WQEX
Encyclopedia
WINP-TV is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania broadcasting on digital
channel 38, but through the use of PSIP
, uses virtual channel
16, its former analog television
channel number. WINP is owned by ION Media Networks
. It currently airs programming from ION.
acquired the station as a secondary channel for airing educational programs. WQEX went dark again in November 1961, but returned to the air over a year later, in January 1963.
WQEX was one of the last stations in Pittsburgh (if not North America) to convert to color. For decades, the station broadcast with WENS
's black-and-white transmitter. However, in February 1985, the transmitter broke down completely, and the parts required to fix it were no longer available. With limited time to restore WQEX to the air and avoid forfeiture of the license, WQED-TV diverted pledge monies to WQEX and also cut back its own broadcast hours in an attempt to lower its operating costs. Under WQED managers Lloyd Kaiser and Jay Rayvid, the new WQEX was set up as an almost autonomous station within a station. In addition to a new NEC transmitter, WQEX took over Studio C at WQED and built its entire studio, offices and technical space within the 36 by 32 square-foot area.
It took six months from April 1, 1986 until launch on October 16, 1986 to build the station, train the personnel and organize the programming, all of this under the direction of Kenneth Tiven as general manager. Tiven, with years of experience in local television, produced a station unlike any other in the PBS system. Station management explained their extended time off the air between programs with a vignette called "The Little Transmitter That Could... couldn't anymore." One Pittsburgh radio engineer said there was nothing little about the old transmitter, that it "was the size of a Port Authority transit bus
".
In 1986 WQEX was one of the most automated channels in the world. It was the first channel to adopt the then-state-of-the-art Beta tape technology and the Betacart player for airing all of its programs. Local programming by its competitors had been delivered on film, reel videotape and U-matic videocassettes. The Betacam
professional format, which is different from the failed Betamax
consumer format, produced a high-quality picture with crisp on-air resolution. The tape gained popularity among television stations not only because of its quality, but also because of its smaller size and ease of storage. In addition the channel designed a database system for managing the program playout. It was this list which told the Betacart machine what to do.
In its return to the air, WQEX' schedule resembled that of a commercial independent station, with reruns, movies and British situation comedies
, often called "Britcoms". The station even had on-camera hosts. Pip Theodor was one several personalities who introduced the programs, similar to what was done on MTV and Britain's ITV
.
What was notable about the station during this era was its nightly sign-off. WQEX ended each night with a comedy sketch involving some men trying to make it home from a bar after 2 am, set to the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
" from Monty Python
's The Life of Brian. The sketch was accompanied by fake closing credits
. Viewers could have their names in the credits by making a pledge to WQEX and becoming members of the "QEX Sign-Off Society."
The station's sign-on message also developed an on-air persona of its own, with the message followed by the 1955 Chuck Berry hit "Sweet Little Sixteen
" introduced as a "morning wake-up call from Mr. Charles Berry."
From 1986 through to 1990 the station's quirky persona stayed intact. It produced a 10 pm news program from Monday through Friday in conjunction with the reporters at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
newspaper. Reporters were debriefed about their stories. These video clips were then played back in the Betacart automation system as a complete program. This innovation, called modular production, later became the keystone of several television news channels, including the Orange County Newschannel
(OCN) and New York 1.
When funding became tight in the mid-1990s, WQED began using WQEX to simulcast its own programming.
and WPMY
.
Sometime between April 1 and the new June 12 deadline, WQEX moved its digital broadcasts to channel 38, which was used by sister station WQED until April 1 after the end of its annual PBS pledge drive in March. The early signoff for WQED gave the station time to move its own digital signal to channel 13 while moving WQEX from channel 26 to channel 38.
and National Geographic
specials was quickly finding itself relegated to the role of a primarily-local producer of educational programming.
WQED began to seek a removal of the non-commercial educational status which restricted the WQEX license as early as 1996, with the intention of selling the secondary UHF station outright in the hope that an infusion of cash would solve some of the financial woes of the main station. WQED's initial application to take WQEX commercial was rejected outright by the Federal Communications Commission
, leaving it to pursue an alternate plan by which the station was almost sold to religious broadcaster Cornerstone Television
in 1999. The original plan was to move WPCB-TV
from channel 40 (a commercial license) to channel 16 (non-commercial educational WQEX), with Paxson Communications
buying channel 40 and converting it to a Pax TV affiliate. This move, which would have led to a $35 million payout being split equally between Cornerstone and WQED, was approved conditionally by the Federal Communications Commission
in 2000, after lobbying by Republican
Senator
John McCain
on behalf of PAX's Lowell Paxson, an intervention which Senator McCain would later deny having made. However, in response to vociferous concerns from members of the Pittsburgh local community, the FCC did impose one condition on the sale: half of Cornerstone's programming needed to be of educational value, effectively respecting the non-commercial educational condition of WQEX's existing license. Cornerstone flatly refused, abruptly backing out of the proposed deal. Religious programming doesn't qualify as educational if it's "primarily devoted to religious exhortation, proselytizing or statements of personally held religious views or beliefs," according to the FCC's ruling conditionally allowing religious broadcaster Cornerstone TV to take over WQEX and add educational content to the station. Although the FCC abruptly reversed its position less than a month later removing the condition in response to intense political and legislative pressure, Cornerstone withdrew its application and the sale was cancelled, keeping WQEX as a WQED-TV simulcast.
