TV Technical Profile: WLTZ

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Channel:

35

Programming:

38.1 - NBC

38.2 - The CW
38.3 - Antenna TV
38.4 - Court TV

Transmitter Location:

[map] [street view]  South of of NBC 38 Drive, off Buena Vista Road. Co-located with WLTC-FM.

Power (ERP):

50 kW

Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):

1,238 feet

Antenna:

Omni

Other Information:

41 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.

[FCC]
[FCCdata]
[RabbitEars]

[Wikipedia]
[Facebook]

[Studio] Google Street view of the studios under the station's tower.

Owned by SagaMore Hill of Columbus

History:

Signed on October 29, 1970 as WYEA with NBC affiliation, taken from WTVM.  Was owned by Aflac Insurance at some point in the 70's, until sold to J Curtis Lewis, owner of many radio and TV stations across the south. Calls changed to WLTZ in 1981 after the ownership change.  At one time in the 90's, the station was apparently affiliated with the now-defunct attempt at a fifth broadcast network known as PTEN - Prime Time Entertainment Network.

WLTZ-DT Signed on in July 2002.  The station was sold again, this time to Sagamore Hill Broadcasting, in 2007. Although a poor performer in the news department (with much content outsourced to the now defunct Independent News Network), WLTZ was, according to Wikipedia, the first station in the market to launch high definition newscasts, in May of 2008.  The WLTZ calls stand for the owner at the the time the calls were adopted, Lews Television / Zenith.

 

WLTZ is reported to be the only station in the Columbus area to turn off analog broadcasts on the original analog shutdown date of February 17^th, 2009.

 

In early April 2009 it was reported that this station was picking up The CW on their digital subchannel 38.2.  The launch date was April 27^th, 2009.  In 2017 the station began airing Antenna TV, which had previously been on WLGA,  on the -.3 subchannel.

The station added Court TV to a fourth subchannel in 2020.  In September of that same year, the station's non-license assets were sold to Gray Television for $22 million, and they began operating the station under a shared services agreement.