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WRBJ-TV 34 sold to Trinity Broadcasting

Keep your eye on the program "Behind the Scenes" if you have TBN on cable or Sat. They usually announce things like station transfers and upgrades to stations on that program. Behind the Scenes is on TBN at 7:00 PM CT. Just remember that these folks talk about a lot of things and if they are going to publicize the transfer of Channel 34 it will be there.
 
I ran across this on Facebook:

On October 22, 2012, Roberts announced that it had sold WRBJ to Trinity Broadcasting Network. Once the sale is approved by the FCC, WRBJ will drop all secular and CW network program and become a full-time satellite of TBN.

The key thing that is to happen next is FCC approval of the transfer. That hasn't happened yet. And it may not happen today. Those of you on Comcast should know that maybe Comcast may jump the gun.
 
The transfer of WRBJ-TV from Roberts Broadcasting to Trinity Broadcasting has been approved by the FCC. It was approved yesterday January 23,2013. The next thing to watch for is when TBN will take over operations.
 
Last night on "Behind the Scenes" they were talking about the purchase of the other station they bought in Galesburg Ill. During the conversation they were talking about number 37 which they said was in the pipeline. Number 37 is WRBJ-TV. So there will be a special guest to Channel 34's studio in the near future after they convert over to TBN.
 
Don't expect anything until the first week of February. The closing date is anywhere 10 days after the license is granted and the approval of the bankruptcy court is obtained. Sometime in February you should hear when the changeover will take place. This is according to the sales contract as filed with the FCC.
 
Any Idea who might get CW? I seldom watch 34 due to its transmitter location, but I might start if they put it on a full power Jackson station or sub. I wish 34 and 35 would broadcast in HD. 35 cuts the sides off and CW letterboxes everything. And now WDBD is showing some shows in stretch-vision with commercials in "squeeze-o-vision. I've also seen the skinny shows on 35 and 40.2 when they break away from the network late night. very annoying.
 
The approval of the sale of CW34 to TBN was listed on the Broadcast actions report today at the FCC. The Report number is broadcast actions Report no.47913. I found this at FCC.gov . So I guess this is the official word from the FCC.

A note about "Behind the Scenes" on TBN. These reports are video taped probably 2 or 3 days ahead of time. Tonight they showed a new station that they have been working on in Columbus, Ohio. Paul Crouch did mention something about the Bankruptcy Judge Approval in St Louis of the WRBJ-TV transaction but as far as they knew when the program was taped it was still with the FCC. So we are a few days ahead on the info curve of the viewers of TBN and in a day or two everyone will be on the same page.
 
Paul Crouch at the end of "Behind the Scenes" on 02/14/2013 acknowledged the fact that "The Lord has just given us number 37, a Station in the capital, Jackson, MS". Brother Crouch said we were on the air but I see no evidence that WRBJ-TV has dropped the CW for TBN yet.

So the next thing is the transfer of CW34 to TBN and we don't know when that will happen.

Also, there is the matter of a license renewal application started by Roberts Broadcasting of Mississippi for Channel 34 that must be approved by the FCC. It seems like every station in this part of the Country is renewing their license around this time judging by the applications filed. So stay tuned.
 
I think two things are in play right now with WRBJ:

1. They have to get the satellite link established and configured to receive Trinity's "mothership" signal for rebroadcast. It might be possible to just reconfigure the dish they've used to pull the feed from Roberts Broadcasting's central hub in St. Louis, but who knows.

2. We're in the middle of February Nielsen sweeps. I would think CW would ask the new owners to allow CW to stay until the sweeps are concluded at the end of primetime on the 27th.

I get the feeling that CW will leave WRBJ sometime on or near the 1st of March and Trinity will starting airing then.

Given that the FCC has already accepted the assignment of license. I think the license renewal really won't play a part here. It's just the normal thing that has to be done every few years. Since Trinity appears to be much better than Roberts in managing their FCC licenses, I think the approval will go through rather smoothly.
 
TBN must also reconfigure the digital transmitter at Channel 34 for carrying the main Channel and 4 subchannels (TBN, the Church Channel, JCTV, The Smile of a Child, and Enlace). If you are familiar with TBN in Memphis and Mobile, this is how those stations are configured.
 
I do not know what is happening but WRBJ-TV is currently off the air on this Monday morning, 2/25/2013 at 1:30 AM. It could be that there was something technical that needed doing by the present ownership or TBN is changing over the transmitter, satellite feed, and perhaps a STL to Jackson and maybe other equipment so TBN can start broadcasting their programming later this morning. Even Directv said there was technical difficulties when I tuned the channel in early this morning. I did confirm this by tuning in Channel 34 and there was no signal. CW34 comes in pretty well in these parts because their Transmitter is 19 miles south of Forest in Smith Co. If you hear a preacher that you can hear on Satellite or Cable and it is TBN or The Church Channel or Enlace or JCTV or The Smile of a Child later this morning it means TBN has taken over, and CW34 is no more.
 
I confirm that at 5:40am this morning, Dish Network is also showing the channel unavailable screen. Interesting...
 
As of 12pm, WRBJ is back on with Dish Network. However, I cannot pull in WRBJ OTA because my attic antenna can't pull it in, due to being pointed to Raymond for the other 6 full power stations.

WRBJ still has the CW34 logo and playing the usual syndicated shows. It would be interesting to see if maybe some subchannels have been added for Trinity in preparation for the final transition.
 
Off topic but WXMS 27 appears to have left the air. Since simulcasting on 40.2 it really not needed. It would have made a great satelite for WRBJ for viewers who have antennas pointed towards jackson instead of Magee. Speaking of ch 40 , has anyone noticed the weird things they have been doing lately on both channels. Late night on 40.2 they insert a "Friends" episode which often starts after the MeTV show has already started. They are also showing this and some of the local commercials "squeeze" in skinny vision. WDBD is now showing SD content in Stretch-O-Vison which is annoying. one of the strangest is on Saturday they have a show called "Edgmont" that is in stretch-o-vision but is also cropped to 4:3 at the same time, leaving only the extreme center of the frame visible to viewrs. Unwatchable (no big loss, Edgmont is awful anyway). They also have commercials that cue up during the middle of the show. They did it during American Idol last week. The same thing happens on 40.2. While watching Gunsmoke, I missed a critical element of the plot when a commercial started. When they went back to the show they were already on the epilouge, without ever finding out how the show ended. The commercials also run long and are shown in "Squeeze-O-Vision. Very annoying.
 
WRBJ is off the air again at 4:54am Wednesday morning. Apparently, there is some more maintenance work going on...
 
Yeah, the picture got clearer since Monday. Whatever they did should have been done back when they flash cut to digital back in 2009.
 
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