WOAC
Encyclopedia
WRLM is a full-powered television station licensed to Canton, Ohio
, serving the Canton area as part of the Cleveland
/Akron/Canton market. The station is owned by Tri-State Christian Television
.
WRLM's tower is located in Brimfield
, near Interstate 76
.
with Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks
). Paxson dropped WOAC's entertainment programming in late 1995, and the station adopted an infomercial
format provided by Paxson's inTV network (a predecessor to today's Ion Television). Shortly afterwards, Paxson purchased WAKC-TV (now WVPX-TV) from ValueVision, and as a result, both stations broadcast inTV from December 31, 1996, when WAKC's affiliation contract with ABC
expired, until early 1997, when WOAC was sold to the Shop at Home Network
, who replaced inTV with its own home shopping
programming.
It is thought that Paxson sold WOAC because WAKC-TV had a stronger signal that better covered all of Northeast Ohio; WOAC's signal at the time was essentially limited to Canton and Stark County
. However, WOAC's antenna was subsequently moved to the Brimfield site, and the power was boosted to five million watts — the maximum allowed for analog UHF broadcasting. This allowed the station to have a much stronger signal that rivaled that of other local stations. In early 2006, WOAC-DT began operating on channel 47, with a power of one million watts; this is the highest power that a digital television station can operate, and provides an equivalent coverage area to the analog signal.
On May 16, 2006, The E.W. Scripps Company announced that Shop at Home would be suspending operations, effective June 22, 2006. http://pressreleases.scripps.com/release/854 However, Jewelry Television
took over the Shop at Home network operations around the time of the planned closure, and WOAC and other Shop at Home affiliates then ran a combination of programming from the two networks.
On September 26, 2006, Scripps announced that it was selling its Shop at Home stations, including WOAC, to Multicultural Television of New York City for $170 million. http://pressreleases.scripps.com/release/877 The sale of WOAC and sister stations in San Francisco and Raleigh closed on December 20, 2006. Shortly after Multicultural closed on the deal, all home shopping programming ceased in favor of infomercials, along with locally generated programming (such as Dining With Steve, which profiled restaurants in the station's area of service, and The Art of Living, which interviewed influential people in the same area), 24 hours a day.
WOAC ceased its analog broadcast on February 17, 2009, the original date for the United States
digital transition, unlike most other Cleveland-area stations. Digital broadcasts remained on the pre-transition channel.
After Multicultural ran into financial problems and defaulted on its loans, the station was placed into a trust; the station would soon be sold to Tri-State Christian Television
, a chain of Christian television stations. On June 25, the station's call letters were changed to WRLM, and the station began broadcasting TCT's religious
programming. In addition, the PSIP virtual channel of 67 was discontinued in favor of identifying with its actual channel, 47.1. The station's call letters are named after Radiant Life Ministries (the licensee name under which TCT owns WRLM); however, they are not related to KRLB-LP
in Richland, Washington
, whose group of stations are operated by a similarly named "Radiant Light Broadcasting".
Digital channels >
Virtual
Channel
Video
Aspect
Programming
47.1
480i
4:3
TCT
programming in SD
47.2
1080i
16:9
TCT
programming in HD, featuring an all-HD programming schedule different from TCT's
main grid
47.3
480i
4:3
TCT
variety programming in SD (TCT programming, public domain entertainment shows, TCT Kids)
47.4
480i
4:3
TCT
spanish language
religious programming in SD (TCT programming, spanish language religious programming)
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, serving the Canton area as part of the Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
/Akron/Canton market. The station is owned by Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television is a network of eight religious television stations and their repeaters, mainly in the Midwest. TCT Network provides Christian programming such as teaching, preaching, family-based movies, music, documentaries, youth and children, live broadcasts and original content...
.
WRLM's tower is located in Brimfield
Brimfield, Ohio
Brimfield is a census-designated place in Portage County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a population of 3,248. It is located in the central part of Brimfield Township , a rural area between the Ohio cities of Akron and Kent with light industry, strip-malls, subdivisions,...
, near Interstate 76
Interstate 76 (east)
Interstate 76 is an Interstate Highway in the United States, running 435 miles from an interchange with Interstate 71 west of Akron, Ohio, east to Interstate 295 near Camden, New Jersey....
.
History
WRLM began its broadcasting operation on UHF channel 67 as WOAC on April 23, 1982. Initially, the station operated as an independent station, serving mainly the Canton area. It featured syndicated reruns, movies, and local news updates. The station was later sold to Whitehead Media, who signed a local marketing agreementLocal marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
with Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks
ION Media Networks
ION Media Networks is an American television broadcasting company that owns and operates over 60 television stations in most major American markets. It is now a privately owned company.-History:...
). Paxson dropped WOAC's entertainment programming in late 1995, and the station adopted an infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
format provided by Paxson's inTV network (a predecessor to today's Ion Television). Shortly afterwards, Paxson purchased WAKC-TV (now WVPX-TV) from ValueVision, and as a result, both stations broadcast inTV from December 31, 1996, when WAKC's affiliation contract with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The 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...
expired, until early 1997, when WOAC was sold to the Shop at Home Network
Shop at Home Network
The Shop at Home Network was a television network in the United States Before its acquisition by Jewelry Television in 2006, The E. W. Scripps Company owned and operated the network from 2002 until 2006, when the network temporarily ceased operations on June 21...
