Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) is a state network of PBS

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 ea ...

s and NPR member

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

s serving the U.S. state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. It is operated by the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission, an agency of the Georgia state government which holds the

license 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 ...

s for most of the PBS and NPR member stations licensed in the state. The broadcast signals of the nine television stations and 19 radio stations cover almost all of the state, as well as parts of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

. The network's

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

and primary radio and

television production A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

facilities are located on 14th Street in Midtown Atlanta, just west of the

Downtown Connector In Downtown Atlanta, the Downtown Connector or 75/85 (pronounced "seventy-five eighty-five") is the concurrent section of Interstate 75 and Interstate 85 through the core of the city. Beginning at the I-85/ Langford Parkway interchange, ...

in the

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.Georgia's film and television industry, and in addition to commercial production occurring at the GPB facilities, some production companies also rent production offices from GPB.

History

Establishing the network

On May 23, 1960, the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

signed on WGTV, the second

educational television Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable telev ...

station in Georgia (after Atlanta's WETV, later WPBA, now

WABE-TV WABE-TV (channel 30) is a secondary PBS member television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Owned by Atlanta Public Schools, it is a sister outlet to NPR member station WABE (90.1 FM) and local educational access cable service APS Cab ...

). From 1960 to 1964, in a separate initiative, the Georgia Board of Education launched four educational television stations across the state, aimed at providing in-school instruction. This evolved into the Georgia Educational Television Network, which aired Board of Education-produced classes for schools and evening programming from WGTV. WGTV moved its transmitter to Stone Mountain in 1969, adding Atlanta to its coverage area. In November 1980, Governor

George Busbee George Dekle Busbee Sr. (August 7, 1927 – July 16, 2004), was an American politician who served as the 77th Governor of the State of Georgia from 1975 to 1983, and a senior partner at King & Spalding thereafter. Early life Born in Vienna, Geo ...

proposed the consolidation of WGTV with the state's network of transmitters into a new Georgia Public Telecommunications Council and also called for said body to negotiate to buy WETV from the Atlanta Board of Education. The Georgia state senate approved the bill, but it stalled in the House of Representatives due to the objections of Athens-area members and those involved with the UGA station. After the legislative session ended, Governor Busbee revived the proposal by executive order. On January 1, 1982, the new council took operational control of WGTV, and the combined service rebranded as Georgia Public Television; by June 1982, after the expiration of remaining program contracts, WGTV was fully incorporated into the network, and UGA's role was reduced to program supplier.

Growth into radio

In February 1985, the GPTC entered into

public radio Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

, launching stations serving Macon, Columbus and Valdosta in the first year. These formed the nuclei of Peach State Public Radio, which provided the first public radio services to much of Georgia; previously, only Atlanta and Savannah had public stations. During the 1980s and 1990s, stations that had been operated by other educational institutions and community groups became affiliated with the network. The service was renamed Georgia Public Radio in 2001. In 1995, the GPTC began using "Georgia Public Broadcasting" as its corporate name. This would eventually become the umbrella title for all GPB operations in early 2004, when GPTV and Georgia Public Radio simultaneously rebranded under the Georgia Public Broadcasting name.

New studios and new scandals

The late 1990s were a time of political scandal for GPB. In 1997, the agency used Georgia Lottery funds earmarked for technology to build its present facility in Midtown, later cited as one of several unnecessary projects using lottery monies. Financial mismanagement led Governor

Roy Barnes Roy Eugene Barnes (born March 11, 1948)Cook, James F. (2005). ''The Governors of Georgia, 1754-2004, 3rd Edition, Revised and Expanded.'' Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. is an American attorney and politician who served as the 80th Govern ...

in 1999 to oust the executive director, Vernon Rogers, and board of directors, appointing longtime state auditor Claude Vickers to turn around a three-year deficit nearing $7 million. The ouster of Rogers came after an audit revealed that the agency had a stack of accounts receivable, the oldest of them 12 years old; a bank loan that the Georgia legislature never approved; and had misplaced $1 million in equipment. Under Vickers, GPB cut expenses by $5.2 million without cutting radio or television program production and had its first positive audit in six years. As the audiovisual industry has grown in Georgia, GPB studios have been used for the production of commercial television programming. The studio facilities were used for the production of the first season of the

CBS Television Distribution CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Television Distribution, Inc. and CBS Paramount Domestic Television, Inc.) is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studios, part of CBS Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount G ...

