Technical Profile: WMCF-DT

TV Technical Profile: WMCF

Channel:: 28
Programming:: 45.1 - TBN; 45.2 - to be: Merit Street Television
45.3 - TBN Inspire; 45.4 - Smile of a Child; 45.5 - Positiv
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] [bird's eye] Just east of the Sunshine Village subdivision northeast of Montgomery. Just south of Sandy Ridge Curve north of CR-64. Co-located with WXFX, WLWI, WHHY, WMXS and WLBF, as well as WFRZ-LD.
Power (ERP):: 725 kW
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):: 427 feet
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Other Information:: 41 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC. (FCCdata Link)

[FCC]
[FCCdata]
[RabbitEars]; [Wikipedia]

[Facebook] TBN's Facebook page

[Studio] Street View of the station's small studio on Mendel Parkway.
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued to Christian Life Broadcasting, Inc. (Marcus and Joni Lamb) in 1980. Their goal was to launch the first independent Christian television station in Montgomery. The station struggled to get on the air and didn't file a license to cover until the summer of 1986. By then, the Lambs had sold the station to Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), who still own it today. Of interest is that the Lambs would later purchase a station from Kenneth Copeland in Dallas, and then purchase another station in Denver, launching their own Christian television network which is today known as Daystar.

This station elected to discontinue analog broadcasts sometime before the new June 12^th deadline. Boosted power from 500 to 851 kW in April 2011. In 2014 the JCTV music videos channel was discontinued, and a Christian youth oriented network called JUCE took its place. In 2015, Smile of a Child moved to the —.3 part time and this subchannel is now labeled "COMBO". TBN Salsa launched on the —.5 subchannel in its place.

As part of the FCC spectrum repacking processing, this station received a permit in mid-July to relocate from RF channel 46 to 28, with no other real technical changes aside from a drop in power. It has been operating under a Special Temporary Authority since June 2018 due to an equipment failure, necessitating lower power output at the transmitter. It is expected to remain at lower power until the repacking process starts in April 2019. In July, the station received a second Special Temporary Authority to reduce power further to 175 kW at just 262 feet.

In 2019, JUCE was discontinued, and replaced with TBN Salsa on the —.5 subchannel. In the winter of 2020, TBN Salsa moved to online-only distribution, and a Christian films channel called Positiv replaced it on the over the air multiplex.

The station returned to full power in March 2020.

On 1 January 2022, TBN re-branded the Hillsong Channel as TBN Inspire.

At the start of February 2024, the TBN Inspire subchannel was replaced with a slide featuring Dr. Phil and a message that Merit Street Television would be launching on 26 February 2024. TBN Inspire moved to the —.3 subchannel, in standard definition. Smile of a Child moved to the —.4 subchannel, displacing the Spanish religious Enlace channel. The —.5 subchannel remains Positiv.