Technical Profile: WDPM-DT

TV Technical Profile: WDPM

Channel:: 23
Programming:: 18.1 - Daystar
18.2 - Daystar Español
18.3 - Scripture slideshow
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] Tower is near the intersection of Patterson Road and Ernest Patterson Roads, south of I-10 in Baldwin County. Co-located with WSRE-DT, WPMI-DT and WMPV-DT; FM stations WXBM, WRGV and WTKX.
Power (ERP):: 390 kW
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):: 1,751 feet
Antenna:: Directional
Other Information:: 41 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.; [FCC]
[FCCdata]
[RabbitEars]; [Wikipedia]
[Facebook] Daystar main Facebook page
Owned by Word of God Fellowship, Inc.
History:: Despite being a relative newcomer to the Mobile TV market, this station dated back to an agreement in the late 90's between Television Capital Corporation of Mobile and Paxson Communications, to win a bid for a new TV license on RF channel 61 in the Mobile-Pensacola market. The goal was to launch the PAX network, which at the time was attempting to become another national network.

Shortly after Television Capital Corporation of Mobile won the permit, the FCC put a moratorium on new stations on channels 60-69, putting a roadblock in the way of getting the station put on the air. At first they attempted to move to channel 50, but that allocation was taken so the move was denied. In 2006, the station was granted a permit to use RF channel 18 and launch as a digital-only signal. In 2008, before it could be built, the deal between TCCM and Paxon fell apart, and TCCM sold the permit to Word of God Fellowship, Inc. They, in turn opted to occupy WSRE's old analog RF channel 23 allotment instead of channel 18. This delayed the debut of the station, as it had to wait until WSRE's analog broadcasts ceased before they could go on the air on that channel.

The station finally signed on in the spring of 2009, carrying the Daystar religious network. As a digital-only broadcast, there is no need to map a virtual channel number to viewer's television sets; normally they would just take the RF channel number itself. Since WSRE's using a virtual 23.— already, this station should have used WSRE's actual RF channel (31) instead, by ATSC protocol. Instead, they opted to use virtual channel 4. This caused problems for viewers in fringe areas, as both WWL in New Orleans and WTVY in Dothan have virtual channel 4 already. Perhaps because of the problems this created, they later switched to virtual channel 31, then back to 4 again.

The station was reported off the air in April 2012. It was back on by the spring of 2013 when a license to cover was finally filed with the FCC. The station came back on virtual channel 18.

In the summer or early fall of 2020, the station was reported to have a second channel of programming, with Spanish language religious content. As of 2024 it appears the Spanish subchannel is also airing in 720p HD.

The station was noted to have a third channel airing in late 2022, with static nature backgrounds, instrumental music and scripture verses on screen.