In July 2002, the FCC abandoned its long-held position on instructional content, removing WQEX's non-commercial educational status outright in response to continued claims of economic hardship by WQED – hardships which the station has long blamed not on its own past management practices but on the local economic situation and the long-term decline of Pittsburgh's industrial base.
From 2004 to March 2007, WQEX brokered much of its airtime to America's Store
, a discount shopping channel from Home Shopping Network
, with WQED-TV presenting a total of three hours of required Educational/Informational
(E/I) programming for kids on Monday and Tuesday mornings, plus repeats of WQED's news magazine, OnQ, on Monday mornings. In January 2007, America's Store announced it would cease operations on April 3 of the same year; WQEX switched its programming to ShopNBC on March 26.
Rumors and actual proposals of a sale of WQEX have come up from time to time, the most noteworthy of which was a proposed 2002 sale to Shooting Star Broadcasting, a company headed up by Pittsburgh native and former Shamrock Broadcasting president Diane Sutter, that was never consummated.
(the former Paxson Communications) to sell WQEX to Ion for $3 million. The sale was consummated (after FCC
approval) on May 2, 2011, at which time the station's call sign
changed from WQEX to WINP, making it the first Ion-owned station without the Pax-era "PX" in its call sign. (The new calls stand for IoN Pittsburgh or, to note one news article on the sale, "WIN Pittsburgh Over.") WINP was still currently carrying ShopNBC
programming to fill their contractual obligations; however, as of October 1, 2011, it now carries ION Television on its main channel (currently only in 480i
), with Ion Life
and qubo
on subchannels. This is the network's first over-the-air presence in Pittsburgh, the largest media market in which Ion and its predecessors had never had an over-the-air signal (Pittsburgh is the 24th largest TV market for 2010–2011 according to AC Nielsen).
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
channel 38, but through the use of PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
, uses virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
16, its former analog television
Analog television
Analog television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal...
channel number. WINP is owned by ION Media Networks
ION Media Networks
ION Media Networks is an American television broadcasting company that owns and operates over 60 television stations in most major American markets. It is now a privately owned company.-History:...
. It currently airs programming from ION.
History
Channel 16 in Pittsburgh started as WENS-TV, a commercial station that operated from August 31, 1953 until 1957 before going dark because of storm damage and mediocre ratings. The station became WQEX in March 1959, after WQEDWQED (TV)
WQED is a Public Broadcasting Service member Public television station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Established April 1, 1954, it was the first community-sponsored television station in the United States as well as the fifth public TV station...
acquired the station as a secondary channel for airing educational programs. WQEX went dark again in November 1961, but returned to the air over a year later, in January 1963.
WQEX was one of the last stations in Pittsburgh (if not North America) to convert to color. For decades, the station broadcast with WENS
WENS
WENS is a radio station broadcasting a Christian talk radio format. Licensed to Wadesville, Indiana, USA, the station is currently owned by the Indiana Community Radio Corporation.-Trivia:...
's black-and-white transmitter. However, in February 1985, the transmitter broke down completely, and the parts required to fix it were no longer available. With limited time to restore WQEX to the air and avoid forfeiture of the license, WQED-TV diverted pledge monies to WQEX and also cut back its own broadcast hours in an attempt to lower its operating costs. Under WQED managers Lloyd Kaiser and Jay Rayvid, the new WQEX was set up as an almost autonomous station within a station. In addition to a new NEC transmitter, WQEX took over Studio C at WQED and built its entire studio, offices and technical space within the 36 by 32 square-foot area.
It took six months from April 1, 1986 until launch on October 16, 1986 to build the station, train the personnel and organize the programming, all of this under the direction of Kenneth Tiven as general manager. Tiven, with years of experience in local television, produced a station unlike any other in the PBS system. Station management explained their extended time off the air between programs with a vignette called "The Little Transmitter That Could... couldn't anymore." One Pittsburgh radio engineer said there was nothing little about the old transmitter, that it "was the size of a Port Authority transit bus
Port Authority of Allegheny County
Port Authority of Allegheny County is the second-largest public transit agency in Pennsylvania and the 11th-largest in the United States. When considering that its service area is the 20th largest in the U.S...
