WNTZ-TV (channel 48) is a

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 to

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...

, United States (which is technically part of the

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

television market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

), but serving the

Alexandria, Louisiana Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the prin ...

area as an affiliate of

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 ...

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 ...

. The station is owned by

Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...

, and has studios on Parliament Drive in Alexandria. Its main transmitter is located near

Jonesville, Louisiana Jonesville is the largest town in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana, United States, at the confluence of the Ouachita, Tensas, and Little rivers. The three rivers become the Black River at Jonesville. The Jonesville population was 2,265 at the 2010 ...

, with two low-power

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

in Alexandria and Leesville. WNTZ's

master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as switc ...

operation was located in

Lafayette Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to: People * Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette * House of La Fayette, a French noble family ** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757� ...

at the studios of then-

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

KADN-TV KADN-TV (channel 15) is a television station licensed to Lafayette, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Entertainment Studios, Allen Media Broadcasting alongside low-power broad ...

and

KLAF-LD KLAF-LD (channel 14) is a low-power television station in Lafayette, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Allen Media Broadcasting alongside Fox affiliate KADN-TV (channel 15). Both stations share studios on Eraste ...

from 1991 until July 2015. It was then moved to the

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...

studios of

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 ...

affiliate

WVLA-TV WVLA-TV (channel 33) is a television station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by White Knight Broadcasting, which maintains joint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) with Nexstar Media Group ...

, fellow Fox affiliate

WGMB-TV WGMB-TV (channel 44) is a television station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station WBRL-CD (channel 21) and independent station KZU ...

, CW affiliate

WBRL-CD WBRL-CD (channel 21) is a low-power, Class A television station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate WGMB-TV ...

and

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

station

KZUP-CD KZUP-CD (channel 20) is a low-power, Class A independent television station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate WGMB-TV (channel 44) and CW owned-and-operated station WBRL-CD (ch ...

History

First incarnation of WNTZ

WNTZ was granted its license to

Louisiana state senator The Louisiana State Senate (french: Sénat de Louisiane) is the upper house of the state legislature of Louisiana. All senators serve four-year terms and are assigned to multiple committees. Composition The Louisiana State Senate is compose ...

Bill Atkins of Jonesville, via his company MSLA Broadcasting, on January 31, 1985, and signed on the air on November 16. WNTZ began as an independent station, with a special on ''

The Honeymooners ''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom which originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It fol ...

'' serving as its inaugural program. Advertised as "Your Channel by the River", WNTZ's original programming consisted of local and syndicated programming exclusively to the Miss-Lou area, which covered a larger broadcasting footprint into Mississippi than exists today. The station originally had only news updates but was broadcasting full scheduled newscasts by 1988 at 5:30 and 10:00 p.m. Its original studios were located at 26 Colonel John Pitchford Parkway (then 625 Beltline Highway) in Natchez, Mississippi. WNTZ's fortunes quickly eroded, and it was placed in

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

for the first time around 1986. During the bankruptcy proceedings, there were unsuccessful attempts to sell the station to new owners. In 1987, the

Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) was an institution that administered deposit insurance for savings and loan institutions in the United States. History Establishment The FSLIC was established by the National Housing Act ...

(FSLIC) seized the Sunbelt Federal Bank of

, which had foreclosed on a loan to Atkins and had held the station's assets. After a yearlong attempt to sell channel 48 failed, the FSLIC took it

dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...

on April 8, 1988. The station remained silent for three years until 1991 when the station's license was sold to businessman Charles Chatelain and his company, Delta Media Corporation, both based in Lafayette, Louisiana.

WNTZ returns under Delta Media ownership and Fox affiliation

Under Delta Media ownership, the goal was to give the Alexandria market a full

network affiliation. However, a few challenges were ahead. WNTZ's license is designated to Natchez, Mississippi, where its transmitter and tower are located behind the station's original studios. Executives at Fox were concerned about giving WNTZ its affiliation because they did not want to grant a second affiliation in the Jackson, Mississippi

media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

(DMA). To alleviate this problem, the original transmitter and broadcast equipment was sold to future WNTZ owner Communications Corporation of America and moved to sign on WGMB-TV in Baton Rouge. This was done in order to build a new tower and transmitter site in the small farming community of Frogmore, in neighboring

Concordia Parish, Louisiana Concordia Parish (french: Paroisse de Concordia) borders the Mississippi River in eastern central Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,822. The parish seat is Vidalia. The parish was formed in 1807. Concordia Parish is part ...

. Fox in turn granted WNTZ the Fox affiliation for the Alexandria market. Also, WNTZ's broadcasting operation would be relocated to Lafayette, Louisiana, housed at its sister station, KADN-TV. The license would remain in Natchez, even though its tower and transmitter site were moved across to the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River and its base of operation would also move. In 1991, Delta Media Corporation moved administrative, sales and marketing operations to

Pineville, Louisiana Pineville is a city in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is located across the Red River from the larger Alexandria. Pineville is hence part of the Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,555 at the 2010 cens ...

