WSCG (channel 34) is a

religious television station Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some coun ...

licensed to

Baxley, Georgia Baxley is a city in Appling County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 4,942. The city is the county seat of Appling County. History Baxley was first settled as a result of the Macon and Brunswick Ra ...

, United States, serving the

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

area as an

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...

Tri-State Christian Television Tri-State Christian Television, Inc., trade name, doing business as TCT Network and TCT Ministries (formerly Total Christian Television), is a religious broadcasting, religious television network in the United States. The network was founded in M ...

(TCT). The station's studios are located on Sams Point Road in

Beaufort, South Carolina Beaufort ( , different from that of Beaufort, North Carolina) is a city in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States, and its county seat. Chartered in 1711, it is the second-oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston, South Carolina ...

, and its transmitter is located on Fort Argyle Road/ SR 204 in unincorporated western

Chatham County, Georgia Chatham County ( ) is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of Georgia, on the state's Atlantic coast. The county seat and largest city is Savannah. One of the original counties of Georgia, Chatham County was created February 5, 1777, a ...

. WSCG is one of a few TCT owned-and-operated stations to maintain its own studio facilities as other TCT O&Os ended their local operations in 2018.

History

The station signed on as WUBI on May 1, 1992, and aired an

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

signal on UHF channel 34. It was 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 ...

at first but joined

The WB 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 ter ...

in 1995 and became known as "WB 34". The station switched to

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, ...

in early 1997 as "UPN 13" (using the station's

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

channel for branding) after

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

affiliate WJCL (channel 22) originally carried UPN as a secondary affiliation. From 1997 to 1998, The WB's programming was only seen on cable and satellite providers in the Baxley and Savannah areas via the national feed of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based

superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a broadcast television sign ...

WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is sister station, sister to the company ...

. From 1998 onwards, WGN was displaced on those providers by a cable-only WB-affiliated station using the fictional call letters "WBVH" (known on-air as "WB 15") as a member of

The WB 100+ Station Group The WB 100+ Station Group (originally called The WeB from its developmental stages until March 1999) was a national programming service of The WB—owned by the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, the Tribune Company, and group f ...

. During the analog era, WGSA's transmitter was located on the western fringe of the Savannah

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

and was too far away to provide most of the area with a good signal. As a result, it was seen in Savannah itself on Class A

repeater In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Some ...

WGSA-CA. That repeater was originally W34BO and was assigned in mid-November 1992 on channel 34 but the frequency proved problematic. It became WUBI-LP on channel 38 in late-April 1996 but there were still reception problems. It became WGSA-LP on channel 50 in mid-September 1998 with a further upgrade to Class A (-CA) status in August 2001. The WGSA-CA license was canceled by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) on February 3, 2015, due to the station having been silent since May 2, 2012. In January 2006, it was announced that The WB and UPN would end operations in September 2006 to form

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 ...

, a combination of the best programs from both networks. It was made public on April 23 that WGSA would affiliate with The CW. In response to this announcement,

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

removed "WBVH" from its channel lineup. Its successor,

The CW Plus The CW Plus is a secondary national broadcast television broadcast syndication, syndication service feed of The CW, whose controlling stake of 75% is owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery holding their ow ...

, affiliated with WGCW-LP, a low power station co-owned with WGSA on channel 38 and available exclusively on Comcast channel 240 as part of their digital lineup. WGCW was also available over-the-air via WGSA's second digital subchannel until September 11, 2016. WGSA had a modified

construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...

for

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

on channel 35 which made it high-power for the first time and put the station's transmitter site just west of Savannah. On September 28, 2007, the ''

Savannah Morning News The ''Savannah Morning News'' is a daily newspaper in Savannah, Georgia. It is published by Gannett. The motto of the paper is "Light of the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry". The paper serves Savannah, its Savannah metropolitan area, metropolitan ...

'' reported after years of being the only local station Comcast rebroadcast from an over-the-air signal, WGSA had a fiber-optic cable placed into their

master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as swit ...

connecting directly to the cable company giving the station a much clearer signal. On April 1, 2016, it was announced that WGSA would lose its CW affiliation to the second digital subchannel of

WSAV-TV WSAV-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Savannah, Georgia, United States, affiliated with NBC. Its second digital subchannel serves as an owned-and-operated station of The CW (via The CW Plus), and also airs programming from MyNetwork ...

on September 12 of that year. Following a

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

auction in September 2017, Lowcountry 34 Media, LLC (operated by Jeff and Janet Winemiller) agreed to buy the station from Southern TV Corporation for $1.2 million. Lowcountry 34 Media had reserved the call sign WSCG for assignment when it took control February 1, 2018. WSCG resumed broadcasting April 1, 2018, under new ownership. On May 21, 2019, it was announced that Lowcountry 34 Media would sell WSCG to

HC2 Holdings Innovate Corp. (formerly known as HC2 Holdings, Inc. and Primus Telecommunications Group, Inc.) is an American public financial services company founded in 1994. History Beginning (1994–1997) Primus commenced operations in 1994 intent on b ...

for $2.6 million. The sale received FCC approval on July 2, 2019; however, Winemiller Television filed a notice of non-consummation of the purchase on November 7. Subsequently, on January 28, 2020, Lowcountry 34 Media announced it would sell the station to

Marion, Illinois The city of Marion is the county seat of Williamson County, Illinois, United States. The population in Marion, IL was 16,855 according to the 2020 census. It is part of a dispersed urban area that developed out of early 20th-century coal fields ...

–based Tri-State Christian Television for $3 million. The sale was completed on April 1, making WSCG an

of the TCT Network and the first full-power religious station in the Savannah market. In addition, Lowcountry 34 Media also announced that it would sell WSCG-LD and translator WGCB-LD to

Marquee Broadcasting Marquee Broadcasting, Inc. is an American broadcasting company that owns several television stations in the United States. History Marquee began in 2013 when its owners, Brian and Patricia Lane, announced its intent to acquire WMDT and its re ...

Newscast

In-early October 2013, WGSA established a news share agreement with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate WSAV-TV, channel 3 (at the time owned by

Media General Media General, Inc. was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-D ...

). The arrangement resulted in a prime time newscast debuting on this station. Known on-air as ''WSAV News 3 at 10'', the program was seen for thirty minutes on weeknights. It was effectively "moved" from previously airing at 7 p.m. on

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 ...

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television progra ...

outlet WSAV-DT2 (now a CW affiliate). With the switch to 10 o'clock, the show later broadcast in high definition on WGSA and was seen through a

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...

simulcast on WSAV-DT2. The newscast was also streamed live on WSAV's website.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

WSCG (as WGSA) shut down its analog signal, over

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

channel 34, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on 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 broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 35.

Translators

In addition to its main signal, WSCG operated two digital translators. * Beaufort, etc.: W14EP-D * Hinesville/ Richmond Hill, GA: W36EZ-D The two former translators now operate independently as WSCG-LD and WGCB-LD, respectively, with WSCG-LD broadcasting its own programming and WGCB-LD acting as its translator. WGSA's signal was also repeated by WGCW-LP in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...

. WGCW-LP's license was canceled by the FCC effective February 16, 2017, due to having been silent since September 12, 2016.

References

External links

* {{Other Georgia Stations 1992 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Appling County, Georgia MeTV Toons affiliates Cozi TV affiliates Heroes & Icons affiliates Quest (American TV network) affiliates Start TV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1992 SCG (TV) Tri-State Christian Television stations True Crime Network affiliates