WATC-DT

Not to be confused withArgentina Televisora Color.

WATC-DT

Atlanta, Georgia United States
Channels	Digital:34 (UHF) Virtual:57
Branding	Atlanta's 57
Programming
Affiliations	57.1:ReligiousIndependent 57.2:The Point 57.3:The Loop
Ownership
Owner	Carolina Christian Broadcasting, Inc. (Community Television, Inc.)
Sister stations	WGGS-TV
History
Founded	September 10, 1986
First air date	April 14, 1996(1996-04-14)
Former call signs	WATC (1988–2009)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:57 (UHF, 1996–2009) Digital:41 (UHF, 2001–2020)
Call signmeaning	Atlanta Christian
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	13206
ERP	475kW
HAAT	307 m (1,007 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	34°3′59.3″N84°27′16.7″W
Translator(s)	36 (UHF)Union City(CP)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.watc.tv

WATC-DT(channel 57) is areligiousindependenttelevision stationinAtlanta, Georgia,United States. Owned by Carolina Christian Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on Enterprise Drive inNorcross,and its transmitter is located onSweat Mountainin northeasternCobb County,near theCherokee Countyline.

WATC broadcasts programming from various Christian organizations and local and national churches over its two main channels, includingWorld Harvest Television,The Inspiration Network,The Worship Network,Golden EagleandThe Shepherd's Chapel.Its third subchannel carries The Loop, a network made up of classic sitcoms, dramas, Westerns and films, all in thepublic domain.

History

WATC launched on September 10, 1996.

WATC granted permission tosimulcastits signal onWSKC-CA(channel 22, also licensed to Atlanta), so that station could maintain itsClass Astatus. WSKC-CA was located on the samebroadcast toweras WATC, and could continue broadcasting in analog even after WATC went digital-only in February 2009. However, it wasoff-airas of March 2009, and remained so for most of the year. Since then, the station has moved to transmit digitally from a location near Norcross as WSKC-CD, and now airsKoreanprogramming as it had previously done on analog before its affiliation with WATC.

Despite theDTV Delay Actextending the deadline from February 17 to June 12, the station ended analog service on the original date. On June 18, it changed itsbroadcast callsignfrom WATC a few days after theFederal Communications Commission(FCC) announced that TV stations were free to add or drop "-DT" as easily as "-TV". WATC received aconstruction permitfor a fill-inbroadcast translatorinUnion City, Georgia(southwestern metro Atlanta) on channel 36, which was vacated by analogWATL.It will have the same callsign as its parent station (with no extra numerals or other differentiation, despite not being asame-channel booster) and could not be sold separately, as it is within a program the FCC created in 2009 in order to address the shortcomings of theATSCdigitalbroadcast television system.Since ATSC is very prone tomultipath interference,this may be due toreflected signalsfrom theskyscrapersofdowntown Atlantaandmidtown Atlanta,as well asterrain shieldingof theChattahoochee Rivervalley and the hills around it.

The station formerly had a translator station, W42AO, licensed toAthens, Georgia.That station became WAGC-LD. Owner Carolina Christian Broadcasting, Inc. also ownsWGGS-TV,itssister stationinGreenville, South Carolina.

In early May 2011, the station added other religious programming called "WATC Too" on newchannel57.2.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of WATC

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
57.1	1080i	16:9	WATC-DT	Main WATC programming
57.2			POINT	Additional religious programming
57.3	480i		THELOOP	Lovers Of Old Programming
57.4			GR8RLOV	Greater Love TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

WATC shut down its analog signal, overUHFchannel 57, on February 17, 2009, to conclude thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41, usingvirtual channel57.

External links

• Official website