WQED (TV)

WQED
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
United States
Branding WQED Pittsburgh
Slogan Changes Lives
Channels Digital: 13 (VHF)
Virtual: 13 (PSIP)
Subchannels
  • 13.1 PBS
  • 13.2 Create
  • 13.3 World
  • 13.4 Showcase
  • 13.5 PBS Kids
Affiliations PBS (1970–present)
Owner WQED Multimedia
First air date April 1, 1954 (1954-04-01)
Call letters' meaning Quod Erat Demonstrandum
Sister station(s) WQED-FM
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 13 (VHF, 1954–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 38 (UHF, 1999–2009)
Former affiliations NET (1954–1970)
Transmitter power 25 kW
Height 210 m
Facility ID 41315
Transmitter coordinates 40°26′46″N 79°57′51″W / 40.44611°N 79.96417°W / 40.44611; -79.96417 (WQED)
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.wqed.org

WQED, VHF channel 13, is a PBS member television station located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The station is owned by WQED Multimedia. Established on April 1, 1954, it was the first community-sponsored television station in the United States as well as the fifth public television station. WQED also became the first station to telecast classes to elementary school classrooms when Pittsburgh launched the Metropolitan School Service in 1955. WQED has been the flagship station for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (in co-production with WGBH-TV), and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (its live action sequences were filmed in Pittsburgh).

On cable, WQED is carried on Comcast channels 9 (channel 12 in Bethel Park and channel 14 in Monroeville) (standard definition) and 813 (high definition), and Verizon FiOS channels 13 (standard definition) and 513 (high definition).

History

Early years

The idea for a public television station was the brainchild of Pittsburgh mayor David L. Lawrence, who wanted 12 percent of all television stations in the United States to be for non-commercial educational use. Despite the fact that the FCC put an indefinite "freeze" on all television station licenses due to the excess amount of applications on file, they granted Lawrence one on the condition they could raise enough money to equip and operate the station. Lawrence was also a close personal ally of then-President Harry S. Truman, which also helped out his cause. Lawrence then recruited Leland Hazard, an attorney for Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company who also supported the idea of public television, to help get the station off the ground.

The biggest obstacle, however, would be Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Corporation, owners of pioneer radio station KDKA. Westinghouse wanted to get a television station signed on in Pittsburgh to compete with DuMont O&O WDTV – which at the time had a de facto monopoly in what was then the nation's sixth-largest television market – and was growing impatient with the "freeze" on television station licenses. Westinghouse had launched WBZ-TV in Boston in 1948 and would purchase WPTZ-TV (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia in 1952, but was unable to secure a license for a television station in its home market. By the time the "freeze" was lifted in 1952, the FCC granted station licences in smaller cities such as Steubenville, Ohio; Wheeling, West Virginia; Clarksburg, West Virginia; Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Altoona, Pennsylvania; Youngstown, Ohio; and Erie, Pennsylvania the chance to sign on before more stations in Pittsburgh signed on. All of those cities shared the VHF band with Pittsburgh, and only Youngstown would ultimately end up as a UHF island.

Westinghouse later offered a compromise to the FCC, offering to have them get the channel 13 license for the proposed KDKA-TV and have them "share" the frequency with WQED. Considered unacceptable to Hazard, he called Westinghouse CEO Gwilym Price to ask him if he should give up on his fight for public television. Price said that Hazard should keep fighting for it, giving Westinghouse backing for the future WQED. Westinghouse even donated to Hazard the tower Westinghouse had purchased had it gotten the channel 13 license, making way for WQED to sign on April 1, 1954. The station's call letters, Q.E.D., are taken from the Latin phrase, quod erat demonstrandum (what had to be proved or what was to be demonstrated), commonly used in mathematics.[1]

Westinghouse would not have to wait much longer for its own television station in Pittsburgh, though. Knowing that DuMont needed WDTV's cash flow to get its programming cleared in larger markets but also needed a short-term cash infusion after DuMont investor Paramount Pictures vetoed a merger between DuMont and ABC – which itself had just merged with United Paramount Theaters, Westinghouse offered DuMont a then-record $10 million for WDTV, which DuMont promptly accepted in January 1955. Westinghouse immediately changed the call sign from WDTV to KDKA-TV, making it a sister station to radio station KDKA. DuMont was not able to get clearance in larger markets and was out of business by the end of 1956. Although KDKA-TV is now owned by Westinghouse successor CBS Corporation (as a CBS owned-and-operated station) as a result of various mergers, the station still retains a close relationship with WQED as a result of Westinghouse helping to get WQED on the air.[2]

During the late 1950s, WQED was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network, sharing the affiliation with KDKA-TV, WTAE-TV, and WIIC-TV (now WPXI). From its sign-on until it was replaced by PBS in 1970, WQED was a member station of National Educational Television.

