Provides Both Informative and Entertaining Programming
If David Ellington has one clear message, it is that free, over the air television is still alive and well in Cleveland, Ellington should know. His WHCQ-LD Channel 8 has been broadcasting from the Delta town for more than thrity years.
Ellington was born and raised in the Delta, and still resides in his hometown of Webb. He says he was always interested in electronics, and has maintained a ham radio operator license for years. “I’ve kept that license valid, but I’m not active right now. I may be one day when I have more time to devote to it.,” he says.
In the meantime, Ellington stays busy operating Ellington Broadcasting LLC. He and his son Chad own and operate three television stations: WHCQ Channel 8 in Cleveland, WPRQ Channel 12 in Clarksdale and a newly added station in Oxford, Channel 22.
“It all started as a part-time experiment after I applied for and received an FCC LPTV (low power) station license to build and operate a small, 22-watt station,” says Ellington.
He spent many years as an educator and coach, and got into the broadcasting business in the 1980s while working for the West Tallahatchie School District as technology coordinator.
As the technology coordinator, he videotaped countless school events on VHS tape, including ball games, fashion shows and plays.
He recalled the first VHS camera he bought was big and bulky compared to today’s technology. “You had a camera and you had a cord that would hook up to a big old recorder and it was kind of cumbersome.” Back then he would set up TVs on rolling carts for the teachers so that they could play programs on VCRs for their classes.
Around the same time, the Federal Communications Commission began accepting applications for low-power TV stations that would serve small areas. Ellington wasn’t sure if he would be successful, but he knew he had all those school programs he had taped at his disposal.
Getting the license was difficult, though, because the FCC was flooded with applications. “It was kind of like a gold rush at first back then,” he says. “Anybody could apply, and it was fascinating to me because you could do it on a low budget.”
After three years, Ellington finally got his FCC license and began showing every school program on his new TV station, broadcasting from a tower in his backyard.
“ It was a community hit back then because most homes had outdoor TV receiving antennas,” he says. “That was the beauty of low power TV. You could do anything you wanted to with the programming. That’s what appealed to me.”
With the positive reception from his Delta viewers, Ellington’s experiment in broadcasting got underway.
A few years later he put WHCQ-LD Channel 8 on the air in Cleveland. “Being a Delta State graduate I felt that Cleveland would be a really good town for a station,” he says. An early highlight was in 1990 when DSU played football at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg. He videotaped the game, which DSU lost 12-0 “in a great effort,” he says. It was his first DSU game for local TV replay.
Cleveland’s WHCQ-LD now broadcasts a 3 kilowatt over the air signal and can be received locally free with an indoor antenna. “However, for much further reception an outdoor or attic antenna is needed,” he says.
The station is also carried on the Sparklight and Optimum cable systems in the Delta. “With cable coverage, WHCQ can be seen in Cleveland, Greenville, Greenwood, Indianola, Clarksdale and Batesville,” he says.
About ten years ago, analog TV was eliminated and replaced with digital broadcasting. Ellington says, “This allowed TV stations to use their one channel and add even more channels into their broadcast.”
Ellington’s WHCQ now airs six channels with the primary channel 8.1 (Antenna TV), sub-channels 8.2 (Bounce), 8.4 (ION Mystery), 8.5 (Grit), 8.6 (Laff), and 8.7 (Cozi TV). At the present time 8.3 is blank.
Some of the local programing aired on the primary channel along with Antenna TV includes the Bolivar County Supervisors meetings, Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) football, basketball and baseball championships, Delta State football, Northwest Community College sports, First Baptist Church of Cleveland, New Morning Star COGIC, EPW Wrestling and various community parades and special events.
“Today the landscape of broadcast television is rapidly evolving and all broadcasters face many new challenges going forward,” says Ellington.
However, he feels that LPTV stations rooted in its unique local programming will continue to find ways to serve local TV viewers and continue to be relevant for years to come.