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WHYY-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the former channel 12 in Wilmington, see WVUE (Delaware).
| WHYY-TV / WDPB | |
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| WHYY: Wilmington, Delaware / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania WDPB: Seaford, Delaware |
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| Branding | WHYY TV12 |
| Slogan | Wider Horizons Know WHYY |
| Channels | Analog: WHYY: 12 (VHF) WDPB: 64 (UHF) Digital: WHYY: 50 (UHF) WDPB: 44 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | PBS |
| Owner | WHYY, Inc. |
| Founded | WHYY: September 2, 1957 WDPB: December 4, 1981 |
| Call letters meaning | WHYY: "Wider Horizons for You and Yours" ---- WDPB:W Delaware Public Broadcasting |
| Sister station(s) | WHYY-FM |
| Former callsigns | none |
| Former channel number(s) | WHYY: 35 (1957-1963) WDPB: none |
| Former affiliations | WHYY: NET (1957-1970) WDPB: none |
| Transmitter Power | WHYY: 309 kW (analog) 337 kW (digital) WDPB: 186 kW (analog) 98 kW (digital) |
| Height | WHYY: 294 m (analog) 259 m (digital) WDPB: 195 m (analog) 196 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | WHYY: 72338 WDPB: 72335 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | WHYY: WDPB: |
| Website | www.whyy.org |
WHYY-TV, channel 12, is a non-commercial, PBS member station licensed to Wilmington, Delaware, and serving the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania television market. WHYY-TV's main studio and office facility is co-located with sister station WHYY-FM (90.9 MHz.) in Center City Philadelphia, and the television station maintains a secondary studio in downtown Wilmington. Both stations share a transmitter, which is located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.
WHYY-TV also operates WDPB (channel 64) in Seaford, Delaware, a full-time satellite which serves the Delmarva Peninsula.
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WHYY-TV signed on for the first time on September 2, 1957; on channel 35. It was the 23rd educational station in the country, and the second in Pennsylvania (WQED-TV in Pittsburgh had signed on three years earlier). It was owned by Metropolitan Philadelphia Educational Radio and Television Corporation. It broadcast from a studio on Chestnut Street in Center City, which had previously been home to WCAU-TV (channel 10).
The station found the going difficult at first, in part because television sets were not required to have UHF tuning capability. Then, in 1959, WVUE, channel 12 in Wilmington, went off the air. WHYY's owners applied for the vacant channel 12 allocation in Wilmington, which was the nearest available VHF allocation to Philadelphia. The FCC granted WHYY's request to move the station to channel 12 in 1963, and WHYY signed on channel 12 for the first time on September 12. It operated from WVUE's old tower in Glassboro, New Jersey.
As part of an agreement with Delaware officials and the FCC, WHYY-TV also opened a studio in Wilmington, and began producing a newscast focused on Delaware issues, "Delaware Tonight." Although it is licensed in Wilmington, WHYY is still a Philadelphia station for all intents and purposes; to this day it identifies as "Wilmington/Philadelphia" on-air. A similar situation exists in New York City; its flagship PBS station, WNET, is licensed to Newark, New Jersey.
Later in 1963, WHYY moved its main studio in Philadelphia to the former home of WFIL-TV (channel 6, now WPVI-TV) on 46th and Market streets. In 1979, channel 12 moved to its current home on Independence Mall, first in the old Living History Center museum and theatre (which was also used for Nickelodeon game shows such as Double Dare and the Bill Cosby revival of You Bet Your Life) before it was transformed into their current building in 1999 as part of the redevlopment of the Independence Mall area.
In the late 1970s, WHYY-TV moved its transmitter to the Roxborough tower farm, home to most of Philadelphia's television stations. The new tower provides at least grade B coverage as far west as Lancaster; as far south as Dover, Delaware and as far north as New Brunswick, New Jersey.
In 1984, WHYY bought WDPB and turned it into a full-time satellite of channel 12. WDPB had signed on in 1981.
WHYY-TV presents four regular TV series for PBS stations: PBS's Hometime, and the syndicated Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen, Christina Cooks and Flavors of America with Chef Jim Coleman with MoneyTrack beginning in April 2005. These shows are produced by independent companies for WHYY. The station has also developed several TV specials, such as The Great Comet Crash and Trading Women.
From 1986 to 1989, WHYY's studio was the home of Double Dare, and the first season of Finders Keepers, two Nickelodeon game shows, as well as the syndicated Bill Cosby hosted version of You Bet Your Life.
WHYY-TV only produces four original programs: the local news show Delaware Tonight, broadcasting from its Wilmington studios; Radio Times on TV, a weekly version of its daily talk show with host Marty Moss-Coane; Experience shorts, about Philadelphia's cultural community; and Flicks, a three-minute movie review by film critic Patrick Stoner. The shorter version of Flicks, Quick Pics, is also shown on many PBS stations around the country. WHYY was also one of the first PBS affiliates to air Doctor Who.
WHYY currently broadcasts three digital channels:
WHYY Digital HD 12.1 (Comcast 240) WHYY's flagship digital service is on air, either for free (through digital over-the-air antenna service) or through Comcast. Often it is a digital simulcast of programming available on the analog station; however, there are schedule differences from time to time. Each weeknight from 5:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., it broadcasts local and national programs in high definition (in widescreen) and with surround sound audio, including Nature, NOVA, History Detectives and American Experience.
Y Arts 12.2 (Comcast 241) This 24/7 mix of local, national and global arts and culture programming includes familiar programs such as Great Performances, Mystery! and American Masters and original WHYY productions like Thomas Eakins: Scenes From Modern Life, Mural and Backstage at the Pennsylvania Ballet. Among the new local offerings on Y Arts are Radio Times Arts & Culture — a weekly series of Marty Moss-Coane's interviews with key players in the cultural community — and University of the Arts Student Showcase.
WHYY Wider Horizons 12.3 (Comcast 242) Broadcasting Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., this lineup of programming is aimed at the interests of people of age 50+ with news and public affairs programs — including BBC World News, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, WHYY Delaware Night and Charlie Rose — and a variety of cooking, gardening and travel series. Included are WHYY's Civic Space discussions and the live broadcasts of 91FM's Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane and Voices in the Family with Dr. Dan Gottlieb.
The channel frequency for the digital broadcasts changed from 55 to 50 in December 2006.
- WHYY website
- WHYY on PBS
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WHYY
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WDPB
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Local television stations Local digital television channels Defunct television stations Local cable television channels |
| See also Broadcast television in the New York City, Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Baltimore, Washington, Susquehanna Valley markets |
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WRAV 8 (AV/Ind) - W14CM 14 / W63DC 63 (TBN) - WBOC 16 (CBS) (FOX on DT2) - WCPB 28 (PBS/MPT) - Local cable television channels Out of market stations serving the area |
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| Television: | WHYY-TV · WITF-TV · WLVT-TV · WPSU-TV · WQED · WQLN · WVIA-TV · WYBE |
| Programs: | Eat Pennsylvania |
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WHYY 12 (Wilmington) - WDPB 64 (Seaford) |
| See also: ABC and Other Stations in Delaware |