Television Network, for markets below the top 100 television media markets in the United States. Dayparts with no WB programming were programmed by the network...
and its cable-only affiliates. As a WB 100+ station, it was one of the few in the group that was not aligned with an established over-the-air station in the market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
. This practice currently continues with the station being a CW affiliate as part of The CW Plus. WBQT did not initially replace out-of-market WB affiliates (such as WPIX
WPIX
WPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
from 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...
, WBNE
WCTX
WCTX is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the state of Connecticut that is licensed to New Haven. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter in Hamden. Owned by the LIN TV Corporation, the station is sister to ABC affiliate WTNH and the two...
from Hartford
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, and WLVI-TV
WLVI-TV
WLVI, digital channel 41, is a television station licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts which serves as the CW affiliate for the Boston, Massachusetts television market. WLVI is owned by Sunbeam Television, and is a sister station to WHDH, Boston's NBC affiliate. The two stations share studios at...
from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
) on local cable systems.
In 1999, WBQT was taken off AT&T Broadband
AT&T Broadband
AT&T Broadband was the name of AT&T's cable operations, which were composed of the assets of TCI and MediaOne, Prime Cable, as well as two Comcast cable systems AT&T acquired later in a system swap. Formed in 1999, AT&T Broadband was the largest provider of cable television services...
systems serving the majority of the Springfield/Holyoke
Holyoke, Massachusetts
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range of mountains. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 39,880...
market. When Comcast took over AT&T's cable system in 2001, the company began a push to expand WBQT's reach. In late-2001, it replaced out-of-market WB affiliates on most systems with near total replacement taking place by 2003. Throughout the station's affiliation with The WB, it was known on-air as "Pioneer Valley's WB 16" (named after its channel location) and had its own logo.
2006
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPNUPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
announced the two networks would shut down and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
(the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
unit of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
. During months of confusion, it was unknown what would happen to WBQT. Some WB 100+ stations in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
were being shut down as a result of over-the-air stations adding The CW as a secondary affiliation or on a new digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
. There was no over-the-air UPN affiliate in the Springfield/Holyoke market that would have most likely taken the CW affiliation as a result of WBQT being cable exclusive. By then, WBNE (now WCTX) had been serving the Pioneer Valley as the default UPN affiliate on cable.
There was an early-2006 sign-on of low-powered W28CT broadcasting from the summit of the old Mount Tom Ski Area
Mount Tom Ski Area
Mount Tom Ski Area was a ski resort in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in the Mount Tom Range in the western part of Massachusetts about 10 miles north of Springfield. It opened in 1962 and closed in 1998. Mt Tom was located off Rt. 5 on the North side of Holyoke Massachusetts and was just up the road from...
in Holyoke. After a short period of time, the station's call letters were changed to WXCW-CA. In August 2006, the call letters changed again to WFXQ-CA. The station (now WFXQ-CD) is currently a full-time repeater of 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 WWLP
WWLP
WWLP is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts that is licensed to Springfield. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 11 from a transmitter on Provin Mountain in the Feeding Hills section of Agawam. The station can also be seen...
and co-owned by the LIN TV Corporation.
In late-Summer 2006, it was announced WBQT would become Springfield's CW affiliate. It was to be a part of The CW Plus, a similar operation to The WB 100+. The station began airing promotions of the new network with WBQT's branding becoming "Pioneer Valley CW". There was also a new CW logo given to the station. The official merge of The WB and UPN occurred on September 18. By this point, the new CW logo was airing on all on-air promos and WBQT started using its new branding. As a result of joining The CW, a new web address was created for the station. As a WB affiliate, it did not have a website. The new web address is formatted in a generic website for CW Plus stations featuring a programming grid with WBQT's updated logo being present.
Although its two cable channel locations are seen in the logo, the station does not identify them as part of its branding. The CW remains the only network not offered over-the-air in Springfield.