Everything about Wnet totally explained
WNET, channel 13, is a
non-commercial television station licensed to
Newark, New Jersey. With its signal covering the three-state
New York metropolitan area, WNET is a flagship station of the
Public Broadcasting Service, and a primary provider of PBS programming. WNET's studios and offices are located in
Midtown Manhattan, and its transmitter is on the
Empire State Building.
The license-holder is the
Educational Broadcasting Corporation, which is also the parent of
Long Island-based PBS station
WLIW (channel 21). The current president and
Chief Executive Officer is
Neal Shapiro, the former president of
NBC News. WNET is the most watched PBS station in the country; its sister station WLIW is the third most-watched.
History
Independent station
WNET commenced broadcasting on
May 15,
1948 as
WATV, a commercial television station owned by Atlantic Television, a subsidiary of Bremer Broadcasting Corporation. Bremer also owned two northern
New Jersey radio stations, WAAT (970 AM, now
WWDJ) and WAAT-FM (94.7 MHz., now
WFME). WATV was the first of three new stations in the New York market to start up during 1948, and was also the city's first
independent station. One unusual daytime program,
Daywatch, consisted of a camera focused on a
teletypewriter printing
wire service news stories, interspersed with cut-aways to mechanical toys against a light music soundtrack.
On
October 6,
1957, Bremer Broadcasting announced it had sold its stations for $4.5 million to
National Telefilm Associates, an early distributor of motion pictures for television. On
May 7,
1958, channel 13's callsign was changed to
WNTA-TV to reflect the new ownership; the radio stations adopted these call letters as well. NTA's cash resources enabled WNTA-TV to produce a schedule of programming with greater emphasis on the people and events of New Jersey, in comparison to the other commercial television stations. NTA also sought to make channel 13 a center of nationally syndicated programming and produced several such entries, notably the anthology drama series
The Play of the Week; the talk show
Open End, hosted by
David Susskind; children's show
The Magic Clown (which had previously run on New York's
WABD and on the
NBC network); and a popular dance program emceed by
Clay Cole. But WNTA-TV continued to lag behind New York's other independent stations -- WNEW-TV (now
WNYW), WOR-TV (now
WWOR-TV), and
WPIX -- in terms of audience size, and NTA incurred a large debtload. National Telefilm Associates put the WNTA stations up for sale in February 1961.
Transition
At least three prospective purchasers expressed interest in WNTA-TV. The most prominent was the New York City-based group
Educational Television for the Metropolitan Area (ETMA). Comprised of local businesspeople, cultural leaders, and educators, ETMA was focused on creating an educational television outlet for New York, and believed that the non-commercial frequency the
Federal Communications Commission allocated to the city,
UHF channel 25, wouldn't be sufficient. Prior to
1964, most viewers couldn't view UHF stations except with an expensive converter; only a few manufacturers made sets with built-in UHF tuning. With assistance from the
New York State Board of Regents and New Jersey officials, ETMA had attempted to purchase channel 13 and convert it to a non-commercial station in 1957, when Bremer Broadcasting first put the station on the block; this bid was later withdrawn. This time, ETMA was competing with Ely Landau, founding president of National Telefilm Associates, who had resigned from the company in order to head his own venture for this; and by David Susskind, who received financial backing from
Paramount Pictures.
ETMA's initial bid of $4 million was rejected by NTA, but the citizens' group remained persistent. With the support and guidance of
National Educational Television already in their pocket, ETMA later received an endorsement from newly appointed FCC Chairman
Newton Minow, who established public hearings to discuss the fate of channel 13. The pendulum quickly shifted in favor of channel 13 going non-commercial, and the private firms withdrew their interest.
On
June 29,
1961, ETMA agreed to purchase WNTA-TV for $6.2 million, and the FCC converted channel 13's commercial license to non-commercial. About $2 million of that amount came from the five of the six remaining commercial
VHF stations (WPIX was the lone holdout). In addition,
CBS donated a facility (TV Studio 58 at Ninth Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan) to WNDT and NET for production uses.
Outgoing New Jersey governor
Robert B. Meyner, addressing state lawmakers' concerns over continued programming specific to New Jersey, and fearing the FCC would move the channel 13 allocation to New York City, petitioned the
United States Court of Appeals on
September 6,
1961 to block the sale of WNTA-TV. The court ruled in the state's favor
two months later.
The unsettled deal almost caused National Telefilm Associates to reconsider its decision to sell the station altogether, and NTA made plans to go forward: WNTA-TV made a play to acquire broadcast rights for the
New York Mets baseball team for its inaugural 1962 season. But faced with either consummating the transaction or seeing it cancelled, ETMA settled their differences with New Jersey officials on
December 4, 1961. Almost simultaneously, the state withdrew its block petition, and the FCC gave final approval of the transfer of channel 13. After a few last-minute issues arose to cause further delays, the transfer became final on
December 22. Later that evening, WNTA-TV signed-off for the final time. ETMA and NET then went to work in coverting the station, which they said would return with its new format within three months.
