It is one of two commercial television stations in the market licensed outside West Virginia (alongside WTSF, channel 61, in Ashland, Kentucky).

WQCW is owned by Gray Media alongside Huntington-licensed NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV (channel 3).

The two stations share studios on 5th Avenue in Huntington; WQCW's transmitter is located on Barker Ridge near Milton.

The station's analog transmitter, despite its over 2 million-watt ERP, was not strong enough to cover the entire Huntington–Charleston market, even though it identifies itself on-air as "Portsmouth–Charleston".

The station effectively depended on cable and satellite for most of its viewership, which is all but essential for acceptable television in much of this vast market, even in today's digital era—especially in Eastern Kentucky.

Dish Network had carried the station since it began offering a local Huntington–Charleston feed, with DirecTV following suit on January 25, 2006.

The WVCW-LP license was surrendered to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 1, 2012, as Lockwood did not intend to convert the translator to digital.

Had the purchase been approved by the FCC, WQCW would have entered into a shared services agreement (SSA) with Gray Television, owner of NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV.

The program was done on a very low budget; it did not have teleprompters or an IFB system, and its presentation style was very crude even by small-market standards.