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 co-directed by Mims Wright, then Director of Public Affairs at Jackson NBC affiliate WLBT and Joe Root, WLBT Production Manager.

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]

Station City of license Channels
TV / RF		 First air date Third and fourth
letters of
callsign
meaning		 ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter Coordinates
WMPN-TV1 Jackson 29 (PSIP)
20 (UHF)		 February 1, 1970 Public
Network		 400 kW 482 m (1,581 ft) 43168 32°11′29″N 90°24′22″W / 32.19139°N 90.40611°W / 32.19139; -90.40611 (WMPN-TV)
WMAH-TV Biloxi 19 (PSIP)
16 (UHF)		 January 14, 1972 540 kW 474.4 m (1,556 ft) 43197 30°45′18″N 88°56′44″W / 30.75500°N 88.94556°W / 30.75500; -88.94556 (WMAH-TV)
WMAE-TV Booneville 12 (PSIP)
12 (VHF)
(to move to 9 (VHF))		 August 11, 1974 31 kW 223 m (732 ft) 43170 34°40′0.8″N 88°45′5″W / 34.666889°N 88.75139°W / 34.666889; -88.75139 (WMAE-TV)
WMAU-TV Bude 17 (PSIP)
18 (UHF)		 January 14, 1972 682 kW 340 m (1,115 ft) 43184 31°22′22″N 90°45′4″W / 31.37278°N 90.75111°W / 31.37278; -90.75111 (WMAU-TV)
WMAO-TV Greenwood 23 (PSIP)
25 (UHF)		 September 15, 1972 815 kW 317.3 m (1,041 ft) 43176 33°22′34″N 90°32′32″W / 33.37611°N 90.54222°W / 33.37611; -90.54222 (WMAO-TV)
WMAW-TV Meridian 14 (PSIP)
44 (UHF)
(to move to 28 (UHF))		 January 14, 1972 880 kW 369 m (1,211 ft) 43169 32°8′18″N 89°5′36″W / 32.13833°N 89.09333°W / 32.13833; -89.09333 (WMAW-TV)
WMAB-TV Mississippi State
(Starkville)		 2 (PSIP)
10 (VHF)
(to move to 8 (VHF))		 July 4, 1971 8 kW 349 m (1,145 ft) 43192 33°21′14″N 89°9′0″W / 33.35389°N 89.15000°W / 33.35389; -89.15000 (WMAB-TV)
WMAV-TV Oxford-University 18 (PSIP)
36 (UHF)		 May 19, 1972 272.5 kW 426.3 m (1,399 ft) 43193 34°17′28″N 89°42′21″W / 34.29111°N 89.70583°W / 34.29111; -89.70583 (WMAV-TV)

Notes:

Coverage areas

Station Signal Reach
WMPN Jackson and West Central Mississippi
WMAB Southern portion of the Tupelo/Columbus market and Northern portion of Meridian market.
WMAE Northeast Mississippi (Northern portion of the Tupelo/Columbus market)
WMAH South Mississippi (Hattiesburg/Laurel and Biloxi/Gulfport markets, as well as parts of Mobile/Pensacola and New Orleans markets)
WMAO Mississippi Delta (Greenwood/Greenville)
WMAU Southwest Mississippi (Natchez, McComb, Brookhaven)
WMAV Northwest Mississippi, as well as parts of Tennessee and Arkansas (Memphis, TN market)
WMAW Meridian market and Northern portion of the Hattiesburg/Laurel market

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, Tennessee and Louisiana. 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:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
xx.1 1080i 16:9 MPB-HD Main MPB programming / PBS
xx.2 480i 16:9 (anamorphic) MPB-KD PBS Kids
xx.3 MPB-CR Create
xx.4 Audio Audio MPB-FM (MTS) MPB Think Radio
MPB Music Radio

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]

Notable local programming

MPB Radio

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

Recently, MPB has added a 24-hour classical music service on its second HD channel, which now also airs on DT4 on all MPB television stations. 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.

Call sign Frequency Watts Class City of license Broadcast Area
WMAB 89.9 FM 64,300 C1 Mississippi State (Starkville)
WMAE 89.5 FM 85,000 C1 Booneville, Mississippi
WMAH 90.3 FM 100,000 C Biloxi, Mississippi
WMAO 90.9 FM 100,000 C1 Greenwood, Mississippi
WMAU 88.9 FM 100,000 C1 Bude, Mississippi
WMAV 90.3 FM 100,000 C Oxford, Mississippi
WMAW 88.1 FM 100,000 C Meridian, Mississippi
WMPN 91.3 FM 45,000 C Jackson, Mississippi

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.
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