News operation
KWQC is known by Quad Cities residents for the Highlight Zone, an Emmy award-winning Friday night sports segment (which airs during the station's 10 p.m. newscast from roughly late August through early March, with a break in December), showcasing highlights from area high school football and basketball games. The segment debuted in 1989, and its format has since been copied by many stations around the United States. Each member of the news anchor staff, along with the meteorologist who does weather forecasts on that particular evening, take turns recapping a featured game. The camera crews invite fans from each of the games they cover to participate in a skit related to the night's theme. The theme usually centers on a holiday (e.g., Valentine's Day) or local promotion (e.g., The Student Food Drive, an initiative by area high schools to collect food for the needy).
On July 31, 2007, KWQC debuted drastic changes to its graphics and newscast music, dumping Frank Gari's "Hello News" package that had been in use since 1990. KWQC added a "cube" ID graphic (similar to the on-screen logo bug used by Fox News Channel), which stirred up some controversy among viewers. Eventually, KWQC slowed the cube down as a result of a vote by nearly 2,000 people on its website. KWQC began using "U-Phonix", a syndicated music package composed by Stephen Arnold Music. Just eight weeks later on September 24, KWQC switched back to the "Hello News" package, making KWQC the first station to use a syndicated music package for the least amount of time. KWQC was the only station that continued to use the original "Hello News" package, but on January 16, 2012, it was dropped once again and was replaced by "Breakthrough" by 360 Music as the music package for its newscasts. On October 31, 2023, ahead of the station's 75th anniversary, the "Hello News" package and the classic "Hello Quad Cities" advertising campaign were reinstated.[22][23]
On September 25, 2008, KWQC introduced a new graphics package during its 5 p.m. broadcast, which also brought significant changes to its weather forecast presentation. The station introduced a new graphics system that allows the First Alert Weather team to provide more interactive weather forecasts and severe weather coverage, through animation, touch-movement and wireless transition of graphics. KWQC also introduced a revised station logo, the first change to its on-air logo since 1990. While it was similar to the one previously used, the "-TV" suffix was replaced with a "-DT" suffix (for digital television), though KWQC-TV remained as the station's official call sign.
On October 27, 2010, beginning with the 5 p.m. newscast, KWQC became the first television station in the Quad Cities market and the first station owned by Young Broadcasting to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. A high definition-ready news set was constructed for the newscasts (a "compact" news desk was temporarily placed in the newsroom during the construction phase so that only three on-air staffers could be seen at a given time). Logos, call signs and on-air graphics were changed as well to refer to its newscasts as KWQC-HD News. The station returned to their original KWQC-TV 6 News branding in 2012 after all the market's stations converted to high definition news operations.
On November 4, 2013, KWQC introduced brand new weather graphics. The whole Young Broadcasting Association had been working on the new graphics for over six months. The change brought a new banner to the top of the screen, entitled "KWQC Weather", not "First Alert", though "First Alert" is still the official name of the weather on KWQC. The radar, 7 Day Forecast, Current Temperatures, and Watches/Warnings were all given a new look. Some new features include being able to put pictures from Facebook right on the screen and being able to put LIVE video of the meteorologists right over the radar or other image. On December 12, 2013, KWQC took away the KWQC Weather logo and replaced it again with the First Alert logo.
Starting on September 6, 2014, KWQC introduced Quad Cities Today: Weekend Edition. It runs before NBC's Today Show at 6 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. A half-hour newscast follows at 8:30 a.m. Saturdays, and two 60-minute newscasts that airs at 8 and 10 a.m. Sundays. Meet the Press has been moved to 9 a.m. Sundays; and This Week in Agribusiness and U.S. Farm Report airs at 5 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays.[24] KWQC had canceled its Saturday morning newscasts in 2008 due to financial struggles.[25]
In July 2017, KWQC reinstated the longtime slogan "The Station That Cares for You" for KWQC's special coverage of the Quad Cities Times Bix 7 Road Race. The slogan was used from the early 1990s until being phased out during the station's HD switch in 2010. The slogan was featured on news team T-shirts and was introduced in different promos and station commercials. The slogan came back permanently on January 18, 2024, when KWQC launched their new news package under "GrayONE".
KWQC radio content
KWQC has news and weather updates broadcast for iHeartMedia's Quad Cities stations, among them KMXG, WLLR-FM, and its former sister station WOC (AM). The news updates are mostly heard in the morning, from Quad Cities Today anchors Dustin Nolan and Jenna Jackson. KMXG morning personalities McFadden & Evans also present the entertainment-themed "Showbiz Buzz" segment daily during KWQC-TV 6 News at 4.
The audio of the Monday through Friday 5 p.m. newscast is rebroadcast on WOC 1420 at 5:30 p.m.
KWQC/KLJB partnership
On September 29, 2012, KWQC announced they would be partnering with Fox affiliate KLJB to produce a 9 p.m. newscast starting New Year's Eve and planned to expand the news staff to accommodate the move.[26] The fate of this partnership was unknown with the June 2014 announcement that KLJB would be purchased by Marshall Broadcasting Group; competitor station WHBF from Citadel Communications was acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, which universally operates Marshall Broadcasting Group stations through LMA and JSA agreements. On December 30, 2015, KWQC announced that its contract to produce KLJB's newscast had expired and that KLJB chose not to renew it.[27] On December 31, 2015, WHBF took over production of KLJB's Fox 18 News at Nine and expanded the newscast to a full hour.[28]
Ratings
Channel 6 has been the ratings leader in the Quad Cities for most of its history. The station's various owners have always poured significant resources into its news operation, resulting in a higher-quality product than would normally be the case for what has always been a small-to-medium market.
It briefly lost the lead to WHBF in the mid-1970s but regained it in 1980, and its newscasts have been the highest-rated in the market ever since. It was especially dominant when it was still co-owned with WOC radio; the two stations combined to cover the Quad Cities like no one else could.
According to the Des Moines Register in the November 2007 books, KWQC had the third highest-rated newscast among all stations in the top 100 media markets. In 2015, KWQC's newscasts remained number one in total viewers in every time slot. As of 2013–2014, Nielsen's DMA rank for the Quad Cities was 100.
