WPTO

WPTO (channel 14) is a public television station licensed to Oxford, Ohio, United States, and broadcasting to the Cincinnati area. It is owned by Public Media Connect alongside WCET (channel 48, CET) in Cincinnati and WPTD (channel 16, ThinkTV) in Dayton and is managed from the ThinkTV studios in Dayton. The transmitter is co-located with Cincinnati's WXIX-TV near the Western Hills Viaduct.[5] WPTO serves as a secondary PBS station for the Cincinnati and Dayton areas.

WPTO
A white circle with a thick sky blue outline. Inside the circle are the words "Think TV", with the TV stylized in superscript. A registered trademark symbol exists outside the circle in the upper right corner.
CityOxford, Ohio
Channels
BrandingThinkTV 14
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
WPTD, WCET
History
First air date
1959 (1959)[lower-alpha 1]
Former call signs
WMUB-TV (1959–1977)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 14 (UHF, 1959–2009)
  • Digital: 28 (UHF, 2004–2019)
NET (1959–1970)
Call sign meaning
Public Television in Oxford
Technical information[4]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID25065
ERP500 kW
HAAT279 m (915 ft)
Transmitter coordinates39°7′27″N 84°31′18″W
Links
Public license information

Channel 14 in Oxford began broadcasting in 1959 as WMUB-TV, the educational television service of Miami University. It primarily served the immediate Oxford area, though a rebroadcaster was added to provide service to Dayton schools in 1969. In 1972, when the Ohio Educational Television Network Commission spearheaded the conversion of Dayton's channel 16 to educational programming as WOET-TV, the two stations began simulcasting. Miami University contributed WMUB-TV to the consortium known as University Regional Broadcasting (later renamed Greater Dayton Public Television), which operated channels 14 and 16, in 1975; the two stations became WPTO and WPTD in 1978.

After simulcasting with WPTD for 20 years, Greater Dayton Public Television began providing separate programming on WPTO on July 1, 1992; the new program lineup consisted of instructional and international programming. The station was added the next year to cable systems in Dayton and Cincinnati. WPTO began digital broadcasting in 2004 from a site in Cincinnati. WPTO also provides transmission capacity for two channels of Kentucky Educational Television transmitter WCVN-TV as part of a reciprocal ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) hosting arrangement.

History

WMUB-TV began broadcasting on October 13[1] or December 3, 1959, after three years of closed-circuit educational telecasting from the studios at Miami University.[3] WMUB-TV initially served to broadcast the same lectures seen on the closed-circuit system until additional educational programming was added in February 1960.[6] The station originally broadcast for 15 hours a week, which within ten years had grown to 57 hours a week.[7] In March 1970, a translator on channel 72 was set up to provide service to schools in Dayton.[8] An affiliate of National Educational Television, WMUB became part of PBS when it was constituted later in 1970. The station also broadcast several local programs focusing on community and public affairs issues.[7] One show, the variety program Studio 14, gave television executive Rick Ludwin, later of NBC, his start in broadcasting.[9]

In 1971, the Ohio Educational Television Network Commission acquired the license and transmitter of WKTR-TV, a failed commercial station in Kettering (near Dayton), returning it to the air as an educational television station under the WOET-TV call sign on April 24, 1972. WOET-TV began by rebroadcasting WMUB-TV. WMUB-TV, in turn, rebroadcast PBS programs from WCET in Cincinnati; the first week of programs on WOET was plagued by issues because WCET, the ultimate off-air source for the programs, held a local pledge drive. While the Network Commission intended a consortium of Miami University, Central State University, and Wright State University to run that station, they continued to quarrel over the shape of their partnership to run channel 16; but Wright State objected to the inclusion of Miami, which the network commission had insisted on because of its existing studios and previous television experience.[10] Wright State believed it should be the sole operator of the Dayton station,[11] though it ultimately relented and agreed to the tri-university consortium.[12] Plans for the consortium, to be known as University Regional Broadcasting (URB), took a step forward in 1974, when WMUB-TV was added to the proposed design of the group; eventually, separate programming for the two stations was foreseen.[13] On April 22, 1975, the FCC approved the transfer of the WOET-TV license from the Network Commission to University Regional Broadcasting, with the tri-university consortium taking over on July 1.[14] The stations changed their call letters on March 1, 1977, from WOET-TV to WPTD (Public Television in Dayton) and from WMUB-TV to WPTO (Public Television in Oxford).[15]

