WVPT
 | |
| Staunton/Harrisonburg, Virginia United States | |
|---|---|
| City | Staunton, Virginia |
| Channels |
Digital: 11 (VHF) (shared with WVPY; to move to 12 (VHF)) Virtual: 51 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels |
51.1 PBS 51.3 Create 51.4 PBS Kids |
| Owner | Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation |
| First air date | September 9, 1968 |
| Call letters' meaning | Western Virginia Public Television |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 51 (UHF, 1968–2009) |
| Former affiliations | NET (1968–1970) |
| Transmitter power | 10 kW |
| Height | 689 m (2,260 ft) |
| Facility ID | 60111 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°9′54.4″N 79°18′50.1″W / 38.165111°N 79.313917°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website |
www |
| New Market, Virginia United States | |
|---|---|
| Channels |
Digital: 11 (VHF) (shared with WVPT; to move to 12 (VHF)) Virtual: 51.2 (PSIP) |
| Affiliations | PBS |
| Owner | Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation |
| First air date |
August 22, 1996 (in Front Royal, Virginia; license moved to New Market in 2018) |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 42 (UHF, 1996–2009) Digital: 21 (UHF, 2009–2018) 42 (PSIP, until 2018) |
| Transmitter power | 10 kW |
| Height | 689 m (2,260 ft) |
| Facility ID | 66378 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°9′54.4″N 79°18′50.1″W / 38.165111°N 79.313917°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
(satellite of WCVW, Richmond, Virginia) Profile (satellite of WCVW, Richmond, Virginia) CDBS |
WVPT, virtual channel 51 (VHF digital channel 11), is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Staunton, Virginia, United States, serving Harrisonburg and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and West Virginia. The station is owned by the Richmond-based Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation. WVPT's studios are located in Harrisonburg near the campus of James Madison University, and its transmitter is located in central Augusta County, Virginia.
WVPT operates a second station, WVPY, licensed to New Market, Virginia. WVPY was formerly a full-time satellite which served Winchester and the upper Shenandoah Valley. Through a channel-sharing agreement, it now broadcasts from WVPT's transmitter as a satellite of Richmond's WCVW, using virtual channel 51.2.
History
WVPT signed on for the first time on September 9, 1968 under the ownership of the Shenandoah Valley Educational Television Corporation. It is the third-oldest educational station in Virginia, behind Hampton Roads' WHRO-TV and Richmond's WCVE-TV. WVPY, originally licensed to Front Royal, Virginia, was added in 1996, replacing low-powered translator W42AC, which had served the area since the 1980s.
WVPT also doubled as the default PBS station for Charlottesville (via translators W50CM in the city and W58DK in Ruckersville) until WCVE signed on WHTJ as a full-powered satellite in 1989.
On October 1, 2001, WVPT started broadcasting in digital with WVPY following in October 2002, HD.
In November 2017, Shenandoah Valley Educational Television Corporation agreed to merge with Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation, owner of WCVE-TV, WCVW, and WHTJ.[1] The merger took effect on June 11, 2018.
Transmitters
WVPT is the smallest PBS station licensed to Virginia, but serves one of the largest coverage areas of any PBS member. It primarily serves 22 counties and independent cities in Virginia and nine counties in West Virginia. Much of this area is very mountainous. Largely because most of its service area is located in the United States National Radio Quiet Zone, its two main transmitters operated at only 525,000 watts and 141,000 watts in analog—in both cases, fairly modest for a full PBS member on the UHF band. Even in digital, they are not nearly strong enough to cover this vast and rugged area. This is despite WVPT's digital channel being located on VHF; normally VHF signals "bend" over rugged terrain better than UHF signals.
WVPT's distributed transmission system consists of two transmitters:
| Community | Transmitter location | Power |
|---|---|---|
| Charlottesville | 37°59′0″N 78°29′2″W / 37.98333°N 78.48389°W | 40 watts |
| Monterey | 38°20′39″N 79°35′47″W / 38.34417°N 79.59639°W | 8 watts |
The station's distributed transmission system allows the translators to rebroadcast digitally on the same frequencies as the parent stations under an experimental license. Digital DTS call signs are based on those of the respective main stations, suffixed with a sequential number. For instance, the transmitter in Charlottesville is seen on VHF channel 11, virtual channel 51.1, and with the callsign WVPT1-DT.[2]
Spectrum reallocation
As part of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 2016-17 spectrum reallocation auction, WVPY's channel 21 allocations were sold for $19,851,752.[3] The station and its distributed transmitters were to go off the air July 23, 2018, but the main transmitter is allowed to continue over-the-air operations by sharing the channel of another station. WVPY received two three-month extensions of the original January 23 deadline as it had difficulty finding a channel-sharing partner.[4][5][6]
WVPY filed a channel-sharing agreement with sister station WVPT on April 11, 2018. WVPY's over-the-air signal moved to WVPT's main transmitter in Harrisonburg and its distributed transmitters, effective June 11. Few in the area lost over-the-air PBS service, as the area is also covered by WETA-TV in Washington, D.C., West Virginia Public Broadcasting's W08EE-D in Martinsburg, and Maryland Public Television's WWPB in Hagerstown.[7] After the transfer, WVPY moved its license to New Market, as it would not cover Front Royal at all from WVPT's transmitter site.[8] As it now covers exactly the same areas as WVPT over-the-air, WVPY relays the programming of WCVW on virtual channel 51.2.[9][10]
Cable and satellite availability
WVPT also relies heavily on cable and satellite for its viewership, which are all but essential for acceptable television in this region.
WVPT is available on cable in Lynchburg. Additionally, the station is carried on the Harrisonburg DirecTV and Dish Network feed. While it is available on Comcast cable in Charlottesville and central Virginia, it is not carried on satellite there, as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules do not allow a station to be uplinked unless it has a full-power station licensed in the market.
WVPY was previously available over-the-air in large portions of the Virginia and West Virginia portions of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; Front Royal is part of the Washington market. It was also available on the Washington DirecTV and Dish Network feeds until 2016, when the two satellite providers dropped it, claiming they could no longer receive an off-air signal from WVPY.
Local programs
Virginia Farming - the only regular television program dedicated to Virginia's key economic engines, agriculture and the environment. It is distributed to PBS stations in Virginia, West Virginia and on RFD-TV nationwide.
The Miller Center Forums - produced in conjunction with The University of Virginia's Miller Center for Public Affairs. The series is distributed nationwide to approximately 150 PBS stations.
Roadtrip to History - produced by Oaktree Productions and Executive Producer Wayne Bronson.
References
- ↑ Staff. "Community Idea Stations, WVPT announce merger plan". The Daily Progress.
- ↑ Renewal request for experimental license WVPT1-DT, a DTV booster station on Channel 11 in Charlottesville, Virginia
- ↑ FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction — Auction 1001 Winning Bids
- ↑ "Legal STA".
- ↑ "FCC Application No. BALEDT - 20171117AAS". Federal Communications Commission.
- ↑ "FCC LMS Application No. 40570 (Legal STA)". enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov.
- ↑ "Harrisonburg Viewing Area Program Changes (WVPT and WVPY)". Community Idea Stations. Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
- ↑ "Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTS Application".
- ↑ "WVPT Schedule".
- ↑ Bradshaw, Vic (15 November 2017). "WVPT Announces Merger". Daily News-Record.