- syndicated program ''

Swift Justice With Nancy Grace ''Swift Justice with Jackie Glass'' (also known simply as ''Swift Justice'' and previously known as ''Swift Justice with Nancy Grace'') is an American arbitration-based reality court show that was first hosted by HLN host and former Fulton County ...

''; production of that series was moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

for its second and final season. In 2014, another syndicated court show, '' Lauren Lake's Paternity Court'', began using the GPB facilities under the same arrangement; in 2017, it was joined by ''Couples Court with the Cutlers''. GPB is an agency under the oversight of the governor, which has led to concerns of political connections in the broadcasting operation. In 2012, the director of the agency hired state senator

Chip Rogers William "Chip" Rogers (born May 3, 1968) is the President and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association and past President and CEO of Asian American Hotel Owners Association, the largest hotel owners association in the United States. Roger ...

to host a program on a direct recommendation from

Nathan Deal John Nathan Deal (born August 25, 1942) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 82nd governor of Georgia from 2011 to 2019. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party in 1992 a ...

; the arrangement was panned by former NPR president Vivian Schiller and seen as a way to land the politician in a favorable position. Rogers was let go from GPB in 2014.

GPB Television

GPB Television broadcasts PBS programming and statewide programs produced specifically for the GPB network 24 hours a day on a network of nine full-power stations as well as numerous low-power

translator stations Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

(especially in the state's mountainous northeastern counties). Certain programs broadcast by GPB Television (mainly those provided by PBS) feature a Descriptive Video Service track that is audible over the second audio program (SAP) channel of each station; GPB Radio feeds could previously be heard during times when DVS-transcribed programs were not airing, prior to the 2009

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 con ...

. All stations within the GPB Television network act as

rebroadcaster 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 tra ...

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...

ing the network's programming at all times. GPB-produced programs include ''Gardening in Georgia'', ''Georgia Backroads'', ''Georgia's Business'', ''Georgia Outdoors'' and ''Georgia Traveler'', as well as annual coverage of the

Georgia General Assembly The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are direct ...

when it is in

legislative session A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two electio ...

early in the year. Live coverage of the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

championship games from the Georgia High School Association is broadcast at the end of their respective seasons. GPB Television also operates four

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compres ...

s that are carried on most of its stations: GPB Knowledge debuted in September 2008, but officially launched on October 1 of that year. GPB Knowledge carries programming from the

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

network during

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

hours, and GPB documentary and news programming (including

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media an ...

) at other times. It replaced GPB Education, which is still available to schools statewide

on demand On-demand or on demand may refer to: Manufacturing * Build-on-demand * Just-in-time manufacturing, a methodology for production * Print on demand, printing technology and business process in which new copies of a document are not printed until an ...

over the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

. GPB Kids, launched in January 2009 as the second

of the GPBTV stations, replacing the

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 ...

feed (which mirrored each station's analog feed) of GPB's main channel. GPB Kids aired 24/7 with content from

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. Inste ...

. During December 2008, the subchannel carried only a static

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID or channel ID or bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name (sometimes known, particularly in th ...

for all nine stations (including the GPB/

logo), and the

electronic program guide Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...

for the channel continued to show main channel information for the GPBTV stations. In March 2015, GPB Kids was replaced with Create. In January 2017,

24/7 was launched, being the fourth digital subchannel of the GPB TV stations.

Television stations

Each of GPB's television stations identify themselves with two locations—usually, the smaller community where the station is licensed by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(almost always the station's transmitter location) and the larger city that it serves. The exceptions are WVAN-TV and WJSP-TV, which are actually licensed in major Georgia cities: WVAN-TV is licensed to Savannah, while WJSP-TV is licensed to Columbus. However, in order to conform to the pattern, GPB lists the locations for the stations' transmitters as the second city. This rule only applies to the television stations, not to those on radio, which, except for two, bear only the city of license. The GPB television stations are:

Footnotes

Broadcast translators

GPB Television operates several low-power translator stations located in the hilly terrain of the north Georgia mountains. These include:

Former translators

The following translators were abandoned by GPB, which had their licenses (and in some cases, digital applications and permits) cancelled by the FCC, apparently at GPB's request, possibly due to the expense of running and upgrading them.

