astronomy

WSES

WSES is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand WSES rather than just read about it. In short: WSES (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, serving the western portion of the Birmingham market as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Heroes & Icons. The station is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, a partner company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Key takeaways

WSES belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect WSES to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of WSES from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

WSES (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, serving the western portion of the Birmingham market as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Heroes & Icons. The station is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, a partner company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. WSES's advertising sales office is located on Golden Crest Drive in Birmingham, and its transmitter is located near County Road 38/Blue Creek Road, east of State Route 69 near Windham Springs. WGWW (channel 40) in Anniston operates as a full-time satellite of WSES.

History

As an independent station The station first signed on the air on October 27, 1965, as WCFT-TV. Originally operating as an independent station, it was the first television station to sign on in western Alabama. It was originally owned by Chapman Family Television, a consortium of eight Tuscaloosa businessmen who saw the benefits of operating a television station to serve west-central Alabama, in terms of both business and community service purposes. However, the station did not return a profit suitable enough for its owners throughout its first two years of operation, an issue that led Chapman Family Television to sell the station to South Mississippi Broadcasting, Inc. (later Service Broadcasters) in 1967, becoming the company's second television station, after flagship WDAM-TV in the company's home market of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The new owners rejuvenated WCFT by heavily investing in the station, purchasing new broadcasting and transmission equipment, and improving the station's image. In addition to carrying syndicated programming, WCFT-TV also aired network programs from CBS and NBC that were not cleared for broadcast in the Birmingham market by WAPI-TV (channel 13, now WVTM-TV), which WBMG (channel 42, now WIAT) did during that same timeframe.

As an exclusive CBS affiliate On May 31, 1970, when WAPI-TV formally removed CBS programming and became the exclusive NBC affiliate for the Birmingham market, WCFT-TV became an exclusive CBS affiliate; WBMG in Birmingham (which had been affiliated with the network since it signed in October 1965, in a similar split arrangement with NBC) and WHMA-TV (channel 40) in Anniston (which had been an exclusive CBS affiliate since it debuted in October 1969) also became exclusive CBS affiliates, with each serving different portions of central Alabama. Even though Tuscaloosa is 58 miles (93 km) southwest of Birmingham, CBS opted to retain its affiliation with WCFT because, at the time, WBMG suffered from a severely weak broadcast signal that did not provide adequate coverage to all of central Alabama. Despite Birmingham's relatively close proximity to the city, the WBMG signal barely covered Tuscaloosa. Even after channel 42 increased its transmitter power to 1.2 million watts in 1969, it provided marginal to non-existent coverage of much of west-central Alabama. As such, many cable providers in the western part of the market opted to carry WCFT rather than WBMG. WCFT regularly trounced WBMG in that portion of the market (even in western areas of the Birmingham metropolitan area that could receive WCFT's signal). Unlike WBMG, channel 33 was fairly competitive with WBRC-TV (channel 6) and WAPI/WVTM, especially with its local newscasts that focused almost exclusively on western Alabama. Although the area was only served at the time by WCFT and Alabama Public Television satellite station WIIQ (channel 41) in Demopolis, Arbitron decided to break off Tuscaloosa into its own separate television market in 1977, placing it at a ranking below #170. On January 1, 1978, Service Broadcasters sold WDAM and WCFT to Beam Communications (which changed its name to Beacon Communications in June 1989). On August 20, 1990, Beacon sold WCFT and WDAM to Federal Broadcasting.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with WSES

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what WSES claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to WSES before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about WSES ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of WSES

In research: WSES appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses WSES in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: WSES is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1965 establishments in Alabama, ATSC 3.0 television stations, Catchy Comedy affiliates, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for WSES outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study WSES in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what WSES means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain WSES out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is WSES in simple terms?

Why does WSES matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study WSES?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on WSES.