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|---|---|
| City | Wake Forest, North Carolina |
| Channels | |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | TCT |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WLXI | |
| History | |
First air date | August 7, 1995 (1995-08-07) (inWilson, North Carolina; license moved to Wake Forest in 2018[2]) |
Former channel numbers |
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| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 10133 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 461.9 m (1,515 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°51′59″N79°10′0.5″W / 35.86639°N 79.166806°W /35.86639; -79.166806 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WRAY-TV (channel 30) is areligious television station licensed toWake Forest, North Carolina, United States, serving theResearch Triangle region as anowned-and-operated station ofTri-State Christian Television (TCT). The station's transmitter is located onTerrells Mountain nearChapel Hill. WRAY-TV maintained studios on Expressway Drive inWilson until TCT ended local operations in June 2018.
The station was given the call letters WEOU on February 18, 1992. However, the station was granted a license on April 14, 1995. It signed on August 7 as WRAY-TV, originally licensed toWilson, North Carolina, and was initially asemi-satellite of WFAY (channel 62; nowWFPX-TV), at that timeFayetteville'sFox affiliate; however, the station operated as anindependent station, as its signal overlapped withWLFL, at that timeRaleigh's Fox affiliate. WRAY's programming changed more towards home shopping upon its sale to Ramcast Corporation in 1997;[4] Ramcast quickly merged with the Global Shopping Network to become Global Broadcasting Systems, Inc.[5] However, Global Broadcasting Systems soon ran into financial trouble, and filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy on June 26, 1997.[6] Its assets, including WRAY, were sold to the rivalShop at Home Network in 1998.[7]
On May 16, 2006, Shop at Home parent theE. W. Scripps Company announced that the network would be suspending operations, effective June 22, 2006.[8] However, it temporarily ceased operations on June 21, and WRAY switched toJewelry Television (and, on June 23, a mixture of both networks), which remained until Scripps found a buyer for its stations.
On September 26, 2006, Scripps announced that it was selling its Shop at Home stations, including WRAY, toMulticultural Television ofNew York City for $170 million.[9] The sale of WRAY and sister stationsKCNS inSan Francisco and WOAC inCleveland was completed on December 20, 2006. Soon after the sale, all Shop at Home programming ceased in favor of a schedule consisting primarily ofinfomercials.
After Multicultural ran into financial problems and defaulted on its loans, the station was placed into a trust; in October 2009, a sale of WRAY-TV toMarion, Illinois–based Tri-State Christian Television (via subsidiary Radiant Light Ministries, which had earlier acquired WOAC (nowWRLM) from the trust), a chain of Christian television stations, was announced.[10]
WRAY-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 30, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 42, usingvirtual channel 30.[11]
On April 4, 2017, WRAY was identified by the FCC as receiving $41 million for thespectrum reallocation auction.[12] WRAY changed its city of license toWake Forest, North Carolina[2] and entered into a channel-sharing arrangement withWUNC-TV, along with sister station WLXI.[1] With the 2018 FCC repeal of the Main Studio Rule, WRAY-TV's studio in Wilson was closed as part of a nationwide restructuring of TCT's operations into one hub from its Illinois base.[13]
| License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WUNC-TV/WUNL-TV | 4.1/26.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | PBS NC | PBS |
| 4.2/26.2 | 480i | ROOTLE | PBS Kids Channel | ||
| 4.3/26.3 | UNC-EX | The Explorer Channel | |||
| 4.4/26.4 | NCCHL | The North Carolina Channel | |||
| WRAY-TV/WLXI | 30.1/43.1 | 1080i | WRAY/WLXI | TCT |