channels digital 40 uhf virtual 39 psip subchannels 39.1 pbs 39.2 kids 39.3 create 39.4 explore affiliations pbs 1970 present owner fort wayne public television inc. first air date december 5 1986 originally low power w39aa 1964 1986 call letters meaning fort wayne possibly related to the iata code of fort wayne international airport fwa former channel number s analog 39 uhf 1964 2009 former affiliations net 1964 1970 ; as w39aa transmitter power 90 kw height 221 m facility id 22108 transmitter coordinates 41 6 13.4 n 85 11 26.9 w 41.103722 n 85.190806 w 41.103722 ; 85.190806 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wfwa.org wfwa virtual channel 39 uhf digital channel 40 is a pbs member television station located in fort wayne indiana united states . the station is owned by fort wayne public television inc. wfwa maintains studios located at the dr. rudy and rhonda kachmann teleplex at the corner of coliseum boulevard and crescent avenue on the campus of indiana university purdue university fort wayne and its transmitter is located at its former studio facility on butler road in fort wayne . bruce haines is the current president and general manager of wfwa . 1 contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 references 4 external links history edit in 1964 w39aa a translator of wbgu tv in bowling green ohio signed on the air on channel 39 . prior to 1974 fort wayne had been the only area of indiana without access to pbs programming even on cable it was standard practice for pbs to offer programs to commercial stations in markets without pbs member stations but no evidence concerning carriage of the network s programs in fort wayne has yet surfaced . this low powered repeater station was merely a placeholder as channel 39 was allocated as a full powered educational channel in fort wayne . by the early 1980s the station became a translator of indianapolis pbs station wfyi . on march 12 1985 a local public television group was granted the channel 39 slot from the fcc and licensed the station under the wfwa call letters ; wfwa signed on the air on december 5 1986 bringing northeast indiana its own pbs station for the first time ever . in 2003 wfwa became the first television station in the fort wayne market to broadcast a digital signal originally carrying the national pbs hdtv feed on a separate subchannel from its regular programming ; funding issues would later cause the national hd feed to be pulled leaving all programming in standard definition for several years . it was announced that wfwa s main channel 39.1 would broadcast in high definition full time at some point during summer 2010 . 2 during a summer 2010 pledging break general manager bruce haines announced that the change would occur on july 4 2010 at 7 30 p.m. due to advancements in video compression the station was able to upgrade its main channel to hd without sacrificing the video quality of its other three sd subchannels . in may 2013 the station announced a fundraising drive to upgrade its infrastructure over the next three years including a signal boost the purchase of remote production equipment and improvements to the station s master control . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 3 39.1 1080i 16 9 pbs39hd main wfwa programming pbs 39.2 480i kids39 pbs39 kids 39.3 4 3 create create 39.4 pbs4you pbs39 explore formerly wfwa had shown the national pbs kids feed also seen nationally on digital cable satellite on channel 39.2 . when the service ended on september 26 2005 wfwa continued the channel by self programming it locally . wfwa aired the annenberg cpb channel on 39.4 until october 1 2008 . the satellite feed for annenberg was discontinued at that time . 4 analog to digital conversion edit wfwa shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 39 on february 17 2009 the original target 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 40 . 5 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 39 . as part of the safer act 6 wfwa kept its analog signal on the air for 2 weeks to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the national association of broadcasters . references edit wfwa public broadcasting for northeast indiana high definition 39.1 rabbitears tv query for wfwa 39 4you information dtv tentative channel designations for the first and second rounds pdf . retrieved 2012 03 24 . updated list of participants in the analog nightlight program pdf . federal communications commission . june 12 2009 . retrieved june 4 2012 . external links edit wfwa official website query the fcc s tv station database for wfwa biafn s media web database information on wfwa tv v t e television in northeastern indiana including fort wayne reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with cable television stations w07cl 3abn wane 15.1 cbs 15.2 antenna tv 15.3 ion television wpta 21.1 abc 21.2 nbc 21.3 mynetworktv wise 33.1 the cw 33.2 wx radar wxj58 audio wfwa 39.1 pbs 39.2 pbs kids 39.3 create 39.4 pbs wfwc cd 45 3abn wfft 55.1 fox 55.2 bounce tv winm 63.1 tct 63.2 tct hd 63.3 tct family 63.4 la fuente w26dh d 73.1 3abn 73.2 3abn latino 73.3 3abn radio 73.4 radio 74 cable channels fox sports indiana fox sports detroit ohio broadcast television charleston huntington west virginia cincinnati cleveland akron columbus dayton ft. wayne indiana lima marietta parkersburg west virginia steubenville wheeling west virginia toledo youngstown zanesville see also south bend tv indianapolis tv lansing tv v t e pbs member stations in the state of indiana wnin 9 evansville wfyi 20 indianapolis wvut 22 vincennes wtiu 30 bloomington wnit 34 south bend elkhart wfwa 39 fort wayne wipb 49 muncie wyin 56 gary see also abc cbs cw fox ion mynetworktv nbc pbs other stations in indiana retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wfwa & oldid 743885323 categories pbs member stationstelevision channels and stations established in 1964television stations in fort wayne indiana navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add 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