WGGS-TV is an
independentAn independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
Christian
television stationA television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
licensedA city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator....
to
Greenville, South Carolina-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...
. It serves the western regions of
NorthNorth Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and South Carolina. It broadcasts on UHF channel 16, and is owned by Carolina Christian Broadcasting (also known as Dove Broadcasting). Its studios are located in
Taylors, South CarolinaTaylors is a census-designated place in Greenville County, United States. The population was 20,125 at the 2000 census. Taylors is the Greenville/Spartanburg area's largest suburb although it is not incorporated as a city. It is part of the Greenville–Mauldin–Easley Metropolitan...
; just outside Greenville.
The station's schedule almost entirely consists of Christian programming. It airs many shows hosted by television evangelists, such as
Jim BakkerJames Orsen "Jim" Bakker is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, and a former host of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program.A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry...
,
Benny HinnToufik Benedictus "Benny" Hinn הין; born December 3, 1952) is a televangelist, best known for his regular "Miracle Crusades" – revival meeting/faith healing summits that are usually held in large stadiums in major cities, which are later broadcast worldwide on his television program, This Is Your...
,
Kenneth CopelandKenneth Copeland is an American author, public speaker, and televangelist. He is the founder of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, which preaches a “prosperity gospel”: "Prosperity gospel assures followers that the more they give including in the form of tithes to the church, the more they will receive...
,
James RobisonJames Robison is an American televangelist and the founder and President of the Christian relief organization Life Outreach International.-Early life and ministry:...
and
Joyce MeyerJoyce Meyer is a Charismatic Christian author and speaker. Meyer and her husband Dave have four grown children, and live outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her ministry is headquartered in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri.-Early life:Meyer was born Pauline Joyce Hutchison in south St. Louis in...
as well as shows such as
The 700 ClubThe 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom will host on any...
,
In Touch and some locally produced programming such as
Niteline (a local Christian talk/variety show). Tammy Faye Messner, the ex-wife of former
PTLPTL may refer to:* The PTL Club, a defunct television program* PTL Satellite Network, a defunct Christian cable network on which The PTL Club was shown* Praise The Lord, a television program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network...
and
Heritage USAHeritage USA was a Christian theme park, water park, and residential complex built in Fort Mill, South Carolina, USA, by PTL Club founders televangelist Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker Messner...
founder
Jim BakkerJames Orsen "Jim" Bakker is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, and a former host of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program.A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry...
, announced plans for a cooking show called
You Can Make It! which began airing in May 2006. (Messner died of cancer in July 2007, but the show is still in production with a different host.) The few secular shows on the station include wildlife sporting programs, "family-friendly" public domain shows and health/fitness shows. The station also airs some children's Christian programming as well as a few shows from the
Trinity Broadcasting NetworkThe Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
.
History
The station began operation in 1972 and has been owned by Carolina Christian Broadcasting throughout its history. It is the oldest independent station in South Carolina, and was also the first new commercial station to sign on in the market since
WSPA-TVWSPA-TV channel 7 is the CBS-affiliated television station for western North Carolina and South Carolina. It is licensed to Spartanburg, South Carolina with its transmitter is located on Hogback Mountain southwest of Tryon, North Carolina. Owned by Media General, the station is sister to CW...
in 1956. Initially it split its weekday schedule, airing secular general entertainment programming for half a day and Christian programming the other half. It aired more secular programming on Saturdays, and only Christian programs on Sundays. The general entertainment programs shown on the station included
Little Rascals,
Bugs BunnyBugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
,
PopeyePopeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
,
The Lone RangerThe Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
,
The Cisco KidThe Cisco Kid refers to a character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in the collection Heart of the West...
,
Ozzie & Harriet,
The Brady BunchThe Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...
,
Dennis The Menace,
The Donna Reed ShowThe Donna Reed Show is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the upper middle class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz appears as her pediatrician husband Alex, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children Mary and Jeff. The show originally aired on ABC at 10 pm from September...
,
Leave It To BeaverLeave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
,
Father Knows BestFather Knows Best is an American radio and television comedy series which portrayed a middle class family life in the Midwest. It was created by writer Ed James in the 1940s.-Radio:...
and
RawhideRawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
, among many others over the years. However, its programming policy, then as now, was very conservative so as not to offend fundamentalist or Pentecostal sensibilities.
