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Areas with the most PBS stations

K

kc0ltv

Which areas / cities receive the most PBS member stations, either off the air, via cable, or via satellite TV packages? This is excluding digital subchannels.

In Duluth, we only have one PBS station - WDSE-TV - even though Wisconsin with its Wisconsin Public Television is right across the state line 10 miles away. Superior, WI and the surrounding area receives WDSE as its local PBS, as the nearest full-power WPT transmitter is a good 90 or so miles away in Menomonie, WI.

Parts of the Minneapolis - St. Paul can see the two TPT (Twin Cities Public Television) stations (tpt2 and tpt17), in addition to WHWC 28.
 
Comcast of New Britain and Hartford (CT) carries WEDH-TV channel 24 of Hartford and WGBY-TV channel 57 of Springfield, MA. Most of northern Connecticut can also get WGBY with rabbit ears or a roof antenna (I myself can't get WGBY in the clear). Some of us (me included) get both WEDN-TV channel 53 and WEDN-DT channel 45 from Norwich (soon to be on channel 9 when WEDH-DT Hartford signs on and swaps that channel 45 signal with WEDN-DT). Areas of southern Connecticut can get WEDY-TV/DT channel 65/digital 6 from New Haven, WEDW-TV/DT channel 49 and its digital counterpart. Further still, other areas would get either WLIW-TV channel 21 of Garden City, NY (Long Island), WNET-TV channel 13 of Newark, NJ/New York City, or both.
 
Northern Virginia would be up there. OTA most people can pick up...

*Washington's WETA and WHUT
*Maryland's Maryland Public TV ( Hagerstown, Frederick and Baltimore )
*Staunton-Front Royal's WVPT

plus on top of that some viewers there can pick up West Virginia Public TV thanks to a translator in the Eastern Panhandle near
Martinsburg and Hershey's ( Harrisburg ) WITF sometimes makes it that far south.

Plus Northern Virginia has WNVT and WNVC. Both of those stations are available on Direct TV and Dish Network and OTA if one has DTV.

Thats a grand total of 10 PBS if one counts those three Maryland Public TV signals.
 
WNVC and WNVT aren't PBS stations anymore. They both air foreign-language and foreign-interest programming under the name "MHz."

An odd one is Charlotte, NC. Has three PBS stations, WUNG-58 from NC's UNC, WNSC-30 from SC's SCETV, and WTVI-42, an independent PBS for Charlotte. Though with the digital transition, most OTA viewers will be losing WTVI-DT, since their digital on 11 is next to impossible to receive...

Orlando has three, WCEU-15, WMFE-24, and WBCC-68.

- Trip
 
Atlanta has two (WGTV (GPB)/8 and WPBA/30).

Los Angeles has four if I am correct...and, if Jay Leno's jokes are correct, the people in that area are known to avoid libraries and other entities of educational value (although I belive that is not true).
 
Where I live I receive the two Atlanta PBS stations plus South Carolina ETV. All of the carrying the same programming, and with the exception of
WPBA-TV, Atlanta, almost always at the same time.
 
The Boston area has WGBH-2 and WGBX-44. Also on several cable systems and DirecTV is WENH-11 from New Hampshire. Southern viewers can receive WSBE-36 from Providence on Comcast, and some even with OTA reception. I am in one of the few towns to receive all 4 PBS stations on cable.
 
IIRC, in southeastern New Hampshire, you can receive 4 PBS stations OTA:

WGBH-2 Boston
WENH-11 Durham
WMEA-26 Biddeford, ME
WGBX-44 Boston
 
Chicago
WTTW 11
WYCC 20
WYIN 56

Plus, some outlying areas can get WMVS 10 Milwaukee or WNIT 34 South Bend.
 
LA indeed has four in-market public TV stations: KCET 28 (the big gun), KLCS 58 (mostly instructional, owned by LA city schools), KOCE 50 (focused on Orange County) and KVCR 24 (focused on the Inland Empire and Palm Springs). KVCR isn't seen on cable in most of LA or Orange counties, though it is on the satellite packages.

The San Francisco market has five: KQED 9 (the big gun), San Jose's KTEH 54 (now operated in tandem with KQED, I believe), KMTP 32 (not a PBS member station, mostly multicultural programming), KCSM 60 (mostly instructional, based in San Mateo) and KRCB 22 (not full-market coverage, aimed mainly at the North Bay).

Philadelphia-area viewers get four: WHYY 12 (the big gun), WYBE 35 (not a PBS member, now doing a lot of short-form, "Current TV" style programming), WLVT 39 (from Allentown, but seen on satellite and cable in most of the market) and NJN via WNJS 23/WNJT 52.

Cincinnati's a good spot, too - local WCET 48, KET's Covington transmitter across the river on 54, plus nearby WPTO 14 Oxford that serves most of the market and slightly more distant WPTD 16 Dayton that can be seen in much of the area OTA. WCET and KET are on cable throughout the market, and WPTO has cable carriage on most of the Ohio side.

Viewers in Ann Arbor, Michigan and vicinity have access to four easy over-the-air signals, though not all are on cable: WTVS 56 Detroit is the "local" outlet, but WFUM 28 Flint, WKAR 23 East Lansing and WGTE 30 Toledo all come in clearly. With a good antenna, WBGU 27 Bowling Green is probably viewable there, too.

