East Tennessee PBS

Last updated
WETP-TV
East Tennessee PBS logo.png
Sneedville/Johnson City/Kingsport/
Bristol, TennesseeVirginia
United States
City Sneedville, Tennessee
BrandingEast Tennessee PBS
Channels Digital: 41 (UHF)
(to move to 24 (UHF))
Virtual: 2 (PSIP)
Affiliations 2.1: PBS
2.2: PBS Kids
2.3: Create
OwnerEast Tennessee Public Communications Corporation
First air dateMarch 15, 1967(52 years ago) (1967-03-15)
Call letters' meaning East
Tennessee
Public Television
Former callsigns WSJK-TV (1967–2002)
Former channel number(s)Analog:
2 (VHF, 1967–2009)
Former affiliations NET (1967–1970)
Transmitter power 445 kW
1,000 kW (CP)
Height 566.6 m (1,859 ft)
Facility ID 18252
Transmitter coordinates 36°22′52.3″N83°10′48.8″W / 36.381194°N 83.180222°W / 36.381194; -83.180222 (WETP-TV)
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information Profile
CDBS
Website www.easttennesseepbs.org/home/
WKOP-TV
(satellite of WETP-TV)
Knoxville, Tennessee
United States
Brandingsee WSJK-TV infobox
Channels Digital: 29 (UHF)
Virtual: 15 (PSIP)
Affiliations 15.1: PBS
15.2: PBS Kids
15.3: Create
OwnerEast Tennessee Public Communications Corporation
First air dateAugust 15, 1990(29 years ago) (1990-08-15)
Call letters' meaning Knoxville's Own Public Television
Former channel number(s)Analog:
15 (UHF, 1990–2008)
Digital:
17 (UHF, until 2019)
Transmitter power 146 kW
Height 551.3 m (1,809 ft)
Facility ID 18267
Transmitter coordinates 35°59′44.4″N83°57′23.1″W / 35.995667°N 83.956417°W / 35.995667; -83.956417
Licensing authorityFCC
Public license information
(
satellite of WETP-TV) Profile

(
satellite of WETP-TV) CDBS

East Tennessee PBS is a regional network of the two Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television stations serving both the Knoxville and Tri-Cities regions of East Tennessee, United States. Its studios and offices are located on East Magnolia Avenue in downtown Knoxville.

A state network in the United States broadcasting industry is a quasi-regional network of television stations, composed of a designated flagship station that originates the programming and several full-power satellite stations and low-power translators that relay a full-time or part-time simulcast of the main station's content throughout sections if not the entirety of a U.S. state and, in some cases, portions of adjoining states.

PBS Public television network in the United States

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor. It is a nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational television programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing series such as American Experience, America's Test Kitchen, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Barney & Friends, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Downton Abbey, Finding Your Roots, Frontline, The Magic School Bus, Masterpiece, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Nature, Nova, the PBS NewsHour, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, and This Old House.

A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's surface to a receiver on earth. Most often the term refers to a station which broadcasts structured content to an audience or it refers to the organization that operates the station. A terrestrial television transmission can occur via analog television signals or, more recently, via digital television signals. Television stations are differentiated from cable television or other video providers in that their content is broadcast via terrestrial radio waves. A group of television stations with common ownership or affiliation are known as a TV network and an individual station within the network is referred to as O&O or affiliate, respectively.

Contents

The network consists of:

Ultra high frequency The range 300-3000 MHz of the electromagnetic spectrum

Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter. Radio waves with frequencies above the UHF band fall into the super-high frequency (SHF) or microwave frequency range. Lower frequency signals fall into the VHF or lower bands. UHF radio waves propagate mainly by line of sight; they are blocked by hills and large buildings although the transmission through building walls is strong enough for indoor reception. They are used for television broadcasting, cell phones, satellite communication including GPS, personal radio services including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, walkie-talkies, cordless phones, and numerous other applications.

Digital terrestrial television is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' residences in a digital format. DTTV is a major technological advance over the previous analog television, and has largely replaced analog which had been in common use since the middle of the 20th century. Test broadcasts began in 1998 with the changeover to DTTV beginning in 2006 and is now complete in many countries. The advantages of digital terrestrial television are similar to those obtained by digitising platforms such as cable TV, satellite, and telecommunications: more efficient use of limited radio spectrum bandwidth, provision of more television channels than analog, better quality images, and potentially lower operating costs for broadcasters.

Program and System Information Protocol video and audio industry protocol

The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a television station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch by title and description. Its FM radio equivalent is Radio Data System (RDS).

