Technical Profile: WTHV-LD

TV Technical Profile: WTHV-LD

Channel:: 29
Programming:: 29.1 - Telemundo
29.2 - —
29.3 - The 365
29.4 - Outlaw TV
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view 1 | view 2] Just off (US-431) Governors Drive atop Monte Santo Mountain. Co-located with WAFF-DT.
Power (ERP):: 15 kW
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):: 1673 feet
Antenna:: Directional
Other Information:: [FCC]
[FCCdata]
[RabbitEars.info]

[Facebook]; [Wikipedia]
Owned By:: Gray Television Licensee
History:: Charlie Ezell received an initial construction permit for a low power television station in 1992, for channel 43, from a site southwest of Decatur in the Chapel Hill Estates area. The station signed on in 1994 with an unknown format. The calls became WMJN-LP in the fall of 1995.

Ownership was assigned to Alabama Cable Network, Inc. in 1997, and they held on to the license until it was assigned to First Cullman Broadcasting in the spring of 2000. Around this time, the station was carrying programming from the American Independent Network.

The station fell silent in 2001 and remained mostly silent for a little over a year. To keep the license active, the station had to seek a new transmitter site, and it put the station on from a site southwest of Trinity (on Jack Johnson Road) in 2002. Two years later the station changed from channel 43 to 29 and was licensed to Priceville. At this time, it was moved to the station's current transmitter location.

The station received permission to flash cut to digital in 2007, but did not complete the change until 2012. First Cullman Broadcasting passed the station along to Global Outreach Ministries Network, Inc in 2008, however it appears the deal was never consummated and the station fell back to First Cullman and went silent for a period.

James and Carol Henderson took control of the station in 2010. During their ownership, the station flash cut to digital on channel 29, but shortly thereafter the license lapsed and the FCC deleted the license. It was reinstated officially in 2013 and the station got a big boost in power in 2015 after re-licensing to Somerville. The transmitter did not move. James Henderson was the station's manager according to their website around this time.

The station was sold to Emmanuel Broadcasting Corporation in 2014. Under their ownership, the station carried mostly religious programming on the subchannels, including JUCE, The Walk TV and a channel dedicated local religious programming. In addition, it retained Heartland and Retro TV that had added under the previous ownership.

In January 2022, the station was sold to Gray Television for $330,000. It appears that Gray began programming some of the subchannels prior to the sell, as the religious programming had been dropped for secular programming by this point, including Rev'n and the Action Channel. In August 2022, Gray filed an application to re-license to Huntsville while moving the transmitter to Monte Santo Mountain, which was granted that same month. The call sign changed to WTHV-LD (for Telemund HuntsVille) on 22 August 2022. They filed a license to cover for the move to Monte Santo in mid-September, 2022. With the switch, they dropped all the subchannels and launched Telemundo on the main channel and a simulcast of WAFF on the —.2 subchannel.

In January 2024 it was reported that the station had picked up two new Gray-backed diginets, The 365 and Outlaw TV. In June 2024 the RabbitEars.info site was no longer showing the WAFF simulcast on the —.2 subchannel.