WFWA (channel 39) is a
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
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...
, United States. Owned by Fort Wayne Public Television, Inc., the station maintains studios at the Dr. Rudy and Rhonda Kachmann Teleplex on the campus of
Purdue University Fort Wayne
Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW) is a public university in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States. A campus of Purdue University, Purdue Fort Wayne was founded on July 1, 2018, when its predecessor university, Indiana University–Purdue University ...
, and its transmitter is located at its former studio facility on Butler Road in Fort Wayne.
History
On February 2, 1975,
W39AA, a translator of
WBGU-TV
WBGU-TV, virtual channel 27 (UHF digital channel 22), is a Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television station licensed to Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. Owned by Bowling Green State University, it is sister to radio station WBGU ...
in
Bowling Green, Ohio
Bowling Green is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, Ohio, United States, located southwest of Toledo. The population was 30,028 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Toledo Metropolitan Area and a member of the Toledo Metropolitan Are ...
, signed on the air on channel 39; the coverage of W39AA was generally restricted to the immediate Fort Wayne area, as its coverage was not powerful enough to cover the entire market. This low-powered repeater station was merely a placeholder, as channel 39 was allocated as a full-powered
educational
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...
channel in Fort Wayne. In December 1985, the station became a translator of
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
PBS station
WFYI, after the translator was allowed to originate programming.
In October 1984, Fort Wayne Public Television applied to build a full-power station on channel 39. The FCC approved on January 29, 1985; WFWA signed on the air on December 5, 1986, bringing northeast Indiana its own PBS station for the first time ever. However, it was not until October 1, 1989, that WFWA was programmed separately from WFYI.
In 2003, WFWA became the first television station in the Fort Wayne market to broadcast a digital signal, originally carrying the national PBS
HDTV
High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
feed on a separate subchannel from its regular programming; funding issues would later cause the national HD feed to be pulled, leaving all programming in
standard definition
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
for several years. It was announced that WFWA's main channel 39.1 would broadcast in high-definition full-time at some point during summer 2010. During a summer 2010 pledge break, general manager Bruce Haines announced that the change would occur on July 4, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. Due to advancements in video compression, the station was able to upgrade its main channel to HD without sacrificing the video quality of its other three SD subchannels.
In May 2013, the station announced a fundraising drive to upgrade its infrastructure over the next three years, including a signal boost, the purchase of remote production equipment, and improvements to the station's master control.
Technical information
Subchannels
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 ...
:
Previously, WFWA had shown the national PBS Kids feed (also seen nationally on digital cable/satellite) on channel 39.2. When the service ended on September 26, 2005, WFWA continued the channel by self-programming it locally until 2017, when the national 24/7
PBS Kids
PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...
Channel launched. WFWA aired the Annenberg/CPB Channel on 39.4 until October 1, 2008. The satellite feed for Annenberg was discontinued at that time.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WFWA shut down its analog signal, over
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 ...
channel 39, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to
transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 40.
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 display the station's
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 ...
as its former UHF analog channel 39.
As part of the
SAFER Act
In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share ...
,
WFWA kept its analog signal on the air for 2+ weeks to inform viewers of the
digital television transition
The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is conv ...
through a loop of
public service announcement
A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
s from the
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...
.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wfwa
PBS member stations
Television channels and stations established in 1986
FWA
1986 establishments in Indiana