Branding GPB | Channels Digital: 9 (VHF/PSIP) | |
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Slogan Television worth sharing Subchannels 9.1 - GPB/PBS HD (1080i)
9.2 - GPB Create TV (480i)
9.3 - GPB Knowledge (480i) Owner Georgia Public Broadcasting
(Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission) First air date September 17, 1963; 53 years ago (1963-09-17) | ||
WVAN-TV channel 9 is a non-commercial educational television station located in Savannah, Georgia, USA. WVAN-TV is part of the Georgia Public Broadcasting public television network and carries programming from PBS, GPB and other sources. The station's transmitter is co-located with sister radio station WSVH (91.1 FM) on a broadcast tower in Pembroke, west of Savannah and just north of Fort Stewart. Although it appears that the call letters stand for SaVANnah, they are actually a tribute to former Georgia governor, Ernest Vandiver.
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The station's signal travels in about a 45-mile (75 km) radius from the TV antenna site. Like most stations in the Savannah media market, it also serves the extreme southern tip of South Carolina including Beaufort and Hilton Head Island.
History
WVAN-TV began broadcasting on September 17, 1963 as the fourth educational TV station in the state of Georgia.
Station ID
In station IDs for GPB's television stations, each station lists two cities in its legal ID—the smaller community where the station is licensed (usually the transmitter location), and the larger city it serves. However, WVAN is actually licensed to serve Savannah. To conform to the pattern, WVAN's second city is Pembroke, where its transmitter is located. A similar situation exists for WJSP-TV, which is licensed to Columbus, Georgia with transmitter in Warm Springs.
Digital television
WVAN-TV broadcasts the following digital subchannels:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WVAN-TV's temporary digital signal on channel 13 was activated, making it one of the first for GPB TV in 2000. The station discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 9, at midnight on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 13 to channel 9. Requiring viewers to re-scan ATSC tuners to find the station's channels again. GPB did the same with at least two other stations.