KGCW

KGCW

Burlington–Davenport–Bettendorf, Iowa Moline–Rock Island, Illinois United States
City	Burlington, Iowa
Channels	Digital: 21 (UHF) Virtual: 26
Branding	Quad Cities CW
Programming
Affiliations	26.1: The CW 26.4: CBS for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Nexstar Media Group (Nexstar Media Inc.)
Sister stations	KLJB, WHBF-TV
History
First air date	January 5, 1988 (36 years ago) (1988-01-05)
Former call signs	KJMH (1988–2001) KGWB-TV (2001–2006) KGCW-TV (2006–2009)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 26 (UHF, 1988–2009) Digital: 41 (UHF, 2003–2020)
Former affiliations	Independent (1988, 1994) Fox (1988–1994, 1996–2001) The WB (2001–2006)
Call sign meaning	Grant (previous owner) CW
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	7841
ERP	1,000 kW
HAAT	316.4 m (1,038 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	41°19′39″N 90°22′46″W / 41.32750°N 90.37944°W / 41.32750; -90.37944
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.ourquadcities.com

KGCW (channel 26) is a television station licensed to Burlington, Iowa, United States, serving as the CW network outlet for the Quad Cities area. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside regional CBS affiliate WHBF-TV (channel 4). Nexstar also provides certain services to Fox affiliate KLJB (channel 18) under a shared services agreement (SSA) with Mission Broadcasting. The three stations share studios in the Telco Building on 18th Street in downtown Rock Island, Illinois; KGCW's transmitter is located near Orion, Illinois.

Channel 26 began broadcasting as KJMH, a local station for Burlington, in January 1988 and became a Fox affiliate that July. It was owned by local businessman Steve Hoth, who named it for his wife, JoEllen M. Hoth. In May 1994, the station lost access to Fox programming after the network moved to strip KJMH of its affiliation. It then went off the air that November.

Grant Communications acquired the station and returned it to the air on March 1, 1996, rebroadcasting KLJB-TV in Davenport. In January 2001, channel 26 was split from channel 18 to become the affiliate of The WB in the Quad Cities, where it was seen on cable and a subchannel of KLJB, and its transmitter was relocated from Burlington to a site that offered increased coverage of the Quad Cities. The station became affiliated with The CW in 2006 when The WB and UPN merged. Nexstar acquired the Grant stations in 2014, coinciding with the separate purchase of WHBF-TV.