WOSU-TV
Encyclopedia
WOSU-TV 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.
Ohio State first sought an educational license in 1950, for channel 12. However, the 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 film
s and public programming video materials.
WOSU's broadcasts have been digital-only since March 31, 2009.
Along with WBNS-TV
, the HD feed for WOSU is not available on Dish Network presumably due to contract negotiations. WCMH-TV
, WSYX
, and WTTE
became available effective April 1, 2009.
s: W31AA in Newark
, and W47AB in Mansfield
.
W47AB, located within the Cleveland
DMA, serves north central Ohio.
W31AA broadcasts on a frequency previously used by WGSF (TV)
; the repeater signed on July 1, 1976, the day after WGSF closed down.
s: 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
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
public television station located in Columbus
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, affiliated with the 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) and is a service of WOSU Public Media. The station's signal covers most of central Ohio. It is owned by Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
, and operates full-time satellite WPBO-TV in Portsmouth, Ohio
Portsmouth, Ohio
Portsmouth is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Scioto County. The municipality is located on the northern banks of the Ohio River and east of the Scioto River in Southern Ohio. The population was 20,226 at the 2010 census.-Foundation:...
. WPBO-TV broadcasts on digital 43, serving extreme southern Ohio and the western edge of the Huntington
Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at...
-Charleston
Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
market area.
Ohio State first sought an educational license in 1950, for channel 12. However, the FCC turned down two requests for that allocation (most likely due to concerns about interference with WKRC-TV
WKRC-TV
WKRC-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Tri-State area of Southern Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and Southeastern Indiana that is licensed to Cincinnati. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter at its studios on Highland Avenue in the Mount...
in Cincinnati) instead giving OSU channel 34. WOSU-TV first broadcast on February 20, 1956. In 1959, a grant from the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
allowed the station to purchase the first video tape recorder
Video tape recorder
A video tape recorder is a tape recorder that can record video material, usually on a magnetic tape. VTRs originated as individual tape reels, serving as a replacement for motion picture film stock and making recording for television applications cheaper and quicker. An improved form included the...
in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. WOSU-TV began broadcasting in color in 1968, telecasting the football game
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
between Ohio State
Ohio State Buckeyes
The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of The Ohio State University, named after the state tree, the Buckeye. The Buckeyes participate in the NCAA's Division I in all sports and the Big Ten Conference in most sports...
and Michigan
Michigan Wolverines
The Michigan Wolverines comprise 27 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the NCAA's Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except men's ice hockey which competes in the NCAA D1 Central Collegiate Hockey Association, and women's water polo, which...
. The color telecast
Color television
Color television is part of the history of television, the technology of television and practices associated with television's transmission of moving images in color video....
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
Olentangy River
The Olentangy River is a tributary of the Scioto River in Ohio.It was originally called keenhongsheconsepung, a Delaware word literally translated as "stone for your knife stream", based on the shale found along its shores. Early settlers to the region translated this into "Whetstone 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
Science museum
A science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...
; 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 $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
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 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s and public programming video materials.
WOSU's broadcasts have been digital-only since March 31, 2009.
Digital television
WOSU Digital transmits multiple programs and services. Offered are:| Channel | Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 34.1 | WOSU-HD | Main WOSU programming / PBS |
| 34.2 | WOSU-D1 | The Ohio Channel The Ohio Channel The Ohio Channel is a Public television channel in the U.S. state of Ohio. It is produced by a consortium of the state's public broadcasting stations, and carried on the digital subchannels of many of those stations... |
| 34.3 | WOSU-D2 | Create |
Along with WBNS-TV
WBNS-TV
WBNS-TV, channel 10, is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The station is an affiliate of the CBS Television Network and is owned by the Dispatch Broadcast Group, a subsidiary of the Columbus Dispatch, along with WBNS radio...
, the HD feed for WOSU is not available on Dish Network presumably due to contract negotiations. WCMH-TV
WCMH-TV
WCMH-TV, channel 4, is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, affiliated with the NBC television network and owned by Media General. The station's studios and transmitter are located in Columbus. NBC-4 broadcasts from its studio and office complex near the Ohio State University on Olentangy River...
, WSYX
WSYX
WSYX, channel 6, is an ABC-affiliated television station located in Columbus, Ohio. WSYX is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which also operates Fox affiliate WTTE through a local marketing agreement...
, and WTTE
WTTE
WTTE is the Fox-affiliated television station for Columbus, Ohio. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 36 from a transmitter on Stimmel Road. The station can be seen on Insight, Time Warner, and WOW! channel 8. For high definition digital cable, it is offered on Insight...
became available effective April 1, 2009.
Repeaters
In addition to WPBO, the station has two repeaterRepeater
A repeater is an electronic device that receives asignal and retransmits it at a higher level and/or higher power, or onto the other side of an obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances.-Description:...
s: W31AA in Newark
Newark, Ohio
In addition, the remains of a road leading south from the Octagon have been documented and explored. It was first surveyed in the 19th century, when its walls were more apparent. Called the Great Hopewell Road, it may extend to the Hopewell complex at Chillicothe, Ohio...
, and W47AB in Mansfield
Mansfield, Ohio
Mansfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Richland County. The municipality is located in north-central Ohio in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau, approximately southwest of Cleveland and northeast of Columbus....
.
W47AB, located within the Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
DMA, serves north central Ohio.
W31AA broadcasts on a frequency previously used by WGSF (TV)
WGSF (TV)
WGSF-TV was an educational television station in Newark, Ohio, which operated from 1963 to 1976. The station was founded by The Licking County Fund for Public Giving, on behalf of the Newark City School District. Studios were originated at Newark High School...
; the repeater signed on July 1, 1976, the day after WGSF closed down.
Fundraising
Throughout most of the 1980s and the 1990s, WOSU had three different titles for its triannual pledge drivePledge drive
A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise a contributor makes to send in funding at regular intervals for a certain amount of time...
s: Festival (held every March), Summer Celebration (held every July), and Explore 34 (held every December).
WOSU also had its own televised auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
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
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
.