WJAL

WJAL, virtual channel 68 (VHF digital channel 9), is a SonLife Broadcasting Network-affiliated television station serving the American capital city of Washington, District of Columbia that is licensed to Silver Spring, Maryland. Owned by Entravision Communications, it is a sister station to Washington-licensed low-power, Class A UniMás affiliate WMDO-CD (channel 47); Entravision also operates Arlington, Virginia-licensed Univision-owned station WFDC-DT (channel 14) under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with the Univision Local Media subsidiary of Univision Communications. The three stations share studios on Constitution Avenue near the Capitol Building; WJAL shares transmitter facilities with Washington-licensed CBS affiliate WUSA (channel 9) on Wisconsin Avenue in the Tenleytown section of northwest Washington.[2]

Not to be confused with WJLA-TV.

WJAL
Silver Spring, Maryland/Washington, D.C.
United States
CitySilver Spring, Maryland
ChannelsDigital: 9 (VHF)
(shared with WUSA)
Virtual: 68 (PSIP)
Programming
AffiliationsSonLife Broadcasting Network
Ownership
OwnerEntravision Communications
(Entravision Holdings, LLC)
Sister stationsWFDC-DT, WMDO-CD
History
First air dateAugust 1, 1984 (1984-08-01)
(in Hagerstown, Maryland; license moved to Silver Spring in 2017[1])
Former channel number(s)Analog:
68 (UHF, 1984–2009)
Digital:
16 (UHF, 2005–2009)
39 (UHF, 2009–2017)
Former affiliationsIndependent (1984–1995, 1998–2017)
The WB (1995–1998)
LATV (2017–2018)
Heartland (2018)
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID10259
ClassDT
ERP52 kW
HAAT235.6 m (773 ft)
Transmitter coordinates38°57′1″N 77°4′46″W
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS

History

As a Hagerstown station

The station first broadcast on August 1, 1984, originally licensed to Hagerstown, Maryland as that city's third television station (after WHAG-TV and WWPB). It was also the fourth independent station in the Washington DMA (after WTTG, WDCA, and WCQR) and the first independent in the market outside the core city of Washington. Despite being licensed to Hagerstown (and assigned by Nielsen to the Washington television market), WJAL's offices were located in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (within the Harrisburg market), and its transmitter was located 15 miles (24 km) west of Chambersburg, atop Tuscarora Mountain near the town of McConnellsburg.

WJAL was the Washington market's charter WB affiliate when the network launched on January 11, 1995. Six weeks later, The WB added WFTY (channel 50, now CW affiliate WDCW), based in Washington proper. As WJAL had a largely rural coverage area far from Washington, both stations aired the network's programming.[3] The station ended its WB affiliation on September 14, 1998, as management felt its programming did not fit with their family-friendly image.[4]

In 2001, Good Companion Broadcasting, a Christian broadcasting non-profit organization, sold WJAL-TV to Entravision for $10.3 million.[5][6] The main impetus of the purchase of WJAL for Entravision was to attempt to move the station's license to Silver Spring, Maryland as a replacement for its low-power WMDO-CA (now digital WMDO-CD), which at the time was a Univision affiliate.[7] WJAL first attempted to move its then-proposed digital signal on channel 16 to Silver Spring in 2002. The application was denied as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) determined local television service to Hagerstown would be unfairly affected. The proposed signal would also cause unacceptable interference to adjacent channel 17, which is used for public safety services in Washington. Entravision submitted an appeal in 2006, as it had changed WJAL's choice for its post-digital-transition channel from 16 to 39. By this time, the FCC had decided to stop considering the relocation of a station's city of license in preparation for the 2009 digital television transition. After the freeze, the FCC decided it would no longer support such a move and dismissed the application in 2012.[8][9] Thus, WJAL continued to run a family-friendly English format for Hagerstown, a market with a traditionally low need for a Spanish-language outlet.

