TBN repeaters in the Tampa Bay DMA
| W31CZ-D: Tampa, Florida WDNP-LD: St. Petersburg, Florida WSNN-LD: Sarasota, Florida WALM-LD: Sebring, Florida |
|
|---|---|
| Branding | TBN |
| Channels |
Analog: WDNP-LD: 36 (UHF) WSNN-LD: 48 (UHF) WALM-LD: 51 (UHF) Digital: (future, respectively with above: 36/48/--) W31CZ-D: 31 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | TBN |
| Owner | TBN |
| Founded | unknown; early-1990s |
| Call letters' meaning | (translator calls sequentially assigned by the FCC) |
| Former callsigns |
W31CZ-D: W56EB WALM-LD: W60CE (to 12/2006) W51DY (to 2014) WSNN-LD: W48CN (to 09/2011) WLWN-LP (to 2014) |
| Transmitter power | W31CZ-D: 15kw WDNP-LD: 3.8kw WSNN-LD: 26kw WALM-LD: 39.6kw |
| Website | www.tbn.org |
The Trinity Broadcasting Network operates three low-powered satellite stations in the Tampa Bay market. WDNP-LDP channel 36 serves St. Petersburg and Clearwater, WSNN-LD channel 48 serves the Sarasota-Bradenton area, and WALM-LD channel 51 serves Sebring and Avon Park. All programming is delivered directly from TBN's national satellite feed.
All three stations are currently owned by TBN. TBN also previously operated W31CZ-D channel 31, which served Tampa.
The history of these stations are unknown, though W36CO originally signed-on in the early-1990s on channel 60. Also, W51DY was originally on channel 60 (as W60CE) until December 2006. WLWN-LP (formerly W48CN) was owned by National Minority Television, a TBN subsidiary, until 2008, when it was transferred to TBN directly.
In April and May 2006, TBN applied for construction permits for each of these repeaters to begin converting operations to digital television. Upon completion, each station will become a digital repeater of TBN, broadcasting all five TBN services. Some of these stations will broadcast at a lower power than they did at analog. Two of these will also have new channel reassignments—W56EB would move to channel 31, and W60CE would relocate to channel 51, in which it would become W51DY. This is due to channels 53 to 69 being phased out of television broadcasting.
None of these stations are available on cable; however, the national feed is available on Charter Spectrum digital channel 131. It is not available on Comcast systems.
In May 2009, TBN sold W36CO to Local HDTV. The new owners planned to convert that repeater to digital and recall the station as WFHD-LD; programming would have included Mega TV programming on digital subchannel 36.2.
TBN took W48CN silent April 2, 2010, due to declining support, which has been attributed to the digital transition; the repeater was one of many donated to the Minority Media and Telecon Council, which in turn sold the transmitter to Citadel Communications in January 2011 for $149,757 cash. Citadel changed its call letters to WLWN-LP.
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