WTVI

WTVI, virtual channel 42 (VHF digital channel 9), is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. The station is owned by Central Piedmont Community College. WTVI's studios are located in the Chantilly-Commonwealth section of east Charlotte, and its transmitter is located in the unincorporated area of Newell in northeastern Mecklenburg County (just northeast of the Charlotte city limits). It is the only public television station in North Carolina that is not operated by UNC-TV, and is one of three PBS member stations serving the Charlotte metropolitan area, along with UNC-TV's WUNG-TV (channel 58) in Concord and South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV)'s WNSC-TV (channel 30) in Rock Hill.

WTVI
Charlotte, North Carolina
United States
ChannelsDigital: 9 (VHF)
Virtual: 42 (PSIP)
BrandingPBS Charlotte
SloganChannel Your Curiosity
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerCentral Piedmont Community College
History
First air date
August 27, 1965 (1965-08-27)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 42 (UHF, 1965–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 11 (VHF, 2000–2020)
NET (1965–1970)
Call sign meaning
TeleVision Information
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID10645
ERP2.57 kW
HAAT359 m (1,178 ft)
Transmitter coordinates35°17′15″N 80°41′44″W
Translator(s)28 (UHF) Hickory
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Websitewww.wtvi.org

On cable, WTVI is carried on Charter Spectrum channel 5 in the immediate Charlotte area (channel 4 in Kannapolis and Concord, channel 13 on legacy Charter systems), Comporium Communications channel 109 and AT&T U-verse channel 42. In recent years, WTVI has been carried on cable in Troy, which is within the Greensboro television market.

History
PBS Charlotte logo used until November 3, 2019

The station first signed on the air on August 27, 1965;[1] it was originally owned by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. The WTVI call letters were first used by what is now Fox affiliate KTVI in St. Louis, Missouri from 1953 to 1955, when it was licensed to Belleville, Illinois on the east side of the Mississippi River; they were then held from 1955 to 1962 by a station in Fort Pierce, Florida. WTVI's original station manager was Donna Lee Davenport, who was also instrumental in creating the station. In 1982, WTVI's license was transferred to the not-for-profit Charlotte–Mecklenburg Public Broadcasting Authority, turning the station into a community-owned entity.

Mecklenburg County covered the debt on WTVI's digital broadcasting equipment and maintains the station's studios, located on Commonwealth Avenue in Charlotte. The county also paid WTVI $95,000 annually to broadcast county commission meetings.[2]

In 2004, WTVI cut back on more well-known PBS programs. Ratings increased for a while with "alternative" shows, but after several years the station ended up in trouble.[3] On June 30, 2011, WTVI's board was advised that the station was running a $300,000 deficit and that its long-term operation was questionable if its financial situation did not improve.[2] On March 13, 2012, Central Piedmont Community College offered to take over the station. The college requested $1.35 million from Mecklenburg County; $357,000 to complete the purchase and about $800,000 to give the station a significant technical overhaul. The Mecklenburg County Commission approved funding for the deal on March 20.

Without county money, Central Piedmont Community College would have been unable to complete the purchase and the station would have likely ceased operations on June 30, 2012.[4] The deal was approved by the Federal Communications Commission on May 21, 2012,[5] and the acquisition of WTVI was completed on July 1, 2012, with the broadcast licenses being transferred the following day.[6] As a result, WTVI became an educational licensee for the second time in its history. At that time, it became one of seven full-time PBS member stations to be operated by a community college (alongside Milwaukee PBS; WDCQ-TV in Bay City, Michigan; WVUT-TV in Vincennes, Indiana; KACV in Amarillo, Texas; KNCT in Killeen, Texas; WSRE in Pensacola, Florida and WBCC in Orlando, Florida (WBCC, now WEFS, has since left PBS, while KNCT would leave PBS six years later).

Three months after taking over operations, Central Piedmont Community College brought back familiar PBS shows such as Sesame Street, Downton Abbey, Nova and Nature to the schedule. Additional local programming is planned, including some previously aired on the college's cable channel. Among the new shows is Off the Record, hosted by David Rhew and similar to Jerry Hancock's Final Edition, dropped in 2009 for budget reasons.[3]

WTVI is one of the few PBS member stations that do not clear the weekend edition of PBS NewsHour.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP short name Programming[7]
42.11080i16:9WTVI-HDMain WTVI programming / PBS
42.2WTVI-NHNHK World
42.3480iWTVI CtCreate

Prior to February 17, 2009, WTVI carried "The Civic Channel" on digital subchannel 42.2, Create on digital subchannel 42.3, PBS Kids on digital subchannel 42.4, and a high definition feed of WTVI on digital subchannel 42.5; the fourth and fifth subchannels were dropped on February 17 with Create moving to 42.3 and the main channel on 42.1 upgrading to high definition. In July 2010, "The Civic Channel" was replaced by MHz Worldview. In November 2015, MHz Worldview was dropped and a simulcast of Create was placed on subchannel 42.2; in February 2016, NHK World was added to subchannel 42.2.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WTVI began broadcasting its digital signal on VHF channel 11, carrying four digital subchannels, including one high-definition channel. WTVI was the first television station in Charlotte to produce programming in high-definition in 2000. The station shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 42, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 11.[8] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 42.

References
  1. About Us
  2. Washburn, Mark (July 1, 2011). "Charlotte's public TV station in dire straits". The Charlotte Observer. Alt URL
  3. Washburn, Mark (2012-10-06). "Struggles remain in the air for WTVI". The Charlotte Observer.
  4. Perlmutt, David. County board split on CPCC, WTVI merger. The Charlotte Observer, 2012-03-21
  5. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/21/3257751/briefly.html
  6. Celebrating 31 years with WTVI
  7. RabbitEars TV Query for WTVI
  8. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
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