Convocom
WJPT was the first new Convocom station planned for broadcasting by 1979 as Springfield's PBS member station, using a 1,610 foot tower near Bluffs, Illinois of the former ABC affiliate WJJY-TV. However, the tower collapsed in a massive ice storm on Easter Sunday 1978. After the loss of the tower at Bluffs, a survey for prospective tower sites for WJPT in the Jacksonville/Springfield market and WQEC in the Quincy/Hannibal market began in summer of 1978. Constructing a new 1,000 foot tower at the Bluffs site by April 1979 would require $ 1 million, that the consortium did not have and changed the anticipated regional coverage from that location.
Western Illinois University had been surveying sites, south of Macomb, since 1976 for relocation of their FM station, WIUM to replace the 250 foot radio tower located on the university's campus. WIU selected a site in 1977 that was bequeathed to the university by Jack Horn, regional Coca-Cola bottler. WIU and Convocom agreed to co-locate WIUM-TV on this same tower. Construction of a new 500 foot (152 m) tower was completed in 1980 and WIUM FM transmitters were relocated to the site in 1981. Two microwave relay towers between Peoria and Quincy at Cuba, Illinois and Carthage, Illinois for PBS video programs, local programs, and control of WIUM-TV and WQEC were completed by 1983.
By 1983, a site west of Waverly was selected for construction of an 800-foot (244 m) tower. However, the FCC only licensed WJPT for 34 kilowatts of broadcast power at that specific location. As a result of the tower height and broadcast power, the station was a fringe (grade B) signal in Springfield. A site east of Quincy owned by Blackhawk of Quincy, Inc. was selected for a new 500-foot (152 m) tower to provide expanded coverage of WQEC to Quincy/Hannibal, north-eastern Missouri and southeastern Iowa markets. Convocom had to raise $ 5.5 million to complete construction of these planned and unplanned replacement facilities.
George Hall resigned as President of Convocom in 1982 to serve as Virginia's Director of Telecommunications under Gov. Charles Robb. The consortium appointed Dr. Jerold Gruebel as the Executive Director of Convocom in April 1983. Dr. Grubel had previously served as the Assistant Director of IHETS (Indiana Higher Education Telecommunications System), a statewide network of video, voice and data networks connecting all 77 of Indiana's colleges and universities, with headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana.
WQPT in Moline signed on November 2, 1983 serving the Quad Cities, north-western Illinois, and east-central Iowa with a translator (channel 48) in Sterling, Illinois. WQPT, owned and operated by Black Hawk College, elected to develop its own brand identity for the Quad Cities market and never joined the Convocom microwave network and control facilities in Peoria, as originally envisioned in the 1970s design.
WJPT in Waverly signed on August 11, 1984, serving the Jacksonville/Springfield market and south-central Illinois. Eight weeks later, on October 1, 1984, WIUM-TV in Macomb signed on as the primary station serving Macomb and west-central Illinois. This was followed five months later, on March 9, 1985, WQEC in Quincy signed on serving Hannibal/Quincy, western Illinois, north-eastern Missouri and south-eastern Iowa.
WTVP in Peoria, owned by the Illinois Valley Public Telecommunications Corporation, elected to keep its brand identity, ownership structure and broadcast operations in Peoria. Like WQPT, the station never joined the 3 newly built Convocom broadcast facilities in Macomb, Quincy and Waverly (Springfield/Jacksonville).
Read more about this topic: Network Knowledge