, to have its main base of operation within the footprint of the Alexandria DMA. Later in 1996, Delta Media purchased office space and moved operations to Jackson Street in Alexandria's Garden District, with the intent to move the station's broadcast capability from its sister station KADN in Lafayette to the newly purchased building. Although administrative, sales, and marketing moved to Alexandria, broadcasting WNTZ's signal from the building never materialized because Delta Media sold the station's operation in 1997 to

White Knight Broadcasting White Knight Broadcasting is a company based in Lafayette, Louisiana owning three stations, based in Louisiana and Texas. It was founded in 1995 when it purchased then-religious independent station KWLB (now KSHV-TV) in Shreveport, LA. On April 24, ...

(transferred ten years later to parent company

Communications Corporation of America Communications Corporation of America (also known as ComCorp) was a broadcasting company in the United States that owned television stations in smaller markets. The company was headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana. It owned and/or operated 20 s ...

). The original tower which transmitted WNTZ's signal in 1985 remains behind its original studio building in Natchez, but it now only relays a live

microwave transmission Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by electromagnetic waves with wavelengths in the microwave frequency range of 300MHz to 300GHz(1 m - 1 mm wavelength) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwave signals are normally limi ...

signal to the main transmitter tower in Frogmore for

Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and both ...

(EAS) broadcasts, per FCC requirement.

WQNZ WQNZ (95.1 FM) is a radio station airing a country music format licensed to Natchez, Mississippi. The station is owned bListen Up Yall Media.WKSO 97.3 also use the tower to broadcast their signal. Since Natchez is the official FCC city of license, Delta Media maintained a satellite office within the studios in Natchez, even though the station began shifting its focus to the Alexandria market in 1991, and removed or sold all non-essential broadcasting equipment from the studio. Delta Media (and later White Knight Broadcasting) used the Natchez studio as a sales office. Similar to its operations in Alexandria, Delta Media, then later White Knight and Communications Corporation of America, paid monthly rent for use of the original studio to the building's owners.

K30QG-D

On July 1, 1991, Delta Media signed on K47DW on analog channel 47, relaying the programming of Delta Media's flagship station, Fox affiliate

in Lafayette, for the Alexandria market. Shortly after signing on, K47DW began airing commercials and legal identification separately from KADN, renaming its brand as "Fox 47". After Delta Media purchased the WNTZ license, moved the transmitter and tower site, and signed it back on for the second time, the Fox affiliation officially moved to WNTZ's designated analog channel 48. K47DW then became an affiliate of the

Channel America Channel America (CA), officially Channel America Network, Inc., was the first United States terrestrial broadcast television network to be intentionally assembled out of LPTV, or low-power television licensees. The network was founded by David Po ...

network until 1995, when it began simulcasting WNTZ to serve portions of Alexandria where channel 48's signal is weak. The call sign was changed to K47DW-D on July 5, 2012, following the transition to digital transmission, and then to K30QG-D on October 21, 2019.

Under White Knight/ComCorp ownership

Delta Media sold its television properties in Alexandria and Lafayette. In 1997, WNTZ was sold to Sheldon Galloway's White Knight Broadcasting, an offspring company of Communications Corporation of America (CCA or ComCorp for short), owned by his father, Thomas Galloway. In an unusual situation, the offices in Alexandria and Natchez remained in control of Delta Media. White Knight paid monthly rent to Delta Media to remain in the offices until 2007. Then the WNTZ operation moved a third time to rented space along Parliament Drive in the Noles-Frye building, a local real estate agency. The Natchez office remained a sales office until 2011; it later served as the site for special projects and social media staff during the station's last years under ComCorp ownership. Thomas created CCA when he signed on Fox affiliate WGMB in Baton Rouge from the purchase and move of the original transmitter for WNTZ. White Knight was founded by Sheldon in 1996 after the purchase of NBC affiliate

in Baton Rouge. CCA eventually purchased KADN in Lafayette from Delta Media outright in 2004, after a long-term

Local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

(LMA). WNTZ, WGMB, WVLA and KADN make up the "core four" on which both CCA and White Knight companies were built. Under White Knight, WNTZ saw many of its biggest changes, most notably in the early-to-mid 2000s. When a Fox affiliate became unavailable in

after

WDBD WDBD (channel 40) is a television station in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by American Spirit Media, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Gray Television, owner of NBC affilia ...

changed affiliations to

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...

in 2001, WNTZ served as the market's ''de facto'' Fox affiliate, along with

Foxnet Foxnet was an American cable television channel that was owned by the Fox Entertainment Group division of News Corporation. Serving as a national feed of the Fox Broadcasting Company (known simply as Fox), the service was intended for American t ...

for Jackson-area cable subscribers. White Knight considered relocating WNTZ's main transmitter tower back to Mississippi at a site east of Natchez such that the station could serve as an over the air affiliate for more viewers in the South and Central Mississippi areas, making its Frogmore transmitter a translator station. This ended when Vicksburg station WUFX-TV (now

WLOO WLOO (channel 35) is a television station licensed to Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States, serving the Jackson area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Owned by Tougaloo College, it has a joint sales agreement (JSA) with Fox affiliate WDBD (chan ...

