Technical Profile: WIYC-DT

TV Technical Profile: WIYC

Channel:: 19
Programming:: 48.1 - Cozi TV
48.2 - My Network TV / Catchy Comedy
48.3 - Court TV
48.4 - Heroes & Icons
48.5 - TBD
48.6 - Comet
48.7 - Charge!
48.8 - Weather
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] About halfway between Troy and Montgomery, just south of Old Pike Road near the Bullock County community of High Ridge. Just south of the WBMM tower. In the absolute northernmost part of Pike County.
Power (ERP):: 185 kW
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):: 1,057 feet
Antenna:: Directional
Other Information:: 41 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC. (FCCdata.org Link); [FCC]
[FCCdata]
[RabbitEars]; [Wikipedia]; [Facebook]; Owned by Allen Media Group
History:: This station dates back to the fall of 2000, when it came on the air as WRJM, a UPN affiliate serving the Montgomery and Wiregrass areas of Alabama, on analog channel 67. It was put on the air by Jack Mizell, who at the time owned WRJM-FM (then 93.7 in the Dothan area). Part of the impetus for the large coverage area of this part of the state was to sell ads to the ill-fated Country Crossing bingo hall near Dothan. The station switched to the My Network TV network on the day it debuted, circa September 2006. The station went bankrupt in the winter of 2008, and went through several owners, during which time the digital permit kept getting extended due to a lack of funds. In April 2009 the station dropped My Network TV, supposedly due to reception equipment problems. The station eventually shutdown the analog and went digital after a lightning strike, according to the Wikipedia article. The station picked up the American Music Video Network, which appears to originate from the area or the station itself, as it is only available on southeast Alabama cable systems. The calls changed to WIYC (It's Your Country) in November 2009. During this tumultuous period the station's OTA signal has been reported off. Reports from January 2010 say the station is on air, but broadcasting in a format that ATSC digital tuners cannot see properly.; While the station should be showing a PSIP of their former analog channel, 67, it appears they are instead showing their actual RF channel, 48.; The American Music Video Network rebraded to TCN - The Country Network at some point after its debut on WIYC.; At some point after becoming TCN, the channel dropped the country music for a 24 hour weather feed known as Weather Nation. TCN reappeared in October 2011 on a subchannel, according to area reports. In January 2012 the station was reported by broadcasting in 1080i HD with Dolby Digital. In April 2013 the station has reportedly dropped Weather Nation for NBC-owned Cozi TV. It's unknown if Weather Nation or TCN will continue to air on the subchannel as the 48.2 channel is present but blank on receivers as of 2013, but as of 2016, Cozi TV remains the only broadcast aired by this station. The station was sold by Neal Ardman (WIYC Inc) for $1 million to Woods Communications in November 2017. Woods already owns WCOV and WALE-LD in Montgomery.

As part of the FCC spectrum repacking processing, this station received a permit in mid-July to relocate from RF channel 48 to 19, with no other real technical changes aside from a drop in power. The station received a permit in September 2019 to delay the repacking process.

The station added Heroes and Icons to the -.3 subchannel in August 2018, along with color bars as a placeholder for an unknown channel to debut on the -.2 subchannel. In March 2019, the station dropped power to 50 kW with a Special Temporary Authority due to failure of some amplifier components in the transmitter.

The station was slated to pick up the newly-relaunched Court TV in May 2019.

The station moved to RF channel 19 in mid-December 2019.

The station added HSN to a subchannel in the summer of 2020. The station returned to full power in August 2020. The station's blank —.2 subchannel began being listed as "MyNet" in September 2020, and it showed up a few weeks later in that slot. A few weeks after debuting, they began showing some programming from Decades on this subchannel as well. In April 2021, the station dropped HSN from the —.5 subchannel, replacing it with TBD. They also added Comet and Charge around this same time.

The station added an eighth subchannel showing weather information in July 2021.

It was announced in December 2021 that Woods Communications would be selling their Montgomery properties to Byron Allen's Allen Media Group for $28.5 million. Allen owns several cable channels, broadcast stations and other media properties.

In March 2023, Weigel Broadcasting renamed the Decades channel to Catchy Comedy.