WCVE-TV

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WCVE-TV / WCVW / WHTJ
WCVE: Richmond, Virginia
WCVW: Richmond, Virginia
WHTJ: Charlottesville, Virginia
Channels Analog:
WCVE: 23 (UHF)
WCVW: 57 (UHF)
WHTJ: 41 (UHF)

Digital:
WCVE: 42 (UHF)
WCVW: 44 (UHF)
WHTJ: 46 (UHF)
Affiliations PBS
Owner Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation
First air date WCVE: September 1964[1]
WCVW: December 1966[2]
WHTJ: May 19, 1989
Call letters’ meaning WCVE:
Central
Virginia
Educational
Sister station(s) WCVE-FM
Former affiliations NET (1964-1970)
Transmitter Power WCVE:
2300 kW (analog)
160 kW (digital)
WCVW:
50 kW (analog)
100 kW (digital)
WHTJ:
251 kW (analog)
165 kW (digital)
Height WCVE:
346.3 m (both)
WCVW:
293 m (analog)
328 m (digital)
WHTJ:
352 m (analog)
331.6 m (digital)
Facility ID WCVE: 9987
WCVW: 9989
WHTJ: 9990
Transmitter Coordinates WCVE:
37°30′45.5″N, 77°36′4.7″W
WCVW:
37°30′46.5″N, 77°36′4.3″W (analog)
37°30′45.5″N, 77°36′4.7″W (digital)
WHTJ:
37°59′0.2″N, 78°29′0.6″W
Website WCVE-TV
WCVW
WHTJ

WCVE-TV is a public television station licensed to Richmond, Virginia. It broadcasts on channel 23 and is owned by Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation. The station is a member of PBS, of which WCVE-TV became a charter member. The station signed on for the first time in September 1964. It is considered "the mothership" for a group of public radio and television stations in Virginia. Offices are at 23 Sesame Street in Bon Air, a suburb of Richmond. Its transmitter is located a few blocks away on 5 Sesame Street. WCVE's programming is also broadcast by a satellite in Charlottesville, Virginia on channel 41 as WHTJ. WCVE, the sister affiliate WCVW, and WHTJ were all together known locally as the Community Idea Stations, but in 2008 began used their call letters to idenify themselves, simply referring to themselves each as "a Community Idea Station."

Contents

[edit] History

The community-owned public broadcasting company was established in 1961 by Thomas Boushall (Chairman of the Richmond School Board and an officer of the Bank of Virginia) and a group of concerned citizens to employ television for educational purposes. The patron saints of public broadcasting in central Virginia were Boushall, E. Claiborne Robins Sr., Mary Ann Franklin, and Bill W. Spiller. Mrs. Franklin first approached Boushall and Henry I. Willett, then Superintendent of Richmond City Schools, with the idea of establishing an educational television station. Boushall and Franklin then recruited Spiller, who was hired in December 1963 and began working for them in January 1964.

WCVE's sister station, WCVW-TV (channel 57) signed on in 1967. Richmond became the first community in Virginia to have dual stations, and only the eighth in the nation to do so, doubling the amount of instructional programming provided to schools in central Virginia. Almost forty years later, both WCVE and WCVW are still in operation.

In 1974, Commonwealth Public Broadcasting took over WNVT-TV, a Fairfax public TV station on the verge of financial insolvency, in order to protect instructional television and educational services for schools in northern Virginia. In 1981, a second Northern Virginia station, WNVC-TV, was established. Today, those two stations continue to provide services to schools as well as international programming tailored to the needs of the Washington, D.C., area's culturally diverse population.

When Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education announced its plans to give up its public radio license for WRFK, which had assumed a fine music format from WFMV. To ensure public radio would remain in Richmond, WCVE-FM radio went on the air as a NPR affiliate in 1988. The following year, the company established WHTJ in Charlottesville. Before WHTJ's sign-on, Charlottesville had been one of the few areas in the country without a full-powered PBS station; it had been served by a repeater of Harrisonburg's WVPT.

A 25,000 square foot (2,300 m²) TV and radio studio-office complex was added in 1991.

After signing off at midnight almost daily for over 40 years, WCVE and WCVW became 24 hour stations most days of the week in the fall of 2006. Starting in early 2008, the stylized "i" logo became the station's secondary logo, while a new once display the WCVE call letters was adopted.

[edit] Programming

Like most public television stations, this trio broadcasts shows distributed by PBS, but they also create a range of local programs. WHTJ, for instance, offers Charlottesville Inside-Out, hosted by musician Terri Allard.[3]

[edit] Logo Gallery

WCVE station logo from 2001-2008.

WCVW station logo from 2001-2008.

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says September 14, while the Television and Cable Factbook says September 10.
  2. ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says December 22, while the Television and Cable Factbook says December 24.
  3. ^ Hook staff. "'Inside-Out' fest: WHTJ celebrates local talk with Terri", The Hook (newspaper), 2007-11-15. Retrieved on 2008-02-25. 
v • d • e
Broadcast television in the Richmond/Petersburg market  (Nielsen DMA #59)

WTVR 6 (CBS)  - WRIC 8 (ABC)  - WWBT 12 (NBC), (WX Plus on DT2)  - WXOB 17 (Rel)  - WCVE 23 (PBS)  - WRLH 35 (Fox), (MNTV on DT2)  - W39CO 39 (TBN)  - WZTD 45 (Telemundo)  - WRID 48 (DS) - WCVW 57 (PBS)  - WUPV 65 (The CW)

Past stations:  WFLV 15 (Unknown)   - WFMA 52/28 (silent?)   - WVRN 63 (Ind)
v • d • e
Broadcast television in the Charlottesville market  (Nielsen DMA #181)

WVAW-LP 16 (ABC) - WCAV 19 (CBS) (AccuWX TV on DT2) - WAHU-CA 27 (FOX) (MNTV on DT2) - WVIR 29 (NBC) (WX+ on DT2) (The CW on DT3) - WHTJ 41 (PBS) -

W50CM 50 (PBS)
v • d • e
PBS Member Stations in the state of Virginia
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC and Other stations in Virginia