) signed on the air in 2003. Ironically, both WDBD and WUFX were owned by Jackson Television, managed through a LMA by CCA/White Knight. WNTZ, as a Fox affiliate, struggled for a number of years to catch hold of viewers in the Alexandria market, mostly due to longtime Alexandria television stations

KALB-TV KALB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Alexandria, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with NBC, CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Washington Street in downtown Alexandria, and its transmitte ...

(channel 5) and

KLAX-TV KLAX-TV (channel 31) is a television station in Alexandria, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Imagicomm Communications. The station's studios are located on England Drive/ LA 498 in Alexandria, and its transmitter is loc ...

(channel 31). That changed in 2003, with the popularity of Fox first-run programming, sports programming and aggressive marketing tactics (see ''

Cenla Idol Central Louisiana (Cenla), also known as the Crossroads, is a region of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The largest communities in the region as of the United States Census, 2010, 2010 Census were Alexandria, Louisiana, Alexandria (47,893), Natchi ...

''). In May 2006, WNTZ ranked #1 in adult viewers 18–49 during common prime time programming (7:00 pm-9:00 pm Central Time) for the first time in the station's history, beating longtime rival KALB. The feat was repeated a second time in February 2007, and has retained a strong second place hold in the Alexandria market since. This improvement is despite many challenges facing a station using a network of broadcast towers. This was coupled with the long-standing thought by its competitors and some Alexandria viewers that WNTZ was "non-local" station, due to its license in Natchez and being corporate-owned. In actuality, until 2015, WNTZ was owned by Louisiana-based companies (White Knight/CCA and previously Delta Media), where both KALB (since 1993) and KLAX (since 1988) were and are still owned by companies not based in Louisiana. WNTZ used the "Louisiana Home Grown" slogan in 2004 as a demonstration of this. WNTZ officially lost this designation in 2015 with the sale of the station to

Nexstar Broadcasting Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...

Secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV

On January 24, 2006, The WB and

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...

networks announced they would merge into a new single network,

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. In turn, Fox owner

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...

announced the creation of

for those stations left out in the cold due to The CW merger. WNTZ became MyNetworkTV's home under a secondary affiliation agreement, officially launched on September 4, 2006. The network began to air on a timed tape-delay basis from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm Monday through Friday, immediately after Fox prime time programming aired. In the early years of the network, when nightly

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...

programs aired, the Saturday recap episodes were preempted to air on WNTZ Sunday nights after Fox prime time. Occasionally, due to time overruns of Fox programs, MyNetworkTV will run later than its scheduled time on WNTZ, but does run in its entirety. On September 9, 2013, due to the return of ''

The Arsenio Hall Show ''The Arsenio Hall Show'' is an American syndicated late-night talk show created by and starring comedian Arsenio Hall. There have been two different incarnations of ''The Arsenio Hall Show''. The original series premiered on January 3, 1989, ...

'' to late night television on WNTZ, MyNetworkTV was moved to air from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. This changed again in September 2014 due to the well-publicized ''Arsenio'' cancellation. MyNetworkTV programs now and currently air from 10:00 p.m. until midnight Monday through Friday.

KBCA KBCA (channel 41) is a television station in Alexandria, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with the digital multicast network Heroes & Icons. The station is owned by Wilderness Communications, and broadcasts from a transmitter in Oakdale, Lou ...

, which held The WB affiliation a mere six months prior to the announced CW merger, was announced as the Alexandria affiliate of The CW, which commenced operations on September 18, 2006. Former UPN station

KWCE-LP KWCE-LP (channel 27) is a defunct low-power analog television station in Alexandria, Louisiana, United States, which operated from 2000 to 2021. In its latter years, it was owned by Cox Media Group as an affiliate of MeTV; it had common ownershi ...

(channel 36 at the time), became an affiliate of

Retro Television Network Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through th ...

(now a

Me-TV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...

affiliate), and moved to channel 27 on the television dial.

WNTZ experiences second bankruptcy

Even though the television ratings improved for WNTZ, the station faced financial difficulty. In June 2006, White Knight Broadcasting filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy protection. A company press release stated, viewers and staff would "see no changes at the station". White Knight emerged from bankruptcy in October 2007. During the bankruptcy proceedings, White Knight asked to merge many of the stations it owned, including WNTZ, into the fold of its parent company, Communications Corporation of America. The license change was granted by the FCC, and WNTZ was officially changed over to ComCorp of Alexandria License Corporation, named after the station's market designation.

