Branding MPB | Subchannels see table below | |
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Channels Digital: see table below Founder Mississippi Authority for Educational Television Parent organization Mississippi Authority for Educational Television Motto Mississippi Is Our Mission Profiles | ||
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.
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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. 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:
Notes:
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, 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 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:
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.