WMUM-TV


WMUM-TV, virtual channel 29, is a Public Broadcasting Service member television station serving Macon, Georgia, United States that is licensed to Cochran. Owned by the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission, it is a sister station to National Public Radio member WMUM-FM. The two stations share transmitter facilities near Cary, Georgia. WMUM-TV is operated as part of the statewide Georgia Public Broadcasting television network.

History

The station signed on the air on January 1, 1968, as WDCO-TV. It was originally broadcast on UHF channel 15.
In 1990, the station moved its signal to UHF channel 29 in order to avoid interference with a U.S. Department of Defense early warning ballistic missile detection facility that was located at Robins Air Force Base; it was the only instance prior to 2009 digital transition in which one of GPB's television stations changed the channel frequencies. WMUM-TV was the tenth and last PBS member station established in the state of Georgia, as well as the last television station to be built and signed on by GPB.
In the summer of 2006, the station changed its call letters to WMUM-TV, in reference to the Macon-based Mercer University, reflecting the university's involvement in GPB's television and radio operations in the Macon market.

Digital television

Analog-to-digital conversion

WMUM-TV signed on its digital signal on VHF channel 7 in April 2008, which was followed by the discontinuation of regular programs on its analog signal over UHF channel 29. This coincided with the official date in which full-power television stations of the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate, occurring on June 12, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF on channel 7, using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 29.