Split programming

In 1988, WPTD moved to new studios in the Transportation Center in downtown Dayton.[16] The new studios also helped lay the groundwork for providing separate programming from WPTD and WPTO. Over a year between late 1986 and late 1987, the two stations split for fewer than 10 programs.[17] However, it was not until transmitter improvements at both Dayton and Oxford created services with signal overlap that this vision was deemed feasible.[18] This eventually came to pass on July 1, 1992, when WPTO began airing a secondary lineup of primarily instructional and educational programs as well as documentaries, as well as rebroadcasts of key PBS shows in different time periods.[19] WPTO was added to the major cable systems in Cincinnati and Dayton in 1993.[20] WPTO's program lineup also included international shows from Britain and Japan.[21]

In 2000, the ThinkTV stations and WCET began sharing a senior executive, Scott Elliott, who had previously only worked at WCET. While the employee-sharing did not represent a merger,[22] it paved the way for further collaboration between the public broadcasters, who had talked four times in 25 years about merging. On October 31, 2008, Greater Dayton Public Television and the Greater Cincinnati Television Educational Foundation (CET), owner of WCET, announced plans to merge their resources into one non-profit organization serving all of Southwest Ohio while maintaining separate identities.[23] In May 2009, after two years of discussions, Public Media Connect was formed as a merger of the two groups, with each continuing as local nonprofits and subsidiaries.[24] The merger resulted in the July 2010 transfer of WCET's master control operations to ThinkTV's facilities in Dayton.[25]

WPTO began broadcasting a digital signal from a transmitter on channel 28 in Cincinnati on June 28, 2004.[26] ThinkTV ceased analog broadcasting from Dayton and Oxford on May 1, 2009, earlier than the June 12 national transition deadline, with WPTO continuing to use channel 28.[27][28] WPTO moved its digital signal from channel 28 to channel 29 on October 18, 2019, as part of the FCC's spectrum reallocation process.[29][30] WPTO operated at low power from that date[31] until May 1, 2020.[32]

Subchannels

On June 5, 2023, WPTO began broadcasting two of the four subchannels of WCVN-TV in Covington, Kentucky, a transmitter of Kentucky Educational Television (KET), as part of a partnership between KET and Public Media Connect; KET provides transmission capacity in 3.0 format for WCET and WPTO (as well as datacasting capabilities for both organizations) and vice versa in 1.0 format, with fiber delivering signals between Dayton and Lexington. This was the first partnership between separately owned public broadcasters.[33]

Subchannels of WPTO[34]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
14.1 1080i16:914HDMain WPTO programming / PBS
14.2 480i14PrimeThinkTV 14 Prime
(Repeat broadcasts of WPTO prime time shows)
14.3 14KidsPBS Kids
14.4 14WorldWorld Channel and The Ohio Channel
54.2 720p16:9KETKET / PBS (WCVN-DT2)
54.4 480iKETKIDSPBS Kids (WCVN-DT4)
  Broadcast on behalf of another station

Notes
  1. Sources list start dates of October 13,[1] October 14,[2] and December 3.[3]

