WDSC-TV

WDSC-TV

New Smyrna Beach/Daytona Beach, Florida
Branding	Channel 15
Slogan	Public television that matters
Channels	Digital: 33 (UHF)
Subchannels	15.1 Public television programming-HD 15.2 WDSC-ED (FL Channel) 15.3 WDSC-WV
Owner	Daytona State College (Daytona State College, Inc.)
First air date	February 8, 1988
Call letters' meaning	Daytona State College
Former callsigns	WCEU (1988–2008)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 15 (1988–2008)
Former affiliations	PBS (1988 – June 30, 2011)
Transmitter power	308 kW
Height	491 m
Facility ID	12171
Transmitter coordinates	28°36′36.3″N 81°3′34.6″W
Website	www.wdsctv.org

WDSC-TV is an independent non-commercial educational public television station located in Daytona Beach, Florida. The station is a former member station of the Public Broadcasting Service, and is owned and operated by Daytona State College and has its studios at the Center for Educational Telecommunications on the DSC campus. It is licensed to nearby New Smyrna Beach.

History

In 1985, DSC (then known as Daytona Beach Community College), Bethune-Cookman College, Stetson University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the Atlantic Center for the Arts formed the Coastal Educational Broadcasters in order to bring a public television station to Volusia and Flagler counties. They felt WMFE-TV, the PBS station in Orlando, was neglecting Daytona Beach. In February 1988, channel 15 signed on as WCEU with a limited schedule of three hours a day, three days a week. Support in the area was enough that within nine months, it was recognized by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. By January 1989, it was a full-fledged PBS member station, though it didn't expand to a fuller broadcast day until 1993.

In 1992, a signal expansion and must-carry rules expanded WCEU's audience to over 1.3 million viewers in Central Florida, including Orlando itself. It moved to its current facility in 1999. DBCC became the sole licensee in 2002.

In 2005, WCEU rebranded itself as DBCC 15 to better reflect its relationship with DBCC. In January 2008, it rebranded itself again merely as Channel 15, after DBCC became Daytona Beach College. The college subsequently changed its name again to Daytona State College; to reflect this, in November 2008, channel 15 changed its call letters to the current WDSC-TV, after purchasing the rights to the call letters from a radio station in Dillon, South Carolina.

WDSC shut down its analog signal on December 15, 2008, some two months before the end of full-service analog broadcasting; this came after the transmitter suffered a failure on September 25, forcing the station to broadcast at reduced power.

With the advent of digital broadcasting, WDSC began billing itself as a full-market PBS station, including Orlando. While it had been available on cable in Orlando for over a decade, its digital signal, located in Bithlo with most other television stations in the market, gives it an over-the-air coverage area comparable to the market's previous primary PBS station WMFE-TV. However, on June 16, 2011, WDSC and PBS announced that the station would leave PBS, as Daytona State College could no longer afford to purchase its programming, following $4.8 million of funding to Florida's public radio and television stations vetoed by Governor Rick Scott in May 2011. WMFE also left PBS on July 1 due to its acquisition by the Daystar Television Network). These moves left WBCC of Cocoa, which began branding as WUCF-TV at that time, as the only PBS station in the Central Florida television market.

Digital Programming

WDSC continues to air public television from other sources such as American Public Television and the National Educational Telecommunications Association.

Channel	Video	Aspect	Name	Programming
15.1	1080i	16:9	WDSC-HD	Programing from APT and other sources
15.2	480i	4:3	WDSC-ED	Daytona State College (6pm-6am) Florida Channel (6am-6pm)
15.3			WDSC-WV	MHz Worldview

External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WDSC
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WDSC-TV