During its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, WQED was a vital supplier of programming to the national PBS system. For 15 years, WQED produced the National Geographic Specials for the National Geographic Society. These programs, among others, and the craftspeople who produced them, won numerous Emmy Awards and other accolades, including Peabody Awards.

Over the years, talent like Michael Keaton, who worked behind the scenes on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, emerged from the station and went on to international fame. During its heyday, WQED also supported a post production office and editing facility in Los Angeles. Known as QED/West, the satellite was the editing center for much of WQED's national programming.

WQED Title card
WQED's headquarters, right next to Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Sculpture outside WQED's headquarters.

During the beginning of the 1990s, WQED faltered on a national level as the rapidly changing media landscape shifted. The downturn was exacerbated by a scandal in which top executives were discovered to have been augmenting their personal revenues without informing the Board of Directors. This period was chronicled in the 2000 book, Air Wars: The Fight to Reclaim Public Broadcasting by Jerrold M. Starr.

The problems continued with a failed attempt to sell WQED's auxiliary station, WQEX (channel 16), outright in 1999. In 2002, WQEX's non-commercial educational status was removed, and the station would move to an all-shopping format, first with America's Store and later with ShopNBC. In November 2010, WQED reached a deal to sell WQEX to Ion Media Networks for $3 million. The sale was consummated (after FCC approval) on May 2, 2011, at which time the station's call sign changed from WQEX to WINP-TV.[3][4]

WQED received $9.9 million in the spectrum auction to shift frequency. WQED may use the proceeds to pay down its debt, reimburse its endowment for money taken out in the 1980s or spectrum repacking costs.[5]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[6]
13.1 1080i 16:9 WQED-HD Main WQED programming / PBS
13.2 480i WQED-D1 Create
13.3 WQED-D2 World[7]
13.4 WQED-D3 Showcase
13.5 WQED-D4 PBS Kids

On January 5, 2009, WQED launched the Create Channel on 13.2, replacing the standard-definition simulcast of WQED's main channel.[8]

Analog-to-digital conversion

WQED shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations 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 38 to VHF channel 13.[9] This made WQED the only full-powered station in the Pittsburgh market to move its digital signal back to its analog-era channel position. Former sister station WINP-TV took over WQED's former digital channel 38, broadcasting on virtual channel 16.1.

Original programming

Local

Rick Sebak Pittsburgh Series

State

Rick Sebak Pennsylvania programs

National

Rick Sebak National programs

Chris Moore National programs

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "50 FACTS ABOUT WQED MULTIMEDIA". WQED Multimedia.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 23, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
  3. ↑ "CDBS Print".
  4. ↑ Staff, FCC Internet Services. "Call Sign History".
  5. ↑ Sefton, Dru (February 10, 2017). "Spectrum auction nets nearly $35M for two Pennsylvania stations". Current. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  6. ↑ "RabbitEars.Info".
  7. ↑ Hazimanolis, George (December 2, 2014). "NEW DIGITAL TELEVISION CHANNEL TO DEBUT ON WQED JANUARY 1" (Press release). WQED Multimedia - Pressroom.
  8. ↑ Owen, Rob (January 2, 2009). "Tuned In: WQED puts daytime focus on children's programming". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  9. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  10. ↑ "The Pittsburgh Press - Google News Archive Search".
  11. ↑ "The Pittsburgh Press - Google News Archive Search".
  12. ↑ "Lakeland Ledger - Google News Archive Search".
  13. ↑ "The Pittsburgh Press - Google News Archive Search".
  14. ↑ "The Pittsburgh Press - Google News Archive Search".
  15. ↑ "The Pittsburgh Press - Google News Archive Search".
  16. ↑ "The Pittsburgh Press - Google News Archive Search".
  17. ↑ "Clinton Campaign Town Meeting in Pennsylvania".
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