WIRE-CD
WIRE-CD is a low-power digital television station in metro Atlanta. Broadcasting on TV channel 33, its analog broadcast range reached into the inner suburbs. Previously MTV2, programming since digital conversion now consists entirely of infomercials. As WIRE-LP, like most over-the-air MTV2 network affiliates, it was an affiliate of The Box until that network's acquisition by Viacom in 2001. Owned by Viacom, MTV2 is one of the few cable networks that can be seen over the air.
It was originally assigned W13CQ on channel 13 in May 1992, but its construction permit expired in December 1993 without being built. It came back again as W40BI on channel 40, assigned in August 1995. It went on the air the following year in May as WIRE-LP. One program in the late 1990s was a live call-in psychic which aired nightly through New York City base WNYX-LD. The station became WIRE-CA in September 2001.
Its original location was atop the octagonal Tower Place in Buckhead, immediately north of the intersection of major arterial roads Piedmont Road and Peachtree Road, and just west of Lenox Square across the Georgia 400 expressway. It was at an effective radiated power of 14.1 kW video with a positive frequency offset, at above ground level or AMSL. While HAAT was not listed, average terrain for the region is about.
It later moved south-southeast to the WUPA TV 43 tower south of Inman Park, and increased power to 150 kW. The antenna still had a null to the west-southwest, however it was otherwise omnidirectional and covered most of the core metro area. Several other stations are also on this tower.
The station had applied for a digital companion on channel 29, however WANN-CA 32 was granted the construction permit for that channel. In March 2009, WIRE's owners filed an informal objection against WANN's request for special temporary authority, stating it had until the following month to file a petition to deny. The objection was dropped when the two stations began to work together, and late in the month WANN filed an application to modify its permit from atop the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Atlanta to the east tower at the "Richland" site near North Druid Hills. This is the same tower and channel as WIRE's digital application, but at higher power and much higher height. It is possible for the two stations to share the digital station but remap to separate virtual channels, but it was unknown what their plans were.
In late summer 2009, the station was granted a construction permit to flash-cut to digital TV on its current channel and at its current location and height. The same television antenna is used, but its maximum output direction is rotated from 80° to 340° true north, putting its null toward the south-southeast. This "notch" pulls its service contour in that direction back to Stockbridge instead of McDonough, however+ even with just 3 kW it was predicted to reach much further in all directions than its most recent 55 kW analog, though ATSC predictions are almost always more than actual reception. Once it received a license to cover in early November 2009, its broadcast callsign became WIRE-CD.
, just after going on-air, all four digital subchannels carry different infomercials. This may be as "filler" during program test authority, as a placeholder for eventual television networks, permanently as brokered programming, or a combination of the three. PSIP labels channels 40.1 to 40.4 as WIRE-D1, WIRE-D2, WIRE-D3, and WIRE-D4.
In late January 2010, it applied to increase power to 15 kW at the same location and height.
On June 11, 2011, WIRE-CD launched Three Angels Broadcasting Network on subchannel 40.4.
