WGBY-TV

WGBY-TV, virtual channel 57 (VHF digital channel 13), is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Owned by the Boston-based WGBH Educational Foundation, it is a sister station to that organization's flagship and namesake, WGBH-TV (channel 2); however, it brands as a separate, locally-focused PBS outlet. WGBY-TV provides programming to much of western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut, with studios based in the Irene Mennen Hunter Public Media Center on Hampden Street alongside I-91 in downtown Springfield (named for the heiress to the Mennen personal care fortune and former WGBY-TV board member). Its transmitter is located on the peak of Mount Tom in Holyoke with the area's commercial television stations. WGBY-TV can also be received in Windham County, Vermont on Comcast Xfinity channel 2.

WGBY-TV
Springfield–Holyoke, Massachusetts
United States
CitySpringfield, Massachusetts
Branding
ChannelsDigital: 13 (VHF)
Virtual: 57 (PSIP)
Affiliations
OwnerWGBH Educational Foundation
OperatorNew England Public Media
(via program service agreement)
First air dateSeptember 26, 1971 (1971-09-26)
Call sign meaningWestern Massachusetts
Great Blue Yonder
(referring to WGBH's transmitter and distance from mother station; all WGBH television stations include these two letters)
Sister station(s)WFCR
Former channel number(s)Analog:
57 (UHF, 1971–2008)
Digital:
58 (UHF, 2000–2009)
22 (UHF, 2009–2019)
Transmitter power30 kW
Height302.9 m (994 ft)
Facility ID72096
Transmitter coordinates42°14′29.5″N 72°38′54.1″W
Licensing authorityFCC
Public license informationProfile
CDBS
Websitewww.wgby.org

History
Previous WGBY logo; variations of this logo (generally modifying the PBS logo) were used from 2000 until 2010.

The station first signed on the air on September 26, 1971 as a PBS member station. Prior to the station's sign-on (and for the network's first year of existence), viewers in Western Massachusetts were only able to view PBS programming over the air via WMHT from Albany or WEDH from Hartford (the latter remains available on most cable providers in the Springfield market). Its digital programming channels include WGBY Kids, Create and World, which are similar to the channels of the same names seen in Boston on WGBH-TV and WGBX-TV, but have some changes made to include locally produced WGBY programs. In October 2006, WGBY became the first television station in New England to produce all of its local programming content in high definition. Some Spanish-language programming is also broadcast for Springfield's Hispanic and Latino community.

Unlike its Boston counterpart, WGBY has not been networked with an affiliated NPR member station in the past; the area has been served by the Five College Consortium's WFCR in Amherst and WNNZ/WAIC, collectively known as New England Public Radio. The WGBH Educational Foundation held the license of WFCR from 1961 until its transfer to the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1967, four years before WGBY-TV began operations.

On April 11, 2019, WGBY and WFCR announced that they would consolidate operations under the New England Public Media banner, effective in July; the WGBH Educational Foundation will retain the WGBY-TV license, with NEPM operating the station under a program service operating agreement.[1][2] All of the various NEPR stations and WGBY will continue to have their licenses and facilities owned by their individual organizations and schools.

Programming

WGBY features several locally-produced programs, including the daily program Connecting Point, which has local features and roundtables involving aspects of Pioneer Valley arts, issues, economic, criminal, and educational issues. The Friday edition of the series is entitled The State We're In and deals with local and Commonwealth political issues, along with debate programming in election years.

As Schools Match Wits is a long-running local quiz bowl program which originated on WWLP in 1961, and moved to WGBY in 2007 under license from WWLP due to costs associated with newly-enacted FCC regulations involving closed captioning. The program is co-produced with Westfield State University.

Finally, Presencia is a weekly bilingual program which spotlights the region's Hispanic-American community, and uses captioning, dubbing, and subtitling to allow both Spanish and English-speaking viewers to equally watch the program.[3]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[4]
57.11080i16:9WGBYDT1Main WGBY-TV programming / PBS
57.2480i4:3WGBYDT2WGBY World
57.3WGBYDT3WGBY Kids
57.4WGBYDT4WGBY Create

Analog-to-digital conversion

On August 4, 2008, WGBY filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to discontinue regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 57, on November 5, 2008—some three months prior to the original mandated analog shut-off date. The petition cited the need to replace the current analog antenna with the post transition digital 22 antenna.[5] WGBY also filed for an STA to operate at 50% analog power prior to the early shut down date due to equipment failure[6] Although it had an assigned digital channel that it would move to post-transition that differed from its original digital channel, WGBY continued to broadcast its digital signal on its pre-transition allocation (UHF channel 58). On April 27, 2009, the station's digital signal later moved to UHF channel 22,[7] using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 57, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

As a result of the FCC's 2016 spectrum auction, the WGBH Educational Foundation accepted a $57 million offer to moved WGBY-TV to the VHF spectrum on July 22, 2019 on channel 13, along with WGBH-TV for $161.7 million.[8]

On January 16, 2017, the station launched the newest iteration of the PBS Kids Channel on their third subchannel.[9]

References
  1. Kinney, Jim (April 11, 2019). "New England Public Radio, WGBY-TV in Springfield to merge; boosting local news coverage". masslive.com. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  2. Falk, Tyler (April 11, 2019). "New England Public Radio and WGBY to combine operations". Current. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  3. Sefton, Dru; Editor, Senior. "Bilingual magazine show premieres this week on Massachusetts' WGBY". Current. Retrieved 2019-02-26.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  4. RabbitEars TV Query for WGBY
  5. http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101260834&formid=911&fac_num=72096
  6. http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101259115&formid=911&fac_num=72096
  7. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  8. "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Auction 1001 Winning Bids" (PDF). 13 April 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  9. Kelly, Ray (January 13, 2017). "WGBY-TV, Channel 57, making PBS Kids a 24/7 offering". The Republican. MassLive Media. Retrieved January 30, 2017.
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