WEIU-TV

Last updated

WEIU-TV
Channels
Branding
  • WEIU PBS (general)
  • News Watch (newscasts)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner Eastern Illinois University
WEIU (FM)
History
First air date
July 1, 1986(39 years ago) (1986-07-01)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 51 (UHF, 1986–2009)
  • Digital: 50 (UHF, until 2019)
Educational Independent (1986–1992)
Call sign meaning
Eastern Illinois University
Technical information [1]
Licensing authority
 FCC
Facility ID 18301
ERP 174 kW
HAAT 141 m (463 ft)
Transmitter coordinates 39°34′15″N88°18′25.5″W / 39.57083°N 88.307083°W / 39.57083; -88.307083
Links
Public license information
Website www.weiu.net

WEIU-TV (channel 51) is a PBS member television station licensed to Charleston, Illinois, United States. It is owned by Eastern Illinois University (EIU) alongside campus radio station WEIU (88.9 FM). The two stations share studios on the EIU campus in Charleston; WEIU-TV's transmitter is located near Humboldt, Illinois.

Contents

WEIU-TV is a member of PBS' Program Differentiation Plan (PDP), previously known as the "Beta Group". As a secondary PBS member station for the Champaign–Springfield–Decatur market, it airs 25% of the PBS network schedule.

Broadcast area

WEIU-TV's broadcast radius extends south to Effingham, north to Champaign, west to Decatur, and east to Terre Haute, Indiana.

The station serves Champaign, Christian, Clark, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Jasper, Macon, Moultrie, Piatt, Sangamon, Shelby, and Vermilion counties in Illinois and Vigo County in Indiana.

History

WEIU-TV began operations on July 1, 1986, as an independent non-commercial station offering public affairs and instructional programming, as well as the student-run news program News Scan. [2] On January 30, 1992, WEIU-TV officially joined PBS. In January 2002, the newscast was renamed News Watch; it currently airs from 5:30 to 6 p.m. News Watch won its first Emmy Award in 2009 and its second Emmy in 2010.

WEIU-TV launched its first digital broadcast in 2006, on UHF channel 50 (tuned as virtual channel 51). The station began broadcasting in high definition (HD) on March 22, 2010. It offered the first local HD newscast for viewers in central Illinois. Before June 2010, no commercial television stations in the market were producing news in HD, which changed when NBC affiliate WAND became the first to make the switch.

In August 2025, WEIU-TV announced it was ending its affiliation with PBS as of September 30, amid cuts to the station's primary funder, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. [3]

Technical information and subchannels

WEIU-TV's transmitter is located near Humboldt, Illinois. [1] The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WEIU-TV [4]
Channel Res. Aspect Short nameProgramming
51.1 1080i 16:9 WEIU-HD PBS → Educational Independent
(eff. October 1, 2025)
51.2 480i 4:3 FNX FNX
51.6 HitMixSimulcast of WEIU-FM

Analog-to-digital conversion

WEIU-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 51, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were federally mandated to transition from analog to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 50, using virtual channel 51. [5]

In addition to its main station, WEIU-TV also operates "Your 13", a cable TV channel offered to Consolidated Communications subscribers that presents educational, sports, informational and local public access programming, as well as an overnight simulcast of WEIU-FM. Unlike WEIU-TV, some of the programs on "Your 13" are funded by commercials.

References

  1. 1 2 "Facility Technical Data for WEIU-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ↑ WEIU-TV. "About Us - Station History". WEIU. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  3. ↑ Zimmerman, Bradley (August 19, 2025). "EIU announces end of TV station's affiliation with PBS". WCIA.
  4. ↑ "RabbitEars TV Query for WEIU". RabbitEars . Retrieved August 20, 2025.
  5. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved March 24, 2012.
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