Technical Profile: W16DS-D

TV Technical Profile: W16DS-D

Channel:: 16
Programming:: 47.1 - WAY TV
47.2 - WGIB FM audio with nature scenes
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] [bird's eye] On one of the two self-supporting towers (the one without microwave equipment) next to the water tower atop Red Mountain, along the north edge of Beacon Parkway East in Birmingham.
Power (ERP):: 8.35 kW
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):: 676 feet
Antenna:: Directional (Data not provided at update time)
Other Information:: 51 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC. (Data not provided at update time); [FCC]
[FCCdata]
[RabbitEars.info]; [Wikipedia]
// W15AZ Alabaster, AL
Owned By:: Glen Iris Baptist Church
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit from 1989, on channel 49. The station came on a little over a year later, in May 1900 as W49AY, providing religious programming via Glen Iris Baptist Church in Birmingham's southside. During the analog years, the station broadcast in stereo and when no shows were scheduled, carried audio programming from the church's radio station, 91.9 WGIB while showing tranquil nature scenes. During the conversion to digital broadcasting, the FCC assigned WBRC-TV UHF channel 50 as their DTV allocation. This led to W49AY being displaced to channel 47, which was permitted via a special temporary authority. The station eventually became known as W47EI, and continued to operate under recurring STAs from approximately November 2011 until June 2015, when the digital facility signed on.; Glen Iris acquired Alabaster-area translator W15AZ from Doris Nell Legrand in December of 1998 and was relaying W49AY through this channel by 2001. Under Legrand's ownership, the station, which was granted in 1990, appears to have gone through multiple construction permit extensions and didn't sign on until 1994. Even under Glen Iris' ownership, the station has been off and on again on a continuing basis, and at one point lost its transmitter tower when the owner dismantled it. The station is either off or operating under a special temporary authority from a different nearby transmission site as of July 2015.

In mid-September 2017, the station received a permit to relocate to RF channel 16 after being displaced by the FCC spectrum repacking effort. That facility signed on in early September 2019.