Misplaced Pages

WBUY-TV (channel 40) is a religious television station licensed to Holly Springs, Mississippi, United States, serving the Memphis, Tennessee, area as an owned-and-operated station of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The station's transmitter is located in the Brunswick section of unincorporated northeast Shelby County.

The station formerly operated from a studio located on Cazassa Road in the southeast section of Memphis. That facility was one of several closed by TBN in 2019 following the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s repeal of the "Main Studio Rule", which required full-service television stations like WBUY-TV to maintain facilities in or near their communities of license.

History

WBUY-TV first signed on the air in September 1991, with its original analog transmitter along MS 309 north of Byhalia, Mississippi. It was built and signed on by Sonlight Broadcasting Systems, a broadcast ministry based in Mobile, Alabama, and co-founded by television producer Paul Crouch Jr. and attorney and broadcaster Jay Sekulow. All of Sonlight's stations were affiliated with TBN, which was co-founded by Paul Crouch Jr.'s parents Paul Sr. and Jan. As a TBN affiliate, WBUY carried most of the network's schedule while opting out at times to air alternate programming.

In 1997, WBUY was sold, along with the rest of Sonlight's stations, to All American TV (not to be confused with an unrelated television syndication company of a similar name), a minority-owned firm with close ties to TBN. The sale to All American made the station a full-fledged affiliate of the network. WBUY became a TBN owned-and-operated station in 2000, when TBN purchased all of All American's stations.

The station's original permittees intended for channel 40 to broadcast Home Shopping Network (HSN) programs to the Memphis market; the last three letters of the station's call sign incidentally reflected this intended, but unrealized affiliation.

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

TBN-owned full-power stations permanently ceased analog transmissions on April 16, 2009.

References

1. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says September 13, while the Television and Cable Factbook says September 15.
2. "Facility Technical Data for WBUY-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
3. Strang, Steve (July 15, 2019). "How Trump's New Regulation Cuts Will Save TBN $20 Million a Year for Gospel Purposes". Charisma. Archived from the original on August 12, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
4. "Miss. to get religious TV station". The Commercial Appeal. Memphis, TN. August 24, 1991. p. 27. Retrieved September 14, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
5. "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. April 14, 1997. p. 47. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
6. "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. March 27, 2000. p. 74. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
7. RabbitEars TV Query for WBUY

• Television stations in Memphis, Tennessee
• Trinity Broadcasting Network stations
• Television channels and stations established in 1991
• 1991 establishments in Mississippi
• Holly Springs, Mississippi