Spectrum sale and channel-sharing agreement; move to Washington

In the FCC's incentive auction, WJAL sold its channel 39 allocation for $25,492,333 and indicated that it would enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement.[10] On July 28, 2017, WJAL submitted a channel-sharing agreement with WUSA (channel 9).[2] WJAL retained its existing callsign and virtual channel number, but moved its city of license to Silver Spring, Maryland.[11][1] The over-the-air signal from Tuscarora Mountain went dark at midnight on September 30, 2017, and the station immediately moved to WUSA's transmitter in the early morning of October 1.[12][13]

Although Entravision's stated goal was to convert WJAL to a UniMas affiliate, WJAL broadcast LATV instead. Entravision and Univision Communications entered into a 16-year joint sales agreement on January 1, 2006, under which Entravision operates Univision affiliate WFDC (channel 14). Current UniMás affiliate WMDO-CD (channel 47) is additionally bound to the network until the contract's expiration on December 31, 2021.[14] A provision prohibiting Entravision from operating another station with a "Spanish-language format" in the Washington market was removed in a revision that took effect on the first weekday after the channel-share was implemented, October 2, 2017, allowing WJAL to air LATV.[15]

In May 2018, WJAL switched its affiliation to the Heartland network. LATV has since returned to its previous location on WMDO-CD's second subchannel. WJAL flipped again to the brokered SonLife Broadcasting Network on June 15, joining WWTD-LD as the second SBN station in Washington.[16]

Digital television

Digital channel
Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[17]
68.1720p16:9WJALDTSonLife Broadcasting Network

Analog-to-digital conversion

WJAL shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 68, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 39.[18] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 68, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

Programming

Until its move to Washington, WJAL aired a mix of religious programming (especially on Sundays), public affairs programming, syndicated shows, sitcom reruns, movies, and children's programs.

WJAL produced a local newscast from the end of its WB affiliation in 1998 through October 2001, when it was suspended due to financial issues.[4][19]

Until 2016, the station also carried West Virginia Tonight from WBOY-TV in Clarksburg, West Virginia; the program moved to WHAG-TV after WHAG's owner, Nexstar Broadcasting Group, acquired the West Virginia Media Holdings stations.

gollark: That's not biased at all!
gollark: If you can't actually use avaritia then don't add it, it'd just be a waste of RAM.
gollark: What won't happen?
gollark: Just don't add it, and see what doesn't happens.
gollark: Insanely overpowered stuff which is BaLanCeD because it takes more effort.

References
  1. "Amendment to Technical Summary Exhibit" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. August 24, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
  2. "Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTV Application". Federal Communications Commission. July 28, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  3. Carmody, John (February 17, 1995). "The TV Column". Washington Post.
  4. Kirby, Brendan (August 14, 1998). "WJAL to offer local broadcast". Hagerstown Herald-Mail.
  5. Hempel, Jessi (August 12, 2004). "The IRS Calls Nonprofits to Account". BusinessWeek.
  6. Good Companion Broadcasting Company (2000). "Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax" (pdf). Guidestar.
  7. Schotz, Andrew (October 18, 2011). "WJAL-TV wants to move license from Hagerstown to Silver Spring". The Herald-Mail, Hagerstown, Maryland. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  8. Genachowski, Julius (August 4, 2011). "Application for Review" (PDF). Letter to Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin.
  9. Lake, WIlliam. "Re: Application for Review" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission.
  10. "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Auction 1001 Winning Bids" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. April 4, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  11. "WJAL Channel Facility Information" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. July 28, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  12. Fitch, Jennifer (September 28, 2017). "Hagerstown-based WJAL to go dark after government acquisition". Hagerstown Herald-Mail.
  13. "WJAL Facility Data".
  14. "Entravision-UCI Joint Sales Agreement, January 1, 2006". FCC LMS.
  15. "Entravision-UCI Joint Sales Agreement, October 2, 2017" (PDF). FCC Public Inspection File.
  16. "Jimmy Swaggart on Facebook".
  17. RabbitEars TV Query for WJAL
  18. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  19. Greene, Julie (February 1, 2002). "Financial woes hit area TV stations". Hagerstown Herald-Mail.
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