Affiliations Laff First air date June 9, 2002 Former affiliations TBN (2002–2012) | Owner Regal Media Former callsigns W39CO (2002-2014) | |
Channels Analog: 39 (UHF)
Digital: 28 | ||
WWBK-LP is a TBN-affiliated television station located in the Richmond, Virginia television market, broadcasting on channel 39. It is owned by Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, Inc.
The station has been the affiliate of TBN since it signed on in 2002 as W39CO.
TBN took W39CO silent April 13, 2010 due to declining support, which has been attributed to the digital transition. W39CO returned to the air on June 5, 2010. On April 13, 2012, TBN sold 36 of its translators, including W39CO, to Regal Media, a broadcasting group headed by George Cooney, the CEO of the EUE/Screen Gems studios. In the meantime, W39CO left the air once more, on July 12, 2012, after losing the lease to its transmitter site; it will not return until after the sale to Regal Media is complete.
On June 3, 2014, the station's callsign was changed to WWBK-LP.
According to its website, the Laff digital network is carried on the station's main channel (28.1) as of January 2016 with the station's sale to Regal Media.
Digital television
In May 2006, the FCC granted National Minority TV (a former TBN subsidiary that owned the station at the time)'s request for permission to digital flash-cut (end analog transmission and immediately began digital transmission on the same channel) the low-power analog translator for the station. The FCC gave the station until May 12, 2009 to complete the flash cut. The station has not begun digital broadcasting and continued to transmit an analog signal until going silent.