WDSC-TV

Last updated

WDSC-TV
City New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Channels
BrandingChannel 15
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner Daytona State College, Inc.
History
First air date
February 8, 1988(36 years ago) (1988-02-08)
Former call signs
WCEU (1988–2008)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 15 (UHF, 1988–2008)
  • Digital: 33 (UHF, until 2019)
PBS (1988–2011)
Call sign meaning
Daytona State College
Technical information [1]
Licensing authority
 FCC
Facility ID 12171
ERP 282 kW
HAAT 490.4 m (1,609 ft)
Transmitter coordinates 28°36′36″N81°3′34″W / 28.61000°N 81.05944°W / 28.61000; -81.05944
Links
Public license information
Website www.daytonastate.edu/in-the-community/wdsc/index.html

WDSC-TV (channel 15) is an independent non-commercial educational television station licensed to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area. Owned by Daytona State College, the station maintains studios at the Center for Educational Telecommunications on the DSC campus in Daytona Beach, and its transmitter is located on Brown Road near Christmas, Florida.

Contents

History

In 1985, DSC (then known as Daytona Beach Community College), Bethune–Cookman College, Stetson University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the Atlantic Center for the Arts formed the Coastal Educational Broadcasters consortium in order to bring a public television station to Volusia and Flagler counties. They felt WMFE-TV, the PBS station in Orlando, was neglecting Daytona Beach. Channel 15 signed on February 8, 1988, as WCEU with a limited schedule of three hours a day, three days a week. Support in the area was enough that within nine months, it was recognized by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. By January 1989, it was a full-fledged PBS member station, though it did not expand to a fuller broadcast day until 1993.

In 1992, a signal expansion and must-carry rules expanded WCEU's audience to over 1.3 million viewers in Central Florida, including Orlando itself. It moved to its current facility in 1999. DBCC became the sole licensee in 2002.

In 2005, WCEU rebranded itself as "DBCC 15" to better reflect its relationship with DBCC. In January 2008, it rebranded itself again merely as "Channel 15", after DBCC became Daytona Beach College. The college subsequently changed its name again to Daytona State College; to reflect this, in October 2008, channel 15 changed its call letters to the current WDSC-TV, after purchasing the rights to the call letters from a radio station in Dillon, South Carolina. [2] [3]

With the advent of digital broadcasting, WDSC-TV began billing itself as a full-market PBS station, including Orlando. While it had been available on cable in Orlando for over a decade, its digital signal, located in Bithlo with most other television stations in the market, gives it an over-the-air coverage area comparable to the market's previous primary PBS station WMFE-TV. However, on June 16, 2011, WDSC and PBS announced that the station would leave PBS, as Daytona State College could no longer afford to purchase its programming, following $4.8 million of funding to Florida's public radio and television stations vetoed by Governor Rick Scott in May 2011. PBS programming disappeared from channel 15 on July 1, 2011; WMFE also left PBS on the same date due to its then-planned sale to religious broadcaster Daystar. [4] These moves left WBCC of Cocoa, which began branding as WUCF-TV at that time, as the only PBS station in the Central Florida television market. [4] (WUCF-TV moved to the former WMFE-TV in 2012, a move that led to WBCC, now WEFS, departing PBS as well.)

WDSC-TV continues to air programming from other sources such as the BBC, American Public Television and the National Educational Telecommunications Association. [5]

In 2024, it was announced that WDSC-TV would be the flagship station of The Joy of Painting with Nicholas Hankins, the unfinished 32nd season of the program that Bob Ross had started but died before production could begin. [6]

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WDSC-TV [7]
Channel Res. Aspect Short nameProgramming
15.1 1080i 16:9 WDSC-HD Educational independent
15.2 480i WDSC-ED The Florida Channel
15.3 4:3 WDSC-WV Deutsche Welle

Analog-to-digital conversion

WDSC-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 15, which due to major equipment failure had been operating at significantly reduced power since September 25, 2008, [8] [9] on December 15 of that year. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 33, [10] using virtual channel 15.

Related Research Articles

Iowa PBS, formerly Iowa Public Television (IPTV), is a network of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member stations in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is operated by the Iowa Public Broadcasting Board, an agency of the state education department which holds the licenses for all the PBS member stations in the state. Iowa PBS' headquarters are located at 6450 Corporate Drive in Johnston, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alabama Public Television</span> PBS member network serving Alabama, United States

Alabama Public Television (APT) is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. state of Alabama. It is operated by the Alabama Educational Television Commission (AETC), an agency of the Alabama state government which holds the licenses for all of the PBS member stations licensed in the state. The broadcast signals of the nine stations cover almost all of the state, as well as parts of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. The network produces public affairs, cultural, natural history, and documentary programming; broadcast and online education programs for classroom use and teacher professional development; and electronic field trips serving K-12 students.

The Daystar Television Network commonly known as Daystar Television or just Daystar, is an American evangelical Christian-based religious television network owned by the Word of God Fellowship, founded by Marcus Lamb in 1993. Daystar is headquartered in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Bedford, Texas. The network is based around prosperity theology.

WTVI is a PBS member television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, owned by Central Piedmont Community College. The station'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. It is the only public television station in North Carolina that is not operated by PBS North Carolina, and is one of three PBS member stations serving the Charlotte metropolitan area, along with PBS North Carolina's WUNG-TV in Concord and South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV)'s WNSC-TV in Rock Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WOFL</span> TV station in Orlando, Florida

WOFL is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, serving as the market's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV station WRBW. The two stations share studios on Skyline Drive in Lake Mary; WOFL's transmitter is located in unincorporated Bithlo, Florida.

