WWRS-TV

{{Short description|Television station in Mayville, Wisconsin}} {{more citations needed|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}} {{Infobox television station | callsign = WWRS-TV | city = Mayville, Wisconsin | logo = | branding = | digital = 34 (UHF) | virtual = 52 | subchannels = | translators = | affiliations = {{TBN DTV/text|52}} | owner = Trinity Broadcasting Network | licensee = Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc. | location = Mayville–Milwaukee–Madison, Wisconsin | country = United States | airdate = {{start date|1997}}{{when|date=January 2014}} | last_airdate = | callsign_meaning = Wayne R. Stenz (part of original ownership group) | sister_stations = | former_callsigns = | former_channel_numbers = {{ubl|'''Analog:''' 52 (UHF, 1997–2009)|'''Digital:''' 43 (UHF, until 2019)}} | former_affiliations = | erp = 504 kW | haat = {{convert|186|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} | facility_id = 68547 | coordinates = {{coord|43|26|11.4|N|88|31|33.9|W|type:landmark_scale:2000|display=inline, title}} | licensing_authority = FCC | website = {{URL|https://www.tbn.org/}} }}

'''WWRS-TV''' (channel 52) is a religious television station licensed to Mayville, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Milwaukee and Madison areas. The station is owned by the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). WWRS-TV's transmitter is located in Hubbard. Its signal covers much of southeastern and south-central Wisconsin, along with extended cable coverage throughout the area.

==History== The station was formerly owned by National Minority Television, a ''de facto'' subsidiary of TBN that was used by the network to circumvent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s television station ownership restrictions. While TBN founder Paul Crouch was NMTV's president, one of its directors was African American and the other was Latino, which met the FCC's definition of a "minority-controlled" firm.<ref>Pinsky, Mark. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-28-me-1359-story.html Liberal Reading of FCC Minority Rule Has Helped TBN's Growth], ''Los Angeles Times'', January 28, 1989.</ref> In mid-2008, the station and its NMTV sisters came directly under TBN ownership.

Like most TBN stations, there is no local contributions from WWRS outside passthrough of local Emergency Alert System weather warnings and missing person alerts. TBN typically buys full-power stations mainly to get must-carry status on area cable systems. Until the Main Studio rule in 2019 allowed the closure of local studios, WWRS carried FCC-required public affairs programming (''Public Report'') from its Brookfield studios,<ref>[http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/47108732.html Christian TV network investing in new Brookfield production studio], ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'', June 5, 2009.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ci.brookfield.wi.us/archives/69/PRB%203%2019%2009%20agn.pdf |title=CITY OF BROOKFIELD REGULAR PLAN REVIEW BOARD |access-date=January 5, 2011 |archive-date=March 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307052631/http://www.ci.brookfield.wi.us/archives/69/PRB%203%2019%2009%20agn.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> along with Friday morning airings of local church services.

Charter Communications, the dominant cable provider in the Madison area, and several communities in the Milwaukee area before the 2017 purchase of Time Warner Cable and merge into Spectrum, added TBN and all of its digital subchannels to its systems in the area beginning late August 2007, within the provider's digital family tier of channels, with carriage of the station's feed and low-channel carriage on local cable systems depending on must-carry requests; those systems with no such provision with TBN carry the national feed.

==Subchannels== {{TBN-DTV|52}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WWRS#station|title=RabbitEars TV Query for WWRS|website=RabbitEars.info|accessdate=January 6, 2025}}</ref> The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 43,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |title=DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds |format=PDF |access-date=March 24, 2012 |archive-date=August 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> using virtual channel 52.

==Must-carry== On April 1, 2002, a dispute arose between Time Warner Cable's Milwaukee-area system and WWRS regarding must-carry regulations. Must-carry regulations require cable television providers within the Grade B contour of a full-power, full service television station to carry that station on their basic tier. When the dispute was settled, the FCC judged that the station was not required to be carried on the cable systems in the more distant counties of Kenosha, Racine and Walworth. However, WWRS was able to exercise must-carry to the Time Warner Cable lineup in the immediate Milwaukee area. This, combined with the lack of available channel space, caused the forced move of Madison's PBS member and PBS Wisconsin flagship station WHA-TV (channel 21) to the digital cable tier in order to air WWRS on the basic cable tier.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/tv-profile/wwrs-tv |title=TV Station Information WWRS-TV|website=fcc.gov|access-date=September 11, 2023}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{Official website|https://www.tbn.org/}} *{{Facebook|WWRS52}} *[http://www.tbn.org/publicfile/WWRS/ TBN.org/publicfile/WWRS/] (WWRS-TV's public file) *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080827161216/http://milwaukee-horror-hosts.com/MilwTV.html History of Milwaukee television]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wwrs-Tv}} Category:1997 establishments in Wisconsin Category:Dodge County, Wisconsin WRS-TV Category:Television channels and stations established in 1997 WRS-TV Category:Trinity Broadcasting Network stations