WNBJ-LD

WNBJ-LD, virtual channel 39 (UHF digital channel 16), is a low-powered dual NBC/CW+-affiliated television station licensed to Jackson, Tennessee, United States. The station is owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting. WNBJ-LD's studios are located on North Highland Avenue, and its transmitter is located near the corner of Commerce and Iselin streets, both in downtown Jackson.

WNBJ-LD

Jackson, Tennessee
United States
ChannelsDigital: 16 (UHF)
Virtual: 39 (PSIP)
BrandingNBC 39 (general)
NBC 39 News (newscasts)
West Tennessee's CW 39 (on LD2)[1]
My H&I 39 (on LD3)[2]
SloganNBC For Mid-West Tennessee
Dare to Defy (LD2)
Programming
Affiliations39.1: NBC
39.2: CW+[3][4]
39.3: H&I/MNTV
Ownership
OwnerSagamoreHill Broadcasting
(sale to Standard Media pending[5])
(SagamoreHill of Jackson, LLC)
History
FoundedFebruary 22, 2011
First air dateOctober 2, 2014 (2014-10-02)
(on Dish Network)
November 6, 2014 (2014-11-06)
(Over-the-air)
Former call signsW16DE-D (2011–2014) (CP)
Call sign meaningW NBC for Jackson
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID185218
ClassLD
ERP15 kW
HAAT79 m (259 ft)[6]
Transmitter coordinates35°36′11.3″N 88°47′52.2″W
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
Websitewww.wnbjtv.com
"West Tennessee's CW 39" (LD2)

On cable, the station is available on Spectrum channels 15 (standard definition) and 715 (high definition), and on Jackson Energy Authority (JEA) Broadband channels 4 (SD) and 188 (HD). It is also carried on Dish Network channel 6 and DirecTV channel 6.[7][8][9] WNBJ-LD2 is available on Spectrum channels 2 (SD) and 713 (HD), and on JEA Broadband channels 21 (SD) and 221 (HD);[10] WNBJ-LD3 is available on JEA Broadband channel 197 (SD) but still remains unavailable on Spectrum; neither of the subchannels are carried on Dish or DirecTV.

History

Plans for an NBC affiliate in Jackson originated with the 2011 acquisition of former TBN repeater W35AH channel 35[11] from the Minority Media and Television Council (an organization designed to preserve equal opportunity and civil rights in the media) by New Moon Communications, as part of a package deal that also included former TBN repeaters in Dothan, Alabama; Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Ottumwa, Iowa. Of the four stations, only the Dothan station became NBC, but under different owners, as WRGX-LD. KJNE-LP in Jonesboro was sold to Waypoint Media, LLC of Meridian, Mississippi, owners of Fox/CBS affiliate KJNB-LD (and eventually became a satellite of that station),[12] while the licenses in Ottumwa (KUMK-LP)[13] and Jackson (whose transmitter would be re-called WZMC-LP) would later be canceled, with the Jackson station cancelled in July 2013.[14]

The history of WNBJ-LD originates with the station's construction permit granted in 2011, under the call sign W16DE-D. The current WNBJ-LD call letters replaced their previous translator-style call sign on July 9, 2014.

In September 2014, it was confirmed that WNBJ would sign on as an NBC affiliate for the Jackson market.[15][16] WMC-TV in Memphis or WSMV in Nashville were previously the default NBC affiliates for the Jackson area using a very strong antenna, or through cable television. Some of the far northern parts of the local media market (e.g. northern Gibson County north of Trenton) could pick up WPSD in Paducah, Kentucky until the DTV transition for full-power stations took place in 2009.

On October 6, 2014, WNBJ went on the air first via Dish Network channel 6 at 11:30 a.m. CDT. OTA followed in November 2014 and Direct TV in January 2015. The station was signed-on by a local group known as Jackson TV, LLC, who then entered into an outsourcing agreement with Waypoint Media to allow Waypoint to operate the station.[17]

NBC was the last of the Big Four television networks to have a local outlet in Jackson. Currently, The Jackson Energy Authority's cable system still pipes in most of the major outlets in Memphis, including WMC-TV. CBS affiliate WTVF is the only Nashville-based media outlet offered on JEA's cable lineup, with WNBJ-LD replacing WSMV on cable channel 4.[8]

WNBJ was the second television station in the Jackson market to sign on exclusively in digital, about eight to nine months after WYJJ-LD.

The station's original owners terminated WNBJ-LD's outsourcing agreement with Waypoint and sold WNBJ-LD outright to SagamoreHill Broadcasting in April 2016.[18]

On August 6, 2018, a 720p HD feed (branded as "West Tennessee's CW 39") of The CW's national CW Plus service was added to subchannel 39.2, succeeding cable-only "WBJK" as the CW Plus affiliate for the Jackson, Tennessee market.

