WOSU-TV (channel 34) is a PBS member

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...

, United States. Owned by The Ohio State University as part of WOSU Public Media, it is sister to

public radio Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

stations

WOSU-FM WOSU-FM (89.7 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Columbus, Ohio, featuring a public radio news and information format known as "89.7fm NPR News". Owned by The Ohio State University, the station serves the Columb ...

(89.7) and

WOSA WOSA (101.1 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Grove City, Ohio, featuring a classical music format known as "Classical 101fm". Owned by the Ohio State University, the station serves Columbus, Ohio and much of the ...

(101.1 FM). The three stations share studios on North Pearl Street near the OSU campus; WOSU-TV's transmitter is located on Highland Lakes Avenue in

Westerville, Ohio Westerville is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, Franklin and Delaware County, Ohio, Delaware counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. A northeastern suburb of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, the population was 39,190 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...

. WOSU-TV previously operated full-time

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

WPBO (virtual channel 42, UHF digital channel 43) in

Portsmouth, Ohio Portsmouth is a city in and the county seat of Scioto County, Ohio, United States. Located in southern Ohio south of Chillicothe, it lies on the north bank of the Ohio River, across from Kentucky, just east of the mouth of the Scioto River. ...

, which served extreme southern Ohio and the western edge of the Huntington–

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 2020 census and an estimated population of 48,018 in 2021. The Charlesto ...

market area from a transmitter near West Portsmouth. WPBO ceased operations in October 2017, after selling its spectrum in the FCC's

incentive auction The 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction, officially known as Auction 1001, allocated approximately 100 MHz of the United States Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spectrum formerly allocated to UHF television in the 600 MHz band. The sp ...

History

Ohio State first sought an educational license in 1950, for channel 12. However, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC) turned down two requests for that allocation (most likely due to concerns about interference with WKRC-TV in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

) instead giving OSU channel 34. WOSU-TV first broadcast on February 20, 1956. In 1959, a grant from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

allowed the station to purchase the first

video tape recorder A video tape recorder (VTR) is a tape recorder designed to record and playback video and audio material from magnetic tape. The early VTRs were open-reel devices that record on individual reels of 2-inch-wide (5.08 cm) tape. They were u ...

in Ohio. WOSU-TV began broadcasting in

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

in 1968, telecasting the football game between

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

and

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

. The color telecast helped to popularize the UHF band in Columbus, an otherwise all-

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

market at the time. In 1972, the station moved from its old studios at 2470 North Star Road in

Upper Arlington Upper Arlington, often known by its initials U.A., is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, on the northwest side of the Columbus metropolitan area. The Old Arlington neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. ...

to a new facility, the Fawcett Center for Tomorrow, on the banks of the

Olentangy River The Olentangy River is a tributary of the Scioto River in Ohio, United States. History It was originally called ''keenhongsheconsepung'', a Delaware word literally translated as "sharp tool river", based on the shale found along its sh ...

near (now on) the campus of OSU. WPBO began broadcasting as a full-powered relay station in October 1973. Both stations began broadcasting in

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

in 1986; WOSU-TV was the first in Columbus to do so. In September 2006, WOSU opened a digital media center in partnership with Columbus'

Center of Science and Industry Cosi, COSI or CoSi may refer to: * ''Così'', a 1992 play by Louis Nowra ** ''Cosi'' (film), 1996, based on the play * Così (restaurant), an American fast-casual restaurant chain * Compton Spectrometer and Imager, or COSI, a NASA telescope to be ...

(COSI); the WOSU@COSI project was considered a national model for public broadcast partnerships. The production facility included broadcast studios, edit suites, a conference suite, offices, the WOSU mediaLab and digital exhibits. WOSU raised $5.6 million to build and equip the all-digital facility. The Fawcett Center housed WOSU's primary

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

complex, business and administration offices, and television master control. WOSU also possesses an extensive archive of

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

s and public programming video materials. Ohio State University announced on March 3, 2017, that it had sold the license for WPBO for $8.8 million in the FCC's spectrum auction. WOSU general manager Tom Rieland told ''

The Columbus Dispatch ''The Columbus Dispatch'' is a daily newspaper based in Columbus, Ohio. Its first issue was published on July 1, 1871, and it has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since ''The Columbus Citizen-Journal'' ceased publication in 19 ...

'' that Portsmouth has "incredible duplication of PBS signals". In addition to the two primary PBS members serving the Huntington/Charleston market, West Virginia Public Broadcasting flagship WVPB-TV in Huntington and Kentucky Educational Television outlet WKAS in

Ashland, Kentucky Ashland is a home rule-class city in Boyd County, Kentucky, United States. The largest city in Boyd County, Ashland is located upon a southern bank of the Ohio River at the state border with Ohio and near West Virginia. The population was 21,6 ...

, Portsmouth also receives PBS programming from WOUB-TV in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

and WCET in Cincinnati. Some parts of the area also receive the main WOSU-TV signal. WPBO ceased operations October 25, 2017; its license was cancelled two days later. Proceeds from the sale of WPBO remained with WOSU-TV, which will continue operations. In 2015, the partnership with COSI ended with the realization that WOSU had outgrown its space at the Fawcett Center and wanted to continue engage the community through a public space. The new headquarters and office building, designed by Meyers + Associates Architecture, is located just east of the OSU campus on 14th and Pearl Street.

Programming

Programming produced by WOSU include the concert show ''Songs at the Center'' and quiz show ''In the Know''. WOSU also produces '' Columbus Neighborhoods'', an Emmy Award-winning series about neighborhoods in the city of Columbus.

Fundraising

Throughout most of the 1980s and the 1990s, WOSU had three different titles for its pledge drives: ''Festival'' (held every March), ''Summer Celebration'' (held every July), and ''Explore 34'' (held every December). WOSU also had its own televised

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition e ...

special, ''Auction 34!'', later renamed to ''GO Auction!'' around 2005. It was usually held every Tuesday-Saturday of the last week of April and the first week of May. Usually, the highest "Big Board" item sold was a

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: Long-distance ...

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WOSU-TV shut down its analog signal, over

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 34, on March 31, 2009.List of Digital Full-Power Stations
/ref> The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 38, using PSIP to display WOSU-TV's

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...

as 34 on digital television receivers.

Translator

WOSU-TV has one low-power

repeater In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Som ...

: W18ES-D in

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market to ...

, located within the

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

DMA. The station was also previously repeated by W31AA in Newark, which broadcast on a frequency previously used by WGSF; the repeater signed on July 1, 1976, the day after WGSF closed down. W31AA's license was canceled by the FCC on July 7, 2009; the W31AA call sign was also deleted by the FCC from their database.

References

External links

*
The Ohio Channel
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wosu-Tv Ohio State Buckeyes media Ohio State University OSU-TV PBS member stations Television channels and stations established in 1956 1956 establishments in Ohio