 | |
| City | Greenville, South Carolina |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding | WGGS-TV 16 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Carolina Christian Broadcasting, Inc. |
| WWYA-LD | |
| History | |
First air date | October 29, 1972 (52 years ago) (1972-10-29) |
Former channel number(s) |
|
Call sign meaning | "We're Greenville's Gospel Station" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 9064 |
| ERP | 125 kW |
| HAAT | 354 m (1,161 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 34°56′26.4″N82°24′40.4″W / 34.940667°N 82.411222°W /34.940667; -82.411222 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | wggs16 |
WGGS-TV (channel 16) is areligiousindependent television station licensed toGreenville, South Carolina, United States, servingUpstate South Carolina andWestern North Carolina. Owned by Carolina Christian Broadcasting, it issister toHonea Path–licensedlow-powerMovies! affiliate WWYA-LD (channel 28). The two stations share studios on Rutherford Road inTaylors, South Carolina; WGGS-TV's transmitter is located atParis Mountain State Park (just outside Greenville).
The station first signed on the air on October 29, 1972. It is the oldest independent station in the state of South Carolina, and was also the first new commercial station to sign on in the Greenville–Spartanburg–Asheville market sinceCBS affiliateWSPA-TV (channel 7) signed on in April 1956. Carolina Christian Broadcasting has owned the station for its entire existence.
The station initially ran a mixture ofsecular general entertainment programming for half the broadcast day (which over the years had mainly featured classic series such asThe Lone Ranger,The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,The Brady Bunch,Dennis the Menace,The Donna Reed Show,Leave It to Beaver,Father Knows Best andRawhide, as well asLittle Rascals,Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies andPopeye shorts) and Christian-related religious programming for the other half. It aired a larger amount of secular programming on Saturdays, and exclusively carried religious programs on Sundays. The station's programming policy, then as now, was veryconservative in regards to content so as not to offend the sensibilities of its mostlyfundamentalist andPentecostal viewership.
WGGS came under fire for allegedly using a copyrighted name for one of its locally produced programs afterABC premiered the newsmagazineNightline in 1980; this was despite the fact that the program used the titleNiteline long beforeNightline's existence. Some of WGGS' other local productions at the time included the exercise programBeverly Exercise; a talk show hosted by Peggy Denny and thechildren's programDrick's Follies (running during the 1980s and 1990s), which featuredpublic domaincartoon shorts from the 1930s to the 1950s.
In the early 1980s, Carolina Christian Broadcasting signed on two more stations: WCCT (nowWACH) inColumbia and WGSE (nowWFXB) inMyrtle Beach. WCCT produced its own version ofNiteline once a week, and aired WGGS' version during the rest of the week. WCCT and WGSE aired far more cartoons, bartertalk andgame shows, andsitcoms than WGGS did, with Christian programming comprising only about a third of the schedules of both. Both stations were later sold off to secular interests (both WACH and WFXB are now affiliates ofFox; WACH is now owned by theSinclair Broadcast Group and WFXB is now owned byBahakel Communications).
WGGS was the only independent station in the western Carolinas until the winter of 1979, when WAIM-TV (channel 40, nowMyNetworkTV affiliateWMYA-TV) lost its secondary ABC affiliation and reformatted itself as independent station WAXA. WGGS began to phase out secular programs from its lineup in 1982, a process that sped up whenWHNS (channel 21, now a Fox affiliate) signed on in April 1984. By 1986, the station almost entirely ran Christian-oriented religious programs. WGGS did acquire some additional secular cartoons and barter sitcoms to air during the late afternoons from 3 to 6 p.m. in the early 1990s, but by 1999, the station was back to airing a schedule almost entirely made up of religious programming. The station also turned down an offer byPaxson Communications to affiliate withPax TV in 1998. The station originally signed off on a nightly basis until the early 1990s, when it reduced its off-hours to late Sunday night/early Monday mornings; channel 16 began broadcasting on a 24-hour schedule in late 1999.
Even after the digital television transition, WGGS' transmitter only providesgrade B signal coverage to the North Carolina portion of the market. From the late 1970s until 1984, WGGS operated alow-powertranslator in Asheville on UHF channel 21. This was necessary in the days before there was significantcable penetration in the Greenville–Spartanburg–Asheville market. When this translator was displaced by WHNS when it signed on in 1984, WGGS reached a deal with the owners of WASV-TV (channel 62, nowWYCW) in Asheville, to operate it as a full-powersatellite until it was sold in 1995 to former WHNS ownerPappas Telecasting Companies.
WGGS-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 16, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 35 to channel 16.[2]
On April 13, 2017, the FCC announced that WGGS participated in the 2016–17spectrum reallocation auction and will be compensated $44.3 million to move its signal to the Low-VHF band.[3] On September 6, 2019, WGGS transitioned from channel 16 to channel 2. In September 2023, WGGS petitioned the FCC for a move to UHF channel 29, citing reception issues and viewer complaints in its immediate broadcast area since the move to VHF 2.[4] The petition was granted on March 4, 2024,[5] and the move was completed on November 2.[citation needed]
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The station's schedule almost entirely consists of Christian programming. WGGS airs many shows hosted bytelevangelists, such asJim Bakker,Benny Hinn,Kenneth Copeland,James Robison andJoyce Meyer as well as shows such asThe 700 Club,In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley and some locally produced programming such as the local Christian talk/variety showNiteline.
Tammy Faye Messner, the ex-wife of formerPTL andHeritage USA founder Jim Bakker, announced plans for a cooking show calledYou Can Make It! which began airing in May 2006 (Messner died ofcancer in July 2007, but the show remains in production with a different host). The few secular programs on the station includeinfomercials, wildlife sporting programs, family-oriented public domain television series (such asThe Cisco Kid,Scaly Adventures, andThe Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet), and home improvement, health and fitness programs (such asP. Allen Smith Garden Style). The station also airs some Christian-oriented children's programming as well as a few programs (such asPraise the Lord) sourced from theTrinity Broadcasting Network—which does not have a full-time affiliate nor anowned-and-operated station in the Greenville–Spartanburg–Asheville market (however, the network's national feed is carried onCharter Spectrum and select other cable providers). Like many religious independents of its format, WGGS does not carry secular programming on Sundays, opting to air bible instruction shows, local church services and televangelist programs.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WGGS-HD | ReligiousInd. |
| 16.2 | 480i | Walk | Outlaw | |
| 16.3 | SBN | Sonlife | ||
| 16.4 | IONPLUS | Ion Plus | ||
| 16.5 | TRUREAL | Start TV | ||
| 16.6 | Laff | Laff | ||
| 16.7 | COURT | Court TV | ||
| 16.8 | 4:3 | GETTV | Busted | |
| 16.9 | 16:9 | QVC | QVC | |
| 16.10 | 4:3 | JEWELRY | Defy | |
| 16.11 | 16:9 | Walk | The Walk TV |