Channel 35 was the first to begin broadcasting as WGVC-TV on December 17, 1972. Owned by what was then Grand Valley State College, it represented a partnership between the educational institution and a community group that had been seeking to establish a public TV station for the area for five years. Kalamazoo was on the periphery of the WGVC-TV service area, and WGVK was established in 1984 to provide a higher-quality signal to southern portions of the region. The Grand Rapids station changed call signs in 1987 when Grand Valley State attained university status, and the studios moved from studios on the GVSU campus in Allendale to downtown Grand Rapids in 1988.
History
Early years
Interest in establishing an educational television station in Grand Rapids manifested as early as 1953, with the formation of a local group.[3] With no local station, schools made limited use of educational programming. The Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI) service of Purdue University, beamed from aircraft flying above northern Indiana, began in 1961 and was received in some of the region.[4] Other schools utilized the Classroom 10 programs broadcast from WMSB (channel 10), a service of Michigan State University primarily broadcast to areas east of West Michigan.[5] By 1967, WMSB was one of just four educational TV stations on the air in Michigan.[6] On August 5, 1968, the Wolverine Educational Television Corporation began a campaign for donations to fund the construction of a community-operated educational TV station in Grand Rapids, which it proposed to call WETC and have on the air by 1970.[7] In September 1970, the director of WUCM-TV at Delta College agreed to take a leave of absence from that station to help start Wolverine's channel 35.[8]
Wolverine announced on December 2, 1970, that it had agreed to partner with Grand Valley State College in Grand Rapids, which would now be the owner and operator of channel 35, with Wolverine continuing in an advisory capacity. The MPATI had shuttered, leaving a gap in instructional television programming available to West Michigan schools.[9] The new effort received offers of transmitter facility space and other support from the two commercial TV stations in Grand Rapids, WOOD-TV and WZZM.[10] Though the station was initially approved to set up at the WZZM tower at Grant,[11] it was moved before launch to a site on the Grand Valley State College campus in Allendale, where studios were built inside Manitou Hall.[12]
WGVC-TV began broadcasting on December 17, 1972.[13] In addition to evening PBS programs, it supplied seven hours each weekday of instructional programs to schools[14] and aired Sesame Street and The Electric Company, both previously seen on WZZM in the absence of a local public TV station.[15] Initially, the station was unable to carry live PBS programming; by 1974, when it was interconnected, it was one of 16 non-interconnected stations among PBS's roster of 245 members.[16] While some shows aired on a one-month delay, more timely programs, such as Wall Street Week and Washington Week in Review, either went unaired or were out of date: general manager Gordon Lawrence noted, "It was sort of embarrassing. We had a program speculating on Richard Nixon's resignation two days after he resigned."[17]
In 1974, the station doubled its effective radiated power,[18] improving reception and enabling the station to be added to the cable system serving Battle Creek.[19] The station aired a number of local programs in the mid-1970s, including a community affairs show, a weekly arts program, replays of Grand Valley State College football games, and Thinking of Holland, presenting Dutch culture and media.[20][21] It acquired a mobile unit and a color video tape machine in 1976 using federal grants,[22] though the mobile unit was expensive and required half the station's staff to run, limiting its use.[21] A high school quiz show debuted in January 1978.[23]
Initial station manager Gordon Lawrence departed in 1979 to set up WFUM-TV in Flint, Michigan.[24] By this time, increased production costs and staff issues had led the station to reduce its local programming output by one-fourth compared to 1976.[21]
Expansion to Kalamazoo and new studios in Grand Rapids
From before channel 35 signed on, there were questions about whether the facility would adequately serve Kalamazoo. Pre-launch coverage maps showed the station's secondary signal contour bisecting the city,[25] Two months before the launch of WGVC-TV, Kalamazoo lost the other public TV service it received as a result of the end of the share-time arrangement between Michigan State University's WMSB and commercial station WILX-TV. The replacement for WMSB was WKAR-TV (channel 23), whose transmitter was relocated further east and no longer covered Kalamazoo.[26][27] In 1981, several groups applied for channel 52 in Kalamazoo as a low-power TV station; among them was the Fetzer Broadcasting Company, owner of WKZO radio and television, which proposed to offer it to Western Michigan University.[28] Grand Valley State College also proposed a low-power station, to rebroadcast WGVC-TV;[29] Kalamazoo residents had approached the station as early as 1976 with a request to extend its signal.[30] In February 1983, Grand Valley State College applied instead for a full-power channel 52 facility for the same purpose.[31] WGVK began broadcasting October 1, 1984.[32]
The Meijer Public Broadcast Center is part of the Robert C. Pew Grand Rapids campus and was completed in 1988.
