Branding WOSU TV Affiliations PBS (1970–present) | Translators W43CZ-D Mansfield | |
Channels Digital:
WOSU: 38 (UHF)
WPBO: 43 (UHF)
Virtual:
WOSU: 34 (PSIP)
WPBO: 42 (PSIP) Subchannels 34.1 PBS
34.2 Ohio Channel
34.3 WOSU Plus
34.4 PBS Kids Owner The Ohio State University | ||
WOSU-TV (digital channel 38, virtual channel 34) is an American public television station located in Columbus, Ohio, affiliated with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and is a service of WOSU Public Media. The station's signal covers most of central Ohio. It is owned by Ohio State University, and operates full-time satellite WPBO-TV in Portsmouth, Ohio. WPBO-TV broadcasts on digital 43, serving extreme southern Ohio and the western edge of the Huntington-Charleston, West Virginia market area.
Contents
History
Ohio State first sought an educational license in 1950, for channel 12. However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) turned down two requests for that allocation (most likely due to concerns about interference with WKRC-TV in Cincinnati) instead giving OSU channel 34. WOSU-TV first broadcast on February 20, 1956. In 1959, a grant from the Ford Foundation allowed the station to purchase the first video tape recorder in Ohio. WOSU-TV began broadcasting in color in 1968, telecasting the football game between Ohio State and Michigan. The color telecast helped to popularize the UHF band in Columbus, an otherwise all-VHF market at the time.
In 1972, the station moved from its old studios at 2470 North Star Road in Upper Arlington to a new facility, the Fawcett Center for Tomorrow, on the banks of the Olentangy River near (now on) the campus of OSU. WPBO-TV began broadcasting as a full-powered relay station in October 1973. Both stations began broadcasting in stereo in 1986; WOSU-TV was the first in Columbus to do so. In September 2006, WOSU opened a digital media center in partnership with the COSI Columbus science museum; the WOSU@COSI project is considered a national model for public broadcast partnerships. The production facility includes broadcast studios, edit suites, a conference suite, offices, the WOSU mediaLab and digital exhibits. WOSU raised $5.6 million to build and equip the all-digital facility. The Fawcett Center continues to house WOSU's primary radio complex, business and administration offices, and television master control. WOSU also possesses an extensive archive of films and public programming video materials.
Ohio State University announced on March 3, 2017 that it had sold the license for WPBO-TV for $8.8 million in the FCC's spectrum auction. WOSU general manager Tom Rieland told The Columbus Dispatch that Portsmouth has "incredible duplication of PBS signals". Proceeds from the sale of WPBO will remain with WOSU-TV, which will continue operations.
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WOSU-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 34, on March 31, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 38, using PSIP to display WOSU-TV's virtual channel as 34 on digital television receivers.
Repeaters
In addition to WPBO, the station has one repeater: W43CZ-D in Mansfield, located within the Cleveland DMA.
WOSU-TV was also previously repeated by W31AA in Newark, Ohio, which broadcast on a frequency previously used by WGSF (TV); the repeater signed on July 1, 1976, the day after WGSF closed down. W31AA's license was canceled by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on July 7, 2009; the W31AA call sign was also deleted by the FCC from their database.
Fundraising
Throughout most of the 1980s and the 1990s, WOSU had three different titles for its triannual pledge drives: Festival (held every March), Summer Celebration (held every July), and Explore 34 (held every December).
WOSU also had its own televised auction special, "Auction 34!", later renamed to "GO Auction!" around 2005. It was usually held every Tuesday-Saturday of the last week of April and the first week of May. Usually, the highest "Big Board" item sold was a Honda motorcycle.