WACX

WACX (channel 55) is a religious independent television station licensed to Leesburg, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area. Locally owned by Associated Christian Television System, Inc., the station maintains studios on Central Parkway in Altamonte Springs, and its transmitter is located near Bithlo, Florida.

WACX
CityLeesburg, Florida
Channels
BrandingSuperChannel Orlando
Programming
Affiliations55.1: Religious Independent
for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
OwnerAssociated Christian Television System, Inc.
History
First air date
March 6, 1982 (1982-03-06)
Former call signs
WIYE (1982–1988)
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
55 (UHF, 1982–2006)
Digital:
40 (UHF, until 2020)
TBN (1990s–2006)
Call sign meaning
Associated Christian (referring to owner)
"X" = Christ
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID60018
ClassDT
ERP49.2 kW
HAAT510.5 m (1,675 ft)
Transmitter coordinates28°35′12.6″N 81°4′57.5″W
Translator(s)WACX-LD 32 Alachua/Gainesville
WJGV-CD 48.2 Palatka
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.superchannel.com

WACX operates on a commercial license, even though it, like most religious stations, is supported through donations from viewers. Its schedule consists primarily of national and local religious programming.[2]

The station's owner, Associated Christian Television System, Inc. is not the same entity as either American Christian Television Services, owner of WLMA in Lima, Ohio, or the defunct cable network the American Christian Television System.

History

WACX first signed on the air on March 6, 1982 as WIYE, operating on analog channel 55. However, it has roots in a local Christian cable station begun by Claud and Freeda Bowers in 1977.

Channel 55's signal originally didn't make it too far out of Lake County. However, the station had grown enough that by 1987 it was able to move to a new transmitter capable of 5 million watts of power, boosting its coverage area to the entire Central Florida area. It became WACX in 1988, and began branding itself as "SuperChannel 55" because at the time it was the only station airing at the maximum power allowed for a UHF station. (The WIYE calls now reside at a low-powered CBS affiliate in Parkersburg, West Virginia.)

From the 1990s through September 2006, WACX was affiliated with TBN, regularly airing select programs from the network; this affiliation ceased after TBN acquired its own station in the market. Since then, the station has regularly featured programming from The Inspiration Network (INSP) and periodically from God TV.

At one point, WACX controlled the SuperChannel TBN channel on the Sky Angel religious satellite service, but this was replaced with the national TBN service in 2006.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WACX[3]
Channel Video Aspect Short name Programming
55.1 480i16:9WACX-D1Main WACX programming
55.2 WACX-D2Aliento Vision
55.3 WACX-D3GEB America
55.4 WACX-D4SonLife
55.5 WACX-D5QVC Over the Air
55.6 WACX-D6Believer's Voice of Victory Network
55.7 WACX-D7LibreVisión
55.8 WACX-D8CBN News
55.9 WACX-D9QVC2
55.10 WACX-D10J.U.M.P. Global Network (JUMP Ministries)
55.11 WACX-D11Mega TV Orlando

Analog-to-digital conversion

WACX shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 55, in March 2006. The station's digital signal continued to be broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 40.[4] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 55, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

Translator

WACX presently operates a digital translator station which rebroadcasts its signal into the Gainesville–Ocala area. In addition, programming from WACX's main channel is carried on a digital subchannel of WJGV-CD (channel 48) in Palatka.[5]

City of license Callsign Channel ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates
AlachuaWACX-LD 3215 kW160 m (525 ft)16809129°37′47.″N 82°34′24″W

Former translators

Previously, WACX operated a network of analog translators which rebroadcast its signal into other parts of Florida:

Area served City of license Callsign Channel Notes
Tallahassee Madison W03AO 3 License cancelled on September 24, 2013[6]
Tallahassee WACX-LP 9 Sold to Restoration Place, Inc. in August 2011 (now WWRP-LP).[7]
Tampa Bay Lakeland WLWA-LP 14 Went dark on June 15, 2006 after losing its transmitter site;[8] license cancelled on April 24, 2009.[9]
Gainesville Alachua W69AY 69 Replaced with digital translator W40CQ-D (now WACX-LD);[10] license cancelled on March 27, 2009.[11]

Majesty Building
Main article: Majesty Building

In 2001, Claud Bowers, the general manager of WACX, began construction of the Majesty Building, an 18-story office building in Altamonte Springs. However, no work was done on the building, which has been dubbed "The I-4 Eyesore" by many locals in the area, for over a decade.[12] Construction largely resumed in 2018.

References
  1. "Facility Technical Data for WACX". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. "WACX-DT 55.1 Leesburg/Orlando Program Schedule". Superchannel.com. Associated Christian Television System. November 28, 2018.
  3. RabbitEars TV Query for WACX
  4. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  5. "Gospel Vision TV". Pentecostal Revival Association. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  6. "Facility Details « Licensing and Management System Admin « FCC". enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  7. FCC Public Notice Report #534: "Media Bureau Call Sign Actions", August 31, 2011. Archived October 30, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Notification of Suspension of Operations / Request for Silent STA". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. June 26, 2006. Retrieved May 25, 2009.
  9. Hashemzadeh, Hossein (April 24, 2009). "Re: WLWA-LP, Lakeland, FL" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved May 25, 2009.
  10. "Licensing and Management System". enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  11. "Facility Details « Licensing and Management System Admin « FCC". enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  12. "The 'I-4 Eyesore' has been under construction since 2001. It's showing glimmers of life". Tampa Bay Times. 2018-07-26. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.