New Hampshire Public Television

"WLED" redirects here. For white light-emitting diode, see Light-emitting diode.

New Hampshire Public Television

statewide New Hampshire
Branding	NHPTV
Slogan	Engaging minds. Connecting Communities. Celebrating New Hampshire.
Channels	Digital: see table below
Affiliations	PBS (since 1970)
Owner	University System of New Hampshire
First air date	July 6, 1959
Call letters' meaning	see table below
Former affiliations	NET (1959-1970)
Transmitter power	see table below
Height	see table below
Facility ID	see table below
Transmitter coordinates	see table below
Website	www.nhptv.org

New Hampshire Public Television is a television company and public broadcasting state network in New Hampshire, licensed to the University System of New Hampshire (USNH) and is part of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Established in 1959, its broadcast center is located on the University of New Hampshire campus in Durham, New Hampshire.

NHPTV is overseen by a 21-member board of directors, which is a governing board authorized by subcommittee the USNH Board of Trustees.

NHPTV is available over the air in nearly 75 percent of New Hampshire, and is available on cable television in parts of Massachusetts (including Boston), Maine (including Portland), and Vermont (including the Barre/Montpelier area). Flagship station WENH is available on DirecTV and Dish Network's Boston feeds as well; Durham is part of the Boston market.

Programming

NHPTV's three signals are multiplexed.

Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
xx.1	1080i	16:9	Main NHPTV programming / PBS
xx.2	480i	4:3	SD simulcast of xx.1
xx.3			NHPTV Explore (educational, New England and local programming)

Because the state is split between the Boston, Portland, and Burlington/Plattsburgh markets, nearly all NHPTV viewers also receive another PBS station on cable or satellite (in some cases more than one). As a result, NHPTV has elected to differentiate its program schedule for the other PBS stations in the market. Generally, NHPTV's broadcast of PBS programs and series do not air on the same day and time as they do on Boston's WGBH-TV, MPBN, Vermont Public Television or WCFE-TV in Plattsburgh.

NHPTV produced a number of local series, including:

• NH Outlook
• Windows to the Wild
• Granite State Challenge
• Wildlife Journal (co-produced with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department)
• New Hampshire Crossroads

Production of most local programs, except for "Wildlife Journal", was discontinued in June 2011 because NHPTV lost all of its funding from the State Of New Hampshire, which accounted for 30% of the station's total Fiscal 2011 budget.

NHPTV produced live coverage of University of New Hampshire men's Hockey from the 1972/1973 season through the 2007/2008 season. However, in June 2008 NHPTV announced that it was unable to continue to broadcast the games due to budgetary considerations.

The cooking show Ciao Italia with Mary Ann Esposito was formerly distributed by NHPTV and produced at the NHPTV studios in Durham.

In September 2011 NHPTV was said to be in preliminary discussions with WGBH-TV and public broadcasters in Maine and Vermont about sharing infrastructure and content.

Stations

As of the DTV transition on February 17, 2009, the NHPTV stations are:

Station	City of license	Channels TV / RF	First air date	Call letters’ meaning	ERP	HAAT	Facility ID	Transmitter Coordinates
WENH-TV	Durham	11 (PSIP) 11 (VHF)	July 6, 1959	Educational New Hampshire	30 kW	304.1 m	69237	43°10′33″N 71°12′29″W
WEKW-TV	Keene	52 (PSIP) 49 (UHF)	May 21, 1968	Educational Keene Western New Hampshire	43 kW	330 m	69271	43°2′0″N 72°22′4″W
WLED-TV	Littleton	49 (PSIP) 48 (UHF)	February 19681	Littleton EDucational	45 kW	388 m	69328	44°21′10″N 71°44′15″W

Notes:

• 1. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says WLED signed on February 7, while the Television and Cable Factbook says it signed on February 8.

