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FCC approves construction permit for TV station

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By David Burke | Friday, August 03, 2007 |

The Federal Communications Commission has granted a construction permit for a new TV station, licensed to Galesburg, Ill., with a tower south of Orion, Ill.

But don’t expect to flip on the station, at Channel 53, anytime soon.

“We’re a long way from being built,” said Bruce E. Fox, president of Sarasota, Fla.-based Northwest Television.

Fox, who owns 44 percent of Prime Cities Broadcasting, which operates a Fox television affiliate in Bismarck, N.D., said the station originally was set to sign on five to seven years ago, but Grant Broadcasting, which owns KLJB-TV18 and KGCW-TV 26 in the Quad-Cities, blocked it.

“The FCC took forever to act on it,” Fox said.

Kathy DeBeouf, general manager of KLJB and KGWB, said she was unaware of any action taken against Northwest Broadcasting.

Fox said his original plan was to broadcast programming from the UPN network. That network, however, merged last year with CBS to form the new CW network.

There are six commercial television networks, and each has a station in the Quad-Cities.

Channel 53, where the new station was supposed to be, is among the frequencies that will be replaced when digital television takes full effect, scheduled to take place in the year 2009.

Fox said he was unsure what the future would hold for the station.

“I’m not being evasive,” he said. “I’m just waiting and looking at the programming options to see what’s out there.”

David Burke can be contacted at

(563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.