WQED Multimedia

WQED Multimedia is an American nonprofit corporation based in Pittsburgh that owns and operates two public broadcasting stations:

The company's headquarters and production facility is located at 4802 Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood.

From 1970 to 2009, the company also owned and published Pittsburgh Magazine.

WQED went on the air on April 1, 1954, as the first community-sponsored educational television station in the U.S.

WQED has partnered with local community organizations to improve arts, education, culture, community health, economics and local issues through civic journalism. WQED's mission is to create an educated and informed viewer.

WQED's schedule includes seven locally-produced television programs that air Mondays-Saturday evenings:

WQED produces frequent specials that focus on local issues and topics, documentaries and town hall meetings. The Pittsburgh History Series which include a set of 30-plus documentaries about the southwest Pennsylvania region.

WQED now reachws southwestern Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and western Maryland.

In 1996, WQED tried to sell another PBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, WQEX-TV (Channel 16). The U.S. Federal Communications Commission denied WQED's request. The network pleaded financial hardship.

Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood hosted his namesake show, that was taped in at WQED in Pittsburgh, for over three decades on PBS, teaching lifelong lessons to children using storytelling and teaching them to use their imagination. Fred McFeeley Rogers was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 1928, Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister, songwriter and pianist. After graduating from Rollins College in Florida in 1951, Rogers moved to New York City to pursue a career with NBC as a Floor Manager. He then returned to Pittsburgh in 1953 and started his work with WQED. Rogers created "The Children's Corner" for WQED, which then led to the development of a 15-min version of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood for television in Canada, but he soon returned to Pittsburgh. In 1968, Mister Rogers' Television debuted on National Educational Television and ran until 2001 . The program reached over 8 million households on over 300 PBS stations. Roger's pioneering program was one of the first to encourage children's self-esteem, self-control, cooperation, ability to confront and deal with problems, appreciate diversity and other critical life values and behaviors.

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