WRAY-TV
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WRAY-TV channel 42 (virtual channel 30) is a full-power television station licensed to Wilson, North Carolina and serves the entire Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, North Carolina metropolitan area. The station is owned and operated by Tri-State Christian Television, and runs religious programming 24 hours a day on three broadcast channels. Programming includes local interview/music programs, the Ask the Pastor program,and local public affairs programs from its studios in Wilson, NC. WRAY TV also airs Christian ministry programs from the Raleigh/Durham DMA.
History
The station was given the call letters WEOU on February 18, 1992. However, the station was granted a license on April 14, 1995. It signed on August 7 as WRAY-TV, and was initially a semi-satellite of WFAY (channel 62; now WFPX-TV), at that time Fayetteville's Fox affiliate; however, the station operated as an independent station, as its signal overlapped with WLFL, at that time Raleigh's Fox affiliate. WRAY's programming changed more towards home shopping upon its sale to Ramcast Corporation in 1997;[1] Ramcast quickly merged with the Global Shopping Network to become Global Broadcasting Systems, Inc.[2] However, Global Broadcasting Systems soon ran into financial trouble, and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 26, 1997.[3] Its assets, including WRAY, were sold to the rival Shop at Home Network in 1998.[4]
On May 16, 2006, parent company The E.W. Scripps Company announced that Shop at Home would be suspending operations, effective June 22, 2006.[5] However, the network temporarily ceased operations on June 21, and WRAY switched to Jewelry Television (and, on June 23, a mixture of both networks), which remained until Scripps found a buyer for its stations.
On September 26, 2006, Scripps announced that it was selling its Shop at Home stations, including WRAY, to Multicultural Television of New York City for $170 million.[6] The sale of WRAY and the San Francisco and Cleveland stations was finalized on December 20, 2006. Soon after the sale, all Shop at Home programming ceased in favor of a schedule consisting primarily of infomercials.
After Multicultural ran into financial problems and defaulted on its loans, the station was placed into a trust; in October 2009, a sale of WRAY TV to Tri-State Christian Television (via subsidiary Radiant Light Ministries, which had earlier acquired WOAC (now WRLM) from the trust), a chain of Christian television stations, was announced.[7]
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming[8] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30.1 | 480i | 4:3 | WRAY-DT | Main WRAY-TV programming / TCT |
| 30.2 | 1080i | 16:9 | ||
| 30.3 | 480i | 4:3 | TCT Family | |
| 30.4 | ABN | Aramaic Broadcasting Network |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WRAY-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 30, 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). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 42.[9] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 30.
References
- ^ "Application Search Details". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ "Global Broadcasting Systems, Inc. SEC Form S-1 filing". EDGAR Online. March 12, 1997. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ "Cable Network's Chapter 11 Filing". The New York Times. June 27, 1997. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ "WRAY-TV acquired by 'home shopping' company". Triangle Business Journal. American City Business Journals. March 27, 1998. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ "Scripps ceasing Shop At Home operations" (Press release). The E.W. Scripps Company. May 16, 2006. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ "Scripps sells Shop At Home TV stations" (Press release). The E.W. Scripps Company. September 26, 2006. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ^ "New owner for WRAY-TV Raleigh". Television Business Report. October 30, 2009. Retrieved October 30, 2009.
- ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WRAY
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.