Of course, when you start counting out-of-market signals, the sky's the limit sometimes - from here in Rochester, even though we have only one local station (WXXI 21), I get 100% solid DTV reception of WCNY 24 Syracuse and its subchannels, plus decent summertime reception of WPBS-DT Watertown and its subchannels.
 
Here just a few miles northeast of Providence I can receive PBS chs. WSBE-TV 36 from Providence, as well as chs. WGBH-TV 2 and WGBX-TV 44 from Boston, MA (all have excellent signals OTA via their digital signals, and the local cable companies, COX and Verizon, as well as DISH, carry all three stations). Also available just west of Providence OTA is WEDN-TV 53 from Norwich, CT.
 
ansky212 said:
New York City:

WNET-13
WLIW-21
WNYE-25
WNJN-50
WEDW-49 (can be picked up north of the city and on LI)
Click to expand...

Digitally:

13.1 WNET
13.2 Kids Thirteen
13.3 V-me
21.1 WLIW
21.2 Create
21.3 PBS World
25.1 WNYE-TV
49.1 CPTV
50.1 NJN
50.2 The Annenberg Channel
50.3 JerseyVision
50.4 NJN-HD

Wow!
 
KeithE4 said:
Chicago
WTTW 11
WYCC 20
WYIN 56

Plus, some outlying areas can get WMVS 10 Milwaukee or WNIT 34 South Bend.
Click to expand...

...when I lived on the Southern Lake Michigan shoreline area of Kenosha, Wisconsin, I was capable of picking up all of these as well as WMVT/36 Milwaukee and WGVC-TV(now WGVU)/35 Grand Rapids (South Bend and Grand Rapids being straight shots over the lake)...
 
Ultimajock said:
KeithE4 said:
Chicago
WTTW 11
WYCC 20
WYIN 56

Plus, some outlying areas can get WMVS 10 Milwaukee or WNIT 34 South Bend.
Click to expand...

...when I lived on the Southern Lake Michigan shoreline area of Kenosha, Wisconsin, I was capable of picking up all of these as well as WMVT/36 Milwaukee and WGVC-TV(now WGVU)/35 Grand Rapids (South Bend and Grand Rapids being straight shots over the lake)...
Click to expand...

I didn't include WMVT because there has been a station on Channel 36 in the Chicago area since 1989, either music videos from an LPTV station in Palatine, TBN from Sears Tower (same station, licensed to Palatine, but now on Ch. 40, IIRC), or (now) WJYS-DT.

On digital, WMVT-DT and WNIT-DT South Bend are both on Channel 35. There might be an interference problem unless both stations are using directional antennas.
 
WYIN Channel 56 isn't very visible over the air to most of Chicago or the Illinois side. I used to live on the south side by the University of Chicago and couldn't pull it in. When I lived in the south suburbs by the Cook County/Will County line, I got the station great.

WYIN is carried by Comcast in the city of Chicago.

Salt Lake has two PBS

KUED 7 (PBS)

KBYU 11 (PBS)


Denver has two PBS as well

KRMA Channel 6 and KBDI Channel 12.

Kind of interesting that the channels are both VHF
 
Mark said:
WYIN Channel 56 isn't very visible over the air to most of Chicago or the Illinois side. I used to live on the south side by the University of Chicago and couldn't pull it in. When I lived in the south suburbs by the Cook County/Will County line, I got the station great.

WYIN is carried by Comcast in the city of Chicago.
Click to expand...

When I lived in Streamwood (far-NW Cook County suburb for those of you in Rio Linda ;D ), I was able to get Channel 56 fairly well, although I did have a large rooftop antenna.

Salt Lake has two PBS

KUED 7 (PBS)

KBYU 11 (PBS)
Click to expand...

It's not PBS, but KUEN Ch. 9 Ogden is another noncommercial educational channel. It's owned by KUED.
 
alg2468 said:
Here just a few miles northeast of Providence I can receive PBS chs. WSBE-TV 36 from Providence, as well as chs. WGBH-TV 2 and WGBX-TV 44 from Boston, MA (all have excellent signals OTA via their digital signals, and the local cable companies, COX and Verizon, as well as DISH, carry all three stations). Also available just west of Providence OTA is WEDN-TV 53 from Norwich, CT.
Click to expand...

And up here in southern NH (just south of Manchester), we get, via cable, NHPTV (WENH-TV 11 from Durham, technically), WGBH and WGBX. The cable systems in Manchester and Hooksett have NHPTV and WGBH, but strangely omit WGBX. ???
 
KeithE4 said:
Mark said:
WYIN Channel 56 isn't very visible over the air to most of Chicago or the Illinois side. I used to live on the south side by the University of Chicago and couldn't pull it in. When I lived in the south suburbs by the Cook County/Will County line, I got the station great.

WYIN is carried by Comcast in the city of Chicago.
Click to expand...

When I lived in Streamwood (far-NW Cook County suburb for those of you in Rio Linda ;D ), I was able to get Channel 56 fairly well, although I did have a large rooftop antenna.
Click to expand...

WYIN-DT (RF channel 17) does much better than the analog 56 did; I had no trouble seeing it with just a Silver Sensor indoor antenna from a hotel room in Oak Brook last month.

If WYIN-DT had moved to Sears, as it was thinking of doing at one point, it would of course have become a full-market signal.
 
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