WAMS-LD,
virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
35 (
UHF digital channel 29), is a
low-powered television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
licensed
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to both
Minster and
New Bremen, Ohio
New Bremen () is a village in Auglaize County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,978 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Wapakoneta, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area. The village is adjacent to Minster to the south.
The village ...
, United States. It is a
translator
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
of
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...
-licensed
Class A dual
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
/
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
affiliate WOHL-CD (channel 35) which is owned by
Block Communications
Block Communications Inc. (also known as Blade Communications) is an American privately held holding company of various assets, mainly in the print and broadcast media, based in Toledo, Ohio. The company was founded in 1900 in New York City when ...
, and is also
sister
A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...
to Lima-licensed, full-powered dual
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
/
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
affiliate
WLIO
WLIO, virtual channel, virtual and very high frequency, VHF digital terrestrial television, digital channel 8, is a dual NBC/Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox-network affiliate, affiliated television station city of license, licensed to Lima, Ohio, U ...
(channel 8). All of the stations share studios on Rice Avenue northwest of downtown; WAMS-LD's transmitter is located off
SR 119 east of Minster.
History
The station signed on September 22, 1998 with the calls W65DP. It aired an analog signal on UHF channel 65 and was a full-time
translator
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
of WOHL-LP (now WOHL-CD). The channel was spun off in 2002 and became a CBS affiliate with the calls WLMO-LP while moving to UHF channel 38. This aired from a transmitter west of
Cridersville in
Auglaize County
Auglaize County () is a county in Northwestern Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,442. Its county seat is Wapakoneta.
Auglaize County comprises the Wapakoneta Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also includ ...
. Before the station affiliated with CBS,
Dayton
Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...
affiliate
WHIO-TV
WHIO-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Dayton, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It has been owned by Cox Media Group since its inception, making it one of two stations that have been built and signed on by Cox (alongside company ...
served as the CBS affiliate of record for the Lima market, while
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
affiliate
WBNS-TV
WBNS-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside the company's sole radio properties, WBNS (1460 AM) and WBNS-FM (97.1). The stations share studios on Twi ...
and
Toledo affiliate
WTOL
WTOL (channel 11) is a television station in Toledo, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc., which provides certain services to Fox affiliate WUPW (channel 36) under a joint sales agreement (JSA) with American Spi ...
served the eastern and northern portions of the market; some areas of the western portion of the market were also served by
Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...
affiliate
WANE-TV
WANE-TV (channel 15) is a television station in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios and transmitter are located on West State Boulevard in the Tower Heights section of t ...
. After picking up CBS, WLMO fought an uphill battle with
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
(now
Charter Spectrum
Spectrum is a trade name of Charter Communications, used to market consumer and commercial cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company.
The brand was first introduced in 2014; prior to that, these serv ...
). The company initially refused to carry the station on its Lima system due to the presence of both WHIO-TV and WBNS-TV, the latter of which would replace WTOL-TV on most cable providers in the area.
With WLMO being a low-powered station with no support from any full-powered channels, Time Warner was not obligated to carry the station.
Must-carry
In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system.
North America Canada
Under current CRTC regulations, the lowest tier of service on ...
regulations do not apply to low-powered stations regardless of affiliation. However on March 29, 2006, Time Warner added the station to its systems in Lima, Cridersville, and
Wapakoneta Wapakoneta may refer to:
;Places
*Wapakoneta, Ohio
*The Lima- Van Wert-Wapakoneta, Ohio Combined Statistical Area
;Ships
*, United States Navy ships
;Other
*The Treaty of Wapakoneta
*The Wapakoneta City School District
The Wapakoneta City Schoo ...
. At one point, this station carried
America One
America One was an American television network established in 1995 by USFR Media Group through its America One Television subsidiary. on a secondary basis that was shared with
WLQP-LP.
WLMO had applied to the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) to perform a "
flash-cut" of its signal to digital in 2006. This application was dismissed as of July 1, 2009 because the station decided instead to apply for a low-power digital companion channel on UHF channel 47 with the calls WLMO-LD. On September 28, 2009, WLMO terminated its analog operations and programming was shifted to WOHL-CD's second digital subchannel.
On November 29, 2008, it was announced that Metro Video Productions would sell its stations (including WLMO) to West Central Ohio Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Block Communications (owner of WLIO).
While Block assumed control of the station's operations after the sale's completion, it was initially stated that the company would not consolidate WLMO's facilities on South Central Avenue with WLIO.
It has since been stated that some consolidation would take place with the station moving to WLIO's studios on Rice Avenue.
On June 8, 2010, WLMO-LD was granted a
construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
. On June 10, to avoid automatic license termination, the FCC granted WLMO
special temporary authority
Special Temporary Authority (STA) in U.S. broadcast law is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stat ...
to restore analog service on channel 38. WLMO-LP's analog signal was restored on September 13.
On November 15, 2018, WLMO-LP's call sign was changed to WAMS-LP. By 2019, Block Communications had filed with the FCC to convert WAMS-LP into a digital translator of WOHL-CD for the southern part of the market, licensed to both
Minster and
New Bremen, Ohio
New Bremen () is a village in Auglaize County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,978 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Wapakoneta, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area. The village is adjacent to Minster to the south.
The village ...
, offering ABC and CBS programming over digital channels 29.5 and 29.6, virtually mapped to channels 35.1 and 35.2, respectively,
in likely anticipation of the new July 13, 2021 low-power analog television shutdown date announced by the FCC on May 17, 2017. By March 2020, Block Communications commenced digital operations of this low-powered television station. WAMS-LP was obligated to convert to digital by July 13, 2021 as part of the Digital TV transition for low-powered TV stations.
Incentive Auction Closing and Channel Reassignment Public Notice (see page 20)
/ref> On March 2, 2020, the translator's call sign was changed to WAMS-LD.
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
References
External links
HometownStations.com
- Official Website
{{West Central Ohio Broadcasting
CBS network affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1998
1998 establishments in Ohio
AMS-LP