| Greensburg/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |
|---|---|
| Branding | Cornerstone Television |
| Slogan | God Is Here |
| Channels | Digital: 50 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Cornerstone Television |
| Owner | Cornerstone Television, Inc. |
| First air date | April 15, 1979 |
| Call letters' meaning | Western Pennsylvania Christian Broadcasting (original name of company) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 40 (1979-2009) |
| Transmitter power | 362 kW |
| Height | 264 m |
| Facility ID | 13924 |
| Transmitter coordinates | |
| Website | www.ctvn.org |
WPCB-TV is a Christian television station in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA DMA. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 50. It is licensed to Greensburg with studios and transmitter in Wall and is the home of Cornerstone Television, which originates most of its programs from the station. WPCB-TV programming is also seen on satellite station WKBS-TV, digital channel 46 in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
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In the 1960s, Rev. Russ Bixler was visiting the Virginia Beach area and came across 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 channel 22 in the 1970s, but lost to Commercial Radio Institute in 1975 (CRI would launch that station as secular independent WPTT three years later). Bixler then applied for 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 time to Christian organizations. Finally, on Easter Sunday, 1979, WPCB-TV began operations. The station was on the air for 15 hours a day initially, and within a year expanded to 24-hour operation. Programming consisted of several runs a day of the two hour edition of 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, television evangelists like Jimmy Swaggart, Rex Humbard, Oral Roberts, Jerry Fawell, and others, and some local church programs. The station also produced a local variety talk and music show, Getting Together. WPCB'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 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 noncommercial station WQEX, which would have required a sale of the channel 40 license. Paxson Communications made an offer to channel 40; if the deal went through, it would have been relaunched as a Pax TV affiliate. However, at that time the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) did not deem WPCB's religious programming as educational, and Cornerstone's application was withdrawn in 2000; channel 40 was then taken off the market.[1] A couple years later, the FCC reversed its position.
Russ Bixler died in 2000, and Ron Henbree, who hosted a program on WPCB, took over as the station's president. Henbree died in June 2010.
After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which took place on June 12, 2009, [1] WPCB remained on its pre-transition channel number 50. [2] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers displays WPCB's virtual channel as 40.
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