History

Early years

WETP-TV was founded on March 15, 1967 as WSJK-TV (Sneedville-Johnson City-Knoxville), the first in a series of four stations that the Tennessee Board of Education would establish over the next 12 years, the others being WLJT-TV in Martin, WTCI-TV in Chattanooga and WCTE-TV in Cookeville. The transmitter was built on Short Mountain near Sneedville not by choice, but by necessity (see below). Studios were located on rented space at the University of Tennessee's communications building in Knoxville with a satellite studio located at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. Reception was spotty at best even in the Tri-Cities area because of the distance the signal had to travel from Short Mountain, as well as the area's rugged terrain. The Tri-Cities wouldn't get a city-grade signal from PBS until WSBN-TV in Norton, Virginia, started in 1971 as a satellite of WBRA-TV in Roanoke.

Johnson City, Tennessee City in Tennessee, United States

Johnson City is a city in Washington, Carter, and Sullivan counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, with most of the city being in Washington County. As of the 2010 census, the population of Johnson City was 63,152, and by 2017 the estimated population was 66,391, making it the ninth-largest city in the state.

Martin, Tennessee City in Tennessee, United States

Martin is a city in Weakley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 11,473 at the 2010 census. The city is the home of the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Chattanooga, Tennessee City in Tennessee, United States

Chattanooga is a city located in Hamilton County, Tennessee, along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia. With an estimated population of 179,139 in 2017, it is the fourth-largest city in Tennessee and one of the two principal cities of East Tennessee, along with Knoxville. Served by multiple railroads and Interstate highways, Chattanooga is a transit hub. Chattanooga lies 118 miles (190 km) northwest of Atlanta, Georgia, 112 miles (180 km) southwest of Knoxville, Tennessee, 134 miles (216 km) southeast of Nashville, Tennessee, 102 miles (164 km) east-northeast of Huntsville, Alabama, and 147 miles (237 km) northeast of Birmingham, Alabama.

However, WSJK was constrained by two issues. First, the 1955 legislation authorizing a public television system in the state mandated that these stations serve the school populations in their areas first, before all other considerations. Also, the channel 2 analog signal traveled a very long distance under most conditions, and WSJK was short-spaced to WDCN-TV in Nashville (now WNPT on channel 8; the channel 2 frequency was later occupied by WKRN-TV), WSB-TV in Atlanta and WFMY-TV in Greensboro, North Carolina. Sneedville is located about halfway between the Tri-Cities and Knoxville (and just a few miles south of the Virginia state line) and was the only location that could best serve the school populations in the most efficient way, while at the same time protecting WDCN, WSB and WFMY from interference.

Nashville, Tennessee State capital and consolidated city-county in Tennessee, United States

Nashville is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The city is the county seat of Davidson County and is located on the Cumberland River. The city's population ranks 24th in the U.S. According to 2018 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the total consolidated city-county population stood at 692,587. The "balance" population, which excludes semi-independent municipalities within Davidson County, was 669,053 in 2018.

WNPT (TV) PBS member station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States

WNPT, virtual and VHF digital channel 8, is a PBS member television station licensed to Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The station is owned by Nashville Public Television, Inc., a community-funded, non-profit organization. WNPT's studios are located on Rains Avenue in southeast Nashville, and its transmitter is located in the southern suburb of Forest Hills.

WKRN-TV ABC affiliate in Nashville, Tennessee

WKRN-TV, virtual channel 2, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group. WKRN's studios are located on Murfreesboro Road on Nashville's southeast side, and its transmitter is located in Forest Hills, Tennessee.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formally defined the Short Mountain transmitter site "a broadcasting island" because it was so surrounded by possible interference. In granting the construction permit, the FCC stipulated that WSJK's transmitter could not be moved even 1 mile (1.6 km) in any direction. Moving it west would have caused co-channel interference with WDCN, moving it east would have caused interference with WFMY, and moving it to the south would have caused interference with WSB-TV. Moving it north would not have exposed it to potential interference, as the nearest channel 2 station northward was WLWD (now WDTN) in Dayton, Ohio–over 250 miles (400 km) away and shielded by the mountains of southeastern Kentucky. However, doing so would have prevented the Knoxville area from getting even a rimshot signal. Thus, Short Mountain was one of only a few broadcasting transmitter sites in the entire U.S. prior to the 2009 digital transition, that couldn't be physically relocated in any direction.

Federal Communications Commission Independent agency of the U.S. Government

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government created by statute to regulate interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. The FCC maintains jurisdiction over the areas of broadband access, fair competition, radio frequency use, media responsibility, public safety, and homeland security.

