SMALL (POP. UNDER 50,000) PLACES WITH STATE RUN PBS STATIONS

[gregg75]

Georgia Public Broadcasting has 9 stations.
Here are the 8 small station locations outside Atlanta 8 (WGTV)
Smallest place is Warm Springs (pop. 485)

WNGH 18 Chatsworth (serves NE Georgia, Rome, Chattanooga)
WCES 20 Wrens (Augusta metro)
WJSP 28 Warm Springs (Columbus metro)
WMUM 29 Cochran (Macon area)
WACS 28 Dawson (Albany)
WVAN 9 Pembroke (Savannah metro)
WABW 14 Pelham (SW Georgia, Albany)
WXGA 8 Waycross (SE Georgia)

Most popular state produced programs:
Georgia Traveler - spots across the state
Georgia Outdoors - wildlife, nature
Football Fridays- HS game of the week
Your Southern Garden - gardening, older version is Gardening In Georgia
Georgia Backroads - traveling small out of the way locations

4 other translator stations are in Brasstown Bald, Toccoa, Hartwell and Carollton.

 

[FreddyE1977]

West Virginia has several. Morgantown, Wheeling, Beckley
(though Morgantown and Wheeling are within signal range of some
more substantial population)

 

[fybush]

The purpose of a statewide network like Georgia or WV or Alabama is to provide...well, statewide service. It's something of a mistake, I think, to focus too much on the individual communities of license for each transmitter when the goal is to ensure usable broadcast service for all residents of the state.

That's a concept that sometimes throws us here in the US, where most of the rest of the broadcast service (both radio and TV) is market-based, not region-based or national. It's a very easy concept to grasp for most of the rest of the world, where national services use a network of transmitters strategically placed to ensure national coverage.

 

[azumanga]

And in GPB's case, it's mainly to serve a nearby larger community -- for WJSP, that station serves nearby Columbus; in fact, in recent years, the station's city of license was relocated to Columbus.

 

[gregg75]

What Scott said is true, but I'd still like to know where the states put their stations.
I'd think most states would put them in populated areas (given the choice).

In Georgia (from this map) http://www.gpb.org/television/stations it looks like if the
SW Georgia station was in Albany there would be no need for 25 in Dawson.
It looks like 9, 20, 28 could have easily been moved to the edge of Savannah, Augusta,
Columbus (with pretty much the same map results).

As always, politics may have been a part of it. The Georgie House speaker was probably
from Wrens, or something like that.

 

[dhett]

In Georgia (from this map) http://www.gpb.org/television/stations it looks like if the
SW Georgia station was in Albany there would be no need for 25 in Dawson.
It looks like 9, 20, 28 could have easily been moved to the edge of Savannah, Augusta,
Columbus (with pretty much the same map results).

Those coverage areas are approximate. If you look at a Longley-Rice map of their signal, you'll find that GPB has placed their stations quite well to maximize coverage and that WACS Dawson is needed after all, since both they and WABW Pelham have VHF signals. RabbitEars has good maps, as does TV Fool.

Other state-run PBS networks whose full-power stations are in small towns include Montana PBS, Prairie Public Broadcasting (North Dakota), and South Dakota Public Broadcasting, but the small towns to which their stations are licensed are the populated places in those states. Then you have Wyoming, whose statewide population totals approximately 50,000. ;D

 

[quadraphonic]

What Scott said is true, but I'd still like to know where the states put their stations.

You could google it, map it all out, do some overlays. Voila! your answer.

I'd think most states would put them in populated areas (given the choice).

Probably back at the dawn of public broadcasting that would be more true that the stations would go to population centers, or at least university towns.
Since then, like Mr. Fybush said, it's all about filling in to "statewide."
It's not really a "station" as much as it is "a tower and relay system."
They're not "serving the rural area" like a commercial station would, they're serving the state from that stick in the sticks.
So...more of them will be in "rural" towns, and most of them likely will cover some nearby bigger market anyways...

 

[KML0224]

On the flip side, you have Waterbury, CT. Presently, their population is 110,366. All they've ever had with Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) is analog translators. First it was W61AC channel 61, which went off the air to make way for WTIC-TV (FOX) channel 61 of Hartford in 1984. They then had channel 12 to use (W12AC ?). That ended when it was used by WCCT-TV (CW) channel 20 of Waterbury. It was channel 20's pre-transition channel (switched to digital channel 20 in 2009). Outside of cable, Waterbury relies on either WEDH-TV channel 24 of Hartford (digital channel 45) or WEDW-TV channel 49 of Bridgeport (digital channel 49).

