| Wrens-Augusta, Georgia | |
|---|---|
| Branding | GPB |
| Slogan | Bringing You the Best |
| Channels | Digital: 6 (VHF) |
| Subchannels |
20.1 - GPB/PBS HD (1080i) |
| Translators | W11DD-D 11 Hartwell/Royston |
| Network | PBS |
| Owner | Georgia Public Broadcasting (Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission) |
| First air date | September 12, 1966 |
| Call letters' meaning | W Central- East Georgia and South Carolina |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 20 (1966 September 12 to 2009 February 17) Digital: 2 (2003-2009) |
| Former affiliations | NET (1966-1970) |
| Transmitter power | 30 kW |
| Height | 436 m |
| Facility ID | 23937 |
| Website | www.gpb.org/ |
WCES-TV channel 20 is a non-commercial educational television station licensed to Wrens, Georgia, USA. WCES-TV is part of the Georgia Public Broadcasting public television network and carries programming from PBS, GPB and other sources. The station serves Augusta and the surrounding east-central Georgia and west-central South Carolina area, along the Savannah River valley (also known locally as the "Georgia-Lina" region). WCES-TV's transmitter and radio antenna are located in Wrens, its city of license.[1]
The station chose to keep its digital on channel 2 in the first-round digital channel election, but requested channel 6 in the third round. This is because the low VHF (band I) has a lot of RF noise, which is worst on the lowest channels.
The radio tower is a 446.7-meter-high guyed mast, located at 33°15'34"N and 82°17'8"W. It was built in 1966.[2]
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Both translators are or were 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 terrain in northeast Georgia.
W22AC was temporarily off-air for two months in early 2008, when GPB broadcast engineers had to borrow its TV transmitter to get WACS-TV back on-air. That station was destroyed by a tornado in March 2007, and had to begin broadcasting again within a year, or its license would have been automatically canceled by law.
WCES-TV channel 20 began on September 12, 1966 on the National Educational Television (NET) TV network and on October 5, 1970 it and all nine stations affiliated to NET in Georgia became part of the new Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Public television network. Its digital TV signal on channel 2 started in 2003.
WCES-TV broadcasts the following digital subchannels:
| Channel | Label | Format | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | GPB (mainly PBS) main programming, with HDTV content | |
| 20.2 | 480i | 16:9 | GPB Kids (PBS Kids) in windowboxed SD, since January 2009 Formerly main GPB programming in SD and GPB Radio on SAP, changed in mid-December 2008 to a placeholder station ID for future GPB Kids |
|
| 20.3 | 480i | 4:3 | GPB Knowledge (mainly PBS World) in letterboxed SDTV |
Programming is the same on all nine stations, but channel labels differ somewhat between them.
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