WGTW-TV (channel 48) is a television station licensed to Millville, New Jersey, United States, owned and operated by the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).
The station's transmitter is shared with True Crime Network affiliate WMGM-TV (channel 40) and is located along Avalon Boulevard in the Swainton section of Middle Township, New Jersey.
It broadcast primarily older movies and sitcoms as well as some local programs; it ran on a limited budget compared to similar stations in the market.
In the 2017 incentive auction, TBN sold the station's spectrum; it began sharing the channel of WMGM-TV, requiring a city of license change and removing its signal from most of the Philadelphia metro area.
The major-market allocation attracted intense interest, with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designating 11 bids for comparative hearing in 1984.
[2] In 1989, Brunson purchased a facility on North Broad Street;[15] it had been heavily vandalized and required extensive work to be refitted for use.
The acquisition of WGTW-TV was TBN's second attempt to purchase a station in the Philadelphia market; in 1991, a TBN affiliate, National Minority TV, had received FCC approval to purchase WTGI-TV (channel 61, now WPPX-TV) in Wilmington, Delaware, but questions regarding the buyer's ownership structure led to the deal unraveling.
[22] TBN replaced the station's programming—which included martial arts and professional wrestling shows and the reality series Cheaters—with its own.
It maintained the Manayunk studio for a time,[23] producing a public affairs show called Joy in Our Town for the Philadelphia area.
This action followed the FCC's repeal of the "Main Studio Rule", which required full-service TV stations like WGTW-TV to maintain facilities in or near their communities of license.
The move of WGTW's transmitter to Avalon from its original location in Roxborough significantly reduced the station's signal in Philadelphia and most of the Delaware Valley viewing area.