WNET

'WNET', channel 13, is a non-commercial television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. With its signal covering the three-state New York metropolitan area, WNET is a flagship station of the Public Broadcasting Service, along with stations such as WGBH-TV in Boston and WETA-TV in Washington, D.C.. WNET's studios and offices are located in Midtown Manhattan, and its transmitter is on the Empire State Building.
The license-holder is the Educational Broadcasting Corporation, which is also the parent of Plainview, New York-based PBS station WLIW (channel 21). The current President is Neal Shapiro and Chief Executive Officer is Dr. William F. Baker. Shapiro, the former president of NBC News, succeeded Baker as President in February 2007, and will replace Baker as Chief Executive Officer as well in February 2008. WNET is the most watched PBS station in the country; its sister station WLIW is the fourth most-watched.^[1]
WNET is a primary provider of PBS programming. Among its contributions are ''Nature'', ''The Charlie Rose Show'', ''Great Performances'', ''Secrets of the Dead'', ''Cyberchase'', ''Franny's Feet'', ''Live from Lincoln Center'', ''Wide Angle'', '', ''Religion and Ethics Newsweekly'', ''NOW'', and ''American Masters''.

Contents

History

Independent station

Transition

Educational station

Digital Television

Original Creations

Ident and Logo Gallery

See also

References

External links

History

Independent station

WNET commenced broadcasting on January 2, 1948 as 'WATV', a commercial television station owned by Atlantic Television, a subsidiary of Bremer Broadcasting Corporation. Bremer also owned two northern New Jersey radio stations, WAAT (970 AM, now WWDJ) and WAAT-FM (94.7 MHz., now WFME). WATV was the first of three new stations in the New York market to start up during 1948, and was also the city's first independent station. One of its unusual daytime programs was ''Daywatch,'' which actually consisted of the camera focused on a teletypewriter printing wire service news stories and interspersed with cut-aways to mechanical toys while playing a Musak-like soundtrack.
In 1958, Bremer Broadcasting sold their stations to National Telefilm Associates, an early distributor of motion pictures and television programs. Channel 13's callsign was changed to 'WNTA-TV' to reflect the new ownership (the radio stations adopted the WNTA call letters as well). NTA pumped considerable cash into WNTA-TV, enabling the station to produce a schedule of programming with greater emphasis on the people and events of New Jersey, in comparison to the other commercial television stations. NTA also sought to make channel 13 a center of nationally-syndicated programming and produced several such entries, notably the anthology drama series ''The Play of the Week''; the talk show ''Open End'', hosted by David Susskind; and a popular dance program emceed by Clay Cole. But WNTA-TV continued to lag behind New York's other independent stations -- WNEW-TV (now WNYW), WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV), and WPIX -- in terms of popularity among viewers. NTA's financial investment into channel 13 was not paying off, and the company incurred a large debtload. By the start of the 1960s, it became clear that the New York market, despite being the largest in the country, could not support four independent stations.

Transition

National Telefilm Associates put the WNTA stations up for sale in February 1961. Almost immediately, at least two suitors expressed interest solely in the television station. Among these suitors was a group called 'Educational Television for the Metropolitan Area (ETMA)', comprised of prominent local businesspeople, cultural leaders, and educators. Distraught by the lack of an educational television outlet in New York, ETMA sought to create one. They also believed that the non-commercial UHF station which the Federal Communications Commission allocated to New York City, channel 25, would not be adequate enough to cover the needs of the entire area. ETMA was joined in the WNTA-TV bidding by Ely Landau, former president of NTA; and by David Susskind, who received financial backing from Paramount Pictures.
ETMA's inital bid of $4 million was rejected by NTA, but the citizens' group remained persistent. With the support and guidance of National Educational Television already in their pocket, ETMA later received an endorsement from newly-appointed FCC Chairman Newton Minow, who established public hearings to discuss the fate of channel 13. As a result of the hearings the pendulum shifted in favor of channel 13 going non-commercial, and the private firms soon withdrew their interest.
On June 29 1961, ETMA agreed to purchase WNTA-TV for $6.2 million, and the FCC converted channel 13's commercial license to non-commercial. About $2 million of that amount came from the five of the six remaining commercial VHF stations (WPIX was the lone holdout), all of which were eager to see a competitor off the dial. In addition, CBS donated a studio facility in Manhattan to WNDT and NET for production uses.
The switch of New Jersey's only (at the time) commercial television station almost did not happen. The state government, lead by outgoing governor Robert B. Meyner, wanted a commitment from ETMA to schedule programming specific to New Jersey. They also feared that the new, New York City-based ownership group would convince the FCC to move the channel 13 allocation across the Hudson River. On September 6, 1961, the state of New Jersey petitioned the United States Court of Appeals to block the sale of WNTA-TV unless their concerns were addressed. The court ruled in the state's favor two months later.

The unsettled deal almost caused National Telefilm Associates to reconsider their decision to sell the station altogether, and NTA made plans to go forward: WNTA-TV made a play to acquire broadcast rights for the New York Mets baseball team for their inaugural 1962 season. But faced with either consummating the transaction or seeing it cancelled, ETMA settled their differences with New Jersey officials on December 4, 1961. Almost simultaneously, the state withdrew its block petition, and the FCC gave final approval of the transfer of channel 13. After a few last-minute issues arose to cause further delays, the transfer became final on December 22. Later that evening, WNTA-TV signed-off for the final time. ETMA and NET then went to work in coverting the station, which they said would return with its new format within three months.
Ten months later, channel 13 was ready to be reborn. With legendary reporter Edward R. Murrow at the helm on the maiden broadcast, ETMA -- now the non-profit 'Educational Broadcasting Corporation' -- flipped the switch to 'WNDT' (for "'N'ew 'D'imensions in 'T'elevision") on September 16, 1962. ([1]) This move gave the New York City market its first educational station, and with a dial position on the coveted VHF band. (In many other cities, including large ones, educational stations had to make do with UHF frequencies.) New York's non-commercial UHF channel, on the other hand, would not make it to the air for another five years.