, who replaced inTV with its own home shopping
Home shopping
Home shopping commonly refers to the electronic retailing/home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as HSN, QVC, eBay, ShopNBC, Buy.com, and Amazon.com, as well as traditional mail order and brick and mortar retailers as Hammacher...
programming.
It is thought that Paxson sold WOAC because WAKC-TV had a stronger signal that better covered all of Northeast Ohio; WOAC's signal at the time was essentially limited to Canton and Stark County
Stark County
Stark County is the name of three US counties:* Stark County, Illinois* Stark County, North Dakota* Stark County, Ohio* Starke County, Indiana, although spelled slightly differently, is also named for Revolutionary War General John Stark, the same origin as Stark County in other states....
. However, WOAC's antenna was subsequently moved to the Brimfield site, and the power was boosted to five million watts — the maximum allowed for analog UHF broadcasting. This allowed the station to have a much stronger signal that rivaled that of other local stations. In early 2006, WOAC-DT began operating on channel 47, with a power of one million watts; this is the highest power that a digital television station can operate, and provides an equivalent coverage area to the analog signal.
On May 16, 2006, The E.W. Scripps Company announced that Shop at Home would be suspending operations, effective June 22, 2006. http://pressreleases.scripps.com/release/854 However, Jewelry Television
Jewelry Television
Jewelry Television is an American television network, similar to the Home Shopping Network. It was formerly called "America's Collectibles Network" . The privately-held company was founded in 1993 and broadcasts high definition programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to over 80 million unique...
took over the Shop at Home network operations around the time of the planned closure, and WOAC and other Shop at Home affiliates then ran a combination of programming from the two networks.
On September 26, 2006, Scripps announced that it was selling its Shop at Home stations, including WOAC, to Multicultural Television of New York City for $170 million. http://pressreleases.scripps.com/release/877 The sale of WOAC and sister stations in San Francisco and Raleigh closed on December 20, 2006. Shortly after Multicultural closed on the deal, all home shopping programming ceased in favor of infomercials, along with locally generated programming (such as Dining With Steve, which profiled restaurants in the station's area of service, and The Art of Living, which interviewed influential people in the same area), 24 hours a day.
WOAC ceased its analog broadcast on February 17, 2009, the original date for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
digital transition, unlike most other Cleveland-area stations. Digital broadcasts remained on the pre-transition channel.
After Multicultural ran into financial problems and defaulted on its loans, the station was placed into a trust; the station would soon be sold to Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television is a network of eight religious television stations and their repeaters, mainly in the Midwest. TCT Network provides Christian programming such as teaching, preaching, family-based movies, music, documentaries, youth and children, live broadcasts and original content...
, a chain of Christian television stations. On June 25, the station's call letters were changed to WRLM, and the station began broadcasting TCT's religious
Religious broadcasting
Religious broadcasting refers to broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their Internet websites.While this article emphasises...
programming. In addition, the PSIP virtual channel of 67 was discontinued in favor of identifying with its actual channel, 47.1. The station's call letters are named after Radiant Life Ministries (the licensee name under which TCT owns WRLM); however, they are not related to KRLB-LP
KRLB-LP
KRLB-LP channel 49.1 is a low-powered religious television station in Richland, Washington, owned by Radiant Light Broadcasting, and affiliated with the Trinity Broadcasting Network....
in Richland, Washington
Richland, Washington
Richland is a city in Benton County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington, at the confluence of the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 48,058. April 1, 2011 estimates from the Washington State Office of Financial Management put the...
, whose group of stations are operated by a similarly named "Radiant Light Broadcasting".
Digital TV
Channel
Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television is a network of eight religious television stations and their repeaters, mainly in the Midwest. TCT Network provides Christian programming such as teaching, preaching, family-based movies, music, documentaries, youth and children, live broadcasts and original content...
programming in SD
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television is a network of eight religious television stations and their repeaters, mainly in the Midwest. TCT Network provides Christian programming such as teaching, preaching, family-based movies, music, documentaries, youth and children, live broadcasts and original content...
programming in HD, featuring an all-HD programming schedule different from TCT's
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television is a network of eight religious television stations and their repeaters, mainly in the Midwest. TCT Network provides Christian programming such as teaching, preaching, family-based movies, music, documentaries, youth and children, live broadcasts and original content...
main grid
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television is a network of eight religious television stations and their repeaters, mainly in the Midwest. TCT Network provides Christian programming such as teaching, preaching, family-based movies, music, documentaries, youth and children, live broadcasts and original content...
variety programming in SD (TCT programming, public domain entertainment shows, TCT Kids)
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
Tri-State Christian Television
Tri-State Christian Television is a network of eight religious television stations and their repeaters, mainly in the Midwest. TCT Network provides Christian programming such as teaching, preaching, family-based movies, music, documentaries, youth and children, live broadcasts and original content...
spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
religious programming in SD (TCT programming, spanish language religious programming)