Ten months later, channel 13 was ready to be reborn. With legendary reporter
Edward R. Murrow at the helm on the maiden broadcast, ETMA -- now the
non-profit Educational Broadcasting Corporation -- flipped the switch to
WNDT (for "
New
Dimensions in
Television") on
September 16,
1962. (
(External Link
)) This move gave the New York City market its first educational station, and with a dial position on the coveted VHF band. (In many other cities, including large ones, educational stations had to make do with UHF frequencies.) New York's non-commercial UHF channel, on the other hand, wouldn't make it to the air for another
five years.
Educational station
During the transition, and after the inaugural broadcast, WNDT faced an immediate crisis. The
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists was concerned about the use of teachers -- some of whom were AFTRA-certified performers -- on non-commercial television, and how they'd be compensated should their work be distributed nationally.
AFTRA called a strike the morning of WNDT's debut. Engineers and technicians who were members of the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers refused to cross the AFTRA picket line, leaving the station's management and other non-union employees to produce the three-hour inaugural broadcast. Immediately afterwards, channel 13 went off the air again, as the strike continued for nearly two weeks. The striking workers returned WNDT to the air after ten days, and on
September 28 the labor dispute was settled. But the station's financial resources were drained, requiring an infusion of cash from NET to help keep the station running.
NET originally wanted to merge its operations with WNDT, which would have given WNDT a direct line of funding as well as make channel 13 NET's flagship station. However, the
Ford Foundation, which supported both groups, stopped the proposed mergers on at least two different occasions (in 1962, and again in
1965).
Events that began in 1967 led the Ford Foundation to change its stance and push for a WNDT-NET merger. The newly-formed
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (created by an
act of the
United States Congress) initially supported NET's network role, while providing government funding for programming. But that move was followed
two years later with the establishment of the
Public Broadcasting Service as the CPB's own distribution system -- a direct threat to NET's turf. It has been intimated that CPB's creation was an attempt to curb NET's production of controversial documentaries and replace it with a less controversial, government-friendly broadcaster, less hostile in particular to the
Johnson, and later the
Nixon administrations. (NET, ignoring the demand, refused point-blank to stop the production of the critically-acclaimed documentaries.) At one point, President Nixon, enraged with NET's documentaries criticizing his administration, especially its handling of the
Vietnam War, almost managed to cut NET's $20 million funding grant in half. This led to the Ford Foundation brokering the merger of WNDT and NET, which took effect on
June 29,
1970. Channel 13's callsign was changed to the present
WNET on
October 5, 1970. NET ceased network operations, though WNET continued to produce some shows for the national PBS schedule with the NET branding until about
1972.
Channel 13's studios and offices were originally located in the Mosque Theater at 1020 Broad Street in Newark, with transmitter on First Mountain in
West Orange, New Jersey. For a short time studios were located at the Gateway Center office building in Newark. The station eventually moved its operations to Manhattan, where most television stations and television networks were based. It is currently based at a modern facility at 450 West 33rd Street, near the
Lincoln Tunnel. Since it still operates on a frequency allocated by the FCC to Newark, it rebroadcasts
New Jersey Network's nightly
NJN News to meet its local programming obligations.
Channel 13's transmitter facilities, including a newly installed digital transmission system, were destroyed on
September 11, 2001, when airplanes hijacked by terrorists crashed into the
World Trade Center towers., channel 13's head transmitter engineer, was among those who perished when the north tower collapsed. For the next ten months WNYE-TV, headquartered in
Brooklyn, became WNET's surrogate transmitter and airwave (for those without cable, repeats of WNET prime-time schedules were screened on WNYE). After the surrogate period, WNYE branched more into independent public television, culminating with its independence from PBS on
July 1,
2003. Some time earlier, in February 2003, WNET completed its merger with Long Island PBS broadcaster WLIW (licensed to
Garden City and based in
Plainview), combining the two stations into one operation. While most of the two stations' operations have been merged, they still have separate studio facilities, separate governing boards, and conduct separate fundraising efforts.
Digital Television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
| Channel |
Programming |
| 13.1 / 61.1 |
main WNET/PBS programming |
| 13.2 / 61.2 |
Kids Thirteen |
| 13.3 / 61.3 |
V-me |
Post-analog shutdown
After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009, WNET will be required to move its digital broadcasts back to its present analog channel number, 13.
Channel 61 will no longer fall within the
UHF-
TV band.
Original productions
WNET has produced and created a number of PBS shows. This includes, but isn't limited to:
WNET has also produced programming for public televisions stations distributed outside of the PBS system, including:
Planet H2O
In the Mix: The New Normal, a co-production with In the Mix
What's Up in Factories
What's Up in Technology
What's Up in Finance
WNET is also the co-producing entity of The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, along with Washington, D.C. PBS station WETA-TV and MacNeil-Lehrer Productions. The show started in 1975 as a local news-analysis program, The Robert MacNeil Report. Jim Lehrer, a frequent guest on MacNeil's show, became co-host the following year, when the show was picked up by the other PBS outlets.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Wnet'.
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