WVIZ

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WVIZ
Cleveland, Ohio
Branding	WVIZ/PBS Ideastream
Slogan	Where You Belong
Channels	Digital: 26 (UHF)
Subchannels	25.1 WVIZ/PBS HD 25.2 Ohio Channel 25.3 PBS World 25.4 PBS Create
Affiliations	PBS
Owner	Ideastream
First air date	February 7, 1965
Call letters’ meaning	viz. is abbreviation for videlicet, the Latin word meaning "namely"
Sister station(s)	WCPN
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 25 (1965-2009)
Former affiliations	NET (1965-1970)
Transmitter Power	150 kW (digital)
Height	336.9 m (digital)
Facility ID	18753
Transmitter Coordinates	41°23′10″N 81°41′21″W / 41.38611°N 81.68917°W / 41.38611; -81.68917
Website	www.wviz.org

WVIZ is a public television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was the 100th public television station to sign on in America. Its founder was Betty Cope, a former producer at Cleveland's ABC affiliate, WEWS, who recognized the value of non-commercial television for the schools. After a long struggle to clear all the hurdles, WVIZ signed on Sunday, February 7, 1965, just in time for the start of the Cleveland school year's second semester. Original studios were located in Cleveland's Max Hayes Trade School.

[edit] Overview

The first voice heard on WVIZ was that of Alan R. Stephenson, Ph.D. He was the first director of WVIZ's educational services department. Stephenson's duties included casting, setting budgets, and acting as executive producer for dozens of local instructional television productions.

WVIZ's first affiliation was with National Educational Television (NET), which became PBS in 1970. While some large-market PBS stations established themselves with prime-time series, WVIZ remained committed first and foremost to the schools, and chose not to engage in national productions for a number of years.

However, when PBS began feeding programs via satellite in 1979, WVIZ hired its first executive producer, Milton Hoffman. He oversaw a few WVIZ productions before resigning in 1982. The next executive producer was Dennis Goulden, formerly of NBC (owned-and-operated) affiliate WKYC. Goulden was responsible for the creation of a number of programs and series, such as Kovels On Collecting, Producers Showcase, Mediscene, Dimension and CookSmart. He credits Betty Cope with their creation because, Goulden says, she let him experiment.^[1] He also gave Larry Elder (now a nationally syndicated radio host) his first show.

There were specials, too. There was a Paul Meincke-hosted special on the tenth anniversary of busing in Cleveland; an hour special on Margaret Bourke White, and others. Mediscene was a medical series hosted by an ex-nurse, now deceased, M. R. Berger. CookSmart was hosted by Susie Heller, and guests included Jacques Pepin and Julia Child. Dimension was modeled along the lines of CBS' Sunday Morning and aired monthly. Kovels On Collecting was a well-traveled showcase of the wonderfully talented Ralph and Terry Kovel. Dennis Goulden lasted approximately four years; WVIZ replaced Goulden quickly in mid-1988 with Mark Rosenberger.

On June 1, 1993, after 28 years at the helm, WVIZ president Betty Cope stepped down. Her post went to Jerrold Wareham, the former general manager at Greater Dayton Public Television (operating WPTD in Dayton and WPTO in Oxford, Ohio). Wareham effectively rid WVIZ of its ITV schedule, filling the daytime hours with PBS Kids series such as Barney & Friends. Wareham also modified the station name to WVIZ/PBS in December 1999.

In December 2001, WVIZ/PBS merged with Cleveland NPR station 90.3 WCPN to establish a unified source for public broadcasting and lectures. The non-profit entity is known as ideastream.

In early 2006, WVIZ/PBS with WCPN 90.3FM moved to a new digital studio headquarters in Downtown Cleveland. WVIZ was originally on Brookpark Road and WCPN was based out of Cleveland State University. WVIZ is one of few PBS affiliates to have a new updated digital studio center. WVIZ is in the heart of Cleveland's Playhouse Square or theater district. Its new facility has an auditorium to studios for dance to music.

WVIZ also operates two translators in northeastern Ohio—W63CT in Eastlake, and W64AK in Conneaut.

[edit] Digital TV

WVIZ shares a tower owned by WKYC which is used for both WKYC's and WVIZ's full-power digital antenna. WVIZ activated their full-power digital antenna on June 10, 2009.

The station's digital channel, UHF 26, is multiplexed:

A complete schedule of WVIZ channels and programs can be found here.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• WVIZ home page
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WVIZ
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W63CT
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W64AK
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WVIZ-TV