WREP-LD (channel 15) is a

low-power television station Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a Radio broadcasting#Station, broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower ...

Martinsville, Indiana Martinsville is a city in Washington Township, Morgan County, Indiana, United States. The population was 14,980 at the 2020 United States census. The city is the county seat of Morgan County. History Martinsville was founded in 1822. It is said ...

, United States, affiliated with

YTA TV YTA TV (an initialism for its former full name, Youtoo America; commonly referred to as just YTA) is an American television network which originally launched in February 1985 as a cable channel. Unusual for a network of its type, it has had mult ...

. The station is owned by the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville and managed by students at Martinsville High School. The station went on the air in 1990 as W15AY, affiliated with FamilyNet and similar services. It produced local programming for the Martinsville area. The next year, Reporter-Times Inc., publisher of '' The Daily Reporter'' newspaper in Martinsville, acquired the station. It continued the local programming until 1992, dropping it due to low viewership and lack of access to the city's cable system. Once the cable system added the station, local programming resumed. The newspaper was acquired in 1998, and in lieu of closing WREP-LP, new owner

Schurz Communications Schurz Communications, Inc. is an American broadband media group and cloud services provider based in South Bend, Indiana. It previously owned newspapers and television stations. History The company was founded in 1872 by Alfred B. Miller and ...

donated it to Martinsville High School. The station airs student-produced programming, including local sports.

History

Randy Manley built the station as W15AY and put it on the air on August 1, 1990. It was programmed with a family-friendly lineup, using the FamilyNet and Keystone Inspirational networks as well as

The Learning Channel TLC is an American multinational cable television, cable and satellite television, satellite television network owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established in 1980 as The Learn ...

, as well as several locally produced shows. It was sold effective February 1, 1991, to The Reporter-Times Inc., publisher of newspapers in Martinsville; Manley remained with the station after the sale. The station struggled in its early years to obtain a channel on Martinsville's cable system. The city of Martinsville requested that TCI add the channel in 1991, but it never did. As a result, Reporter-Times discontinued local programming in 1992. The next year, it filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against TCI. In December 1994, the city voted to join the lawsuit against TCI. TCI settled the lawsuit in 1995 and agreed to place channel 15 on its lineup. With cable access, Reporter-Times Inc. moved to resume producing local programming on channel 15. The station became WREP-LP and affiliated with America One. Reporter-Times Inc. was purchased by

, publisher of the Bloomington '' Herald-Times'', in March 1998. Schurz opted to focus on the newspapers and considered closing WREP-LP. Instead, it offered the station to the school system of Martinsville. The transfer took place in February 1999; TV newscasts produced by the newspaper were discontinued, while Martinsville High School planned to produce athletic events and other school-related programming. Some shows were produced by high school students, including sports events, as well as other material not telecast on the station but used by units in the high school. In July 2009, WREP-LP converted to digital broadcasting, only slightly later than full-service stations and began adding material from

America One America One was an American television network established in 1995 by USFR Media Group through its America One Television subsidiary.

to fill several

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

Subchannels

The station's signal 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— ...

References

{{Indiana TV 1990 establishments in Indiana REP-LD Morgan County, Indiana Television channels and stations established in 1990 YTA TV affiliates