WLFG

Grundy–Bristol, Virginia Bristol–Johnson City–Kingsport, Tennessee United States
City	Grundy, Virginia
Channels	Digital: 14 (UHF), shared with WAGV Virtual: 68
Branding	LFTV: Living Faith Television
Programming
Affiliations	68.1: Religious Independent for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Living Faith Ministries, Inc.
History
First air date	January 2, 1995 (29 years ago) (1995-01-02)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 68 (UHF, 1995–2007) Digital: 49 (UHF, 2003–2019)
Call sign meaning	Living Faith Grundy
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	37808
ERP	DTS1: 479 kW DTS2: 0.1 kW
HAAT	DTS1: 662 m (2,172 ft) DTS2: 482 m (1,581 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	DTS1: 36°49′47.3″N 82°4′44.4″W / 36.829806°N 82.079000°W / 36.829806; -82.079000 DTS2: 36°48′0.3″N 83°22′35.6″W / 36.800083°N 83.376556°W / 36.800083; -83.376556
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	livingfaithtv.com

WLFG (channel 68) is a religious independent station licensed to Grundy, Virginia, United States, serving the Tri-Cities area of southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee. The station is owned by Abingdon, Virginia–based Living Faith Television. WLFG's transmitters are located near Hansonville, Virginia, and Harlan, Kentucky.

The station's programming is relayed on two satellite stations: WAGV (channel 68) in Harlan (which shares transmitter facilities with WLFG) and WLFB (channel 40) in Bluefield, West Virginia (with transmitter atop East River Mountain, south of Bluefield, Virginia). WAGV was the first to broadcast exclusively in digital following a malfunction at its analog transmitter.^[2]

History

Living Faith Television was founded by The Reverend Buford Smith who stated that God had given him a vision to build a TV station in Virginia.^{[citation needed]} The station grew from the original station in Grundy to include the other two transmitters.

Rev. Smith was pastor of Tookland Pentecostal Church in Grundy until his death in May 2003. His son, Michael Smith, was president of the station until Buford Smith's death, when he became president and CEO of Living Faith Television.

Tookland Pentecostal Church was a major financier when the station was founded; it broke most of its ties with the station after it declared its independence in 2006.

Living Faith Television is now under the control the board of Living Faith Television, with Mike Smith as president and CEO and wife Lisa Smith as CFO. Other personalities are Mary Smith (wife of the late Buford Smith), Laverne Tripp and Fred Schmidt, among others.

Programming

The station's programming consists mostly of content by other ministries that purchase air time, along with some infomercials. Original programming is spread throughout the broadcast day by the flagship program Living Faith Now! (formerly From These Hills), along with Sing Time, Fred Schmidt, and Life Begins at Calvary, a program produced by Calvary Church of the Tri-Cities, and other programs.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WLFG shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 68, in May 2007.^[4] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 49,^[5] using virtual channel 68.

Satellite stations

Out-of-market cable carriage

In recent years, WLFG has been carried on cable in a number of areas outside the Tri-Cities media market, including cable systems within the Charleston, Lexington, Charlotte and Greensboro markets.^[6][7][8][9] According to Zap2it, WLFG has been carried on cable in College Grove, Tennessee, which is within the Nashville market.^[10]

Much of the southeastern portion of the Lexington media market can pick up WAGV's signal. WLFG/WAGV is also available on TVS cable in the Hazard, Kentucky, area, and much of Knott and Perry counties, along with the Floyd County community of Wayland.^[11][12]