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Weigel to purchase Glen Iris Baptist's W16DS "Way TV"

Chad-Stevens

Chad-Stevens

This broke a week ago, but I hadn't seen anything about it yet: Weigel to acquire low-power TV station in Birmingham

The radio station's audio and nature scenes are still on 47.2, 47.1 is currently blank. I don't know if that's just their equipment glitching or if they'll get to lease a subchannel or two once Weigel takes over. I'll also note that their website still has the stream of their religious programming but now lists the church as both Glen Iris Baptist and Hope Fellowship Church.
Judging by their own programming, they as a small, older IFB congregation may no longer be able to afford the expenses of running a TV station and may be attempting a more youthful rebrand. I don't see anything on their website or socials about selling WAY-TV to Weigel nor about rebranding the church.
While I was never a follower of their broadcasting, I feel Birmingham's airwaves will be losing an important local connection if they go away. šŸ˜„
 
I wonder if the church might work out something with Weigel by which they could continue a presence on a W16DS subchannel, similar to what WWJS did with WHKY in Hickory NC, the difference here being that a religious broadcaster is selling their station to a secular entity, while with WWJS/WHKY, it was the other way around.

Interestingly, only the WWJS-14.1 subchannel is religious, the rest are secular. This practice is common among religious broadcasters. To my knowledge, however, Daystar doesn't do this, though they could. I've long maintained that WTSF Ashland KY could carve out a subchannel and work out a deal with WKYT Lexington to provide a "WKYT Plus" feed with news and other Kentucky-oriented programming, to serve a part of the state that is too far from Lexington for OTA reception, and which can't receive WYMT either.
 
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I'm really surprised and impressed that Glen Iris has kept the station alive as long as it has with having to flash cut it to digital and change channels due to spectrum auctions.
If they lease subchannels from Weigel after the sale, would they be able to continue PSIP as channel 47 while whatever (presumably commercial) networks that Weigel brings PSIP as a separate channel like 16?
 
Checking up on WAY TV this morning, 47.1 is still blank and 47.2 still has the nature scenes but no audio. Before the Weigel sale was announced, their broadcasts glitched all the time - like Windows error messages displayed on screen for hours at a time - so I suspect that's what is happening here.
While we're at it, I'll note that Frazer UMC Montgomery's webpage seemingly no longer mentions their TV station WFRZ. Their "Frazer TV" page lists a bunch of full power TV stations that air their services, but no mentions of channel 34. Meanwhile, TV listings websites still list a daily broadcast schedule for WFRZ. I know they sold the station in 2025, but now I'm not sure if they still do any programming of it.
 
Chad-Stevens said:
Checking up on WAY TV this morning, 47.1 is still blank and 47.2 still has the nature scenes but no audio. Before the Weigel sale was announced, their broadcasts glitched all the time - like Windows error messages displayed on screen for hours at a time - so I suspect that's what is happening here.
While we're at it, I'll note that Frazer UMC Montgomery's webpage seemingly no longer mentions their TV station WFRZ. Their "Frazer TV" page lists a bunch of full power TV stations that air their services, but no mentions of channel 34. Meanwhile, TV listings websites still list a daily broadcast schedule for WFRZ. I know they sold the station in 2025, but now I'm not sure if they still do any programming of it.
Click to expand...
I know I'm late to this, but I'm wondering about WFRZ's programming as well. In their sale agreement with Oasis Television Ministries, there was a section stating that as part of the sale, Greater Love TV would be carried for one hour a week for the next 45 (!) years. I'm wondering if that was a mistake and it was supposed to say that Frazer UMC was guaranteed a one hour slot for that timeframe. Rabbitears lists three subchannels all with Greater Love TV.

I'm also following for updates on the Glen Iris Baptist low power station's sale to Weigel. I think they're also acquiring (or have a CP) for a station in the Mobile market as well.
 
I just checked up on WAY TV and it's still the same situation: 47.1 is blank and 47.2 has the nature scenes but no audio. Both streams are working correctly on their website. Their radio stream has always been an HLS video one with the nature footage, which has to use a lot more bandwidth than just streaming audio would use.
Right now they're showing one of their church services that visibly has to be from the early to mid 1990s where letters - actual paper ones in envelopes - from supporters of their broadcasts are being read. šŸ„²
 
Chad-Stevens said:
I just checked up on WAY TV and it's still the same situation: 47.1 is blank and 47.2 has the nature scenes but no audio. Both streams are working correctly on their website. Their radio stream has always been an HLS video one with the nature footage, which has to use a lot more bandwidth than just streaming audio would use.
Right now they're showing one of their church services that visibly has to be from the early to mid 1990s where letters - actual paper ones in envelopes - from supporters of their broadcasts are being read. šŸ„²
Click to expand...
Sounds like 47.1 should be called ā€œNo WAY TVā€!
 


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