WBNA

WBNA (channel 21) is an independent television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, owned by local charismatic megachurch Evangel World Prayer Center. The station's offices are located on Fern Valley Road (just north of State Route 1747) in Okolona, and its transmitter is located off Oakcrest Drive in Shepherdsville. As such, WBNA is the only full-power television station in the Louisville market whose transmitter facilities are not based at the Kentuckiana tower farm in Floyds Knobs, Indiana.

History

The station's construction permit was granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1978. Bob Rodgers, the station's president and the management of the station, associated with a 6,000-member Evangel Tabernacle congregation, intended for the station to go on the air on Christmas Day 1985, but technical problems with the transmission antenna prevented that from happening. After seven years of construction and technical errors, WBNA finally signed on the air on April 2, 1986, as the second full-power independent station in the Louisville market. Rodgers gave credit to Louisville engineer Clarance Henson for helping guide the church through the whole process of finally getting switched on.[1] WBNA's sign-on marked the first signal on analog channel 21 in Louisville since the demise of WKLO-TV, which operated as a dual ABC

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Daystar programming was previously carried on WBNA during overnight and some daytime timeslots, in place of Ion's paid programming and programs such as the weekend Knife Show home shopping block. Some of Ion's late night programming (past 11 p.m.) was carried on the Retro Television Network subchannel, while the main WBNA channel carried overnight religious programming.

Qubo was available on the fifth subchannel of WBNA. This made it one of the few stations not owned by Ion Media to carry the network.

In late July 2009, WBNA replaced the Ion-provided feed of The Worship Network on digital subchannel 21.4 with the Retro Television Network.[7] In October 2009, WBNA launched "The Light" on a sixth digital subchannel; the locally programmed service aired a mix of local church services and other worship programming, originally intermixed within the Daystar schedule, especially during time periods in which Daystar programming aired over the station's main channel.

Several changes occurred in late April 2011 in order to accommodate technical upgrades to transmit the station's main channel in 720p high definition: WBNA dropped Daystar and Ion Life, as well as their respective subchannel slots on 21.5 and 21.6; it also began carrying GOD TV programming over "The Light" and integrating the service onto digital channel 21.3. GOD TV and "The Light" programming now airs on WBNA's main channel during timeslots where Daystar programming previously aired, while in some early afternoon periods, the main channel carried RTV programming, which was eventually replaced with the rebroadcast of WAVE's midday newscast and Debmar-Mercury–distributed syndicated programs.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WBNA discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 21, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 8, using virtual channel 21. Channel 8, however, has been problematic for many digital TV stations. WBNA's lower power signal and shorter antenna tower in Bullitt County, Kentucky (shorter due to its relative position to the approaches to the two NNE-SSW runways at Louisville International Airport), delivers a much weaker city signal than the other full-power DTVs (and many low-power and Class A stations), which transmit from the 900 ft bluffs of Floyds Knobs, Indiana.[8][9] WBNA is only one of two Louisville television stations that broadcasts its post-transition digital signal on the VHF band, along with WHAS-TV (channel 11).

As part of the SAFER Act,[10] WBNA kept its analog signal on the air until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of

callsign	WBNA
branding	WBNA 21
digital	8 (VHF)
virtual	21
affiliations	21.1: Independent for others, see
owner	Evangel World Prayer Center
licensee	Word Broadcasting Network, Inc.
location	Louisville, Kentucky
country	United States
airdate	April 2, 1986
callsign meaning	Word Broadcasting Network Association
sister stations	W25GD-D
former channel numbers	Analog: 21 (UHF, 1986–2009)
former affiliations	Religious Ind. (1986–1995) The WB (1995–1999) Pax/i/Ion (1999–2017)
erp	27 kW 95 kW (CP)
haat	200 m
facility id	73692
coordinates	38.03306°N, -85.75472°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	https://www.wbna21.com/

History

Sports programming

Technical information

Subchannels

Analog-to-digital conversion

External links

References