WGTV

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WGTV
Image:Georgiapb.gif
Athens / Atlanta, Georgia
Branding GPB (Georgia Public Broadcasting)
Slogan Bringing you the Best
Channels 8 (VHF) analog,
12 (VHF) digital
Affiliations PBS
Owner Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission
Founded May 23, 1960
Call letters meaning W Georgia TeleVision
Former affiliations NET (1960-1970)
Transmitter Power 316 kW/326 m(analog)
16 kW/304 m (digital)
Website www.gpb.org/public/tv/

WGTV TV (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 (120km) radius from the transmitter site. Like some other GPB TV stations, its digital TV signal is almost non-existent, 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.

[edit] 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).

Programming on WGTV and WPBA-TV, 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 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.

[edit] 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.

Several other translators are assigned to other GPB TV stations, including WCLP-TV, WJSP-TV. Though this issue is rather moot, as all GPB stations carry the same programming and idents.

[edit] External links


Georgia Public Broadcasting

 Television: WGTV | WJSP | WMUM | WABW | WACS | WCES | WCLP | WVAN | WXGA 
 Radio: WGPB | WUWG | WJSP | WMUM | WWIO | WNGU | WSVH | WUGA 
 WUNV | WWET | WXVS | WPPR | WJWV | WACG | WABR | WWIO 



v • d • e
Television stations in the Atlanta market (Nielsen DMA #9)

WSB 2 (ABC) - WUVM-LP 4 (Azteca América) - WAGA 5 (Fox) - WGTV 8 (PBS/GPB) - WXIA 11 (NBC) - WPXA 14 (ION) - WTBS 17 (TBS) - WCLP 18 (PBS/GPB) - W24AL 24 (HSN) - WANX-LP 26 (Jewelry TV) - WPBA 30 (PBS) - WANN-LP 32 (Ind) - WNEG 32 (CBS) - WUVG 34 (UNI) - WATL 36 (MNTV) - W38CU 38 (TEL) - WIRE-CA 40 (MTV2) - WAGC-LP 42 (Ind) - WGCL 46 (CBS) - WDTA-LP 53 (DS) - WYGA 55 (Ind) - W55BM 55 (JCTV) - WATC 57 / WSKC-CA 22 (Religious) - WHSG 63 (TBN) - WUPA 69 (The CW)
Local digital television channels

WTHC-LP 42 (TIS)
Local/Regional cable/satellite television channels

SportSouth - FSN South - CSS - AIB - Cobb edTV (Cobb County)


Broadcast television in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville market  (Nielsen DMA #36)

WYFF 4 (NBC) (WX Plus) on DT2 - WSPA 7 (CBS) - WGTV 8 (PBS/GPB) - WLOS 13 (ABC) (The Tube) on DT2 - WGGS 16 (Rel./TBN) - WHNS 21 (Fox) - WNTV 29 / WNEH 38 / WRET 49 (PBS/SCETV) - W31AZ 31 / W50CL 50 / W50CZ 50 (TBN) - WNEG 32 (CBS) - WUNF 33 (PBS/UNC-TV) - WMYA 40 (MNTV) - WYCW 62 (The CW) - WAEN-LP 64 (A1) 
PBS Member Stations in the state of Georgia

GPB: WGTV 8 (Atlanta) - WXGA 8 (Waycross/Valdosta) - WVAN 9 (Savannah) - WABW 14 (Albany) - WCLP 18 (Dalton) - WCES 20 (Augusta) - WACS 25 (Dawson/Americus) - WJSP 28 (Columbus) - WMUM 29 (Macon)
Other: WPBA 30 (Atlanta)
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, and Other stations in Georgia
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