 

[RadioDaze]

In North Carolina, statewide public TV service UNC-TV actually refers to their 12 TV stations on-air as transmitters--a very accurate description as the broadcaster's studios are based in Durham's Research Triangle Park with the signal microwaved to the network's 12 signals (via a network control center at the WUNK-TV site in Farmville, near Greenville, the sizeable eastern NC city to which WUNK is licensed).

When flagship station WUNC-TV, Chapel Hill, signed on in 1955, it was more of a typical model with studios in the city of license and an antenna outside of town (atop Terrel's Mountain about 5 limes outside town). As signals were added, beginning with WUNB-TV in Columbia (now WUND-TV, Edenton) in 1965, there were never studios in these additional locations--only a transmitter building and a tower in strategic locations--near the city of license and located to propagate the network across the state.

While most of the 12 stations are licensed to sizeable cities in the state, the transmitters are usually located outside of those cities (very common with commercial transmitters as well).
In addition to the aforementioned WUNC and WUNK...

Jacksonville's WUNM is located in Trenton on a commercial TV tower (WCTI).

Lumberton's WUNU in St. Pauls

Roanoke Rapids' WUNP in Brinkleyville

Winston-Salem's WUNL atop Sauratown Mountain near Danbury

Concord's WUNG near Harrisburg

Asheville's WUNF atop Mount Pisgah on a commercial TV tower (WLOS)

Wilmington's WUNJ in Winnabow on a commercial tower (WWAY)

Edenton's WUND near Creswell, NC

I'm not sure of the network's newest transmitter, Canton's WUNW-TV 27, and Linville's WUNE is atop Grandmother Mountain in Linville

What Scott said is true, but I'd still like to know where the states put their stations.

You could google it, map it all out, do some overlays. Voila! your answer.

I'd think most states would put them in populated areas (given the choice).

Probably back at the dawn of public broadcasting that would be more true that the stations would go to population centers, or at least university towns.
Since then, like Mr. Fybush said, it's all about filling in to "statewide."
It's not really a "station" as much as it is "a tower and relay system."
They're not "serving the rural area" like a commercial station would, they're serving the state from that stick in the sticks.
So...more of them will be in "rural" towns, and most of them likely will cover some nearby bigger market anyways...

 

[anotherguyTN]

I don't know if this would count but WLJT in Lexington, TN is operated by the University of Tennessee at Martin. The tower and COL is at Lexington, and the studio is at Martin.

 

[ngriffin]

How about the Alabama Public Television? You have WGIQ licensed to Louisville (pop. 612), WDIQ licensed to Dozier (pop. 391), and WCIQ licensed to Mount Cheaha, a state park.

 

[Markxxx]

You also have to remember places in Georgia have bleed over from Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Chattanooga and Alabama stations as well as others.

Allocation of TV stations was done in the 50s. Populations change, sometimes a lot. The extreme example is San Jose California, which went from 95,000 to 950,000 and would undoubtedly be its own market, if allocations were done today.

Senators and Representatives as you know, were also key for pushing stations into local rural area. Georgia was a good example, where they had a system of upper state house based on counties, until the 60s and the US Supreme Court stopped that.

Localism has always been stressed in radio and TV, until the last 20 years. Now it's been basically made redundant and inefficient, though some could argue correctly, it does help serve smaller audiences.

 

[dave73]

In Wisconsin, there's the Wisconsin Public Television Network, serving all of Wisconsin, except for the Milwaukee market, as they have their own PBS stations, called Milwaukee Public Television on WMVS & WMVT. The statewide network has the following full power stations:

WHA-TV Madison (the flagship station)

WHLA-TV LaCrosse

WHRM-TV Wausau

WHWC-TV Menominee (Eau Claire)

WLEF-TV Park Falls

WPNE Green Bay

They have translators covering areas that can't get one of the full power signals:

W18CU-D Sister Bay (WPNE)

W22CI-D Bloomington (WHLA)

W24CL-D Grantsburg (WHWC)

W45CD-D Fence (WHWC)

W47CO-D River Falls (WHWC)

W48DB-D Coloma (WHRM)

The statewide network has the main PBS station on the xx.1, Wisconsin Channel on XX.2, & Create on xx.3 . Milwaukee will likely never join the statewide network, as the 2 PBS stations owned by Milwaukee Technical College cover Milwaukee, & wouldn't be able to do that being with the statewide network. They were also one of the early duopolies in the 60's, since it required a waiver in those days (otherwise, WMVT would have been reallocated for commercial use).

