WPBS-DT
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WPBS: Watertown, New York WNPI: Norwood, New York United States |
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| Branding | WPBS |
| Slogan | "The two-nation station" or "Your two-nation station" |
| Channels |
Digital: WPBS: 41 (UHF) WNPI: 23 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | (see article) |
| Affiliations | PBS |
| Owner | St. Lawrence Valley Educational Television Council, Inc. |
| First air date |
WPBS: August 1971 WNPI: 1971 |
| Call letters' meaning |
WPBS: Watertown Public Broadcasting Service WNPI: Watertown/ Norwood Public Instruction |
| Former callsigns |
WPBS: WNPE-TV (1971–1998) WNPI: none |
| Former channel number(s) |
WPBS: 16 (UHF analog, 1971–2009) WNPI: 18 (UHF analog, 1971–2009) |
| Transmitter power |
WPBS: 40 kW |
| Height |
WPBS: 370 m |
| Facility ID |
WPBS: 62136 WNPI: 62137 |
| Transmitter coordinates |
WPBS: 43°51′46″N 75°43′39″W / 43.86278°N 75.72750°W WNPI: 44°29′29″N 74°51′27″W / 44.49139°N 74.85750°W |
| Website | www.wpbstv.org |
WPBS: 40 kW
WPBS: 370 m
WPBS-DT is the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station serving the North Country of New York state, licensed to Watertown. The station operates a full-time satellite, WNPI-DT, licensed to Norwood. The station also has significant viewership in much of eastern Ontario, Canada, including Ottawa and Kingston. Like San Diego, California's KPBS, WPBS-TV is a border station: in this case, serving viewers in both the US and Canada.
The St. Lawrence Valley Educational Television Council, which was organized in 1958, originally produced educational television programming to be carried by local CBS affiliate WWNY-TV. In 1971, it established an independent PBS station, WNPE-TV, using WWNY's original studios on Champion Hill as the commercial station had already relocated to a larger facility in Watertown. Full-time satellite WNPI signed on a few months later. Outgrowing the Champion Hill location itself, WNPE moved to a new building in Watertown in 1978.
Because of its large Canadian viewership, WNPE was one of the most successful PBS stations in America, with fundraising totals often exceeding those of stations in much larger markets.
For a minor sum, the rights to use the WPBS call letters were purchased from a small radio station in Conyers, Georgia in the late 1990s, and the callsign change took effect on September 1, 1998.
Despite its strong viewership in Canada, Rogers Cable, the main cable provider in Ottawa, announced in July 2009 that it would replace WPBS on its systems with Detroit's WTVS by mid-August to provide a higher-quality PBS feed, as WTVS could be fed via fiber optic cable rather than from over-the-air signals. Shortly after receiving this news, a Facebook campaign called 'Save WPBS in Ottawa' (later renamed 'Ottawa Loves WPBS') urging Rogers to reconsider its decision to pull the station was launched, attracting hundreds of supporters, as well as local Ottawa politicians. On July 30, 2009, it was announced that WPBS would offer a fiber-optic feed of the station for Rogers transmitted from Buffalo, New York.
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Wikipedia