Mississippi Public Broadcasting

Mississippi Public Broadcasting

statewide Mississippi United States
Branding	MPB
Slogan	Mississippi Is Our Mission
Channels	Digital: see table below
Subchannels	see table below
Affiliations	Television: PBS (1970-present) Radio: NPR
Owner	Mississippi Authority for Educational Television
First air date	February 1, 1970 (1970-02-01) (television) 1984 (1984) (radio)
Call letters' meaning	see table below
Former affiliations	NET (1970)
Transmitter power	see table below
Height	see table below
Facility ID	see table below
Transmitter coordinates	see table below
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Public Broadcasting Profile Public Broadcasting CDBS
Website	www.mpbonline.org

Mississippi Public Broadcasting is the public broadcasting state network in Mississippi, United States. It is owned by the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Mississippi state government that holds the licenses for all of the PBS and NPR member stations in the state.

History

Mississippi was a relative latecomer to public broadcasting. By the late 1960s, it was the only state east of the Mississippi River without an educational television station licensed within its borders. The only areas of the state to get a clear signal from a National Educational Television (NET) or PBS station were the northwestern counties (from Memphis' WKNO) and the counties along the Gulf Coast (from New Orleans' WYES-TV and Mobile's Alabama Educational Television outlet, WEIQ).

Finally, in 1969, the Mississippi Legislature created the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television to create a locally-focused educational television service for Mississippi. After almost a year of planning, WMAA-TV, channel 29 (now WMPN-TV) debuted on February 1, 1970 as the state's first educational television station. It immediately joined PBS. The initial broadcast was written by Jeanne Lucket and produced and directed by Mims Wright, then Director of Public Affairs at Jackson NBC affiliate WLBT.

Only four months after beginning operations, WMAA received unwanted national attention when it refused to carry Sesame Street because of its racially integrated cast. That decision was reversed 22 days later after a nationwide outcry.^[1][2] Six other stations began operation over the next few years, and the state network became known as Mississippi Educational Television, or simply ETV.

Public radio came even later, arriving in the state in 1983. Eventually, Public Radio in Mississippi or PRM expanded to eight stations throughout the state.

In 2005, MAET adopted "Mississippi Public Broadcasting" as an umbrella on-air name for all television and radio operations.

Educational programming

Since its inception, MPB has produced many Educational television or instructional television programs from its Jackson studios. A partial list includes Tomes & Talismans, The Write Channel, Clyde Frog Show, About Safety, Ticktock Minutes, Zebra Wings, Posie Paints, Project Survival, The Metric System, "Media Mania", and Between the Lions.

MPB Television

As of 2009, the MPB television stations are:^[3]

Notes:

• 1. WMPN-TV used the callsign WMAA-TV from its 1970 sign-on until 1990.

Coverage areas

Mississippi Public Broadcasting also operates a translator station: W45AA-D in Columbia (digital).

Mississippi Public Broadcasting has also operated a microwave-relay station KMZ-77 for many years. This special microwave relay station has been used as a studio-to-transmitter link (STL) for WMPN-TV in Jackson. During the weekly signoff message (formerly nightly signoff message), KMZ 77 would be mentioned following the technical specifications of WMPN-TV; as of 1992, it operates with a frequency of 7012.5 MHz to serve the studio in Jackson. KMZ-77 was also mentioned in the same manner during the time prior to 1990 when WMPN-TV carried the call sign of WMAA-TV. Each station in the state network and KMZ-77 would be identified in the state network's signoff message as being owned and operated by the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television, with studios at 3825 Ridgewood Road, Jackson.[4]

Although the FCC apparently granted MPB a permit to build WMAA channel 43, a digital-only station near Columbus, MPB has stated there are currently no plans or funding to build the station.

MPB Television covers nearly all of the state, as well as parts of Alabama and Tennessee. Additionally, WMAV is carried on DirecTV and Dish Network's Memphis feeds, bringing its programming to an additional 1.4 million people in Tennessee and Arkansas. Oxford is part of the Memphis market.

Digital television

Digital channels

The digital signals of MPB's stations are multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

During 2009, in the lead-up to the analog-to-digital television transition that would ultimately occur on June 12, MPB shut down the analog transmitters of its stations on a staggered basis. Listed below are the dates each analog transmitter ceased operations as well as their post-transition channel allocations:^[12]

• WMPN-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 29, on February 17, 2009, the original date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 20. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 29.
• WMAH-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 19, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 16. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 19.
• WMAE-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 55, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 12.
• WMAU-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 18. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 17.
• WMAO-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 23, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 25. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 23.
• WMAW-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 14, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal, remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 44. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 14.
• WMAB-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 10. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 2.
• WMAV-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 18, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 36. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 18.

Notable local programming

• Job Bank (1970s-early 1990s)
• Mississippi Roads (1983–present)
• Mississippi Outdoors (1970s-present)
• Quorum (1976-2012)
• Tomes & Talismans (mid-1980s)

MPB Radio

MPB Radio consists of eight stations covering most of the state. It airs mostly news and talk programming from NPR, along with several locally produced shows.

Recently, MPB has added a 24-hour classical music service on its second HD channel. It brands this programming as "Music Radio," while the original MPB Radio service is known as "Think Radio."

MPB Radio streams both of its services live in Windows Media and Mac formats.

References

1. ↑ http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/08/entertainment/et-book8?pg=2
2. ↑ http://www.newsweek.com/id/199141
3. ↑ http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090206/BIZ/902060338/-1/frontpagetabmodule-1V
4. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WMPN
5. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WMAH
6. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WMAE
7. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WMAU
8. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WMAO
9. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WMAW
10. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WMAB
11. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WMAV
12. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24. 

External links

• Mississippi Public Broadcasting
• MPB sign-on circa 1992 (in Black & White)
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMPN-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMAH-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMAE-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMAU-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMAO-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMAW-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMAB-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMAV-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W45AA-D
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMPN-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMAH-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMAE-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMAU-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMAO-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMAW-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMAB-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WMAV-TV