WDTN NBC affiliate in Dayton, Ohio

WDTN, virtual channel 2, is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Dayton, Ohio, United States. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also operates Springfield-licensed CW affiliate WBDT under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with owner Vaughan Media, LLC. The two stations share studios on South Dixie Drive in Moraine. However, master control and some internal operations for WDTN and WBDT are based within centralcasting facilities at former sister station and CW affiliate WISH-TV in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Dayton, Ohio City in Ohio, United States

Dayton is the sixth-largest city in the state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2018 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 140,640, while Greater Dayton was estimated to be at 803,416 residents. This makes Dayton the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Ohio and 63rd in the United States. Dayton is within Ohio's Miami Valley region, just north of Greater Cincinnati.

The FCC had already allocated channel 15 to Knoxville for non-commercial use and plans to activate it as a satellite of WSJK cropped up from 1972 onward. There were also attempts to activate a satellite in the Tri-Cities on channel 41. However, they all collapsed, due to a lack of state funding to match the available federal funding, a situation largely caused by the 1970s economic recessions affecting state revenues. Since the Board of Education had begun all but one of its proposed stations by that point, priority was given to activating WCTE for the Upper Cumberland region, the last large area of the state that had no public television service at all; that station didn't come online until 1978.

As a result, WSJK became, quite by default, the only public television station in the northern two-thirds of East Tennessee. This left Knoxville as one of the largest markets in the country without a city-grade signal from PBS. Most of the Knoxville area didn't get a clear signal from the station until cable arrived in the mid-1970s.

Nonetheless, WSJK managed to make a name for itself in the area. It was the exclusive provider of on-site video at the 1982 World's Fair and also was the first station to air regularly-scheduled broadcasts of Tennessee Volunteers basketball.

A Knoxville station, at last

In 1981, the state legislature passed a law that allowed the state board to transfer its four stations to community organizations (the two largest PBS stations in the state, WKNO-TV in Memphis and WDCN in Nashville were operated by, respectively, a community board and the local school board and were never part of the state system). WSJK was the first to complete the separation in 1983; operational control was transferred to the East Tennessee Public Communications Corporation. Eventually, the state discontinued even token financial support of the four PBS stations after they were emancipated; this didn't adversely affect the stations, because their release to community boards had already encouraged them to develop different sources of financial support.

Almost immediately, the new owners approved plans to reorient WSJK to serve the Tri-Cities and build channel 15 as a WSJK satellite serving Knoxville (though channel 2 still provided "rimshot" coverage of Knoxville over the air). Channel 15 began broadcasting as WKOP-TV on August 15, 1990 on channel 15 from a transmitter and tower located on top of Sharp's Ridge. Although channel 2 (and still is) recognized as the main station, its main studios have always been located in Knoxville. In the late 1980s, the station's facilities were moved to East Magnolia Avenue on the other side of Downtown from the UT campus.

In 2000, WSJK-DT (channel 41) and WKOP-DT (channel 17) started operations. On December 25, 2002, WSJK-TV was renamed WETP-TV. For the next seven and a half years, both stations would use the branding "East Tennessee Public Television" or "ETP-TV" for short.

As of March 9, 2009, WETP-DT and WKOP-DT both air PBS World (now simply "World") and Create on their digital subchannels.

In August 2010, both WETP and WKOP rebranded as "East Tennessee PBS."

Digital television

Digital channels

The stations' digital signals are multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming [1] [2]
x.1 1080i 16:9 ETPMain ETPBS programming / PBS
x.2 480i ETP2 PBS Kids
x.3ETP3 Create

Analog-to-digital conversion

WETP-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41. [3] [4] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 2.

WKOP-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 15, in July 2008, due to an equipment malfunction. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 17. [4] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 15.

Out-of-market cable coverage

In recent years, WETP has been carried on cable in multiple areas within the Charlotte and Greensboro markets in North Carolina. [5] According to Zap2it, WETP has been carried on cable in College Grove, which is within the Nashville market. [6]

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WBRA-TV PBS member station in Roanoke, Virginia

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WEMT Fox affiliate in Greeneville, Tennessee

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Sharps Ridge Geologic feature in Knoxville, Tennessee

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References

  1. RabbitEars TV Query for WETP
  2. RabbitEars TV Query for WKOP
  3. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/feb/15/digitaldelay/
  4. 1 2 "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.
  5. http://www.skybesttv.com/clp_digital_basic.php
  6. http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?method=decideFwdForLineup&zipcode=37046&setMyPreference=false&lineupId=TN68058:-