WGVU-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 ...

35 ( VHF digital channel 11), 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 Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

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 ...

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 ...

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

, United States. It operates a full-time

satellite station A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

, WGVK (virtual channel 52, VHF digital channel 5) in

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

. The two stations are owned by

Grand Valley State University Grand Valley State University (GVSU, GV, or Grand Valley) is a public university in Allendale, Michigan. It was established in 1960 as Grand Valley State College. Its main campus is situated on approximately west of Grand Rapids. The universit ...

, and maintain studios in the

Meijer Meijer Inc. (, ; stylized as meijer) is an American supercenter chain that primarily operates throughout the Midwest. Its corporate headquarters are in Walker, Michigan, which is a part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. Founded in 1934 ...

Public Broadcast Center, located in the Eberhard Center on the GVSU Pew Campus in downtown Grand Rapids. WGVU's transmitter is located near the GVSU main campus in Allendale, while WGVK's transmitter is based in Kalamazoo's Westwood neighborhood.

History

The station signed on the air on December 17, 1972, as WGVC, owned by what was then Grand Valley State College. Channel 35 originally operated from the basement of Manitou Hall on GVSC's Allendale campus. WGVC's signal was somewhat marginal in the southern portion of the vast West Michigan market (Kalamazoo and

Battle Creek Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which en ...

). It must conform its signal to protect fellow PBS member WNIT in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...

, on adjacent channel 34. In much of this area, WGVC could only be seen on cable. This was very similar to what the area's main

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

affiliate,

WZZM-TV WZZM (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station has studios on 3 Mile Road NW in Walker (with a Grand Rapids mailing ...

(channel 13), faced due to the presence of

WTVG WTVG (channel 13) is a television station in Toledo, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Dorr Street (Ohio State Route 246, SR 246) in Toledo, and its transmitter is loc ...

in Toledo,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. To make up for this shortfall in coverage, Grand Valley State signed on WGVK as a satellite station in 1984. In 1986, the station relocated to its current studio facility at the Meijer Public Broadcast Center. The station's callsign was changed to WGVU-TV in 1987, when Grand Valley State was elevated to university status.

Programming

WGVU produces numerous local programs. It also carries national shows from PBS,

American Public Television American Public Television (APT) is an American nonprofit organization and syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. It distributes public television programs nationwide for PBS member stations and independ ...

, and the National Educational Telecommunications Association.

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

and PRI programming heard on WGVU-FM is aired on the fifth digital subchannel's SAP channel.

Weekly

* ''Ask The...'' – a live call-in show about a specific topic, hosted by Shelley Irwin; it airs Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. * ''Grand Valley State Sports Report'' (formerly ''GV Sports'') – hosted by

sports anchor Brent Ashcroft, this program covers

athletics. During the athletic season, it airs Mondays at 6 and 11 p.m., and does not air during the summer months. * ''West Michigan Week'' – a program discussing the week's news headlines, hosted by Patrick Center; it airs Fridays at 9:30 p.m. * ''WGVU Newsmakers'' – a program profiling people and issues, hosted by Patrick Center; it airs Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m.

Specials

* ''WGVU Community Connection'' – a monthly program hosted by Shelley Irwin. It spotlights non-profit agencies in West Michigan. * ''WGVU Family Health Matters'' – a program covering health issues.

Documentaries

Notable documentaries produced by WGVU include ''LZ Michigan'' (A "Landing Zone" to Remember, Honor, and Celebrate our Community's Veterans and Their Families), ''Time and Chance:

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

's Appointment with History,'' ''Surviving

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

: Children of the Shoah'' and ''Defying

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

.''

Digital television

Digital channels

The stations' digital signals are

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 ...

: WGVU/WGVK's main channel offers programming in

1080i 1080i (also known as Full HD or BT.709) is a combination of frame resolution and scan type. 1080i is used in high-definition television (HDTV) and high-definition video. The number "1080" refers to the number of horizontal lines on the screen. ...

high definition;

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 ...

programs are shown with pillarboxing. WGVU/WGVK's sixth subchannel offers a scrolling still screen featuring schedule information for the station's five other subchannels, along with background audio and NPR news updates.

WGVU-FM WGVU-FM is an NPR member station serving Grand Rapids, Michigan. Owned by Grand Valley State University, it is simulcast in West Michigan. The main broadcast frequency is 88.5 MHz, which is licensed to Allendale, the Grand Rapids suburb that ...

is available through the

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separa ...

channel on the DT1 channel outside programs carrying

Descriptive Video Service Audio description, also referred to as a video description, described video, or more precisely called a visual description, is a form of narration used to provide information surrounding key visual elements in a media work (such as a film or telev ...

audio.

Analog-to-digital conversion

Both stations shut down their analog signals respectively, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television:List of Digital Full-Power Stations
/ref> * WGVU-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 35; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 11, using

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 AT ...

to display WGVU-TV's

as 35 on digital television receivers. * WGVK shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 52; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 5, using PSIP to display WGVK's virtual channel as 52 on digital television receivers, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

References

External links

Official websiteWGVU Online Auction
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wgvu-Tv PBS member stations Television channels and stations established in 1972 1972 establishments in Michigan GVU-TV Grand Valley State University Allendale, Michigan