Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) is the
public broadcasting
Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...
network serving the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
. It is owned by the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television (MAET), an agency of the
state government
A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...
that holds the
licenses
A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) 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 part ...
for all of the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
and
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
member stations in the state. MPB's headquarters is located on Ridgewood Road in northeast
Jackson
Jackson may refer to:
Places Australia
* Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region
* Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region
* Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region
* Jackson oil field in Durham, ...
. The public broadcaster was established as Mississippi Educational Television.
History
Mississippi was a relative latecomer to public broadcasting. By the late 1960s, it was the only state east of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
without an
educational television
Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that are often associated with cable televi ...
station licensed within its borders. The only areas of the state to get a clear signal from a
National Educational Television
National Educational Television (NET) was an American non-commercial educational, educational terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It op ...
(NET) or PBS station were the northwestern counties (from
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Mem ...
'
WKNO) and the counties along the Gulf Coast (from
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
'
WYES-TV
WYES-TV (channel 12) is a PBS member television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, owned by the Greater New Orleans Educational Television Foundation. The station's studios are located on Navarre Avenue in the city's Navarre neig ...
and
Mobile's
Alabama Educational Television outlet,
WEIQ).
In 1969, the
Mississippi Legislature
The Mississippi Legislature is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The bicameral Legislature is composed of the Lower house, lower Mississippi House of Representatives, with 122 members, and ...
created the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television to create a locally focused educational television service for Mississippi. After almost a year of planning, WMAA (channel 29, now WMPN-TV) in Jackson debuted on February 1, 1970, as the state's first educational television station. It immediately joined PBS. The initial broadcast was written by Jeanne Lucket and produced and co-directed by Mims Wright, then Director of Public Affairs at Jackson
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
affiliate
WLBT
WLBT (channel 3) is a television station in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Media, which also operates American Spirit Media–owned Fox affiliate WDBD (channel 40) and Vicksburg-licensed MyNet ...
, and Joe Root, WLBT Production Manager.
Only four months after beginning operations, WMAA received unwanted national attention when it refused to carry ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...
'' because of its racially integrated cast. That decision was reversed 22 days later after a nationwide outcry. Six other stations began operation over the next few years, and the state network became known as Mississippi Educational Television, or simply ETV.
Public radio came even later, arriving in the state in 1983. Eventually, Public Radio in Mississippi (PRM) expanded to eight stations throughout the state.
On November 20, 2003, MAET adopted "Mississippi Public Broadcasting" as an umbrella on-air brand for all television and radio operations.
Programming
Since its inception, MPB has produced many
educational
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also fol ...
or
instructional television
Instructional television (ITV) is the use of television programs for distance education. Educational television programs on instructional television may be less than one half hour long (generally 15 minutes in length) to help their integration i ...
programs from its Jackson studios. A partial list includes ''
Tomes & Talismans'', ''
The Write Channel
''The Write Channel'' was an instructional program for children, produced in 1977 by Mississippi Public Broadcasting, Mississippi ETV and distributed to PBS and educational stations by the Agency for Instructional Technology, Agency for Instructi ...
'', ''
The Clyde Frog Show
''The Clyde Frog Show'' (stylized on-air as ''the CLYDE FROG show'') is a television program for children that aired from 1976 to 1977. It was produced by the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television (MAETV). In the show, puppets, most n ...
'', ''
About Safety
''About Safety'' is a children's educational television program which originated in 1972. It was produced by the Mississippi Public Broadcasting, Mississippi Authority for Educational Television. In the 3 to 6 minute shorts, marionettes, most n ...
'', ''Ticktock Minutes'', ''Zebra Wings'', ''Posie Paints'', ''Project Survival'', ''The Metric System'', ''Media Mania'', and ''
Between the Lions
''Between the Lions'' is an American animated/live-action/puppet educational children's television series designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between WGBH in Boston, Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, and Mississipp ...
''.
Series include:
* ''Artifacts''
* ''
Between the Lions
''Between the Lions'' is an American animated/live-action/puppet educational children's television series designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between WGBH in Boston, Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, and Mississipp ...
