WCVE-TV
Encyclopedia
WCVE-TV is a Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 (PBS) member public television station licensed to Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

. It broadcasts on channel 23 and is owned by Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation
Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation
Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation is a 501 non-profit corporation that is the group owner of Public Broadcasting Service member Public television, ethnic TV, and radio stations in Virginia...

. The station is a member of PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

, of which WCVE-TV became a charter member. The station signed on for the first time in September 1964. Offices are at 23 Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

 in Bon Air
Bon Air, Virginia
Bon Air is a census-designated place in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. The population was 16,366 at the 2010 census. The community is considered a suburb of the independent city of Richmond in the Richmond-Petersburg region, and shares a post office with Richmond...

, a suburb of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

. Its transmitter is located a few blocks away on 5 Sesame Street. WCVE's programming is also broadcast by a satellite in Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...

 on channel 41 as WHTJ. WCVE, the sister affiliate WCVW, and WHTJ were all together known locally as the Community Idea Stations, but in 2008 began using their call letters to identify themselves, simply referring to themselves each as "a Community Idea Station".

History

The community-owned public broadcasting company was established in 1961 by Thomas Boushall (Chairman of the Richmond School Board and an officer of the Bank of Virginia) and a group of concerned citizens to employ television for educational purposes. The patron saints of public broadcasting in central Virginia were Boushall, E. Claiborne Robins Sr., Mary Ann Franklin, and Bill W. Spiller. Mrs. Franklin first approached Boushall and Henry I. Willett, then Superintendent of Richmond City Schools
Richmond Public Schools
This school division contains public schools serving the independent city of Richmond, Virginia. It is occasionally described locally as Richmond City Public Schools to emphasize its connection to the independent city rather than the Richmond-Petersburg region at large or the rural Richmond County...

, with the idea of establishing an educational television station. Boushall and Franklin then recruited Spiller, who was hired in December 1963 and began working for them in January 1964.

WCVE's sister station, WCVW-TV (channel 57) signed on in 1967. Richmond became the first community in Virginia to have dual stations, and only the eighth in the nation to do so, doubling the amount of instructional programming provided to schools in central Virginia. Over forty years later, both WCVE and WCVW are still in operation.

In 1974, Commonwealth Public Broadcasting took over WNVT-TV, a Fairfax
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...

 public TV station on the verge of financial insolvency, in order to protect instructional television and educational services for schools in northern Virginia. In 1981, a second Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...

 station, WNVC-TV, was established. Today, these two stations provide international programming in English and several other languages tailored to the needs of the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, area's culturally diverse population.

When Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education
Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education
Union Presbyterian Seminary, located on the near north side of the city of Richmond, Virginia, is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church...

 announced its plans to give up its public radio license for WRFK
WRFK
WRFK was the callsign for an FM broadcast radio station in Richmond, Virginia. As a non-profit station in 1958, it was originally assigned to 91.1 MHz in the non-commercial band by the Federal Communications Commission...

, which had assumed a fine music format from WFMV
WFMV
WFMV, known as "Gospel 95.3", is a full-time urban contemporary gospel station simulcast located in the Midlands region of South Carolina. WFMV is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to South Congaree, a small village located near Columbia to broadcast on 95.3 FM. WFMV broadcasts...

. To ensure public radio would remain in Richmond, WCVE-FM
WCVE-FM
WCVE-FM is a public radio formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Richmond, Virginia, serving the Metro Richmond area. WCVE-FM is owned and operated by Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation....

 radio went on the air as a NPR affiliate in 1988. The following year, the company established WHTJ in Charlottesville. Before WHTJ's sign-on, Charlottesville had been one of the few areas in the country without a full-powered PBS station; it had been served by a repeater of Harrisonburg
Harrisonburg, Virginia
Harrisonburg is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia in the United States. Its population as of 2010 is 48,914, and at the 2000 census, 40,468. Harrisonburg is the county seat of Rockingham County and the core city of the Harrisonburg, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical...

's WVPT
WVPT
WVPT is a public television station in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It is the PBS member station for the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and West Virginia. The station is licensed to Staunton, and is located on the campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg...

.

A 25,000 square foot (2,300 m²) TV and radio studio-office complex was added in 1991.

After signing off at midnight almost daily for over 40 years, WCVE and WCVW became 24 hour stations most days of the week in the fall of 2006. Starting in early 2008, the stylized "i" logo became the station's secondary logo, while a new once display the WCVE call letters was adopted. On March 30, 2009 all three sations WCVE, WHTJ, WCVW began broadcasting in all digital after they turned off their analog signal.

Translators

Either WCVE-TV or WHTJ-TV rebroadcast on two analog low-powered translators. While W39AK is located in Rockfish Valley, Virginia near Waynesboro, Virginia
Waynesboro, Virginia
Waynesboro, deriving its name from General Anthony Wayne, is an independent city surrounded by Augusta County in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 21,006 in 2010.....

 the other is W60BM is located in Rustburg, Virginia
Rustburg, Virginia
Rustburg is a census-designated place in Campbell County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,431 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Campbell County.Rustburg is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area....

 near Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...

. Both translators is owned and operated by Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation
Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation
Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation is a 501 non-profit corporation that is the group owner of Public Broadcasting Service member Public television, ethnic TV, and radio stations in Virginia...

.
  • W39AK Channel 39 Rockfish Valley
  • TV Fool W39AK
  • BIA W39AK
  • W60BM Channel 60 Rustburg
    Rustburg, Virginia
    Rustburg is a census-designated place in Campbell County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,431 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Campbell County.Rustburg is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area....

  • TV Fool W60BM
  • BIA W60BM

Programming

Like most public television stations, this trio broadcasts shows distributed by PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

, but they also create a range of local programs. WCVE produces Virginia Currents, a program profiling residents of the state, both typical and notable, which is aired by other PBS stations in Virginia such as Blue Ridge PBS and WVPT
WVPT
WVPT is a public television station in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It is the PBS member station for the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and West Virginia. The station is licensed to Staunton, and is located on the campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg...

. WHTJ, for instance, offers Charlottesville Inside-Out, hosted by musician Terri Allard
Terri Allard
Terri Allard is an American country/folk singer/songwriter from Virginia. Her most recent album, Makes No Sense, features a song she wrote together with Mary Chapin Carpenter....

.

Sources


External links

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