WUGA-TV

On December 23, 2010, the

announced that it would enter into a programming partnership with GPB, which would provide all programming for the university-owned WNEG-TV (channel 32) in

Toccoa Toccoa is a city in far Northeast Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia near the border with South Carolina. It is the county seat of Stephens County, Georgia, Stephens County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States, located about from Athens, Geo ...

, with most of the content coming from its GPB Knowledge subchannel. The station filed with the FCC to convert WNEG's station license to

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 ...

status. The partnership between UGA and GPB was due to a reduction of advertising dollars, resulting from an economic downturn and the loss of WNEG's CBS affiliation (the station had been with CBS since August 1995, receiving affiliation as a by-product of the CBS programming moving in the adjacent Atlanta market from

WAGA-TV WAGA-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facil ...

hannel 5to WGCL-TV hannel 46in December 1994). At 5:30 am on May 1, 2011, the station began carrying GPB Knowledge programming; the following day, its call letters were changed to WUGA-TV. UGA sold WUGA-TV to Marquee Broadcasting in 2015; at 12:01 am on July 1, 2015, the new owners dropped all GPB Knowledge programming, changed the station's call letters to WGTA, and returned the station to commercial operation with programming from the MeTV, Heroes & Icons, Decades, and

Movies! Movies! (also known as simply M!) is an American free-to-air television network, owned by Popcorn Entertainment, LLC, a joint venture between Weigel Broadcasting and the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corporation. The network's prog ...

networks.

Digital television

WGTV, WXGA-TV, and WVAN-TV were the first GPB stations to begin operating their own

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative adva ...

signals. The other six stations signed on their digital signals in July 2008. The ERP/HAAT figures listed within the table for those stations are based on those listed in the stations' individual Wikipedia articles, though some of the stations were operating at low power, and only upgraded to full-power when the digital transition occurred.

Subchannels

The digital signals of GPB's TV stations are multiplexed: All nine stations carry the same programming from each of the four channels, but channel labels differ somewhat between the stations.

Analog-to-digital conversion

The GPB Television stations shut down their analog signals on February 17, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television (which Congress had moved the previous month to June 12).List of Digital Full-Power Stations
/ref> Each stations' post-transition digital allocations are as follows: * WABW-TV 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 14; the station's digital signal moved from its pre-transition VHF channel 5 to channel 6, using PSIP to display WABW-TV'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 14 on digital television receivers. * WACS-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 25; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 8, using PSIP to display WACS-TV's virtual channel as 25 on digital television receivers. * WCES-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 20; the station's digital signal moved from its pre-transition

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

channel 2 to channel 6, using PSIP to display WCES-TV's virtual channel as 20 on digital television receivers. * WGTV shut down its analog signal, over

channel 8; the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 12 to channel 8. * WJSP-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 28; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 23, using PSIP to display WJSP-TV's virtual channel as 28 on digital television receivers. The station was licensed to move its digital signal to VHF channel 5 effective April 5, 2019. * WMUM-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 29; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 7, using PSIP to display WMUM-TV's virtual channel as 29 on digital television receivers. * WNGH-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 18; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 33, using PSIP to display WNGH-TV's virtual channel as 18 on digital television receivers. * WVAN-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 9; the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 13 to channel 9. * WXGA-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8; the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 9 to channel 8. GPB has placed most of its stations on VHF due to the lower

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would h ...

requirements (20 or 32 kW instead of 1000 kW), which in turn reduces the cost of purchasing the

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

and using the

electrical power Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billion ...

for it. For WABW and WCES, this makes them one of the few television stations in the country to operate on low-band VHF channels (2 to 6), which require larger receiving antennas, are prone to tropospheric ducting (

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the ...

) and impulse noise, make mobile TV ( ATSC-M/H) difficult, and for 5 and 6 are also an obstacle to expanding the

FM broadcast band The FM broadcast band is a range of radio frequencies used for FM broadcasting by radio stations. The range of frequencies used differs between different parts of the world. In Europe and Africa (defined as International Telecommunication Union ( ...

. The high-band VHF channels also have these problems, but not to a major extent.

Cable and satellite availability

GPB Television's various stations are carried on all cable providers in Georgia (the station that is available on a given provider varies on the jurisdiction). Additionally, Savannah's WVAN is carried on cable systems on

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina Hilton Head Island, sometimes referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and southwest of Charleston. The island is ...

