KWBJ-CD (channel 22) is a low-power,

Class A television station The class A television service is a system for regulating some low-power television (LPTV) stations in the United States. Class A stations are denoted by the broadcast callsign suffix "-CA" (analog) or "-CD" (digital), although very many analog - ...

Morgan City, Louisiana Morgan City is a small city in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, United States, located in the Acadiana region. The population was 11,472 at the 2020 census. Known for being "right in the middle of everywhere", Morgan City is located southeast of ...

, United States, affiliated with

YTA TV YTA TV (an initialism for its former full name, Youtoo America; commonly referred to as just YTA) is an American television network which originally launched in February 1985 as a cable channel. Unusual for a network of its type, it has had mult ...

. The station is owned by the Price Media Corporation. KWBJ-CD's studios are located on Michigan Street/

US 90 U.S. Route 90 or U.S. Highway 90 (US 90) is an east–west major United States highway in the Southern United States. Despite the "0" in its route number, US 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route. It generally travels near Int ...

/ LA 182, and its transmitter is located on Shaw Street (northeast of Jimmy Magee Park) in Morgan City.

History

KWBJ originated as a cable-only channel known as ATVC Channel 7, which launched in 1978. It was managed by Allen's TV Cable, owned by Allen Price, which has served the Morgan City area since the 1960s, and it carried local programs and special events for the Morgan City and St. Mary Parish area, before serving as a full-fledged cable channel in April 1986. Among its original programs was a newscast known as ''Newslook 7''. On April 2, 1990, Allen's TV Cable brought the station over the air as K39BJ, broadcasting on UHF channel 39. Serving Morgan City, Houma, and the southern part of the

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

market, it originally operated as an

independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...

. In early 1996, K39BJ became a charter affiliate of

The WB Television Network The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on br ...

; in September of that year, the station changed its call letters to KWBJ-LP to reflect its new affiliation. The station began carrying programming from

America One America One was an American television network established in 1995 by USFR Media Group through its America One Television subsidiary.

as a secondary affiliation in 1999. On January 24, 2006,

CBS Corporation CBS Corporation was an American multinational media company with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing and television production. It was split from Viacom on December 31, 2005, alongside an entirely new Viacom; both ...

(which split from

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2005), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Pa ...

in December 2005) and

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

Warner Bros. Entertainment Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

(the division that operated The WB) announced that they would dissolve

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

and The WB, and move some of their programming to a newly created network,

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

. One month later on February 22, 2006,

News Corporation The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

announced the launch of a competing "sixth" network called

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

, which would be operated by

Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (stylized as FOX TV STATIONS; also known as FTS) is a group of television stations in the United States owned-and-operated by Fox Corporation. It owns LiveNOW from Fox, Fox Local, and Fox Soul. It also oversees ...

and its syndication division

Twentieth Television 20th Television, Inc. (formerly known as TCF Television Productions, Inc., 20th Century-Fox Television and 20th Century Fox Television) is the television studio arm of 20th Century Studios, owned by Disney Television Studios, a division of the Di ...

. KWBJ-LP opted against seeking an affiliation with either The CW or MyNetworkTV, instead opting to become a part-time America One affiliate while continuing to carry general entertainment programs interspersed within the network's programming. KWBJ became a YouToo America affiliate once America One folded into that network. KWBJ's coverage over the air and via cable is limited to St. Mary, lower

Assumption Assumption, in Christianity, refers to the Assumption of Mary, a belief in the taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven. Assumption may also refer to: Places * Assumption, Alberta, Canada * Assumption, Illinois, United States ** Assumption Town ...

, and lower St. Martin parishes; the station is not available over the air or on cable or satellite in the Baton Rouge,

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

or Lafayette metro areas. Per its co-ownership with Allen's TV Cable, which provides cable service to the Morgan City area, KWBJ is not carried by any other providers in that area that compete with Allen's TV Cable.

Local programming

Since 2017, KWBJ has produced a local current affairs interview program, branded ''The Voice of the Coast''; the half-hour show airs weeknights at 6:30 p.m. and is repeated at 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. the next day. The station also airs local weather updates produced by WeatherVision, during syndicated programming on its evening schedule. Prior to 2017, KWBJ aired a 30-minute newscast. The station also produces ''South Louisiana Quiz Bowl'', an academic competition for area high schools and junior high schools.

Technical information

Subchannel

Analog-to-digital conversion

KWBJ

flash-cut A flash cut, also called a flash cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period. In the United States, some telephone area codes were split or overlaid immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive di ...

its digital signal into operation on UHF channel 22 in 2009. The station uses its UHF channel 22 as its

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered as digits on a receiver's ...

instead of its former UHF analog channel 39 (most, though not all, television stations that maintain digital signals map them to their former analog channel allocations).

References

External links

KWBJ homepage (outdated)

KWBJ-CD on Facebook (up-to-date)

Antenna Structure Registration 1241592
{{Other Louisiana Stations 1987 establishments in Louisiana Low-power television stations in Louisiana Morgan City, Louisiana Television channels and stations established in 1987 YTA TV affiliates