WPCB-TV

WPCB-TV
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).

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. 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]
40.11080i16:9WPCB-DTCornerstone
40.2480i4:3PFFCBible 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

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WPCB
  3. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  4. ↑ CDBS Print
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