WVIA-TV
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Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania United States |
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| Slogan | The Leader in Local Programming |
| Channels |
Digital: 41 (UHF) Virtual: 44 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels |
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| Translators | see table below |
| Affiliations | |
| Owner | Northeast Pennsylvania Educational Television Association |
| First air date | September 26, 1966 |
| Call letters' meaning | The World Via Television |
| Sister station(s) | WVIA-FM |
| Former channel number(s) | 44 (UHF analog, 1966–2009) |
| Former affiliations | NET (1966–1970) |
| Transmitter power | 171 kW |
| Height | 510 m |
| Facility ID | 47929 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°10′55.5″N 75°52′15.2″W / 41.182083°N 75.870889°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website |
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WVIA-TV is the PBS member Public television station broadcasting on channel 41 to most of northeastern and central Pennsylvania. It is licensed to Scranton, with studios in Jenkins Township (which shares a post office with Pittston) and transmitter at the northeast Pennsylvania tower farm on Penobscot Knob.
In 1963, several men first met at Coughlin High School in Wilkes-Barre to discuss bringing an Educational television station to northeastern Pennsylvania. Twelve of the men formed the Northeast Pennsylvania Educational Television Association, chaired by Wilkes-Barre superintendent of schools Walter Wood. They received a license for channel 44 a year later.
The station's first employee, general manager George Strimel, Jr., was hired in 1965 and given two years to get the station on the air. He was able to do so within nine months, and WVIA-TV signed on for the first time on September 26, 1966. The fledgling station received a considerable assist from the area's commercial stations. WNEP-TV donated the old transmitter and tower facility from WARM-TV (one of the two stations that merged to form WNEP 10 years earlier), while WBRE-TV and WDAU-TV (now WYOU) made their studios available for local productions. All production work was done from the transmitter site.
The station grew rapidly, and within a year moved its offices from First Presbyterian Church in Wilkes-Barre to office space donated by King's College, and later to a school in Scranton. In 1969, WVIA moved to a specially-built studio at Marywood College in Scranton. In 1971, WVIA moved to its current studio in Jenkins Township.
The station didn't take long to become a part of the community; it won the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's award for community involvement for two straight years in the 1970s. It was the only public television station in Pennsylvania to stay on the air during a 1970 budget crisis. When Hurricane Agnes struck the area in 1972, WVIA preempted its programming to air weather reports around the clock, and lent its equipment to WBRE so it could stay on the air.
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Wikipedia