 

[mysticnitekatt]

New Hampshire Public Television had several different channels and transponders across the Granite State.

They still have 3 channels and 3 transponders (one is still analog!)

 

[firepoint525]

I don't know if this would count but WLJT in Lexington, TN is operated by the University of Tennessee at Martin. The tower and COL is at Lexington, and the studio is at Martin.

Up until that arrangement was worked out (1981-ish, I think) WLJT was nothing but a simulcast of WKNO in Memphis. Moving the studios to the UT-Martin campus allowed students to get hands-on experience in television. It was almost certainly a win-win agreement for both WLJT and UT-Martin.

 

[azumanga]

...the 2 PBS stations owned by Milwaukee Technical College cover Milwaukee... They were also one of the early duopolies in the 60's, since it required a waiver in those days (otherwise, WMVT would have been reallocated for commercial use).

I think where duopolies of educational stations are concerned, there's some kind of exemption -- cases in point include(d) Boston (WGBH and WGBX), Pittsburgh (WQED and WQEX), Philadelphia (WHYY and WUHY) and San Francisco (KQED and KQEC).

 

[gregg75]

In Atlanta WPBA 30 is owned by the school system, WGTV 8 is Georgia Public Broadcasting. I'd guess
most of the other stations you mentioned have some kind of "educational" ownership.

 

[w9wi]

In Wisconsin, there's the Wisconsin Public Television Network, serving all of Wisconsin, except for the Milwaukee market, as they have their own PBS stations, called Milwaukee Public Television on WMVS & WMVT. The statewide network has the following full power stations:

Arguably, you could charge the Wisconsin State Radio Council with launching this "non-commercial stations licensed to puny towns" thing.. with their 1946 successful application for the FM station that is today WHAD-90.7, Delafield. The station was licensed to Delafield from the start -- and had permission to originate all programming from studios at WHA in Madison. (I don't know whether that required a waiver at the time or not)

The station was intended to serve Milwaukee. I suppose it wasn't licensed to Milwaukee because it had no facilities there -- the studio was, again, in Madison, and the transmitter in Delafield. All that was in Milwaukee was the audience.

Three other Wisconsin Public Broadcasting stations were originally licensed to the communities where their transmitters were located, not the major cities they were designed to serve. WHKW-89.3, Chilton was intended to serve Green Bay (and a number of other small cities in the area) and is now licensed to Green Bay. (as WPNE) WHLA-90.3, Holmen was intended to serve La Crosse. (and is now licensed there) And WHWC-88.3, Colfax was intended to serve Eau Claire. (and is now licensed to Menomonie...)

Anyway, to get to the point, I suspect in most of these cases, the station had no facilities in the city it was intended to serve, and solely broadcast statewide programming - so it really was only important that the city-of-license be within the transmitter's service area -- and if you chose the community in which the transmitter was located, you could guarantee that.

 

[dave73]

...the 2 PBS stations owned by Milwaukee Technical College cover Milwaukee... They were also one of the early duopolies in the 60's, since it required a waiver in those days (otherwise, WMVT would have been reallocated for commercial use).

I think where duopolies of educational stations are concerned, there's some kind of exemption -- cases in point include(d) Boston (WGBH and WGBX), Pittsburgh (WQED and WQEX), Philadelphia (WHYY and WUHY) and San Francisco (KQED and KQEC).

In the case of MPTV (WMVS & WMVT), when a second non-commercial allocation for Milwaukee became available, they were the only ones interested in it. They had VHF 10, & UHF 36 became available. If MPTV's request for 36 been denied, 36 would have been reallocated for commercial use. Having both non-commercial licenses back in the 1960's required a waiver, & they got that. Otherwise, a duopoly would not have been allowed at that time. I believe in Chicago, WTTW 11 briefly had WXXW 20 (now WYCC) in the 60's & early 70's. Either WTTW didn't need WXXW 20, or couldn't afford to keep 20 running, & turned in the license (not sure).

 

[RadioDaze]

Allocation of TV stations was done in the 50s. Populations change, sometimes a lot. The extreme example is San Jose California, which went from 95,000 to 950,000 and would undoubtedly be its own market, if allocations were done today.

Even if not its own market, San Jose would definitely be mentioned first instead of San Francisco. An East Coast example of this is Virginia Beach, which wasn't even incorporated in the 1950s but is now the largest city in Virginia--yet the market is still officially called Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News (the latter of which still doesn't have a TV channel allocated to it)