References
  1. "It's On Channel 14: Miami U. TV Station Wins its FCC License". Dayton Daily News. April 30, 1960. p. 3. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. WPTO-TV. 2006. p. A-2735. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. "Offers Broad Program: Miami U. TV Center on Free Air". Dayton Daily News. December 3, 1959. p. 20. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Facility Technical Data for WPTO". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  5. Kiesewetter, John (August 14, 2020). "'Action Auction' Bidding Open; Telecast Begins Sept. 9". WVXU.
  6. "Miami Channel To Broadcast Into Home Sets". The Cincinnati Enquirer. February 7, 1960. p. 6-F. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Miami University Station: Channel 14 Educates, Entertains". The Journal News. February 15, 1972. p. Golden Moments 3. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Hopkins, Tom (April 1, 1970). "Poor Reception Still Bugs Miami U Education TV". Dayton Daily News. p. 38. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Kiesewetter, John (Summer 2007). "Stay Tuned: NBC execs Rick Ludwin '70 and Jon Miller '78 fine-tune entertainment and sports on the Peacock Network". Miamian.
  10. Herd, David M. (May 10, 1972). "Meeting Planned to Decide Educational TV Control". Dayton Daily News. p. 20. Retrieved June 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "WSU Holding Firm On TV Operation". Dayton Daily News. June 7, 1972. pp. 1, 14. Retrieved June 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Felton, John (June 7, 1972). "WSU to resume TV 'partnership'". The Journal Herald. pp. 23, 24. Retrieved June 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Hopkins, Tom (September 29, 1974). "Hula, Burglary Prevention, Pet Care Part of PBS Lineup". Dayton Daily News. p. 83. Retrieved June 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Hopkins, Tom (April 23, 1975). "NBC Cuts Smothers, Davis, Tanner, Crane and Others". Dayton Daily News. p. 64. Retrieved June 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Hopkins, Tom (February 28, 1977). "TV 2's 'The Butcher' gets a slice of national action". Dayton Daily News. p. 28. Retrieved June 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. Harter, Kevin (September 11, 1988). "Public tours new studio of WPTD". Dayton Daily News. p. 1-B. Retrieved June 7, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. Hopkins, Tom (December 6, 1987). "Channel 16 to acquire global link". Dayton Daily News and Journal Herald. pp. 1-C, 3-C. Retrieved June 7, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "Channel 14 may air own programming". Dayton Daily News. May 20, 1990. pp. 1C, 2C. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. Hopkins, Tom (June 13, 1992). "WPTO-TV (Channel 14) is separating from WPTD (Channel 16) as of July 1". Dayton Daily News. p. 42. Retrieved June 7, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. Hopkins, Tom (September 18, 1993). "Channel 14 gets grant for upgrade". Dayton Daily News. p. 2B. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. Hopkins, Tom (July 15, 1996). "Choice TV: With its move to cable and its unique programming, Channel 14 has blossomed. Now WPTO must grapple with looming federal cutbacks". Dayton Daily News. pp. 6B, 7B. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. Dempsey, Laura (March 4, 2000). "Public TV stations to share exec: Scott Elliott will serve Channels 16, 14 and 48". Dayton Daily News. p. 5B. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. Kiesewetter, John (November 1, 2008). "CET merging with 2 outlets from Dayton: Stations to retain branding". The Cincinnati Enquirer. pp. C1, C2. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. Larsen, Dave (May 9, 2009). "Public TV tries partnership". Dayton Daily News. p. A6. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. Kiesewetter, John (July 19, 2010). "Merger cuts CET jobs". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Gannett Company. Retrieved July 20, 2010. Five full-time positions, including both master control operators, have been eliminated by CET. ... Starting last weekend, CET's signal was being sent from Dayton to the station here, and then to the Fairview Heights tower and Time Warner cable, employees say.
  26. WPTO-DT. 2006. p. A-2735. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  27. Morris, Terry (May 1, 2009). "PBS 16, 14 pull plug on analog". Dayton Daily News. p. A3. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. May 23, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  29. Filby, Max (June 6, 2018). "TV antenna not working? Local channels start changing frequencies soon". Dayton Daily News. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  30. "FCC TV Spectrum Phase Assignment Table" (CSV). Federal Communications Commission. April 13, 2017. Archived from the original on April 17, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  31. "Rescan Day". Greater Dayton Public Television. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019.
  32. "Rescan Day". Greater Dayton Public Television. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020.
  33. Fybush, Scott (April 17, 2023). "Cross-border partnership brings NextGen TV to Cincinnati–Northern Kentucky market". Current.
  34. "TV Query for WPTO". RabbitEars.
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