WEIU-TV,

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...

51 (

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

channel 30), is a Public Broadcasting Service (

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

) member television station

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Charleston, Illinois Charleston is a city in, and the county seat of, Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 17,286, as of the 2020 census. The city is home to Eastern Illinois University and has close ties with its neighbor, Mattoon. Both are p ...

, United States. Owned by

Eastern Illinois University Eastern Illinois University is a public university in Charleston, Illinois. Established in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois State Normal School, a teacher's college offering a two-year degree, Eastern Illinois University gradually expanded into a co ...

(EIU), it is a

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

campus radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produce ...

station WEIU (88.9 FM). The two stations share studios on the EIU campus in Charleston; WEIU-TV's transmitter is located near

Humboldt, Illinois Humboldt is a village in Coles County, Illinois, Coles County, Illinois, United States. At the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, its population was 361. It is part of the Charleston-Mattoon micropolitan area, Charleston-Mattoon Micropolitan ...

. WEIU-TV is a member of PBS' Program Differentiation Plan (PDP), previously known as the "Beta Group". As a secondary PBS member station for the

Champaign Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...

–

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

– Decatur

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

, it airs 25% of the PBS network schedule.

Broadcast area

WEIU-TV's broadcast radius extends south to Effingham, north to

, west to Decatur, and east to

Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...

. The station serves Champaign, Christian, Clark, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Jasper, Macon, Moultrie, Piatt, Sangamon, Shelby, and Vermilion counties in Illinois and Vigo County in Indiana.

History

WEIU-TV began operations on July 1, 1986, as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...

station offering public affairs and instructional programming, as well as the student-run news program ''News Scan''. On January 30, 1992, WEIU-TV officially joined PBS. In January 2002, the newscast was renamed '' News Watch''; it currently airs from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ''News Watch'' won its first

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 2009 and its second Emmy in 2010. WEIU-TV launched its first digital broadcast in 2006, on UHF channel 50 (tuned as virtual channel 51). The station began broadcasting in high definition (HD) on March 22, 2010. It offered the first local HD newscast for viewers in central Illinois. Before June 2010, no

commercial television Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. It was the United States′ first model of radio (an ...

stations in the market were producing news in HD, which changed when

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

affiliate

WAND A wand is a thin, light-weight rod that is held with one hand, and is traditionally made of wood, but may also be made of other materials, such as metal or plastic. Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, which c ...

became the first to make the switch.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

On February 17, 2009, WEIU-TV shut down its analog signal over

channel 51. This was the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were federally mandated to transition from analog to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 50. Through the use of

PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...

, digital television receivers continued to display the station's

as its former UHF analog channel 51.

Related channels

In addition to its main station, WEIU-TV also operates "Your 13", a

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

channel offered to

Consolidated Communications Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc., doing business as Consolidated Communications, is an American broadband and business communications provider headquartered in Mattoon, Illinois. The company provides data, internet, voice, managed an ...

subscribers that presents educational, sports, informational and local public access programming, as well as an overnight simulcast of WEIU-FM. Unlike WEIU-TV, some of the programs on "Your 13" are funded by commercials. WEIU-TV also broadcasts a variety of international programming on its second digital sub-channel.

References

External links

Official websiteYour 13Hit Mix 88.9The OdysseySouthern Media's News Music Search Archive page of WEIU News themes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiu-Tv PBS member stations Television channels and stations established in 1986 1986 establishments in Illinois EIU-TV Charleston, Illinois First Nations Experience affiliates