Sale to Nexstar Broadcasting Group

On April 24, 2013, ComCorp announced the sale of its entire group (including WNTZ) to the Nexstar Broadcasting Group. The sale was completed on January 1, 2015. Following the sale, on May 27, 2015, Nexstar management officially closed the Natchez studio, which had been used for special projects and social media staff since 2011, with no formal announcement made of its closure. In late 2016, WNTZ added three networks from Katz Broadcasting to its subchannels: Bounce TV on 48.2, Escape TV on 48.3, and Laff TV on 48.4.

Unique station characteristics

WNTZ's broadcasting is a loosely defined "network" of one main transmitter and two

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 ...

transmitters that serve residents in three television markets—Alexandria (the DMA that is officially rated by

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

); the southernmost portion of the

Monroe, Louisiana Monroe (historically french: Poste-du-Ouachita) is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and parish seat of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolita ...

–

El Dorado, Arkansas El Dorado, founded by Matthew Rainey, is a city in, and the county seat of, Union County, on the southern border of Arkansas, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 18,884. El Dorado is headquarters of the Ark ...

market (where the station's main transmitter tower is located); and the westernmost portion of the Jackson market (the location of Natchez, the station's

city of license In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American broa ...

assigned by 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)). Despite being licensed to Natchez, WNTZ is not carried on

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 ...

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

there.

Cable One Cable One, Inc. is an American broadband communications provider. Under the Sparklight brand, it provides service to 21 states and 900,000 residential and business customers. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, though it does not serve that ...

, which services the Natchez, MS/

Vidalia, LA Vidalia is the largest city and the parish seat of Concordia Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,299 as of the 2010 census. Vidalia is located on the west bank of the Mississippi River. The city of Natchez, Mississippi, lie ...

area, carries Jackson's Fox affiliate WDBD (and other Jackson stations) for the Natchez side of its service area. WNTZ is carried on the Vidalia side. This is despite Natchez and Vidalia being served by the same

cable headend A cable television headend is a master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution over a cable television system. A headend facility may be staffed or unstaffed and is typically surrounded by some type of security ...

(PSID #003002).

Attempts to broadcast news

WNTZ aired news updates during its first incarnation in the mid 1980s. When it returned to the air in 1991, the station did not broadcast newscasts. In August 2007, WNTZ debuted ''Fox News Louisiana AM'' in Alexandria to counter KALB and KLAX's national morning shows. Produced out of sister station WGMB in Baton Rouge, the newscast featured "local" news segments and eight weather updates an hour. Even though ''Fox News Louisiana AM'' was more "localized", content direct from the Alexandria area rarely aired. On December 2, 2008, WGMB cancelled the newscast due to cost-saving measures. The station has not aired any locally produced newscasts since; however, since becoming a Nexstar property, WNTZ airs weather and brief news capsules produced by sister station KLFY of Lafayette. In late 2022, WNTZ began simulcasting

NewsNation NewsNation is an American subscription television network owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and is the company's only wholly-owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel runs a mixture of entertainment programming (consistin ...

's ''Early Morning'' and ''Morning in America'' news programs from 5 to 9 a.m.

Technical information

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 ...

Translators

The following two translators had their licenses cancelled, due to the transition from analog to digital transmission. *K61GO channel 61 in Hicks, Louisiana¹ *K67GL channel 67 in

Bunkie, Louisiana Bunkie is a city in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,171 at the 2010 census. History Bunkie was founded as a station terminus on the Texas and Pacific Railroad line. It was named for the daughter (whose nickname w ...

¹ – ''An application has been filed for a separate "-LD" digital repeater on channel 42.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WNTZ-TV shut down its analog signal, over

Ultra high frequency Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequency, radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one ten ...

(UHF) channel 48, at 9:03 pm on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). Immediately after ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'' ended, WNTZ ran "

The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...

" (the footage was dated from 1940, so the

flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

in the clip had only 48 stars, ironically coinciding with the channel number) and then the analog signal shut off. Digital antenna and cable viewers went immediately into scheduled MyNetworkTV programming. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 49. Digital television receivers, including the low-power translator stations K22NI-D and K30QG-D, display WNTZ-TV's

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 ...

as 48 through the use of

PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...

. The low-power translators surrounding Alexandria will remain operational for the foreseeable future, even though two of the four have been shut off due to the remaining two translators being converted to low-power digital broadcast.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wntz-Tv Fox network affiliates MyNetworkTV affiliates Bounce TV affiliates Ion Mystery affiliates Laff (TV network) affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1985 1985 establishments in Mississippi NTZ-TV Television stations in Alexandria, Louisiana Nexstar Media Group