TV Technical Profile: WPAN
- Channel:
- 40
21 (CP)
- Programming:
- 40.1 -
AntennaTV
40.2 - blank
40.3 - Shopping/Infomercials
- Transmitter
Location:
- [map]
[street
view] Along US-98 (Gulf Breeze Parkway) in the Gulf Breeze
area. North of the highway between Woodlawn Beach Road and Oak
Drive. Co-located with FM station WUWF.
- Power (ERP):
- 33.5 kW
620 kW
(CP)
- Height Above
Average Terrain (HAAT):
- 719 feet
1,227 feet
(CP)
- Antenna:
- Directional
Directional
(CP)
- Other
Information:
- 41 dBu protected
contour
map, from the FCC.
41
dBu protected contour map, from the FCC. (FCCdata.org
link) (CP)
- [FCC]
[FCCdata]
[RabbitEars]
- [Wikipedia]
- [Screenshot]
Midnight hour ID, missing call letters, city of license or anything
else informative about the station. (09-07-2013)
- Owned by B&C
Communications, LLC
Silent
- History:
- WPAN came on in
1984; the calls stand for Florida PANhandle. Was a typical
independent, with a mix of syndicated re-runs and movies. The
station went dark, came back on and then went under again. In its
third try, it has managed to stay on the air for a few years, airing
a lot of infomercials, large chunks of ValueVision home shopping and
simulcasts of BLAB TV in prime time. (BLAB TV is a long form
infomercial channel targeting local businesses.) At one time, it
operated a translator on channel 69 in Mobile, which under the rules
prevailing at that time, required the cable company in Mobile to
carry it. That translator was apparently relocated to channel
50 during the digital television transistion period. It
appears that, as of at least mid-2008, the station had picked up
Jewelry Television, likely when Value Vision was changed over to
ShopNBC. When the Mobile translator went off the air, the
station lost coverage in that part of the market.
- Reports
from the Florida coast say that this station has abandoned their
analog channel number in the PSIP (they were channel 53) in favor of
their actual RF channel number.
- In
March 2011 it was announced that BLAB TV is to move to Flinn-owned
WFBD, whose transmitter site in extreme southeast Escambia County,
Alabama. This will allow BLAB to cover a lot more territory.
More importantly, it will allow them to get back on cable in the
metro Mobile and Baldwin County areas. After BLAB TV left, WPAN
spent some time just airing generic infomercials before picking up
NBC's Cozi TV and a second subchannel of shopping and infomercials
in early 2013.
- The
station was reported silent as of 30 December 2013, and is up for
sale. In October 2014 the license was transferred from
Franklin & Hoynacki Communications, LLC, to I Square Media LLC,
although it appears that deal was never actually consummated. In
April of 2015, the license was transferred to Franklin Media, Inc.,
which also seems to have never gone through at the FCC. In
mid-July 2015 the license was transferred to B&C Communications,
LLC, from Franklin & Hoynacki Communications, LLC. As of May
2016 the station remains off the air. It was reported back on
the air with mostly infomercials in the winter of 2017.
In late August 2017, the station received a permit to relocate to RF
channel 31, from channel 40, as part of the FCC repacking
process. Due to an inability to get a higher antenna height
from their tower owner, and due to potential interference issues
from Mobile's WEIQ, the station was forced to apply for a
lower-than-optimal power level from this new, lower antenna
height. With this will come a significant loss of coverage
area, which will allow the station to apply for a new channel at
some point in the future of the repacking process. In April
2018 the station received a permit for the repacking effort to
relocate to RF channel 21 with improved power and antenna height.
The station has been listed as an affiliate of Antenna TV in 2018,
but the current operational status is unknown.