Grand Valley State began a campaign in 1985 to build a nine-story campus in downtown Grand Rapids, with studio facilities for WGVC-TV included.[33] Gerald Elliott, a former program host at channel 35, had noted as early as 1977 that the Manitou Hall facility was inadequate and of lesser quality than the television production studios at Western Michigan University, which did not have a station at all.[34] After Grand Valley State College and three other Michigan state colleges were renamed as state universities in November 1987,[35] WGVC-TV became WGVU-TV beginning December 14, 1987.[36] The Meijer Public Broadcast Center opened in April 1988,[37] offering 50% more studio space and two full editing studios;[38] WGVC-TV began broadcasting in stereo, including local stereo origination capability,[37] though the Kalamazoo transmitter was not equipped for stereo until 1994.[39] The new facility was named for Frederik Meijer, whose family donated the largest portion of the first $2 million raised.[40]
For its first fifteen years of existence, WGVU-TV was among the best-supported PBS stations in the nation by its viewers, whose contributions represented 70% of the station's budget. Community support increased by 10 percent or more in every year between 1980 and 1987, and in December 1985, the station had the highest average donation of any public TV station. However, after the capital campaign to move to downtown Grand Rapids, support cooled off, more in line with other stations across the country.[41] Its local programming output trailed PBS stations in comparably sized markets; under general manager George Lott, who ran the station from 1979 to 1987, it largely ignored local production in favor of higher-budget national offerings from PBS and other public TV stations. In 1988, WGVU-TV had a budget of $3.7 million and a staff of 35, producing 63 hours a year of local programming. With a smaller budget and staff, WKPC-TV in Louisville, Kentucky, produced 144 hours.[38] Lott's successor, Michael T. Walenta, was more aggressive in introducing local programming, organizing a weeknight 7:30 p.m. time slot in which five different local programs appeared on a weekly basis.[42]
Funding
In fiscal year 2023, WGVU-TV recorded total revenue of $5,490,471. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provided a $976,334 Community Service Grant and $78,763 in other funds. Appropriations from Grand Valley State University totaled $373,160. The station had 19,793 members, who donated $2,325,281, and 60 major individual donors, who contributed $342,020.[43]
Local programming
WGVU produces numerous local programs. It also carries national shows from PBS, American Public Television, and the National Educational Telecommunications Association. NPR and PRX programming heard on WGVU-FM is aired on the fifth digital subchannel's SAP channel.
Weekly
Ask The... – a live call-in show about a specific topic, hosted by Shelley Irwin; it airs Thursdays at 6:00p.m.
Grand Valley State Sports Report (formerly GV Sports) – hosted by WZZM-TV sports anchor Brent Ashcroft, this program covers Grand Valley State athletics. During the athletic season, it airs Mondays at 6 and 11 p.m., and does not air during the summer months.
West Michigan Week – a program discussing the week's news headlines, hosted by Patrick Center; it airs Fridays at 9:30p.m.
WGVU Newsmakers – a program profiling people and issues, hosted by Patrick Center; it airs Wednesdays at 6:00p.m.
Specials
WGVU Community Connection – a monthly program hosted by Shelley Irwin. It spotlights non-profit agencies in West Michigan.
WGVU Family Health Matters – a program covering health issues.
Documentaries
Notable documentaries produced by WGVU include LZ Michigan (A "Landing Zone" to Remember, Honor, and Celebrate our Community's Veterans and Their Families), Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History,Surviving Auschwitz: Children of the Shoah and Defying Hitler.
WGVU-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 35; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 11, using virtual channel 35.
WGVK shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 52; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 5, using virtual channel 52.
↑ "Educational TV Study Report Due". The Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. UPI. June 13, 1967. p.47. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ Truax, Ralph (December 2, 1970). "Grand Valley Plans to Have Education TV". The Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. p.2-E. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ "Educational TV grant is approved". The Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. June 3, 1971. p.12-B. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ "'Sesame Street' Now on WGVC". The Muskegon Chronicle. Muskegon, Michigan. January 9, 1973. p.12. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ Elliott, Gerald A. (October 6, 1974). "Going Black with the Super-split Wipe". The Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. pp.Wonderland 3, 4, 5, 6. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ "WGVC's Snow Should Melt Away". The Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. May 15, 1974. p.2-D. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ Mancewicz, Bernice (November 18, 1975). "Most of the television entertainment..."The Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. pp.Wonderland 8, . Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ Davis, Blair (May 9, 1982). "Low power TV idea draws investors". The Kalamazoo Gazette. Kalamazoo, Michigan. p.G-4. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ "PBS beams into the county Monday". The Kalamazoo Gazette. Kalamazoo, Michigan. September 30, 1984. pp.A1, A2. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ Elliott, Gerald (October 19, 1977). "Fund Outlook for PBS Is Best Ever". The Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. p.17-A. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ Haroldson, Tom (December 8, 1987). "Tiger roar continues on Channel 3". The Kalamazoo Gazette. Kalamazoo, Michigan. p.C8. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ Butler, Ruth (August 14, 1988). "Gold rush days are over for Channel 35". The Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. pp.J1, J4. Retrieved February 17, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
↑ Butler, Ruth (August 15, 1988). "WGVU plans shows for every weeknight". The Grand Rapids Press. Grand Rapids, Michigan. p.D2. Retrieved February 18, 2025– via Newspapers.com.
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