WECP-LD (channel 21) is a low-power television station in

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It is the more populated city of the Panama City–Lynn Ha ...

, United States, affiliated with

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 Entertainmen ...

and

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

. It is owned by

Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...

alongside dual

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

/ CW+ affiliate

WJHG-TV WJHG-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Panama City, Florida, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power dual CBS/MyNetworkTV affiliate WECP-LD (channel 21). Both stations share ...

(channel 7). The two stations share studios on Front Beach Road/ SR 30 in Panama City Beach; WECP-LD's transmitter is located on SR 20 in

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

Youngstown, Florida Youngstown is an unincorporated community in Bay County, Florida, United States. It was the site of an unsolved deadly train derailment in 1978. It is part of the Panama City– Lynn Haven– Panama City Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...

. Due to its low-power status, WECP's

broadcast range A broadcast range (also listening range or listening area for radio, or viewing range or viewing area for television) is the service area that a broadcast station or other transmission covers via radio waves (or possibly infrared light, which ...

is effectively limited to Panama City and surrounding areas in

Bay County Bay County is the name of three counties: * Bay County, Florida, United States * Bay County, Michigan, United States * Baicheng County Baicheng County () as the official romanized name, also transliterated from Uyghur as Bay County (pronounced l ...

. In order to expand its off-air broadcasting reach, it is

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

in 16:9

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

on WJHG-TV's third

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

(7.3) from the same transmitter site.

History

On April 20, 2012, then owner MIK LLC announced it was selling the

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 ...

for the station (which initially held the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

W18DR-D) to Gray Television. Under the transfer, MIK would receive $4,000 and would turn over the permit to

DTV America Corporation DTV America Corporation is an owner of low-power television stations in the United States. Majority owned by telecommunications conglomerate INNOVATE Corp., DTV America stations have no local operations, and the company relies almost entirely ...

which would, in turn, transfer the permit to Gray. Gray exercised a purchase option that was part of the deal to acquire the station outright on May 11, 2012. Gray changed the calls to WECP-LD on June 4, 2012. On July 17, 2012, Gray Television signed an affiliation agreement with CBS for WECP-LD and two other low-powered stations WSVF-LD in

Harrisonburg, Virginia Harrisonburg is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is also the county seat of the surrounding Rockingham County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. At the 2 ...

, and WIYE-LP in

Parkersburg, West Virginia Parkersburg is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, West Virginia, Wood County, West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Little Kanawha River, Little Kanawha rivers, it is the state's fourth-largest city and ...

. As a result, WECP-LD became the CBS affiliate for the Panama City area when the station took to the air on September 24, 2012. It is the second CBS affiliate that is licensed to the immediate Panama City market. Sister station WJHG had previously carried a secondary affiliation with the network from its December 1953 sign-on until 1961. Since then,

Dothan, Alabama Dothan () is a city in Dale, Henry, and Houston counties and the Houston county seat in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is Alabama's eighth-largest city, with a population of 71,072 at the 2020 census. It is near the state's southeastern corner, ...

sister station WTVY had served as the default CBS affiliate for Panama City; in fact, WTVY's tower is located in

Bethlehem, Florida Bethlehem is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Holmes County, Florida, Holmes County, Florida, United States (US). Telecommunications The WTVY (TV), WTVY-TV Tower, which measures 1,901 ft, is located in Bethlehem. The tow ...

, in the Panama City market. In October 2012, WTVY was officially removed from

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

systems in the

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

with WECP taking its place. On January 7, 2014, WECP 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 move from channel 18 to channel 29. The reasoning is WJHG had a construction permit to relocate to channel 18.Application_id=1610752&Service=LD&Form_id=346&Facility_id=182840 Application For Authority To Construct Or Make Changes In A Low Power TV, TV Translator Or TV Booster Station
, ''CDBS Public Access'',

, Retrieved 7 January 2014 The application was approved on November 14, 2014 giving WECP its construction permit. The switch of WECP to channel 29 (retaining 18 as virtual) and WJHG to channel 18 (virtual 7) took place on May 21, 2015, with the FCC issuing the station's license on June 5, 2015. WECP moved to RF channel 35 on August 21, 2019 as a result of the spectrum auction and to offset interference issues with adjacent stations. On March 2, 2021, WECP transferred from channel 18 to channel 21.

News operation

WJHG presently produces an hour of locally produced newscasts each weekday (at noon and 5:30 p.m.) for WECP-LD. As a result, the station airs the ''

CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature s ...

'' via an additional live feed at 6 p.m. unlike most CBS outlets in the

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. WECP-LD does not air newscasts on weekends, opting for syndicated programming. It has a dedicated anchor and

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

for the two programs but the personalities can also contribute to WJHG.

Subchannels

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

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wecp-Ld Television channels and stations established in 2012 ECP-LD Low-power television stations in the United States CBS network affiliates MyNetworkTV affiliates Gray Television 2012 establishments in Florida Heroes & Icons affiliates