When
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
launched
Nightline in 1980, WGGS came under fire for allegedly using a copyright name, despite having used the name
"Niteline" for its local program long before
Nightline debuted on ABC.
Other local productions on the station at the time include an exercise show called
Beverly Exercise; a talk show hosted by Peggy Denny and a children's show called
Drick's Follies (1980s-90s), featuring public domain cartoons from the 1930s to the 50s.
In the early 1980s, Carolina Christian Broadcasting signed on two more stations: WCCT in
ColumbiaColumbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
(channel 57, now
WACHWACH is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Midlands of South Carolina. It is licensed to Columbia. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 48 from a transmitter along SC 12 in Southwestern Kershaw County. Owned by Barrington Broadcasting, the station has studios on...
) and WGSE in Myrtle Beach (now
WFXBWFXB is the Fox-affiliated television station for South Carolina's Grand Strand and Pee Dee areas licensed to Myrtle Beach. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 18 from a transmitter in Mullins. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable and HTC Cablevision channel 7...
). WACH produced its own version of
Niteline once a week, and aired WGGS's version the rest of the week. WACH and WGSE aired far more cartoons, barter talk and game shows, and a few sitcoms, with Christian programming comprising only about a third of their schedules. Both stations were later sold off to secular interests and are now
FoxFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
stations.
WGGS was the only source of non-network programming in the western Carolinas until 1979, when former secondary ABC affiliate WAIM-TV (channel 40) changed its calls to WAXA and became an independent (it is now
WMYA-TVWMYA-TV is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina licensed to Anderson, South Carolina. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 14 from a transmitter in Fountain Inn, South Carolina. The station can also be seen on...
). WGGS began to phase out secular shows from its lineup in 1982, a process that sped up when
WHNSWHNS is the Fox affiliate television station for western North and South Carolina. Licensed to Greenville, South Carolina; it is owned by the Meredith Corporation. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 21...
(channel 21) signed on in 1984. By 1986 the station was almost entirely a Christian station. WGGS did add a few more secular cartoons and barter sitcoms in the 3-6 p.m. time slot in the early 1990s, but by 1999 it was back to airing a nearly entirely Christian schedule. The station also turned down affiliation deals with
Pax TVIon Television is a United States broadcast television network. Owned by ION Media Networks, the networked commenced broadcasting on August 31, 1998 as PAX TV, a named it used until July 1, 2005, when it became i: Independent Television; the network was rechristened Ion on January 29, 2007...
in 1998.
WGGS began 24/7 broadcasting in late 1999, having previously signed off late Sunday night/early Monday morning, and a few years before they signed off nightly.
WGGS' signal only provides grade B coverage of the North Carolina portion of the market, even in digital. From the late 1970s to 1984, WGGS operated a low-powered repeater in Asheville on channel 21. This was necessary in the days before
cableCable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
got significant penetration in the market. When this translator was displaced by WHNS signing on in 1984, WGGS reached a deal with the owners of WASV-TV, channel 62 in Asheville (now
WYCWWYCW is the CW-affiliated television station for Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina licensed to Asheville, North Carolina. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 45 from a transmitter on Pinnacle Mountain Road, south of Green River Township's Jeter Mountain...
), to use it as a relay until the early 1990s.
Digital television
WGGS' digital signal on channel 16 is multiplexed. On its second digital subcarrier, it airs "16 Too," a "family-friendly" independent station. Its lineup consists of classic television shows and new gospel programs--roughly the same mix of programming it carried for its first 14 years on the air.
On its third subcarrier, it airs "Harmony Gospel Music," a 24/7 Southern gospel music video channel.
When the digital transition is complete, WGGS returned to channel 16.
Out-of-market cable coverage
In
South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, WGGS is available on
Northland CommunicationsNorthland Communications is an American cable television, telephone and internet service provider with systems in various portions of the United States. Northland Communications currently owns and operates smaller-market cable systems in Alabama, California, Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, South...
in
SaludaSaluda is a town in Saluda County, South Carolina, along the Little Saluda River. The population was 3,066 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Saluda County.Saluda is part of the Columbia, South Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
, which is part of the
ColumbiaColumbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
DMAA media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
.
In
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, WGGS is available on
Time Warner CableTime Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
in
ShelbyShelby is a city in Cleveland County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 19,477 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cleveland County.-Geography:Shelby is located at ....
, which is part of the
CharlotteCharlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
DMA.
External links