WACS-TV
 |
|
| Dawson/Americus, Georgia | |
|---|---|
| Branding | GPB |
| Slogan | Bringing You the Best |
| Channels | Digital: 8 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 25.1 - GPB/PBS HD (1080i) 25.2 - GPB Create TV (480i) |
| Owner | Georgia Public Broadcasting (Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission) |
| First air date | March 6, 1967 |
| Call letters' meaning | AmeriCuS |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 25 (1967-2009) |
| Former affiliations | NET (1967-1970) |
| Transmitter power | 4.7 kW |
| Height | 333 metres (1,093 ft) |
| Facility ID | 23930 |
| Transmitter coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Website | www.gpb.org |
WACS-TV, part of the GPB network, is Georgia's ninth public television station, and primarily serves the southern part of the Columbus market, including Dawson and Americus. WACS' transmitter is located north of Parrott, Georgia. The station's signal travels in about a 40-mile (64-km) radius from the transmitter site and also reaches parts of southeastern Alabama.
WACS is one of GPB's most powerful stations, providing at least grade B coverage from Columbus to Albany. Although Columbus' GPB station of record is WJSP-TV, over-the-air viewers in most of the city get a much stronger signal from WACS. WJSP's transmitter in Warm Springs provides marginal coverage at best to most of Columbus itself, even though it is 45 minutes north of Columbus. By comparison, WACS' transmitter is almost an hour south. WACS also provides a strong signal to much of Albany though that city's GPB station of record is Pelham's WABW-TV, channel 14. All are satellites of Athens/Atlanta's WGTV, the network's flagship station. They simulcast an identical broadcast schedule with no local content.
WACS signed on the air on March 6, 1967. Its digital signal is permanently on channel 8 with roughly the same coverage.
Digital television
WACS-TV broadcasts the following digital subchannels:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | Main GPB programming / PBS | |
| 25.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Create TV | |
| 25.3 | 4:3 | GPB Knowledge |
Tower destruction
In March 2007, the station's broadcast tower was destroyed by one of several tornadoes which struck the region during a major outbreak on March 1. The same tornado, rated an EF3, went on to cause serious destruction in Americus. [1] Cable TV viewers continued to receive GPB directly from satellite, or over-the-air via neighboring GPB stations WJSP or WABW, while GPB worked to replace the tower and the transmitter building it partly fell on. This was finally completed in early May 2008, although to avoid losing the station's license (due to a one-year statutory requirement for all off-air stations enacted by Congress, and therefore not correctable by the Federal Communications Commission), GPB engineers borrowed the transmitter from W22AC in Hartwell to get WACS back on the air before the end of February.