Low-power stations

Station	Channel	City
W26CQ1	26 (analog)	Colebrook
W34DQ-D2	26 (digital)	Pittsburg
W50DP-D3	50 (digital)	Hanover

Notes:

• 1. Successor to W18BO, which operated on analog channel 18 in Pittsburg. From 2005 until November 4, 2009, W26CQ was owned by Hearst Television and served as a translator for ABC affiliate WMTW.
• 2. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considers W34DQ-D to be the same station as the former W18BO. It went on the air on September 27, 2010 and is currently operated in addition to W26CQ.
• 3. Formerly W15BK, which operated on analog channel 15 (it flash-cut to digital on September 4, 2007).

Both translators directly repeat WENH. Colebrook and Pittsburg are part of the Portland market, while Hanover is part of the Burlington/Plattsburgh market.

Although NHPTV has been available for decades on cable systems in southern Maine, it has yet to be added to the Portland DBS feeds because of W26CQ and W34DQ-D's low-power status. However, NHPTV is working to change the satellite regulations so it can be carried in the Portland market as well. It also has a long-term goal of building a full-power transmitter atop Mount Washington, which would presumably offer city-grade coverage of Portland.

In addition, NHPTV also acquired W27CP in White River Junction, Vermont from WMTW along with W26CQ; that station went dark on July 15, 2009 (while still owned by WMTW) due to having lost the lease on its tower site and never returned to the air, leading the FCC to delete W27CP on September 14, 2011.

Former stations

In the summer of 1981, New Hampshire Public Television was suffering a significant financial crisis. These stations were turned off for good as a result.

Station	City of license	Channel	Call letters’ meaning	Facility ID	Transmitter Coordinates
WHED-TV	Hanover	15 (UHF)1	Hanover EDucational	69303	43°42′32.1″N 72°9′14.7″W
WEDB-TV	Berlin	40 (UHF)	EDucational Berlin	69056	44°22′15.8″N 71°12′47.1″W
W59AB (low power)	North Woodstock	59 (UHF)

WHED-TV was eventually replaced, in 1994, by a translator (originally W15BK, operating on WHED's former analog channel 15, and then, starting in 2007, low-power digital station W50DP-D). Otherwise, the defunct stations were generally superseded by cable carriage of WENH/NHPTV.

Post-analog shutdown

NHPTV shut down all full-service analog transmissions on February 17, 2009:

• WENH, which used channel 57 for its pre-transition operations, moved its digital broadcasts back to its former analog channel 11;
• WEKW and WLED remained on their respective pre-transition channels (49 and 48).

Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display virtual channels for each NHPTV station corresponding to their previous analog channel numbers.

References

• "New Hampshire Public Television". Volunteer Action Centre. http://www.volunteersolutions.org/uwgs/org/218095.html. Retrieved August 4, 2005. 
• "Southern New Hampshire TV Market". Archived from the original on August 2, 2003. http://web.archive.org/web/20030802002637/http://www.bostonradio.org/radio/nh-tv.html. Retrieved September 22, 2005.  (imaged from Internet Archive, as the site no longer carries dial pages)
• "Upper Valley TV Dial". Archived from the original on August 2, 2003. http://web.archive.org/web/20030802004535/http://www.bostonradio.org/radio/uv-tv.html. Retrieved September 22, 2005.  (another dial page for same website, so it's also down)
• "WHED-TV, Channel 15, Hanover, NH". RadioDXer.com/Peter Q George, Joseph Gallant. http://radiodxer.bravehost.com/WHED.html. Retrieved September 22, 2005. 
• "WEDB-TV, Channel 40, Berlin, NH". RadioDXer.com/Peter Q George, Joseph Gallant. http://radiodxer.bravehost.com/WEDB.html. Retrieved September 22, 2005.  (same as above, but with WEDB footnote and not one for WHED/W15BK)
• "NHPTV to Shut Down Full Power Analog...". NHPTV Press Release. http://www.nhptv.org/pressroom/release_detail.asp?hp_id=783. Retrieved February 20, 2009.  (DTV transition press release)

External links

• NHPTV web site
• UHF Morgue: WEDB, WHED
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WENH-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WEKW-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WLED-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W26CQ
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W27CP
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W34DQ-D
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W50DP-D
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WENH-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WEKW-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WLED-TV