WPDS-LD, virtual and UHF digital channel 14, is a low-powered

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

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 eart ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Largo, Florida Largo is the third largest city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, as well as the fourth largest in the Tampa Bay area. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 82,500, up from 69,371 in 2000. Largo was first incorporated in ...

, United States. The station is owned by Pinellas County Schools of

Pinellas County, Florida Pinellas County (, ) is a county located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 959,107. The county is part of the Tampa– St. Petersburg– Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistic ...

. WPDS can also be seen in Pinellas County on cable channel 14 on WOW! systems, and digital channel 614 on

Spectrum A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors ...

. While the station is owned by Pinellas County Schools, the station's call letters are named after "Pinellas District Schools", which is the name used on public school buses in Pinellas County. All public school buses in Florida are named similarly. The station's studios and

transmitters In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to th ...

are located at the School Board headquarters in downtown Largo.

History

The station had its start in the early 1980s as a

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

-only channel. In 1990, it opened a low-powered UHF channel on channel 14, to reach viewers without cable service. Initially W14AW, it changed its call letters to WPDS-LP in 1996. The station transitioned to digital in late 2009 as WPDS-LD, using the same transmitter location and wattage. The WPDS call letters were originally used in the Tampa Bay area in the early-1980s by easy-listening radio station WPDS-FM ("Paradise 93", now

WFLZ-FM WFLZ-FM (93.3 MHz) is a commercial radio station in Tampa, Florida. It airs a contemporary hit radio (CHR/Top 40) radio format and is owned and operated by iHeartMedia. The station's studios and offices are located on Gandy Boulevard in Sou ...

). It was later used in Indianapolis from 1984 to 1985 as the first call letters of present-day Fox affiliate,

WXIN WXIN (channel 59) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Bloomington-licensed CBS affiliate WTTV, channel 4 (and its Kokomo-licensed s ...

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

References

External links

* * {{Public broadcasting in the United States Educational and instructional television channels PDS-LD Television channels and stations established in 1988 Low-power television stations in the United States Pinellas County, Florida 1980s establishments in Florida