South Carolina Educational Television

South Carolina Educational Television
statewide South Carolina
Branding ETV
Channels Digital: see table below
Subchannels

South Carolina Channel XX.2

ETV World XX.3
Affiliations PBS
Owner South Carolina Educational Television Commission
(South Carolina Educational Television Commission)
Founded September 1963 (television)
September 1972 (radio)
Former affiliations NET (1963–1970)
Transmitter power see table below
Height see table below
Facility ID see table below
Transmitter coordinates see table below
Website www.myetv.org

South Carolina Educational Television is the statewide public television and public radio network in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It consists of all the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television stations and National Public Radio (NPR) member radio stations in the state. It is operated by the South Carolina Educational Television Commission, an agency of the state government.

Contents

History

The state network traces its history to 1957, when the General Assembly authorized a study in the use of television in the state's public schools. A studio opened in the state capital, Columbia, a year later at Dreher High School. The Commission began operations on June 3, 1960, and by 1962 extended television service to all 46 of South Carolina's counties. Also in 1963, the Commission opened the first Educational television station in South Carolina, WNTV in Greenville. A year later, WITV in Charleston signed on. Two years later, the state network's primary, WRLK-TV in Columbia, signed on. The state network now comprises 16 stations. After years of receiving NET and PBS programs on tape-delay, it entered PBS' satellite network in 1978. In 2000, SCETV broadcast the first digital television program in the state. Since 2003, the state network has been known on-air as simply "ETV."

The Commission entered public radio in 1972, when WEPR in Clemson signed on (WEPR later moved to Greenville). Eventually, the state network expanded to eight stations and was known as the South Carolina Educational Radio Network (SCERN) until 2003, when it became known as ETV Radio. While "ETV" generally refers to television, SCETV views "ETV" as a general brand name for all SCETV-related media, not just television.

Television

SCETV's television state network consists of 11 transmitters that cover almost all of South Carolina, as well as eastern parts of Georgia (including Augusta and Savannah) and southern portions of North Carolina (including Charlotte and Asheville).

As of 2011, the SCETV stations are:

Station City of license
(other cities served)
Channels
(TV / RF)
First air date ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter Coordinates
WNTV Greenville 29 (PSIP)
9 (VHF)
September 1963 1 65 kW 377.8 m 61010
WITV Charleston 7 (PSIP)
7 (VHF)
January 19, 1964 20 kW 521 m 61005
WRLK-TV 3
"ETV Headquarters"
Columbia 35 (PSIP)
32 (UHF)
September 1966 2 62 kW 315.7 m 61013
WJPM-TV Florence 33 (PSIP)
45 (UHF)
September 3, 1967 45 kW 242.4 m 61008
WEBA-TV Allendale
(Aiken, Barnwell, Augusta, GA)
14 (PSIP)
33 (UHF)
September 5, 1967 427 kW 241.3 m 61003
WJWJ-TV 4
"ETV Lowcountry"
Beaufort
(Hilton Head, Savannah, GA)
16 (PSIP)
44 (UHF)
September 6, 1975 440 kW 364.5 m 61007
WRJA-TV 4
"ETV Sumter"
Sumter 27 (PSIP)
28 (UHF)
September 7, 1975 98.4 kW 364 m 61012
WNSC-TV 4
"ETV Carolinas"
Rock Hill
(Charlotte, NC)
30 (PSIP)
15 (UHF)
January 3, 1978 403 kW 211.6 m 61009
WHMC-TV Conway
(Myrtle Beach)
23 (PSIP)
9 (VHF)
September 2, 1980 20 kW 229.6 m 61004
WRET-TV 4
"ETV Upstate"
Spartanburg 49 (PSIP)
43 (UHF)
September 1980 5 50 kW 302.1 m 61011
WNEH Greenwood
(Anderson)
38 (PSIP)
18 (UHF)
September 10, 1984 49 kW 229.8 m 60931

Notes:

Digital programming

SCETV offers three digital television services over its state network of 11 digital transmitters across South Carolina available over-the-air, or through some digital cable providers. ETV HD is the primary feed with high definition content from PBS and SCETV broadcast at a screen resolution of 1080i. The other two digital subchannels are in standard definition at resolution of 480i.