; Columbus' WJSP is carried on cable systems in

Phenix City Phenix City is a city in Lee and Russell counties in the U.S. state of Alabama, and the county seat of Russell County. As of the 2020 Census, the population of the city was 38,817. Phenix City lies immediately west across the Chattahoochee Ri ...

and

Auburn, Alabama Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama, with a 2020 population of 76,143. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area. The Auburn-Opelika, AL MSA with a population ...

; and Augusta's WCES is carried on most cable systems in Aiken and Edgefield, South Carolina. WABW is carried on

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

's system in

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the populatio ...

. On

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

, WGTV, WVAN, WCES, WJSP, WNUM, WABW, WNGH, and WXGA are carried on the Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Albany, Chattanooga, and Jacksonville

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

and

Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling ...

feeds, respectively.

Television programs

Series

*''Gardening in Georgia'' *''Georgia Outdoors'' *''Georgia Traveler'' *''Georgia's Backroads'' and ''More Georgia Backroads'' *''Georgia's Business'' *''Lawmakers'' *''On the Story'' *''Salsa''

Specials

*''The Day Atlanta Stood Still'' *''

Georgia Aquarium Georgia Aquarium is a public aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It exhibits hundreds of species and thousands of animals across its seven major galleries, all of which reside in more than of water. It was the largest aquarium in the wo ...

: Keepers of the Deep'' *''Georgia Gazette'' *''Georgia Graduation Stories'' *''The Georgia Meth Invasion'' *''Georgia On My Mind'' *''Georgia Quilts: Stitches And Stories'' *''Georgia Read More'' *''Georgia Serenade'' *''Georgia Valor'' *''Georgia Weekly'' *''Georgia's Civil War'' *''Georgia's Historic Inns'' *''Historic Houses of Georgia: The Antebellum Years'' *''Lost Atlanta: The Way We Were'' *''Main Street Georgia'' *''Secret Seashore: Georgia's Barrier Islands'' (see

The Golden Isles of Georgia The Golden Isles of Georgia consist of barrier islands, and the mainland port cities of Brunswick and Darien, on the 100-mile-long coast of the U.S. state of Georgia on the Atlantic Ocean. They include St. Simons Island, Sea Island, Jekyll ...

) *''Sites to Behold: The History of Georgia's State Parks'' *''The South Takes Flight: 100 Years of Aviation in Georgia'' *''Sustainable Georgia'' *''The Thomas B. Murphy Story'' (see Tom Murphy) *''Vanishing Georgia''

GPB Radio

GPB Radio broadcasts 24 hours a day on several FM radio stations across the state, except in the

Atlanta metropolitan area Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and th ...

. The network had previously operated a translator station in Atlanta, W264AE (100.7 FM), which broadcast from a transmission tower located in the city's downtown district. However, it (and WGHR) was forced to go silent when full-power station WWWQ (100.5 FM, now

WNNX WNNX (100.5 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to College Park, Georgia, featuring a classic alternative format as "99X". Owned by Cumulus Media, the station serves the Atlanta metropolitan area. WNNX's studios are located in Sandy ...

) moved from

Anniston, Alabama Anniston is the county seat of Calhoun County in Alabama and is one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 23,106. Ac ...

(where it operated under the WHMA-FM call letters) into the Atlanta market on an

adjacent channel In broadcasting an adjacent channel is an AM, FM, or TV channel that is next to another channel. First-adjacent is immediately next to another channel, second-adjacent is two channels away, and so forth. Information on adjacent channels is ...

. Despite having almost no presence in metropolitan Atlanta prior to 2014, the network reaches nearly all the rest of Georgia, plus parts of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee. Atlanta-area listeners heard NPR programming on locally licensed stations WABE and WCLK instead.

