Technical Profile: WJMY-CD

TV Technical Profile: WJMY-CD

Channel:: 17
Programming:: 25.1 - Telemundo
25.2 - Bounce
25.3 - Circle
25.4 - Laff
25.5 - Grit TV
25.6 - Quest
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] Along Crescent Road, at Hammer Lane, in Holt. Located on a taller tower next to other towers for WMHZ, WRTR and a few low power FM translators.
Power (ERP):: 15 kW
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):: 499 feet AGL
Antenna:: Nondirectional
Other Information:: [FCC]
[FCCdata]
[RabbitEars.info]; [Wikipedia]

[Image] Screencap of station identification on screen, showing simulcast of WBRC with WBXA and WJMY.

// WVUA-CA Tuscaloosa, AL
// WVUA-DT Tuscaloosa, AL
// WDVZ-CD Greensboro, AL

Owned by Gray Television Licensee
History:: This station dates back to an initial application for a low power analog station on channel 28, to April 1994, under the ownership of James Wilson III. The FCC granted the permit in June 1995 and assigned it the call sign W28BS. The permit for this station expired twice, in 1996 and again in 1997, and in 1998 was transferred to TTI, Inc., who owns WJRD radio and started WJRD-LP in Tuscaloosa. The station finally signed on in the fall of 1999 and possibly began simulcasting WJRD-LP at that time from a transmitter site in the city of Demopolis and the US-80/US-43 split. The station was granted a move to channel 25 in May 2001 and completed the change just a few weeks after receiving permission. The license to WJRD was assigned to the University of Alabama in August 2001 and that station began to transform into a full service channel for Tuscaloosa, while still being simulcast on TTI-owned WJMY. In 2002, TTI began to move the station towards Tuscaloosa, with a move to a transmitter site off AL-69 in the Havana community. This same site was also used to hopscotch WDVZ-LP up from Greensboro. At the end of August 2009, this station was granted permission to flash cut to digital transmission, but continued broadcasting in analog until October 2010 when the transmitter failed. The station remained off the air until May 2012 when they received permission to get a temporary analog signal up and running. That failed a few months later in November, and the station remained silent again until the digital transmitter was up and running in May 2015, this time from a much taller tower nearby, host to radio stations WFFN and WTUG.

The station received a construction permit to relocate from RF channel 25 to 17 in early August 2017 as part of the FCC repacking process. The station also received a Special Temporary Authority in May 2019 to operate at variance from their licensed facility while work on the new channel was was being done. They also received a permit to delay their channel change process beyond the originally scheduled date. The station filed a license to cover for the post-repack RF 17 assignment in late October 2019. Another permit had the station moving from being a Demopolis-licensed station transmitting from the WTUG tower south of Tuscaloosa to a new tower in Holt. It later moved again, to the tower in Holt that houses WRTR FM and WMHZ AM.

Due to a contract requirement with the owners of the This TV network, the station added a full time feed of the network to the —.3 subchannel in late November 2019. It bumped the APR audio and weather radar feed to the —.4 subchannel. The station announced it would be adding COZI TV to the —.1 subchannel on 28 September 2020.

On 15 January 2021, "The Light" subchannel was discontinued by Byron Allen's Entertainment studios and replaced with the African-American-centric "The Grio.TV". In early September 2021, the lineup was changed to move This TV to the —.2 subchannel, eliminating The Grio.TV. The —.3 subchannel was replaced with Local Now.

In March 2022, a license transfer was filed from TTI, Inc. to Gray Television Licenses, who owns stations all over the country. The purchase price for the translator is $225,000. When the sale clears, the station is reportedly going to begin airing programming from Telemundo. The license transfer was approved in April 2022.

In April 2022, the Local Now subchannel disappeared, replaced by color bars and a tone, with "U of Alabama" in text on screen.

In July 2022 it was reported that the 25.1 subchannel was dropped for a simulcast of WBRC 6.1. Later all the WBRC channels were being mirrored on WJMY-CD, likely in preparation for the launch of Telemundo. Telemundo launched on the main channel on 31 August 2022.