KWSU-TV

KWSU-TV
CityPullman, Washington
Channels
BrandingNorthwest Public Broadcasting
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerWashington State University
KWSU (AM), KRFA-FM, KJEM-FM
History
First air date
September 24, 1962 (62 years ago) (1962-09-24)
Former call signs
KWSC-TV (1962–1969)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 10 (VHF, 1962–2008)
  • Digital: 17 (UHF, until 2009)
NET (1962–1970)
Call sign meaning
Washington State University
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID71024
ERP
HAAT408 m (1,339 ft)
Transmitter coordinates46°51′42.3″N 117°10′32.5″W / 46.861750°N 117.175694°W / 46.861750; -117.175694}
Translator(s)
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.nwpb.org

KWSU-TV (channel 10) is a PBS member television station licensed to Pullman, Washington, United States. The station is owned by Washington State University. KWSU-TV's studios are located in the Murrow Communications Center on WSU's main campus in Pullman, and its transmitter is located on Kamiak Butte near Palouse, Washington.

KWSU-TV's main signal serves a corner of the Spokane market as a "beta" station through the Program Differentiation Plan complementing KSPS-TV and Idaho Public Television. The station is carried on the Spokane DirecTV and Dish Network feeds, expanding its potential audience to over 600,000 people in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana. KWSU-TV is also available on Xfinity systems in the Spokane area, and operates a translator on UHF channel 33 in Spokane.

KWSU-TV operates sister station KTNW (channel 31) in Richland, Washington, which serves as a full PBS member for the Tri-Cities area. Although this station maintains its own studios on the WSU Tri-Cities campus in Richland, master control and most internal operations are based at KWSU-TV's facilities.

Collectively branded as Northwest Public Broadcasting, the two stations cover southeastern Washington and north central Idaho as well as Wallowa County, Oregon.

History

Old KWSU/KTNW logo from 2003 to 2006

KWSU signed on the air on September 24, 1962, as KWSC-TV (standing for Washington State College, the name of Washington State University until 1959), and changed its callsign to KWSU-TV in March 1969, a year before the launch of PBS.[2]

The station used the Washington State University cougar logo as its official logo until 1976.

KWSU signed on KTNW on channel 31 on October 18, 1987. The channel 31 allotment in the Tri-Cities was briefly used in the late 1950s by KTRX, based in Kennewick, Washington, and since that station signed off, channel 31 in the Tri-Cities has been vacant until KTNW signed on.

KWSU discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on February 17, 2009, the original date on 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).[3] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 17 to its analog-era VHF channel 10.

From 2017 to 2018, KWSU and KTNW used the "nwptv" branding. Since 2018, both stations have switched to the "Northwest Public Broadcasting" branding, which was a modified version of the "Northwest Public Television" branding used from 2006 to 2017.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KWSU-TV[4]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
10.1 1080i 16:9 KWSU-DT Main KWSU-TV programming / PBS
10.2 480i 4:3 KWSU-RC Create

KWSU offered ResearchChannel on subchannel 10.2 until that service was discontinued in August 2010.

Translators

See also

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KWSU-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ FCC History Cards for KWSU-TV. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). hraunfoss.fcc.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved January 15, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for KWSU". RabbitEars.info.