Branding WGVU | ||
Slogan West Michigan Public Broadcasting First air date WGVU: December 17, 1972; 44 years ago (1972-12-17)WGVK: October 1, 1984; 32 years ago (1984-10-01) | ||
WGVU-TV, virtual channel 35 (VHF digital channel 11), is a PBS member television station located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. WGVU operates a full-time satellite station, WGVK (virtual channel 52, VHF digital channel 5) in Kalamazoo. The two stations are owned by Grand Valley State University. WGVU's studios are located in the Meijer Public Broadcast Center, located in the Eberhard Center on the GVSU Pew Campus; WGVU's transmitter is located near the GVSU Campus in Allendale Charter Township, WGVK's transmitter is located in Kalamazoo's Westwood neighborhood.
Contents
History
The station signed on the air on December 17, 1972 as WGVC-TV, owned by what was then Grand Valley State College. Channel 35 originally operated from the basement of Manitou Hall on GVSC's Allendale campus.
WGVC-TV's signal was somewhat marginal in the southern portion of the vast West Michigan market (Kalamazoo and Battle Creek). It must conform its signal to protect fellow PBS member WNIT in South Bend, on adjacent channel 34. In much of this area, WGVC-TV could only be seen on cable. This was very similar to what the area's main ABC affiliate, WZZM-TV (channel 13), faced due to the presence of WTVG in Toledo, Ohio. To make up for this shortfall in coverage, Grand Valley State signed on WGVK as a satellite station in 1984. In 1986, the station relocated to its current studio facility at the Meijer Public Broadcast Center. The station's callsign was changed to WGVU in 1987, when Grand Valley State was elevated to university status.
Weekly
Specials
Documentaries
WGVU produces documentaries. Notable documentaries are LZ Michigan (A “Landing Zone” to Remember, Honor, and Celebrate our Community’s Veterans and their Families), Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment with History, Surviving Auschwitz: Children of the Shoah and Defying Hitler.
Digital channels
WGVU and WGVK's digital channels are multiplexed:
WGVU/WGVK's main channel offers programming in 1080i high definition; standard definition programs are shown with pillarboxing. WGVU/WGVK's fourth digital subchannel offers a scrolling still screen featuring schedule information for the station's three other subchannels, along with background audio from oldies radio sister station WGVU/WGVS (AM). WGVU-FM is available through the SAP channel.
Analog-to-digital conversion
Both stations shut down their analog signals respectively, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television: