WGTV
{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:
- Template:Infobox broadcasting network
- Template:Infobox television channel
- Template:Infobox television station
If an internal transclusion led you here, you may wish to change it to point directly to the intended page.
{{Template disambiguation}} should never be transcluded in the main namespace.
WGTV (channel 8, DTV 12) is the metro Atlanta station and flagship for Georgia Public Broadcasting (formerly Georgia Public Television), Georgia's PBS network.
The station transmits from the top of Stone Mountain, located just east of Atlanta in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The city of license is Athens, Georgia. It is considered the flagship station of GPB TV, and is the primary ("parent") station for two LPTV broadcast translators, mainly in the north Georgia mountains. Eight other stations also simulcast the network across the state, originally relayed via microwave radio towers and now via communications satellite.
WGTV's analog TV signal is the strongest of the GPB TV network, covering most of the northern part of Georgia, extending in about a 75-mile (120 km) radius from the transmitter site. WGTV-DT, the digital/HDTV facility of WGTV, started broadcasting on December 20, 2007 on channel 12. However it will move from very low power on channel 12 to full power on channel 8 after the analog shutdown in 2009. This selection, made without conflict in the first-round digital channel election, is most likely due to WDEF-TV 12 (analog) in Chattanooga, which will permanently stay digital on channel 47. WGTV was originally assigned channel 22 for DTV operations, but requested the allotment change to channel 12 by the FCC, also allowing a change to 22 (from 59) by WSKC-CA.
History
In 1960, WGTV channel 8 signed on the air on May 23, licensed to the University of Georgia and operating out of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. The station's VHF allocation was originally occupied by WSB-TV, which at that time was owned by the Atlanta Journal. The Journal's competitor in Atlanta, the Atlanta Constitution, had applied for and received from the FCC a construction permit for channel 2, which was to be called WCON-TV. When the Journal and Constitution merged, media ownership rules of the day did not permit one entity to own two television stations in the same market. Plans for WCON-TV were scrapped, WSB-TV moved to channel 2 from channel 8 in 1951. The ABC-TV affiliate WLTV broadcast on Channel 8 from 1951 to 1953, when the station moved to channel 11 to avoid interference with newly-launched WROM TV Rome, operating on channel 9.
In 1953, channel 8 was given to the University for an educational television station, which did not begin broadcasting until 1960. In 1982, ownership of the license was transferred from the University of Georgia to the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission, the oversight board for GPTV (now GPB TV). In 1984 WGTV changed the callsign into WPBS-TV that've been related to WPBA-TV (Channel 30) after its changed from WETV. The Viewers of Georgia hated the idea and they wanted to Channel 8's old callsign WGTV back from WPBS-TV and they did after a short time for the ill-fated new callsign for Channel 8 in February 1984.
Programming
Programming on WGTV and WPBA, both PBS affiliates, is basically the same, with some important differences. Programs shown in prime time on one station, such as Live from Lincoln Center, will often be shunted on the other station to Sunday afternoons, which in some quarters is considered "viewing limbo", since many people are either at church, at sporting events, or at the movies. Sometimes a program carried by WPBA will not be shown at all by WGTV. And very often, WGTV has its own local programs, such as Georgia Outdoors. WPBA is owned by the Atlanta Public School System, and is only seen in metro Atlanta. Prior to 2001, both stations went off the air at midnight; WPBA still goes off the air on Sunday nights. WGTV used to sign off with Ray Charles's version of Georgia On My Mind which is the state's official song, while showing scenes from the north Georgia mountains to the Georgia coast.
Translators
Both translators are located near the state's border with South Carolina, in areas where coverage from a full-powered GPB transmitter is insufficient, due to the distance from the main transmitters and the hilly or mountainous terrain in northeast Georgia.
- W52AA Carnesville, which has applied for digital on 12
- W68AF Toccoa, which has applied for digital on 10
Several other translators are assigned to other GPB TV stations, including WNGH-TV, WJSP-TV. Though this issue is rather moot, as all GPB stations carry the same programming and idents.
Digital Television (Over The Air)
The station's over the air digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels| Virtual Channel |
Physical RF Channel |
Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.1 | 12.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | Main GPB programming with some HDTV content |
| 8.2 | 12.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Main GPB programming in standard definition |
| 8.3 | 12.3 | 480i | 4:3 | (Initial testing phase) Various PBS programming in standard definition |
In 2009, WGTV will shut down analog operations on channel 8 and commence broadcasting digital TV on channel 8 (operation on physical RF channel 12 will cease at the same time) when the analog to digital TV conversion is complete.[1]
References
External links