WGTW-TV

WGTW-TV, channel 48, is a Trinity Broadcasting Network-owned and operated television station licensed to Burlington, New Jersey, USA and serving the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. With studios in suburban Folcroft, Pennsylvania, and transmitter in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia, WGTW's signal covers portions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

History

Channel 48 was once the home of WKBS-TV, which operated from September 1965 until August 1983, when owner Field Communications voluntarily took the station off-the-air and returned its license to the Federal Communications Commission. Six months later, the FCC put channel 48's frequency back up for auction. Among those bidding on the open channel were Dorothy Brunson, an African-American radio executive and station owner from Baltimore; Sinclair Broadcast Group, another Baltimore-based firm; and Cornerstone Television, a Christian television network based in Pittsburgh. After a two-year process, the auction ended with Brunson winning a construction permit in February 1986. During the interim, Cornerstone purchased channel 48's transmitter, moved it to Altoona, and used it to sign on a new station in 1985 on channel 47, ironically enough under the WKBS-TV call letters.

A WGTW-TV logo, circa 2003 (taken from the station's now-defunct website).

Channel 48 signed back on the air on August 15, 1992, under the call letters WGTW-TV, an independent station. Initially the station ran public domain movies, infomercials (including religious programs), and home-shopping programs. By 1994, WGTW had a larger variety of programming, including off-network series, first-run syndicated shows, and children's programs. The station also aired NBC daytime programs that were pre-empted by then-affiliate KYW-TV (channel 3). However, by 2001, many of WGTW's classic shows were no longer available, and the financial restraints of ownership made the station unable to acquire better syndicated programming. As a result, WGTW moved to more paid programming but still retained some general entertainment programs.

In 2004, Brunson sold the station to the Trinity Broadcasting Network and on October 1 of that year, the station switched to TBN programming. TBN is known for purchasing television stations so that the network could get must-carry status on area cable systems, despite offering almost no local programming. However, WGTW (like all TBN stations) does broadcast two hours of original local programming weekly: a public-affairs show called Joy in Our Town and a local version of Praise the Lord, TBN's flagship program.

WKBS/WGTW license facts conflict

WGTW operates under the same allocation, or place on the TV broadcast spectrum, as WKBS-TV, but not under the same license. Although Brunson did purchase the same license that WKBS-TV vacated from the FCC, WKBS' license expired on June 1, 1984, and was never renewed. The current Channel 48 license is a new construction permit for WGTW, dating from July 14, 1988.

News operation

In 2002, WGTW launched an hour-long news and public affairs show, known as "48 Update", which aired weeknights at 7:00 p.m.. The final edition of "48 Update" aired on October 1, 2004, one hour before the station switched to TBN programming after its sale to Trinity.

This station's digital signal, like most other full-service TBN owned-and-operated stations, carries five different TBN-run networks.

TBN-owned full-power stations permanently ceased analog transmissions on April 16, 2009.

External links

• TBN Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WGTW-TV