Branding WHUT Owner Howard University | Affiliations 32.1 PBS
32.2 PBS Kids | |
Channels Digital: 33 (UHF)
Virtual: 32 (PSIP) Subchannels WHUT-HD 32.1
WHUT-SD 32.2 First air date September 29, 1980; 36 years ago (1980-09-29) | ||
WHUT-TV is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member Public television station in the Washington, D.C. area. The station is owned and operated by Howard University, a historically black college. The studios are on the Howard University campus, and the transmitter is in Tenleytown. It is also co-owned with its radio partner, WHUR-FM.
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History
Channel 32 was founded on September 29, 1980 as WHMM-TV. The station was the first African-American owned and operated public educational station in the United States. In 1998, the station changed its call letters to WHUT, standing for Howard University Television, the station's branding.
Since its founding, WHUT has won 11 Emmys and 8 Communications Excellence to Black Audiences Awards. Despite this success, budget cuts have forced the station to roll back programming hours in recent years. As of October 21, 2007 Channel 33 was on the air with a simulcast of the programming on Channel 32. By November 21, 2007 the station had corrected an earlier problem with the lack of PSIP data so that digital receivers could lock on to it.
Today, WHUT airs a variety of standard PBS programming, as well as programs produced by Howard University, and international programs focusing on regions such as the Caribbean and Africa.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
In July 2009, Washington, D.C. TV stations became a test market for Mobile DTV, and WHUT was one of the participating stations.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WHUT-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 32, 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 continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 33. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 32.
Like all of the DC-area Mobile DTV broadcasters, WHUT-TV commenced ATSC-M/H broadcasting on February 27, 2011. WHUT-TV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 32.1, labelled "WHUT PBS Mobile", and a feed of 32.2, labelled as "WHUT PBS Kids", with two audio-only feeds of WAMU-FM 88.5 (32.3) "WAMU 88.5 FM", and WETA-FM 90.9 (32.4) "WETA 90.9 FM", broadcasting at 3.67 Mbit/s.