WLVT-TV explained

Callsign:WLVT-TV
Country:United States
City:Allentown, Pennsylvania
Branding:PBS 39
Digital:9 (VHF), shared with WBPH-TV, WFMZ-TV and WPPT[1]
Virtual:39
Owner:Lehigh Valley Public Media
Licensee:Lehigh Valley Public Telecommunications Corp.
Callsign Meaning:Lehigh Valley Television
Sister Stations:WPPT
Former Affiliations:NET (1965–1970)
Erp:80.6 kW
Haat:332.50NaN0
Facility Id:36989
Coordinates:40.5644°N -75.44°W
Licensing Authority:FCC

WLVT-TV (channel 39) is a PBS member television station in Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States. Owned by Lehigh Valley Public Media, it is a sister station to Philadelphia-licensed PBS member WPPT (channel 35). WLVT-TV's studios are located in the south side of Bethlehem, and its transmitter is located south of nearby Allentown atop South Mountain.

History

20th century

The station first signed on the air on September 7, 1965,[2] as a member station of National Educational Television (NET), and eventually joined PBS upon its 1970 founding. WLVT-TV is commonly known as "PBS39", a reference to the main virtual channel, 39.1.

The Lehigh Valley is part of the Philadelphia market, the fourth-largest television market in the United States. WLVT has expanded its programming focus to the entire Philadelphia television market. It is carried by many cable providers in the area, including Comcast, Service Electric, RCN, Blue Ridge Cable, and others. WLVT-TV is also available throughout the region on Philadelphia's DirecTV and Dish Network feeds.

WLVT's market is one of the largest potential audiences in the country with 6.7 million people in eastern Pennsylvania, western and southern New Jersey, and northern and central Delaware. The station's frequently competes with Philadelphia's main PBS member station, WHYY-TV (channel 12), one of the most-watched PBS stations in the country. To a lesser extent, WLVT-TV also competes with NJ PBS's two outlets in the market, WNJT-TV and WNJS-TV.

21st century

In 2011, WLVT-TV moved from its longtime studio on Mountain Drive North to a new studio facility, PPL Public Media Center, on the south side of Bethlehem. The new facility is adjacent to the ArtsQuest complex on the SteelStacks Campus, previously home to Bethlehem Steel.[3] The new station is equipped with two large studios, where local productions, including Focus (a local magazine show), You Bet Your Garden (formerly on WHYY-FM), Scholastic Scrimmage, Faces of Jazz, and Behind the Guitar, are filmed.

WLVT also broadcasts PBS and American Public Television distributed programming.

Technical information

Analog-to-digital conversion

WLVT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 39, on January 31, 2009. The station's digital signal relocated on its pre-transition UHF channel 62, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its former analog-era UHF channel 39 for post-transition operations.[4]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTV Application. Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. December 6, 2017.
  2. https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=84159&.pdf FCC History Cards for WLVT-TV
  3. Web site: WLVT PBS39 now more public in new location at Bethlehem SteelStacks. July 18, 2011.
  4. Web site: DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds . March 24, 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf . August 29, 2013 .