WCES-TV

WCES-TV
Wrens-Augusta, Georgia
Branding GPB
Slogan Bringing You the Best
Channels Digital: 6 (VHF)
Subchannels

20.1 - GPB/PBS HD (1080i)
20.2 - GPB Create TV (480i)

20.3 - GPB Knowledge (480i)
Translators W11DD-D 11 Hartwell/Royston
Affiliations PBS
Owner Georgia Public Broadcasting
(Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission)
First air date September 12, 1966 (1966-09-12)
Call letters' meaning W Central-
East Georgia and
South Carolina
Former channel number(s) 20 (UHF analog, 1966–2009)
2 (VHF digital, 2003–2009)
Former affiliations NET (1966–1970)
Transmitter power 30 kW
Height 436 m
Facility ID 23937
Transmitter coordinates 33°15′32.9″N 82°17′7.5″W / 33.259139°N 82.285417°W / 33.259139; -82.285417
Website www.gpb.org/

WCES-TV channel 20 is a non-commercial educational television station licensed to Wrens, Georgia, USA. WCES-TV is part of the Georgia Public Broadcasting public television network and carries programming from PBS, GPB and other sources. The station serves Augusta and the surrounding east-central Georgia and west-central South Carolina area, along the Savannah River valley (also known locally as the "Georgia-Lina" region). WCES-TV's transmitter and radio antenna are located in Wrens, its city of license.

The station chose to keep its digital on channel 2 in the first-round digital channel election, but requested channel 6 in the third round. This is because the low VHF (band I) has a lot of RF noise, which is worst on the lowest channels.

The radio tower is a 446.7-meter-high guyed mast, located at 33°15'34"N and 82°17'8"W. It was built in 1966.

Digital programming

WCES-TV broadcasts the following digital subchannels:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming
20.1 1080i 16:9 Main GPB programming / PBS
20.2 480i 4:3 Create TV
20.3 4:3 GPB Knowledge

Translators

Both translators are or were located near the state's border with South Carolina, in areas where coverage from a full-powered GPB transmitter is insufficient, due to the distance from the main transmitters and the hilly terrain in northeast Georgia.

W22AC was temporarily off-air for two months in early 2008, when GPB broadcast engineers had to borrow its TV transmitter to get WACS-TV back on-air. That station was destroyed by a tornado in March 2007, and had to begin broadcasting again within a year, or its license would have been automatically canceled by law.

History

WCES-TV channel 20 began on September 12, 1966 on the National Educational Television (NET) TV network as the sixth educational station in Georgia as the 5th station of the statewide network and on October 5, 1970 it and all nine stations affiliated to NET in Georgia became part of the new Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Public television network. Its digital TV signal on channel 2 started in 2003.

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/27/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.