In September 2019, the MyNetworkTV affiliation in Jackson, Tennessee moved to a secondary affiliation alongside H&I on the third subchannel of WNBJ-LD (branded as "My H&I 39"), in light of WYJJ-LD ending its affiliation with MyNetworkTV to carry Court TV full-time.[19][20]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[21]
39.11080i16:9NBCMain WNBJ-LD programming / NBC
39.2720pCWWest Tennessee's CW 39[3][4]
39.3480iMynetH&I & MyNetworkTV

Programming

General programming

Syndicated programming on WNBJ-LD includes The Doctors, Rachael Ray, The Wendy Williams Show, Inside Edition, Family Feud and Divorce Court among others.

WNBJ airs a program called Exit82. Produced locally by Red Art Studios, it is a "concert/interview" format show that features "popular and up-and-coming musical talent from the Jackson and surrounding areas" who "perform original music".[22][23] The program is named after I-40's interchange with US 45 in Jackson.

WNBJ also airs Harmony Road and Tennessee Gospel Show that showcases traditional and contemporary Christian music, and Vertical Descent, a local hunting show produced in Chester County.

News operation

WNBJ's news operation launched August 28, 2017.[24] WNBJ-LD currently airs 7½ hours of local newscasts, all weekdays at 6 p.m., 9 p.m. (on LD2[25]) and 10 p.m.

Lon Tegels, a 30-year veteran at various television stations, including WXXV-TV in Biloxi, Mississippi, is WNBJ's first news director. Reporters on the news team include Jackson Overstreet and Camila Rueda.[26]

Sports programming

WNBJ serves as the Jackson affiliate of Sinclair Broadcast Group's American Sports Network for college sports, though as with all major network affiliates carrying ASN, NBC's sports schedule takes preference over ASN. WNBJ also served as the affiliate for the Raycom Sports-operated ACC Network during the 2014–15 season.[27] In 2015, the station lost ACC Network to MyNetworkTV/Antenna TV affiliate WYJJ-LD, the Jackson market’s other low-powered commercial station. WNBJ, as an NBC affiliate, is also home to Sunday Night Football.

Coverage area

WNBJ is a low-powered television station with 15,000 watts of power; the station's signal will give WNBJ a coverage area comprising most of the Jackson market, or 94,110 television households, and the far eastern portion of the Memphis market. The Jackson DMA consists of viewers living in Carroll, Chester, Gibson, Hardin, Henderson, and Madison counties in West Tennessee. WNBJ's signal would also cover parts of Crockett, Hardeman, Haywood, northern Fayette, and McNairy counties in the Memphis market. Hardin County is the only area within WNBJ's home market that is out of its broadcast range, though it is possible for local cable systems to receive the signal by alternate means, such as a fiber-optic connection or via Dish or DirecTV.

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References
  1. The Official Logo of WNBJ-LD2
  2. Website Footer Graphic Featuring The Alternate Black-Lettered Logos of WNBJ-LD & WNBJ-LD2 And The Official Logo of WNBJ-LD3
  3. Staff, WNBJ (August 6, 2018). "WNBJ launches West Tennessee's CW 39". wnbjtv.com. Waypoint Media. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  4. Miller, Mark K. (August 6, 2018). "WNBJ Jackson Launches CW On Subchannel". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  5. "Standard Media to acquire nine stations". Standard Media. November 25, 2019. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  6. Antenna Height Above Average Terrain Calculations -- Results
  7. "EPlus Broadband Residential Cable TV". Jackson Energy Authority. April 23, 2020.
  8. "EPlus Broadband Cable Channel Line Up" (PDF). Jackson Energy Authority. April 23, 2020.
  9. "Station Website Header Containing the Cable Channel Allocations of WNBJ-LD". Retrieved December 30, 2018.
  10. "wnbjtv.com/cw39". Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  11. FCC document: "COMMENTS OF LPTV ENTREPRENEURS", December 17, 2010.
  12. Michael Buhler. "Three Rivers Association for Classic TV".
  13. "Broadcasting News-March 2014".
  14. "Request for Cancellation of License, WZMC-LP, Jackson, TN, Facility Id. 68047", July 30, 2013.
  15. YouTube.
  16. "RabbitEars.Info".
  17. Thomas, David (October 1, 2014). "NBC affiliate WNBJ channel 39 Arrives in Jackson". The Jackson Sun. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  18. https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101725706&formid=905&fac_num=185218
  19. RabbitEars TV Query for WNBJ-LD
  20. RabbitEars TV Query for WYJJ-LD
  21. RabbitEars TV Query for WNBJ-LD
  22. "Security Check Required".
  23. "Security Check Required".
  24. WNBJ now airs local news of its own, thanks to I.N.N.
  25. A Promotional Advertisement For The 9PM Newscast Of WNBJ-LD2 December 30, 2018
  26. Yusuf, Omar (September 6, 2017). "NBC's Jackson affiliate WNBJ 39 now airing local newscasts". Greenville Online. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  27. "ACC Network Has Expanded National Reach ACCNetwork84US.pdf" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2015-01-08.
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