WGEM-DT3

WGEM-DT3 is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Tri-States area of Western Illinois, Northeastern Missouri, and extreme Southeastern Iowa. It is a third digital subchannel of NBC affiliate WGEM-TV, which is owned by Quincy Newspapers. Over-the-air, the station broadcasts a digital signal on VHF channel 10.3 from a transmitter east of the city on Cannonball Road near I-172. Known on-air as WGEM Fox, the station can also be seen on Mediacom channel 2 in Iowa, US Cable channel 12 in Missouri, and Comcast channel 18 in Illinois. It is offered in high definition on Comcast digital channel 383 and Mediacom digital channel 802. WGEM-DT3's parent station has studios in the Hotel Quincy on Hampshire Street in Downtown Quincy.

History

What is now WGEM-DT3 was established in 1993 by Continental Cablevision and WGEM to fill a void in a market where there was no local over-the-air Fox affiliate. Channel 10 had aired Fox programming in off-hours since 1990. It was originally known on-air with the fictional "CGEM" calls based after the "C" in Continental and "GEM" in WGEM. The station began to air on the third digital subchannel of WGEM-TV in 2007, and began to use the WGEM-DT3 call sign in an official manner in 2007; nonetheless, the "CGEM" branding was retained until 2010. The station still remains the only Fox station in the area, although Charter Communications in Hannibal also carries KTVI from St. Louis.

WGEM

WGEM may refer to:

WGEM (AM)

WGEM (1440 AM; "ESPN 1440") is a radio station in Quincy, Illinois broadcasting a sports radio format. The station is owned by Quincy Newspapers and is an affiliate of ESPN Radio.

History

WGEM signed on January 1, 1948; its debut was hampered by an ice storm that forced the station off the air just twenty minutes into its first broadcast. The station was owned by Quincy Broadcasting Company, which was purchased by a partnership of transmitter manufacturer Parker Gates and Quincy Newspapers a few months later. Gates had previously attempted to enter station ownership by applying for a new station, WFAR, which was never built; meanwhile, WGEM was Quincy Newspapers' second broadcast property, as the company had launched FM radio station WQDI (105.1 FM) on August 1, 1947. Quincy Newspapers would assume full ownership of the station in 1950, after Gates chose to sell his stake in Quincy Broadcasting to focus exclusively on manufacturing. (WQDI would become WGEM-FM in 1953 to match the AM station and the then-new WGEM-TV; it would eventually become a simulcast of WGEM.) The station became an affiliate of the ABC Radio Network on October 1, 1948.