Branding WXXI | Affiliations PBS (1970–present) | |
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Slogan Go public. (also used by KERA-TV and KERA-FM) Channels Digital: 16 (UHF)
Virtual: 21 (PSIP) Subchannels 21.1 PBS
21.2 World
21.3 Create
21.4 PBS Kids Owner WXXI Public Broadcasting Council | ||
WXXI-TV is a public television station which operates on Channel 21 in Rochester, New York, and is the PBS member station for that city and the surrounding metro area. The station is owned by the WXXI Public Broadcasting Council group, which also operates WXXI (AM 1370), WXXI-FM (91.5), and Reachout Radio, a service for those with visual impairments or blindness.
Contents
WXXI-TV's national public television productions include Warrior in Two Worlds, Echoes from the Ancients, Out of the Fire, Albert Paley: Man of Steel and Flight to Freedom. WXXI-TV also produced Assignment: The World, a weekly current-events program for schools, which aired on approximately 100 public television stations nationwide, and was the nation's longest-running instructional television program. Due to funding cuts, it was canceled and its last episode was on May 23, 2013.
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
WXXI-TV entered the digital era in September 2003 when it signed on with Rochester's first full-power digital television signal.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WXXI-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 21, 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 16. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 21.
As part of the SAFER Act, WXXI-TV kept its analog signal on the air until July 10 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.
Former programming
ThinkBright, broadcast from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on 21-3 until the digital transition.
Channel 21-4, now PBS Kids since February 1, 2016, was originally a digital standard definition simulcast of WXXI-TV's analog signal but is not currently transmitting, as 21-1 is identical.
WXXI-TV broadcasts are digital-only, effective June 12, 2009. WXXI-TV had been awarded a $202,498 federal contract for an outreach initiative to help Rochester's over-the-air viewers prepare for the digital transition.