WBGU-TV is a PBS member television station licensed to Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. Owned by Bowling Green State University, it is sister to college radio station WBGU. The two stations share studios at the Tucker Center for Telecommunications on the BGSU campus; WBGU-TV's transmitter is located near Belmore, Ohio. Unlike the radio station, WBGU-TV is not primarily operated by students at the university; however, the station does offer many different student positions that allow students to gain experience.

Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB) is a state network of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television stations serving the U.S. state of Louisiana. The stations are operated by the Louisiana Educational Television Authority, an agency created by the executive department of the Louisiana state government which holds the licenses for six of the seven PBS member stations licensed in the state. Louisiana Public Broadcasting's studio facilities and offices are located on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge.

WOTF-TV is a television station licensed to Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Grit. The station is owned by Entravision Communications and has a transmitter near Orange City, Florida.

Nebraska Public Media, formerly Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET), is a state network of public radio and television stations in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is operated by the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission (NETC). The television stations are all members of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), while the radio stations are members of National Public Radio (NPR).

WHLV-TV is a religious television station licensed to Cocoa, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area as an owned-and-operated station of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The station's studios are located adjacent to the Holy Land Experience, a Christian theme park also owned by TBN; its transmitter is located in unincorporated Bithlo, Florida.

WEFS is a television station in Cocoa, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area. The station is owned by Eastern Florida State College (EFSC) and maintains studios at the EFSC campus in Cocoa; its transmitter is located on Brown Road near Christmas, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WTGL</span> TV station in Leesburg, Florida

WTGL is a religious independent television station licensed to Leesburg, Florida, United States, serving the Orlando area. The station is locally owned by Good Life Broadcasting, and maintains studios on Skyline Drive in Lake Mary, Florida. Through a channel sharing agreement with PBS member station WUCF-TV, the two stations transmit using WUCF-TV's spectrum from an antenna near Bithlo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WKPC-TV</span> PBS member station in Louisville, Kentucky

WKPC-TV is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Owned by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, the station is operated as part of the statewide Kentucky Educational Television (KET) network. WKPC-TV's transmitter is located at the Kentuckiana Tower Farm at Floyds Knobs, in Floyd County, Indiana. WKPC and WKMJ are the only KET-owned stations whose transmitters are outside Kentucky's borders.

WKMJ-TV is a PBS member television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is the flagship station for KET2, the second television service of Kentucky Educational Television (KET), which is owned by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television.

KDYW was a non-commercial educational television station in Waco, Texas, United States. The station was owned by the Brazos Valley Broadcasting Foundation. As KCTF and KWBU-TV, it operated as a PBS member station for much of its on-air history, but was slated to be sold to Community Television Educators of Waco, Inc., a group associated with the Daystar Television Network, before surrendering its license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Middleton</span>

Marc Davis Middleton is an American television journalist, media entrepreneur, author, publisher, and filmmaker who focuses on the changing culture of aging. He is the Founder and CEO of Growing Bolder, a company that produces and distributes health, well-being, and active lifestyle content creation for the 50+ demographic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WUCF-FM</span> Radio station in Florida, United States

WUCF-FM is a listener-supported radio station of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, United States. The station is one of Central Florida's two NPR member stations, along with WMFE-FM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WMFE-FM</span> Public radio station in Orlando, Florida

WMFE-FM is a listener-supported FM radio station in Orlando, Florida, owned by Community Communications, Inc. WMFE-FM is Central Florida's National Public Radio (NPR) member station, with a format of news and information. Most programming is simulcast on WMFV in Cedar Creek, Florida. The radio studios are on East Colonial Drive in Orlando.

WMFE may refer to either of two public broadcasting stations in Orlando, Florida, United States:

WUCF-TV is a PBS member television station in Orlando, Florida, United States. Owned by the University of Central Florida (UCF), it is the region's sole PBS member station, reaching an estimated population of 4.6 million people in its viewing area. WUCF-TV is sister to WUCF-FM (89.9), Central Florida's secondary NPR station. The two outlets share studios on Research Parkway on the UCF campus. Through a channel sharing agreement with religious station WTGL, the two stations transmit using WUCF-TV's spectrum from an antenna in unincorporated Bithlo, Florida.

References

  1. ↑ "Facility Technical Data for WDSC-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ↑ Harper, Mark (October 28, 2008). "Public TV station to change call letters". The Daytona Beach News-Journal . Retrieved November 3, 2008.[ dead link ]
  3. ↑ Call Sign History for WDSC-TV
  4. 1 2 Bodeker, Hal (June 17, 2011). "PBS: Daytona Beach station will stop PBS lineup July 1". The Orlando Sentinel . Archived from the original on June 19, 2011. Retrieved June 20, 2011.
  5. ↑ Boedeker, Hal (June 27, 2011). "What happens to programming at former PBS stations WMFE, WDSC?". Orlando Sentinel . Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
  6. ↑ Rancilio, Alicia (May 10, 2024). "Bob Ross' legacy lives on in new 'The Joy of Painting' series". APnews.com . Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  7. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WDSC
  8. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : "WDSC - Analog Shutoff". YouTube . December 28, 2008.
  9. ↑ "Notification of Suspension of Operations". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. November 14, 2008. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
  10. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.