WPAN


WPAN, virtual channel 40, is an Antenna TV-affiliated television station licensed to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, United States and also serving Pensacola. The station is owned by Franklin Media. 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.
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, 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.

Coverage

The station used to have 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. W50CF has applied to the FCC to move to Channel 6.

Digital channel