WGBP-TV

WGBP-TV

Opelika, Alabama Columbus–Atlanta, Georgia United States
City	Opelika, Alabama
Channels	Digital: 17 (UHF) Virtual: 66
Branding	WGBP-TV
Programming
Affiliations	66.1: Merit Street Media for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	CNZ Communications, LLC (CNZ Communications SE, LLC)
History
First air date	May 23, 1982 (42 years ago) (1982-05-23)
Former call signs	WSWS-TV (1982–2005) WLGA (2005–2020) WGBP (2020)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 66 (UHF, 1982–2009) Digital: 47 (UHF, 2009–2013), 30 (UHF, 2013–2019)
Former affiliations	Independent (1982–1984, 1998–1999, 2009–2010) CTN (1984–1995) The WB (1995–1998) UPN (1999–2006) The CW (2006–2009) WeatherNation (2012–2013) Antenna TV (2013–2017) Infomercials (2017) Cozi TV (2017–2020) NBC LX Home (2020–2024)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	11113
ERP	DTS1: 550 kW DTS2: 589 kW
HAAT	DTS1: 537 m (1,762 ft) DTS2: 424 m (1,391 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	DTS1: 32°19′16.4″N 84°47′28.2″W / 32.321222°N 84.791167°W / 32.321222; -84.791167 DTS2: 32°51′6.8″N 84°42′5.5″W / 32.851889°N 84.701528°W / 32.851889; -84.701528
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	wgbptv.com

WGBP-TV (channel 66) is a television station licensed to Opelika, Alabama, United States, affiliated with Merit Street Media. Owned by CNZ Communications, the station broadcasts from a two-site distributed transmission system, with transmitters at Cusseta and Warm Springs, Georgia.^[2]

Channel 66 was allocated to Opelika in the early 1978 and went on air as WSWS-TV in 1982. It was an independent station for its first two years before airing the programs of the Christian Television Network for a decade. The station returned to secular programming in 1995 as an affiliate of The WB; it moved its programming to a cable channel in the Columbus, Georgia, market in 1998, leaving channel 66 an independent again until then-owner Pappas Telecasting affiliated some of its stations with UPN in 1999. The transmitter was moved from near Opelika to Cusseta, Georgia, in 2005. After The WB and UPN merged into The CW in 2006, channel 66 was an affiliate of that network until a sudden affiliation move in April 2009, amidst the bankruptcy of Pappas. The station was off the air for most of the period from June 2010 to June 2012 and was the last broadcast property held by a liquidating trust for Pappas, finally being sold in 2016 to CNZ Communications. CNZ built the Warm Springs transmitter, placing sufficient signal over parts of the Atlanta metropolitan area and allowing it to ask for must-carry pay television coverage within the far larger Atlanta market.