".
In 1986 WQEX was one of the most automated channels in the world. It was the first channel to adopt the then-state-of-the-art Beta tape technology and the Betacart player for airing all of its programs. Local programming by its competitors had been delivered on film, reel videotape and U-matic videocassettes. The Betacam
Betacam
Betacam is family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself....
professional format, which is different from the failed Betamax
Betamax
Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
consumer format, produced a high-quality picture with crisp on-air resolution. The tape gained popularity among television stations not only because of its quality, but also because of its smaller size and ease of storage. In addition the channel designed a database system for managing the program playout. It was this list which told the Betacart machine what to do.
In its return to the air, WQEX' schedule resembled that of a commercial independent station, with reruns, movies and British situation comedies
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
, often called "Britcoms". The station even had on-camera hosts. Pip Theodor was one several personalities who introduced the programs, similar to what was done on MTV and Britain's ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
.
What was notable about the station during this era was its nightly sign-off. WQEX ended each night with a comedy sketch involving some men trying to make it home from a bar after 2 am, set to the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" is a popular song written by Eric Idle that was originally featured in the 1979 film Monty Python's Life of Brian and has gone on to become a common singalong at public events such as football matches as well as funerals.-History:Whilst trying to come up...
" from Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
's The Life of Brian. The sketch was accompanied by fake closing credits
Closing credits
Closing credits or end credits are added at the end of a motion picture, television program, or video game to list the cast and crew involved in the production. They usually appear as a list of names in small type, which either flip very quickly from page to page, or move smoothly across the...
. Viewers could have their names in the credits by making a pledge to WQEX and becoming members of the "QEX Sign-Off Society."
The station's sign-on message also developed an on-air persona of its own, with the message followed by the 1955 Chuck Berry hit "Sweet Little Sixteen
Sweet Little Sixteen
"Sweet Little Sixteen" is a rock and roll song written and originally performed by Chuck Berry, who released it as a single in January 1958. It reached number two on the American charts, Berry's highest position ever on the charts, with the exception of the suggestive number one hit "My...
" introduced as a "morning wake-up call from Mr. Charles Berry."
From 1986 through to 1990 the station's quirky persona stayed intact. It produced a 10 pm news program from Monday through Friday in conjunction with the reporters at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
newspaper. Reporters were debriefed about their stories. These video clips were then played back in the Betacart automation system as a complete program. This innovation, called modular production, later became the keystone of several television news channels, including the Orange County Newschannel
Orange County Newschannel
The Orange County Newschannel was a regional cable news network featuring a rolling news format, serving Orange County, California south of the Metropolitan Los Angeles area...
(OCN) and New York 1.
When funding became tight in the mid-1990s, WQED began using WQEX to simulcast its own programming.
Digital TV
WQEX signed off its analog signal as part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion on February 17, 2009, even though the deadline had been extended to June 12. WQEX was one of three stations in the Pittsburgh market to still use the original signoff date, alongside the Sinclair Broadcasting duopoly of WPGH-TVWPGH-TV
WPGH-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 43 from a transmitter at its studios on Ivory Avenue in the city's Summer Hill section. The station can also be seen on Verizon FiOS and Comcast channel 7...
and WPMY
WPMY
WPMY is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Western Pennsylvania that is licensed to Pittsburgh. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 42 from a transmitter located in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, WPMY is the sister station of...
.
Sometime between April 1 and the new June 12 deadline, WQEX moved its digital broadcasts to channel 38, which was used by sister station WQED until April 1 after the end of its annual PBS pledge drive in March. The early signoff for WQED gave the station time to move its own digital signal to channel 13 while moving WQEX from channel 26 to channel 38.
Controversy
Due to a combination of high costs of continuing national programming production, bloated payroll expenses, and what the station's critics identify as a top-heavy management structure and a long history of mismanagement, WQED's total liabilities at one point had mounted beyond $10 million. station debts were being paid four months behind schedule and approximately 100 of the 220 staff jobs at WQED were abruptly eliminated. A station once-respected for having originated programming such as Mister Rogers' NeighborhoodMister Rogers' Neighborhood
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, also known as Mister Rogers, is an American children's television series that was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series is aimed primarily at preschool ages, 2-5, but has been stated by Public Broadcasting Service as "appropriate for all ages"...
and National Geographic
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
specials was quickly finding itself relegated to the role of a primarily-local producer of educational programming.
