| WMEC: Macomb, Illinois WQEC: Quincy, Illinois WSEC: Jacksonville, Illinois |
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|---|---|
| Branding | Network Knowledge |
| Slogan | Watch and learn. |
| Channels | Digital: WMEC: 21 (UHF) WQEC: 34 (UHF) WSEC: 15 (UHF) Virtual: WMEC: 22 (PSIP) WQEC: 27 (PSIP) WSEC: 14 (PSIP) |
| Translators | W08DP Springfield |
| Affiliations | PBS |
| Owner | West Central Illinois Educational Telecommunications Corporation |
| First air date | WMEC: October 1, 1984 WQEC: March 1985 WSEC: August 1984 |
| Call letters' meaning | Macomb / Quincy / Springfield Educational Channel |
| Former callsigns | Analog: WMEC: WIUM-TV (1984–1989) WQEC: None WSEC: WJPT (1984–1989) Digital: WMEC: WMEC-DT (2003–2009) WQEC: WQEC-DT (2003–2009) WSEC: WSEC-DT (2003–2009) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: WMEC: 22 (1984–2009) WQEC: 27 (1985–2009) WSEC: 14 (1984–2009) |
| Transmitter power | WMEC: 75 kW WQEC: 58.6 kW WSEC: 75 kW |
| Height | WMEC: 131 m WQEC: 153 m WSEC: 295 m |
| Class | Non-commercial educational |
| Facility ID | WMEC: 70537 WQEC: 71561 WSEC: 70536 |
| Transmitter coordinates | WMEC: WQEC: WSEC: |
| Website | www.networkknowledge.tv |
Network Knowledge is a group of three Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations in central and western Illinois. Until October 13, 2004, it used the brand name Convocom. It is operated by the West Central Illinois Educational Telecommunications Corporation.
Network Knowledge also provides Educational television outreach through a network of volunteers, schools, hospitals and corporate partners in communities throughout central and western Illinois.
Together, the three stations serve a large portion of western Illinois, as well as parts of Missouri and Iowa.
Contents |
Network Knowledge produces a number of regularly scheduled programs each month, including:
Special programming has included
Network Knowledge has 3 full-power television stations, each of which provide the same 3 digital subchannels.
All numbers given are for the digital television signal. Virtual channel prefixes are the same as the analog channel was for each station before the digital transition.
| Callsign | Old[1] | Ch. (virtual) |
Air date | City of License | ERP (kW) |
HAAT (m) |
Facility ID | Antenna coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WMEC | WIUM-TV | 21 (22) | October 1, 1984 | Macomb | 75.0 | 131 | 70537 | |
| WQEC | WQEC | 34 (27) | March 1985[2] | Quincy | 58.6 | 153 | 71561 | |
| WSEC | WJPT | 15 (14)[3] | August 1984[4] | Jacksonville | 75.0 | 295 | 70536 |
| Subchannel | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| .1 | 720p[1] | 16:9 | PBS and local programming |
| .2 | 480i | 4:3 | PBS World (prime time) and other programming |
| .3 | 480i | 4:3 | Create |
The first station in the state network, WJPT, signed on in August 1984 under the ownership of Convocom, a consortium of several educational institutions in west central Illinois. Before then, west-central Illinois was one of the few areas of the country without a PBS station. The only part of this region that got even a grade B signal from PBS was Decatur, which was covered by WILL-TV in Urbana.
WJPT was originally supposed to sign on in 1979 as Springfield's PBS member station, using the tower of defunct ABC affiliate WJJY-TV, near Bluffs, Illinois. The transmitter broadcast at 4.5 million watts from a height of 1,610 feet, which would have made WJPT one of the most powerful stations in the PBS system. However, the tower collapsed in a massive 1978 ice storm. Convocom was able to raise enough money to build an 800-foot (244 m) tower west of Waverly. However, it only broadcast at 34,000 watts. As a result, despite nominally being the PBS member station for the western side of the Champaign/Springfield/Decatur market, it was practically unviewable over the air in Springfield.
In October 1984, WIUM-TV in Macomb signed on as a satellite of WJPT. It was followed by WQEC in Quincy in 1985.
In 1989 call letters were changed in an effort to create consistency between the three broadcast outlets, WJPT became WSEC, while WIUM became WMEC (WQEC remained unchanged). Convocom also changed its formal name to the West Central Illinois Educational Telecommunications Corporation. A 1,400 watt translator was built at Springfield in 1998. Originally broadcasting on channel 65 as W65BV, it moved to VHF channel 8 in 2001 and became W08DP where it still broadcasts in analog. Although PBS reckons WMEC as the primary station, the station is headquartered in Chatham, near Springfield.
In 1997 WMEC's transmitter site was moved from WIU's Horn Campus WIUM-FM tower to a newly constructed tower to the southeast — south of Colchester, Illinois. In 2002 WSEC's transmitter site was moved to a 976' tower in Franklin. Also in March 2002, master control was moved from Peoria to Chatham with the completion of a fully digital master control facility and interconnection system. In 2004, the network adopted the brand name of Network Knowledge.
The interconnection system is composed of digital microwave (90mbs) and fiber. It extends from Chatham through Franklin (WSEC's transmitter site) to Golden where it splits and sends a fiber signal to Quincy for WQEC and a microwave signal to Macomb for WMEC. There are also linkages to studios in Quincy at WGEM (NBC affiliate) and at Western Illinois University (WIU) in Macomb.
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