Religious TV station in Atlanta
WATC-DT
(channel 57) is a
religious
independent
television station
in
Atlanta, Georgia
, United States. Owned by Carolina Christian Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on Enterprise Drive in
Norcross
, and its transmitter is located on
Sweat Mountain
in northeastern
Cobb County
, near the
Cherokee County
line.
WATC broadcasts programming from various Christian organizations and local and national churches over its two main channels, including
World Harvest Television
,
The Inspiration Network
,
The Worship Network
,
Golden Eagle
and
The Shepherd's Chapel
. Its third subchannel carries The Loop, a network made up of classic sitcoms, dramas, Westerns, and films, all in the
public domain
.
History
[
edit
]
WATC launched on September 10, 1996.
WATC granted permission to
simulcast
its signal on
WSKC-CA
(channel 22, also licensed to Atlanta), so that station could maintain its
Class A
status. WSKC-CA was located on the same
broadcast tower
as WATC, and could continue broadcasting in analog even after WATC went digital-only in February 2009. However, it was
off-air
as of March 2009, and remained so for most of the year. Since then, the station has moved to transmit digitally from a location near Norcross as WSKC-CD, and now airs
Korean
programming as it had previously done on analog before its affiliation with WATC.
Despite the
DTV Delay Act
extending the deadline from February 17 to June 12, the station ended analog service on the original date. On June 18, it changed its
broadcast callsign
from WATC a few days after the
Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) announced that TV stations were free to add or drop "-DT" as easily as "-TV". WATC received a
construction permit
for a fill-in
broadcast translator
in
Union City, Georgia
(southwestern metro Atlanta) on channel 36, which was vacated by analog
WATL
. It will have the same callsign as its parent station (with no extra numerals or other differentiation, despite not being a
same-channel booster
) and could not be sold separately, as it is within a program the FCC created in 2009 in order to address the shortcomings of the
ATSC
digital
broadcast television system
. Since ATSC is very prone to
multipath interference
, this may be due to
reflected signals
from the
skyscrapers
of
downtown Atlanta
and
midtown Atlanta
, as well as
terrain shielding
of the
Chattahoochee River
valley and the hills around it.
The station formerly had a translator station, W42AO, licensed to
Athens, Georgia
. That station became WAGC-LD. Owner Carolina Christian Broadcasting, Inc. also owns
WGGS-TV
, its
sister station
in
Greenville, South Carolina
.
In early May 2011, the station added other religious programming called "WATC Too" on new
channel
57.2.
Technical information
[
edit
]
Subchannels
[
edit
]
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed
:
Subchannels of WATC
[2]
Channel
|
Res.
|
Aspect
|
Short name
|
Programming
|
57.1
|
1080i
|
16:9
|
WATC-DT
|
Main WATC programming
|
57.2
|
POINT
|
Additional religious programming
|
57.3
|
480i
|
THELOOP
|
Lovers Of Old Programming
|
Analog-to-digital conversion
[
edit
]
WATC shut down its analog signal, over
UHF
channel 57, on February 17, 2009, to conclude the
federally mandated transition from analog to digital television
.
[3]
The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41, using
virtual channel
57.
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
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Atlanta
stations
| Religious stations
| |
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Spanish stations
| |
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Other stations
| |
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|
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Other
markets
| Religious stations
| |
---|
Other stations
|
- WRBL-DT 3.3
(
Ion
,
Columbus
)
- WJXT 4
(
Ind.
,
Jacksonville, FL
)
- WCTV-DT 6.3
(
Ion
,
Thomasville
)
- WJBF-DT 6.3
(
Ion
,
Augusta
)
- WSPA-DT 7.3
(
Ion
,
Spartanburg, SC
)
- WTOC-DT 11.5
(
Ion
,
Savannah
)
- WGGS-TV 16
(
Rel.
,
Greenville, SC
)
- WPXC-TV 21
(
Ion
,
Brunswick
)
- WSCG 35
(
various, see article
;
Baxley
)
- WMUB-LD 38
(
France 24
,
Macon
)
- WMYA-TV 40
ATSC 3.0
(
Dabl
,
Anderson, SC
)
- WDGA-CD 43
(
Heartland
,
Dalton
)
- WSWG-DT 44.4
(
Ion
,
Valdosta
)
- WDNN-CD 49
(
Ind.
,
Dalton
)
- WTLH 49
(
H&I
,
Bainbridge
)
- WPGA-LD 50
(
Scripps News
,
Macon
)
- WPGA-TV 58
(
MeTV
,
Perry
)
- WPGA-DT 58.3
(
Ion
,
Perry
)
- WDSI-TV 61
(
Crime
,
Chattanooga, TN
)
- WGBP-TV 66
(
LX
,
Opelika, AL
)
|
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Defunct
| |
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