WPAN

WPAN

Fort Walton Beach–Pensacola, Florida United States
City	Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Channels	Digital: 21 (UHF)[1] Virtual: 53
Programming
Affiliations	53.1: Infomercials 53.2: TCT 53.3: Antenna TV
Ownership
Owner	B&C Communications, LLC
History
First air date	February 14, 1984 (37 years ago) (1984-02-14)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 53 (UHF, 1984–2009) Virtual: 53 (PSIP, 2009–2013) 40 (PSIP, 2013–2020) Translator: W50CF Mobile, AL
Former affiliations	Shop at Home Jewelry TV Cozi TV (2013)[2] Soul of the South (2014–2016) Vibrant TV Network (2016–2019) Antenna TV (2019–2020)
Call sign meaning	Florida PANhandle (viewing area)
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	31570
ERP	620 kW[1]
HAAT	374.1 m (1,227 ft)[1]
Transmitter coordinates	30°42′21″N 87°24′12″W / 30.70583°N 87.40333°W / 30.70583; -87.40333[1]
Links
Public license information	Profile LMS

WPAN, virtual channel 53 (UHF digital channel 21), is a television station licensed to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, United States and also serving Pensacola. Owned by B&C Communications, the station primarily airs paid programming. WPAN's transmitter is located near Molino, Florida.

History[]

The station was founded on February 22, 1983, as an independent station. It was dark for much of 2013 and 2014.^[3]

DirecTV carried the station on the Mobile–Pensacola–Fort Walton local channel package up until 2009 when it was dropped, but resumed carrying the channel in April 2012. For most of 2013, the channel guide did not accurately reflect the actual programming airing on the station (infomercials would air in place of Cozi TV programming), and since the fall of 2013, the station had a perpetual trouble slide on their DirecTV channel. The channel was removed once again in December 2013. At some point in late 2014, WPAN returned to the air as an affiliate of the Soul of the South Network. From January 7 to May 15, 2016, WPAN was off-the-air under special temporary authority to be silent; on May 16, WPAN returned to the air as an affiliate of the Vibrant TV Network, and then in February 2019, after the Vibrant TV network ceased operations, it switched to carrying Antenna TV.

Longtime owner Franklin Communications ended up in bankruptcy, with WPAN being acquired by B&C Communications in 2016 from the receivers of Franklin's assets.

WPAN went off the air in October 2019 due to a dispute with the tower owner who expected the debt from the prior owners to be repaid in order to gain access to the transmitter. Since the station needed to move to channel 21 as part of the FCC repack, it opted to construct a new tower in Molino to offer market-wide coverage for the first time. WPAN returned to the airwaves in October 2020 after filing for another silent STA due to the tower situation.

Former translator[]

The station formerly operated a repeater, W50CF in Mobile, Alabama, which broadcast on analog channel 50. The translator is now home to a low-powered station run by Word of Life Community Church in Chickasaw, Alabama. When WFGX moved its signal from its location in Gulf Breeze, Florida to sister station's WEAR tower located off CR 64 near Robertsdale, Alabama, W50CF had to sign off so it would not interfere (since WFGX broadcasts digitally on channel 50). W50CF has applied to the FCC to move to Channel 6.

Digital channels[]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

References[]

External links[]

• BIAfn's Media Web Database — Information on WPAN-TV

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