WKTB-CD


WKTB-CD is a digital low-power class A Telemundo-affiliated TV station on channel 23 in metro Atlanta. Capital Media Group manages and broadcasts Spanish-language network, Telemundo on digital subchannel 47.2; the 47.2 signal is rebroadcast on Rome-licensed Ion Television station WPXA-TV to provide a full-power Telemundo signal to the entire market, which also maps to 47.1 via PSIP. The station is owned by Korean American TV Broadcasting.
TeleXitos is broadcast on 47.3. The station also has two additional subchannels of programming in Korean.

History

The station was originally on Sweat Mountain, licensed to Roswell, Georgia on channel 67, and assigned W67CI from 1990 until changing in 2000. The change came as the FCC forced all LPTV stations to move out of channels 52 to 69, as all broadcasters are being forced to digital TV, and the upper channels over 51 sold off for other purposes. Programming prior to the change was mostly in Korean. It then became W38CU on channel 38 and switched to Telemundo, and had Atlanta as its new city of license.
As recently as 2008, it shared channel 38 with a modified construction permit for another class-A LPTV station, WYGA-CA. That station was licensed to channel 55, and applied to change its CP from channel 38 to 45, along with an application for a major upgrade in power. W38CU was listed with only 4.62 kW of ERP, apparently due to the proximity of WYGA-CA. W38CU used a somewhat directional antenna with a cardioid pattern, positioned just south of Norcross, Georgia, and with the slight null to the northeast. It does not appear to have reached as far southwest as Atlanta, its analog city of license. A CP issued for the station would have reduced analog coverage to the north and east even further. The current area coverage is widely in Gwinnett County and metro-Atlanta including Doraville, Georgia is home to large populations of Hispanics and especially Asians, which are the demographics to which the channels cater.

Digital era

This station obtained a permit to construct W47DN-D as its digital companion channel on 47. This went on the air in early July 2008, giving the station an omnidirectional antenna pattern that reaches much of the metro area. Its city of license is suburban Norcross, and its transmitter location remains just south of there on the northwest side of Interstate 85, along with the analog station. It became WKTB-LD by request in April 2009, and received a permit to increase power to 15 kW. W38CU became WKTB-CA at that time, though it went off the air as well. In January 2011, the digital station was granted its broadcast license and its class-A status, making it WKTB-CD. In August 2013, a subchannel on full-power WPXA-TV began repeating WKTB-CD's Telemundo in 480i SD on 47.1.
In 2009, the station affiliated with Telemundo.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
47.21080iTLMDMain WKTB-CD programming / Telemundo
47.3480iTELEXITTeleXitos
47.4480iKTNMBC America
47.5480iKTN2Korean News and Entertainment
480i

The 47.1 virtual channel is left empty and used by the WKTB-CD feed on the WPXA-TV multiplex.

Newscasts

In 2012, Telemundo Atlanta began offering a full local news service with newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m.; the station had previously produced three daily 90-second news briefs prior to the expansion. A 5:30 p.m. newscast was added in 2015. Telemundo Atlanta's news was helmed by local anchor Jorge Buzo. But he's since parted the station to go to WUVC-TV in Raleigh as a news coordinator which shares content and its news director with Telemundo Atlanta's rival WUVG-TV so he de facto jumped to the competition.