'' (2000–2010; national co-production with
WGBH Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
)
* ''Fit to Eat'', a cooking show
hosted by chef and restaurateur Rob Stinson
* ''Job Bank'' (1970s-early 1990s)
* ''
Mississippi Roads'' (1983–present)
* ''
Mississippi Outdoors'' (1970s–present)
* ''Quorum'' (1976–2012)
* ''Southern Expressions''
[
* '' Tomes & Talismans'' (mid–1980s)
* '']The Write Channel
''The Write Channel'' was an instructional program for children, produced in 1977 by Mississippi Public Broadcasting, Mississippi ETV and distributed to PBS and educational stations by the Agency for Instructional Technology, Agency for Instructi ...
'' (1977; distributed by the Agency for Instructional Technology
The Agency for Instructional Technology (AIT) was a non-profit organization in the United States that produced, sold and distributed educational and instructional television programs, and other multimedia materials, to schools in the United States ...
(AIT))
* ''Write Right'' (1985; aired as part of the GED series, which was distributed by Kentucky Educational Television
Kentucky Educational Television (KET) is a statewide television network serving the U.S. Commonwealth (U.S. state), commonwealth of Kentucky as a member of PBS. It is operated by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, an agency of ...
)
MPB Television
As of 2009, the MPB television stations are:
Notes:
*1. All stations added the -TV suffix to their callsigns on February 1, 1982.
*2. WMPN-TV used the callsign WMAA from its 1970 sign-on (and added the -TV suffix to its callsign in 1982) until 1990.
Coverage areas
Translator
MPB received a construction permit
Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions.
House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...
for station WMAA, channel 43 in Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, the capital city of the U.S. state of Ohio
* Columbus, Georgia, a city i ...
, in 1998. This permit was modified to specify digital-only operation and granted again in 2001. The permit expired June 27, 2003, without any construction having taken place. MPB has stated there are currently no plans or funding to build the station.
MPB Television covers nearly all of the state, as well as parts of Alabama
Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
, Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
and Louisiana
Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
. Additionally, WMAV is carried on DirecTV
DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
and Dish Network
DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation.
The company was originally establ ...
's Memphis feeds, bringing its programming to an additional 1.4 million people in Tennessee and Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
. Oxford is part of the Memphis market.
Digital television
Subchannels
The signals of MPB's TV stations are multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
During 2009, in the lead-up to the analog-to-digital television transition that would ultimately occur on June 12, MPB shut down the analog transmitters of its stations on a staggered basis. Listed below are the dates each analog transmitter ceased operations as well as their post-transition channel allocations:
* WMPN-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 ...
channel 29, on February 17, 2009, the original date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 20, using 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 as digits on a receiver's ...
29.
* WMAH-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 19, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 16, using virtual channel 19.
* WMAE-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 55, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 12.
* WMAU-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 18, using virtual channel 17.
* WMAO-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 23, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 25, using virtual channel 23.
* WMAW-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 14, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 44, using virtual channel 14.
* WMAB-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 10, using virtual channel 2.
* WMAV-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 18, on February 17, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 36, using virtual channel 18.
MPB Radio
MPB Radio consists of eight stations covering most of the state. It airs mostly news and talk programming from NPR and other distributors of public radio
Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...
programming, along with several locally produced shows.
Recently, MPB has added a 24-hour classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
service on its second HD channel, which now also airs on DT4 on all MPB television stations. It brands this programming as "Music Radio," while the original MPB Radio service is known as "Think Radio." Shows produced by MPB Music include the nationally distributed program ''Sounds Jewish''. All of MPB's radio stations also air the Radio Reading Service of Mississippi on their FM subcarriers, which is also simulcast on the DT4 subchannel on the "Spanish/Audio Description" audio channel.
MPB Radio streams both of its services live in Windows Media and Mac formats.
References
External links
*
Mississippi Public Broadcasting collection
in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting
The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The AAPB is a national effort to di ...
MPB sign-on circa 1992 (in Black & White)
{{Authority control
1970 establishments in Mississippi
NPR member networks
PBS member networks
*
Television channels and stations established in 1970
Television stations in Mississippi