Educational station

During the transition, and after the inaugural broadcast, WNDT faced an immediate crisis. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists was concerned about the use of teachers -- some of whom were AFTRA-certified performers -- on non-commercial television, and how they would be compensated should their work be distributed nationally.
AFTRA called a strike the morning of WNDT's debut. Engineers and technicians who were members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers refused to cross the AFTRA picket line, leaving the station's management and other non-union employees to produce the three-hour inaugural broadcast. Immediately afterwards, channel 13 went off the air again, as the strike continued for nearly two weeks. The striking workers returned WNDT to the air after ten days, and on September 28 the labor dispute was settled. But the station's financial resources were drained, requiring an infusion of cash from NET to help keep the station running.
NET originally wanted to merge its operations with WNDT, which would have given WNDT a direct line of funding as well as make channel 13 NET's flagship station. However, the Ford Foundation, which supported both groups, stopped the proposed mergers on at least two different occasions (in 1962, and again in 1965).
Events that began in 1967 led the Ford Foundation to change its stance and push for a WNDT-NET merger. The newly-formed Corporation for Public Broadcasting (created by an act of the United States Congress) initially supported NET's network role, while providing government funding for programming. But that move was followed two years later with the establishment of the Public Broadcasting Service as the CPB's own distribution system -- an direct threat to NET's turf. It has been intimated that CPB's creation was an attempt to curb NET's production of controversial documentaries and replace it with a less controversial, government-friendly broadcaster, less hostile in particular to the Johnson, and later the Nixon administrations. (NET, ignoring the demand, refused point-blank to stop the production of the critically-acclaimed documentaries.) At one point, President Nixon, enraged with NET's documentaries criticizing his administration, especially its handling of the Vietnam War, almost managed to cut NET's $20 million funding grant in half. This led to the Ford Foundation brokering a the merger of WNDT and NET, which took effect on June 29, 1970. Channel 13's callsign was changed to the present 'WNET' on October 5, 1970. NET ceased network operations, though WNET continued to produce some shows for the national PBS schedule with the NET branding until about 1972.
Channel 13's studios and offices were originally located in the Mosque Theater at 1020 Broad Street in Newark, with transmitter on First Mountain in West Orange, New Jersey. For a short time studios were located at the Gateway Center office building in Newark. The station eventually moved its operations to Manhattan, where most television stations and television networks were based. Since it still operates on a frequency allocated by the FCC to Newark, it rebroadcasts New Jersey Network's nightly ''NJN News'' to meet its local programming obligations.
Channel 13's transmitter facilities, including a newly installed digital transmission system, were destroyed on September 11, 2001, when airplanes hijacked by terrorists crashed into the World Trade Center towers. , Channel 13's head transmitter engineer, was among those who perished when the north tower collaped. For the next ten months WNYE-TV, headquartered in Brooklyn, became WNET's surrogate transmitter and airwave (for those without cable, repeats of WNET prime-time schedules were screened on WNYE). After the surrogate period, WNYE branched more into independent public television, culminating July 1, 2003. The divorcement of WNYE-TV from the network made WNET the only PBS station in New York City. In February 2003, WNET completed the merger with Long Island PBS broadcaster WLIW (licensed to Garden City and headquartered in Plainview), combining the two stations into one operation.

Digital Television

Thirteen Has 3 digital sub channels. They are:
'Thirteen HD' (PBS HD)(channel 13.1)
'Kids 13' (PBS Kids Sprout)(channel 13.2)
'V-Me' (Spanish-language public television service that offers programming by, for and about the Latino community (channel 13.3)

Original Creations

'Thirteen' has also produced and created a number of PBS shows. This includes:

★

★ The Brain

★ Charlie Rose

★ Cyberchase, a co-production with Nelvana Limited

★ Franny's Feet, a co-production with Decode Entertainment

★ The House franchise of "hands on history" programming, including The 1900 House, Frontier House, and Texas Ranch House

★ The Mind

★ The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow

★ Slavery and the Making of America

★ African American Lives

★ Monarchy

★ , by Ric Burns (a co-production of American Experience with WGBH-TV)

★ Reel New York

★ Secrets of the Dead

★ Stage on Screen

★ The Secret Life of the Brain

★ Wide Angle

★ EGG the arts show

★ Simon Schama's Power of Art

★ ''
'Thirteen' has also produced programming for public televisions stations distributed outside of the PBS system, including:

★ Planet H2O

★ In the Mix: The New Normal, a co-production with In the Mix)

★ What's Up in Factories

★ What's Up in Technology

★ What's Up in Finance (coming in April 2007)
WNET is also the co-producing entity of ''The Newshour with Jim Lehrer,'' along with WETA and MacNeil-Lehrer. The show started in 1975 as a local news-analysis program, ''The Robert MacNeil Report.'' Jim Lehrer, a frequent guest on MacNeil's show, became co-host the following year, when the show was picked up by the other PBS outlets.

Ident and Logo Gallery

See also

★ Media of New York City

★ List of DirecTV channels

★ List of Dish Network channels

★ Lord of the Universe (documentary), won DuPont-Columbia Award, 1974

References

1. Educational Broadcasting Corporation Report to the Community, 2005-06 - http://www.thirteen.org/homepage/annual_report06/index.html

External links

★ WNET Website

★ Public Broadcasting Service

★