Branding GPB Channels Digital: 23 (UHF) | Slogan Bringing You the Best Affiliations PBS | |
 | ||
Subchannels 28.1 - GPB/PBS HD (1080i)
28.2 - GPB Create TV (480i)
28.3 - GPB Knowledge (480i) Translators former W49AD Carrollton | ||
WJSP-TV 23 (DTV 28.1/2/3), part of the Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member Public broadcasting network, serves Columbus, Georgia and the surrounding west-central Georgia and far east-central Alabama region. The transmitter and radio antenna are located just south of Warm Springs on the same radio tower as WJSP-FM 88.1. It's one of only two GPB stations actually licensed to a major Georgia city, the other being WVAN-TV in Savannah. However, to conform to GPB's pattern of naming two cities in station IDs, the station's shown as "WJSP-DT 28, Columbus/Warm Springs".
Contents
The station's signal travels in about a 45-mile (75 km) radius from the transmitter site, though this is variable since it uses a directional antenna. The signal also reaches far south-southwest metro Atlanta, and is a better source for GPB in that area than its main station, WGTV; indeed, Warm Springs is geographically within the Atlanta market.
WJSP primarily serves the northern and central portions of the Columbus market. The southern portion of the Columbus market, including much of Columbus itself, is served by Americus' WACS-TV. While WJSP is the official GPB station for Columbus, its signal is marginal at best in much of the city even though Warm Springs is 45 minutes north of Columbus. By comparison, WACS' transmitter in Parrott is almost an hour south of Columbus.
The station had originally chosen to return to channel 28 for digital TV during the first-round digital channel election, but due to an interference conflict it was forced to remain permanently on channel 23.
There was also one broadcast translator, W49AD, channel 49 in downtown Carrollton, in the southwest corner of the Atlanta market. That translator's digital companion channel is W13DJ-D on channel 13, on-air since July/August 2009. However, it is officially part of WGTV's license. It is east-southeast of town, immediately southeast of the Oak Mountain Championship Golf Course.
Digital programming
WJSP-TV broadcasts the following digital subchannels:
History
WJSP-TV signed on August 10, 1964, as the fifth public television station in Georgia. Its somewhat reduced-power digital signal, on channel 23, began in 2003. WJSP has been digital-only since February 17, 2009.
The channel 28 frequency was originally home to WTVM from 1953 to 1960, when it moved to channel 9.
WJSP's callsign is from the initials of long-time Georgia legislator and member of the state's board of education, James S. Peters of Manchester, Georgia.