KGEB


KGEB, virtual channel 53, is a religious independent television station licensed to Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. The station is owned by Oral Roberts University. KGEB's studios are located at Mabee Center on the Oral Roberts University campus at South Lewis Avenue and East 81st Street in south Tulsa, and its transmitter is atop the CityPlex Towers. On cable, the station is available on Cox Communications channel 23. In addition, KGEB's programming is distributed throughout the United States as GEB America on satellite provider DirecTV, IPTV provider Sky Angel and select cable providers.

History

The station first signed on the air on January 24, 1996 as KWMJ; when it began operations, the station maintained a 24-hour family-oriented programming format, consisting mostly of religious programs along with a few classic and public domain television programs.
In June 1999, during the broadcast of two children's programs that aired on the station, KWMJ ran an advertisement for a videotape of the program that was being aired at the time, followed by an commercial for a toy resembling a character from that program. Under the Federal Communications Commission 's Children's Television Act, the usage of character tie-ins in advertising during children's programs is treated as a program-length commercial in violation with an advertising clause in the Act. The station originally was to be fined $8,000, but KGEB managed to get the fine reduced by 20% as remedial action had been taken and there had not been any other problems since then; this was also because the error came from a syndicator that distributed the program and not KWMJ.
The station changed its callsign to KGEB on November 29, 1999, becoming the originating station of the Golden Eagle Broadcasting network. By this point, the station gradually shifted towards a lineup mainly featuring religious programming, including programs produced by the station—such as weekly services from the ORU Chapel—as well as syndicated religious programs —including programs from televangelists such as James Robison, Jim Bakker, Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer, as well as a very sparse amount of secular programming and a block of children's programs complying with the FCC's educational programming guidelines on Saturdays.

Digital television

Digital channel

Analog-to-digital conversion

KGEB shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 53, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 49. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 53, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.