WPCB-TV
Clash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP Greensburg/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States | |
|---|---|
| City | Greensburg, Pennsylvania |
| Branding | Cornerstone Television |
| Slogan | God is Here |
| Channels | Digital: 50 (UHF) (to move to 28 (UHF)) Virtual: 40 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 40.1 Cornerstone 40.2 Bible Discovery TV |
| Translators | WKBS-TV 47 (46 UHF) Altoona, PA |
| Owner | Cornerstone Television, Inc. |
| First air date | April 15, 1979 (1979-04-15) |
| Call letters' meaning | Western Pennsylvania Christian Broadcasting (original name of company) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 40 (UHF, 1979–2009) |
| Transmitter power | 362 kW 175 kW (CP) |
| Height | 264 m (866 ft) 278 m (912 ft) (CP) |
| Facility ID | 13924 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°23′34″N 79°46′53″W / 40.39278°N 79.78139°W / 40.39278; -79.78139 |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: | Profile CDBS |
| Website | www.ctvn.org |
WPCB-TV, virtual channel 40 (UHF digital channel 50), is a television station licensed to Greensburg, Pennsylvania, United States and serving the Pittsburgh television market. WPCB-TV is the flagship station of the religious television network Cornerstone Television, which originates most of its programs from the station. WPCB-TV's studios and transmitter are co-located in Wall, Pennsylvania. The station's programming is also seen on satellite station WKBS-TV (channel 47) in Altoona.
On cable, WPCB is carried on Comcast Xfinity channel 5 (channel 2 in Bethel Park, channel 9 in Monroeville) in standard definition and channel 805 in high definition, and Verizon FiOS channels 5 (standard definition) and 505 (high-definition).
Contents
1 History
2 Digital television
2.1 Digital channel
2.2 Analog-to-digital conversion
3 References
4 External links
History
In the 1960s, Rev. Russ Bixler was visiting the Virginia Beach area and came across independent station WYAH-TV, which was running an all-Christian format. Russ came to visit the Christian Broadcasting Network studios, meeting Pat Robertson and Jim Bakker. Concluding that Pittsburgh needed a similar station, Russ applied for the channel 22 license in the 1970s, but lost to Commercial Radio Institute, a forerunner of Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1975, who would launch that station as secular independent WPTT-TV in 1978. Bixler then applied for a license on channel 40, and was granted a construction permit for that channel in 1976.
After several hurdles, Bixler was able to get the needed equipment and was able to sell a few hours a day of programming time to Christian organizations. WPCB-TV finally began operations on April 15, 1979. The station was initially on the air for 15 hours a day, and within a year expanded to a 24-hour schedule. Programming consisted of several runs a day of the two-hour edition of the PTL Club, the 90-minute edition of The 700 Club, several other shows produced by CBN for the CBN Cable channel, a few children's educational and religious shows, televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart, Rex Humbard, Oral Roberts and Jerry Falwell, and some local church programs. The station also produced a local variety talk and music show, Getting Together. WPCB-TV's programming remains entirely Christian-oriented to this day. From before their sign on, when a person phones the station, the receptionists answer "Jesus Loves You TV 40".
Over the decades, owing to holding a license to operate a commercial television station, WPCB-TV has received countless offers from commercial broadcasters wanting to convert the station into a conventional independent station, but has flatly refused them each time. However, in 1998, Cornerstone attempted to buy the license for non-commercial station WQEX (channel 16), which would have required a sale of the channel 40 license. Paxson Communications made an offer to buy channel 40; if the deal went through, it would have been relaunched as a Pax TV owned-and-operated station under the call letters WKPX-TV.[1] However, at that time the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) did not deem WPCB-TV's religious programming as educational, and Cornerstone's application was withdrawn in 2000; channel 40 was then taken off the market.[1] In 2002, the FCC reversed its position (WQEX was converted into a commercial license later that year; in 2011, it was sold to Paxson's successor, Ion Media Networks, and now carries programming from Pax TV's successor Ion Television as WINP-TV).
Russ Bixler died in 2000, and Ron Hembree, who hosted a program on WPCB-TV, took over as the station's president. Hembree died in June 2010.
Digital television
Digital channel
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming[2] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WPCB-DT | Cornerstone |
| 40.2 | 480i | 4:3 | PFFC | Bible Discovery TV |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WPCB-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 40, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 50.[3][4] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 40.
References
^ Owen, Rob (July 15, 1999). "Pax TV wants to be on the air in Pittsburgh, not up in the air". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
^ RabbitEars TV Query for WPCB
^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
^ CDBS Print
External links
- Cornerstone Television
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WPCB
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WPCB-TV