The lineup of the sub-channels are as follows:

Channel Name Programming
xx.1 ETV Main SCETV Programming / PBS
xx.2 The South Carolina Channel Create (12a-06p)
PBS Encore (06p-12a)
xx.3 ETV World PBS World

Analog-to-digital conversion

Despite the DTV Delay Act national transition extension to June 12, 2009, SCETV ended analog services on its 11 full-power transmitters at midnight on February 18, 2009.

After this, the following changes occurred:[2]

PSIP is used to display a virtual channel for each SCETV station which corresponds to its former analog channel.

Cable and satellite availability

SCETV's television network is carried on nearly all cable systems in South Carolina. Additionally, WNSC-TV in Rock Hill is carried on some of Time Warner Cable's systems on the North Carolina side of the Charlotte market.

On DirecTV and Dish Network, WNTV, WITV, WRLK-TV, WNSC-TV, WJPM-TV, WEBA-TV and WJWJ-TV are available on the local Greenville/Spartanburg, Charleston, Columbia, Charlotte, Florence/Myrtle Beach, Augusta and Savannah feeds, respectively.

Radio

SCETV Radio consists of eight FM transmitters covering almost all of South Carolina and parts of Georgia and North Carolina.

Three of them broadcast a mix of NPR information programs and classical music; five of them broadcast strictly NPR news and information. However, they simulcast NPR's more popular shows, such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

News and classical music
City Call letters Frequency
Charleston WSCI 89.3 FM
Columbia WLTR 91.3 FM
Greenville WEPR 90.1 FM
News and information
City Call letters Frequency
Aiken WLJK 89.1 FM
Beaufort WJWJ-FM 89.9 FM
Conway WHMC-FM 90.1 FM
Sumter WRJA-FM 88.1 FM
Rock Hill WNSC-FM 88.9 FM

Until 2001, all of the stations aired a format similar to the Classical stations today. However, since much of the state gets grade B coverage from at least two full NPR member stations, SCERN Radio opted to split into two networks. WJWJ was the first to split off, in 2001, because nearly all of its coverage area also gets classical music from WSVH in Savannah. It was followed by WRJA and WHMC later in 2001, with WLJK joining in 2003. Presently, the only area of the state that doesn't get grade B coverage from two NPR stations is WEPR's coverage area in the west.

Until the rebranding to ETV Radio, WJWJ-FM, WSCI, and WEPR had local studios with occasional local shows. Due to budget cuts and the creation of the two ETV Radio state networks, all stations now are fed programming directly from Columbia, although ETV maintains several local offices.

From 2001 to 2008, WNSC-FM in Rock Hill broke off from the rest of the state network to air jazz music in order to avoid programming duplication with WFAE in Charlotte. However, starting on July 1, 2008, WNSC-FM joined the NPR News radio. SCETV president Moss Bresnahan told The Charlotte Observer that SCETV didn't want to deny people on the South Carolina side of the Charlotte market access to SCETV's growing slate of local programming. The move left the Charlotte market without a jazz station of its own.[14] Ironically, WNSC was the Charlotte area's first NPR station when it signed on in 1979; WFAE didn't sign on until 1981.

In 2009, ETV Radio began streaming both the Classical and News networks on the Web. It had been one of the few NPR members not to offer live streaming.

Logos

SCETV original programming (current and past)

ETV occasionally broadcasts college sports from various state colleges in South Carolina.

References

  1. ^ http://www.fybush.com/site-030522.html
  2. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
  3. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231023&formid=387&fac_num=61005
  4. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231030&formid=387&fac_num=61010
  5. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231034&formid=387&fac_num=61013
  6. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231025&formid=387&fac_num=61008
  7. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231020&formid=387&fac_num=61003
  8. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231026&formid=387&fac_num=61007
  9. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231032&formid=387&fac_num=61012
  10. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231029&formid=387&fac_num=61009
  11. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231022&formid=387&fac_num=61004
  12. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231031&formid=387&fac_num=61011
  13. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231028&formid=387&fac_num=60931
  14. ^ Washburn, Mark. Sorry, Jazz fans, change may have you singing blues. The Charlotte Observer, 2008-07-01.

External links