WWRS-TV
| Mayville/Milwaukee/Madison, Wisconsin | |
|---|---|
| Channels | Digital: 43 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | TBN |
| Owner | Trinity Broadcasting Network (Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, Inc.) |
| First air date | 1997 |
| Call letters' meaning | Wayne R. Stenz (part of original ownership group) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 52 (1997-2009) |
| Transmitter power | 300 kW |
| Height | 186 m |
| Facility ID | 68547 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°26′11″N 88°31′34″W / 43.43639°N 88.52611°W |
| Website | TBN.org WWRS's public file on TBN.org |
WWRS-TV is a religious television station licensed to Mayville, Wisconsin, serving the Milwaukee and Madison markets as an owned and operated station of the Trinity Broadcasting Network The station's signal on digital channel 43 (remapping to former analog channel 52 via PSIP) covers much of south eastern and south central Wisconsin, along with extended cable coverage through the area.
The station was formerly owned by National Minority Television, a division of TBN used to circumvent the FCC's ownership restrictions. While TBN founder Paul Crouch was NMTV's president, one of its directors was black and the other was Latino, which met the FCC's definition of a "minority-controlled" firm.[1] In mid-2008, the station and its NMTV sisters came directly under the TBN banner.
Like most TBN stations, WWRS simulcasts the TBN national feed for most of the day. TBN typically buys full-power stations mainly to get must-carry status on area cable systems, even though it offers almost no local programming. However, WWRS airs FCC-required public affairs programming (Public Report) from studio facilities on Barker Road in Brookfield,[2][3] with a nominal presence retained in at the station's transmitting facility and former main studio in Iron Ridge. The station also airs church services from throughout the area, usually on Friday morning.
Charter Communications, the dominant cable provider in the Madison area, and several communities in the Milwaukee area, have added TBN and all of its digital subchannels (except Enlace USA) to its systems in the area beginning in late August 2007, within the provider's digital family tier of channels.[4] However, beyond must-carry situations where WWRS-DT1 must be carried on analog cable in appropriate markets, the signal comes directly via satellite to Charter's headend, not through WWRS.
This station's digital signal, like most other full-service TBN owned-and-operated stations, carries five different TBN-run networks.
| Channel | Video | Label | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 52.1 | 480i | TBN | Main TBN programming |
| 52.2 | TCC | The Church Channel | |
| 52.3 | JCTV | JCTV | |
| 52.4 | Enlace | Enlace USA | |
| 52.5 | SOAC | Smile of a Child TV |
TBN-owned full-power stations permanently ceased analog transmissions on April 16, 2009.
Must-carry
On April 1, 2002, a dispute arose between Time Warner Cable's Milwaukee-area system and WWRS regarding must-carry regulations. Must-carry regulations require cable TV systems within the Grade B contour of a full-power, full service TV station to carry that station on the basic cable tier. When the dispute was settled, the FCC judged that the station was not required to be carried on the cable systems in the more distant counties of Kenosha, Racine, and Walworth. However, WWRS was able to exercise must-carry to the Time Warner Cable lineup in southeastern Wisconsin. This, combined with the lack of available channel space, caused the forced move of Madison's PBS/Wisconsin Public Television flagship station WHA-TV (Channel 21) to the digital cable tier in order to air WWRS on the basic cable tier. [5]
References
- ^ Pinsky, Mark. Liberal Reading of FCC Minority Rule Has Helped TBN's Growth. Los Angeles Times, 1989-01-28.
- ^ http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/47108732.html
- ^ http://www.ci.brookfield.wi.us/archives/69/PRB%203%2019%2009%20agn.pdf
- ^ http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/biz/index.php?ntid=202840&ntpid=1
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-02-1244A1.pdf
External links
- TBN Official site
- TBN.org/publicfile/WWRS/ (WWRS's public file)
- History of Milwaukee television
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WWRS-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WWRS-TV
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