WRAS-Atlanta controversy

On May 6, 2014,

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the largest institution of hig ...

announced an arrangement allowing Georgia Public Broadcasting to program the University's station WRAS ("Album 88") from 5a.m. to 7p.m. daily, leaving 7p.m. to 5a.m. as the only remaining student airtime. This took effect on June 29. In exchange, GPB promised to provide internships at GPB for GSU students and other media collaborations between the two institutions, with WRAS broadcasting a separate feed from the main statewide network. The announcement immediately prompted intense opposition and denunciations from WRAS listeners, staffers, and GSU alumni, going so far as evoking a protest at GSU's commencement ceremony, a social media campaign with the tag #savewras, and a petition with more than 10,000 signatories on Change.org. Some of them have made accusations of secrecy and even illegality surrounding the transaction as they protested that the

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

format was unique to the Atlanta market (despite the presence of another college station in the area, WREK, licensed to the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part ...

) and that it was being displaced by programming that largely duplicated offerings on WABE. This has led to a public effort to boycott GPB and its underwriters. Despite these protests, the network announced plans to increase news and talk programming later in 2014 to cater to WRAS listeners.

Programming

Most of the stations presently air a mix of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...

, and news and talk programming sourced from NPR; however, some stations carry select locally produced programming. WRAS airs NPR news and talk programming during the hours that GPB programs it. Previously, GPB Radio was transmitter over the second audio program feed of GPB's television stations at most times prior to the 2009 digital television transition. GPB Radio is still audible through this function on

, but not GPB's digital television stations or on cable for unknown reasons. GPB Radio stations in southern and southeastern Georgia also relay

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dep ...

evacuation information for listeners approaching or leaving Georgia's Atlantic Coast or the

Florida Panhandle The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia on the north, and the ...

. Signs along interstate and other major highways in the region direct the evacuee to the nearest GPB Radio station carrying the emergency information.

Radio stations

Notes

WGPB and WNGH were

commercial radio 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 (a ...

stations purchased by a GPB foundation in the late 2000s, hence their location outside of the 88-92 MHz

reserved band A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (TV ads or radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was or ...

. Except for W233CA in Athens and the former W264AE in Atlanta, none of the translator stations are owned by GPB/GPTC, but rather by

Radio Assist Ministry Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

and Edgewater Broadcasting, two related companies that speculatively apply for such stations during FCC filing windows, assign them to

non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements ( TV ads or radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was o ...

"parent" stations to avoid

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary f ...

fees, then rent or sell them to other stations for a profit. While many more RAM/EB stations are assigned to rebroadcast GPB stations in the FCC database, only these five ar
listed by GPB

GPB Education

GPB Education (formerly known as Peachstar) serves state agencies and the Georgia learning community through the use of

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scien ...

. GPB delivers high-quality educational programming that reflects state standards to Georgia

classroom A classroom or schoolroom is a learning space in which both children and adults learn. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, ranging from preschools to universities, and may also be found in other places where education ...

s using the GPB satellite network, open-air television, and the GPB

video streaming Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

portal. GPB provides professional development to Georgia educators through face-to-face trainings, satellite-delivered programs, and interactive webcasts. GPB also meets the training needs of state agencies through its

video production Video production is the process of producing video content for video. It is the equivalent of filmmaking, but with video recorded either as analog signals on videotape, digitally in video tape or as computer files stored on optical discs, hard dri ...

, satellite broadcast, and interactive

webcasting A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...

services, as well as through its extensive digital library. GPB is currently transitioning its GPB Education programming from

direct broadcast satellite Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...

, through its GPB Knowledge subchannel.DTV Satellite Transition
/ref>

Departments

GPB News

GPB News is the news department of Georgia Public Broadcasting. It is responsible for providing news updates to both GPB Radio and GPB Television, and collaborates with the ''

Atlanta Business Chronicle The ''Atlanta Business Chronicle'' is a weekly newspaper covering business news in Atlanta, Georgia, published by American City Business Journals. The paper has both a weekly print edition and an online edition. History The ''Atlanta Busine ...

'' to produce the program ''Georgia Business News''. The legislative discussion program ''Prime Time Lawmakers'' (formerly known as ''Lawmakers'') provided coverage and commentary on the

throughout each session; it aired from 1971 to 2014, when it was replaced by ''On the Story''.

GPB Sports

GPB Sports produces news coverage and commentary on sports throughout the state, with an emphasis on high school football. It produces the programs ''GPB SportsCentral'', ''PrepSports'' and ''Road to the Dome''.

References

External links

Georgia Public Broadcasting websiteGPB television stations map includes coverage areas
{{Authority control PBS member networks NPR member networks Television channels and stations established in 1960 1960 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)