WRAY-TV

WRAY-TV, virtual channel 30 (UHF digital channel 20), is a TCT Network owned-and-operated television station licensed to Wake Forest, North Carolina, United States. The station is owned by Marion, Illinois-based Tri-State Christian Television. WRAY's transmitter is on Terrells Mountain near Chapel Hill. The station maintained studios on Expressway Drive in Wilson until TCT ended local operations in June 2018.

For the station in Indiana, see WRAY-TV (Indiana).
WRAY-TV
Wake Forest/Raleigh/
Durham, North Carolina
United States
CityWake Forest, North Carolina
ChannelsDigital: 20 (UHF)
(shared with WUNC-TV and WLXI[1])
Virtual: 30 (PSIP)
Programming
AffiliationsTCT (O&O, 2010–present)
Ownership
OwnerTri-State Christian Television
(Radiant Life Ministries, Inc.)
WLXI
History
First air date
August 7, 1995 (1995-08-07)
(in Wilson, North Carolina; license moved to Wake Forest in 2018[2])
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
30 (UHF, 1995–2009)
Digital:
42 (UHF, until 2018)
25 (UHF, 2018–2019)
Independent (1995–1997, 2006–2010)
Global Shopping Network (1997–1998)
Shop at Home (1998–2006)
Call sign meaning
The "RA" in WRAY stands for "Raleigh"; the Y does not stand for anything
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID10133
ClassDT
ERP1000 kW
HAAT461.9 m (1,515 ft)
Transmitter coordinates35°51′59″N 79°10′0.5″W
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Websitewww.tct.tv

History

The station was given the call letters WEOU on February 18, 1992. However, the station was granted a license on April 14, 1995. It signed on August 7 as WRAY-TV, originally licensed to Wilson, North Carolina, and was initially a semi-satellite of WFAY (channel 62; now WFPX-TV), at that time Fayetteville's Fox affiliate; however, the station operated as an independent station, as its signal overlapped with WLFL, at that time Raleigh's Fox affiliate. WRAY's programming changed more towards home shopping upon its sale to Ramcast Corporation in 1997;[3] Ramcast quickly merged with the Global Shopping Network to become Global Broadcasting Systems, Inc.[4] However, Global Broadcasting Systems soon ran into financial trouble, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 26, 1997.[5] Its assets, including WRAY, were sold to the rival Shop at Home Network in 1998.[6]

On May 16, 2006, parent company The E. W. Scripps Company announced that Shop at Home would be suspending operations, effective June 22, 2006.[7] However, the network temporarily ceased operations on June 21, and WRAY switched to Jewelry Television (and, on June 23, a mixture of both networks), which remained until Scripps found a buyer for its stations.

On September 26, 2006, Scripps announced that it was selling its Shop at Home stations, including WRAY, to Multicultural Television of New York City for $170 million.[8] The sale of WRAY and the San Francisco and Cleveland stations was finalized on December 20, 2006. Soon after the sale, all Shop at Home programming ceased in favor of a schedule consisting primarily of infomercials.

After Multicultural ran into financial problems and defaulted on its loans, the station was placed into a trust; in October 2009, a sale of WRAY TV to Tri-State Christian Television (via subsidiary Radiant Light Ministries, which had earlier acquired WOAC (now WRLM) from the trust), a chain of Christian television stations, was announced.[9]

On April 4, 2017, WRAY was identified by the FCC as receiving $41 million for the spectrum reallocation auction.[10] WRAY will change its city of license to Wake Forest, North Carolina[2] and go into a channel-sharing arrangement with WUNC-TV, along with sister station WLXI.[1] With the 2018 FCC repeal of the Main Studio Rule, WRAY-TV's studio in Wilson was closed as part of a nationwide restructuring of TCT's operations into one hub from its Marion, Illinois base.[11]

Digital television

Digital channel
Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming
30.11080i16:9WRAYTCT

Analog-to-digital conversion

WRAY-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 30, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 42.[12] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 30.

References
  1. WRAY-WLXI-WUNC Channel Sharing Agreement (Redacted)
  2. WRAY Community of License Change Exhibit
  3. "Application Search Details". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  4. "GLOBAL BROADCASTING SYSTEMS INC, Form S-1/A, Filing Date Mar 12, 1997". secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  5. "Cable Network's Chapter 11 Filing". The New York Times. June 27, 1997. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  6. "WRAY-TV acquired by 'home shopping' company". Triangle Business Journal. American City Business Journals. March 27, 1998. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  7. "Scripps ceasing Shop At Home operations" (Press release). The E. W. Scripps Company. May 16, 2006. Archived from the original on November 17, 2007. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  8. "Scripps sells Shop At Home TV stations" (Press release). The E.W. Scripps Company. September 26, 2006. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  9. "New owner for WRAY-TV Raleigh". Television Business Report. October 30, 2009. Retrieved October 30, 2009.
  10. "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. April 13, 2017. p. 1. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  11. WNYB-TV ends local productions, station site is for sale. The Buffalo News. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  12. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
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