WQED began to seek a removal of the non-commercial educational status which restricted the WQEX license as early as 1996, with the intention of selling the secondary UHF station outright in the hope that an infusion of cash would solve some of the financial woes of the main station. WQED's initial application to take WQEX commercial was rejected outright by the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
, leaving it to pursue an alternate plan by which the station was almost sold to religious broadcaster Cornerstone Television
Cornerstone Television
The Cornerstone TeleVision Network is a non-commercial Christian broadcast and satellite television network based in Wall, Pennsylvania, United States. Its founder and CEO is Russ Bixler...
in 1999. The original plan was to move WPCB-TV
WPCB-TV
WPCB-TV is a Christian television station in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA DMA. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 50. It is licensed to Greensburg with studios and transmitter in Wall and is the home of Cornerstone Television, which originates most of its programs from the station...
from channel 40 (a commercial license) to channel 16 (non-commercial educational WQEX), with Paxson Communications
ION Media Networks
ION Media Networks is an American television broadcasting company that owns and operates over 60 television stations in most major American markets. It is now a privately owned company.-History:...
buying channel 40 and converting it to a Pax TV affiliate. This move, which would have led to a $35 million payout being split equally between Cornerstone and WQED, was approved conditionally by the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
in 2000, after lobbying by Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
on behalf of PAX's Lowell Paxson, an intervention which Senator McCain would later deny having made. However, in response to vociferous concerns from members of the Pittsburgh local community, the FCC did impose one condition on the sale: half of Cornerstone's programming needed to be of educational value, effectively respecting the non-commercial educational condition of WQEX's existing license. Cornerstone flatly refused, abruptly backing out of the proposed deal. Religious programming doesn't qualify as educational if it's "primarily devoted to religious exhortation, proselytizing or statements of personally held religious views or beliefs," according to the FCC's ruling conditionally allowing religious broadcaster Cornerstone TV to take over WQEX and add educational content to the station. Although the FCC abruptly reversed its position less than a month later removing the condition in response to intense political and legislative pressure, Cornerstone withdrew its application and the sale was cancelled, keeping WQEX as a WQED-TV simulcast.
In July 2002, the FCC abandoned its long-held position on instructional content, removing WQEX's non-commercial educational status outright in response to continued claims of economic hardship by WQED – hardships which the station has long blamed not on its own past management practices but on the local economic situation and the long-term decline of Pittsburgh's industrial base.
From 2004 to March 2007, WQEX brokered much of its airtime to America's Store
America's Store
America's Store was a US shopping television network. It was the spin-off channel to the Home Shopping Network . On April 3, 2007, America's Store ceased broadcasting permanently....
, a discount shopping channel from Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network or HSN began in 1977 as a 24-hour/7 day a week home shopping television network televised via cable, satellite, and some terrestrial channels in the Philippines. HSN can also be shopped online at hsn.com...
, with WQED-TV presenting a total of three hours of required Educational/Informational
E/I
E/I, which stands for "educational and informative," refers to a type of children's television programming shown in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission requires that every full-service Terrestrial television station in the U.S. show at least three hours of these television...
(E/I) programming for kids on Monday and Tuesday mornings, plus repeats of WQED's news magazine, OnQ, on Monday mornings. In January 2007, America's Store announced it would cease operations on April 3 of the same year; WQEX switched its programming to ShopNBC on March 26.
Rumors and actual proposals of a sale of WQEX have come up from time to time, the most noteworthy of which was a proposed 2002 sale to Shooting Star Broadcasting, a company headed up by Pittsburgh native and former Shamrock Broadcasting president Diane Sutter, that was never consummated.
Sale to Ion Media Networks
On November 8, 2010, it was announced that WQED reached a deal with ION Media NetworksION Media Networks
ION Media Networks is an American television broadcasting company that owns and operates over 60 television stations in most major American markets. It is now a privately owned company.-History:...
(the former Paxson Communications) to sell WQEX to Ion for $3 million. The sale was consummated (after FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
approval) on May 2, 2011, at which time the station's call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
changed from WQEX to WINP, making it the first Ion-owned station without the Pax-era "PX" in its call sign. (The new calls stand for IoN Pittsburgh or, to note one news article on the sale, "WIN Pittsburgh Over.") WINP was still currently carrying ShopNBC
ShopNBC
ShopNBC is an American broadcast and cable home shopping network, owned and operated by ValueVision Media, which is in turn 30% owned by GE Equity and NBC Universal...
programming to fill their contractual obligations; however, as of October 1, 2011, it now carries ION Television on its main channel (currently only in 480i
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
), with Ion Life
ION Life
ION Life is a digital television network carried by ION Television affiliates, airing lifestyle programming during the day, and movies in the evening. It was launched February 19, 2007...
and qubo
Qubo
Qubo is a multi-platform children's television specialty channel endeavor operated as a joint venture between ION Media Networks, NBCUniversal, Nelvana, Scholastic Corporation, and Classic Media...
on subchannels. This is the network's first over-the-air presence in Pittsburgh, the largest media market in which Ion and its predecessors had never had an over-the-air signal (Pittsburgh is the 24th largest TV market for 2010–2011 according to AC Nielsen).