The station formerly operated from a studio located along the Interstate 65 Service Road in Mobile. That facility was one of several closed by TBN in 2019 following the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s repeal of the "Main Studio Rule", which required full-service television stations like WMPV-TV to maintain facilities in or near their communities of license.[2]
History
The station was founded in December 1985 by professional poker player Doyle Brunson and operated as a general-entertainment independent station[3] until it switched to a Christian television format following a 1989 sale to Sonlight Broadcasting Systems, a new broadcast ministry based in Mobile and co-founded by television producer Paul Crouch Jr. and attorney and broadcaster Jay Sekulow. WMPV was Sonlight's flagship station, and over the next several years Sonlight would acquire other stations including WMCF-TV in Montgomery. All of Sonlight's stations were affiliated with TBN, which was co-founded by Paul Crouch Jr.'s parents Paul Sr. and Jan. As a TBN affiliate, WMPV carried most of the network's schedule while opting out at times to air alternate programming.
In 1997, WMPV was sold, along with the rest of Sonlight's stations, to All American TV (not to be confused with an unrelated television syndication company of a similar name), a minority-owned firm with close ties to the Trinity Broadcasting Network who already owned WTJP-TV in Gadsden;[4] the sale to All American made the station a full-fledged affiliate of the network. WMPV became a TBN owned-and-operated station in 2000, when TBN purchased all of All American's stations.[5]
