states canada branding tv 54 channels digital 50 uhf subchannels 54.1 pbs 54.2 create 54.3 world affiliations pbs owner public broadcasting of northwest pennsylvania inc. first air date august 13 1967 call letters meaning we question and learn sister station s wqln fm former channel number s 54 uhf analog 1967 2008 former affiliations net 1967 1970 transmitter power 300 kw height 270.7 m facility id 53716 transmitter coordinates 42 2 34 n 80 3 56 w 42.04278 n 80.06556 w 42.04278 ; 80.06556 wqln website www.wqln.org wqln is the public broadcasting service pbs member public television station in erie pennsylvania . it is owned by public broadcasting of northwest pennsylvania and broadcasts on digital channel 50 which remaps to former analog channel 54 via psip . its transmitter and studio facilities are located south of the city of erie just slightly northeast of wjet tv wfxp s shared studios off peach street . in addition to its local viewership in northwestern pennsylvania and portions of nearby ohio and new york state wqln is also seen in the london ontario area on rogers cable channel 8 and on other cable systems in the area . contents 1 digital channels 2 history 3 canadian coverage 4 references 5 external links digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 1 54.1 1080i 16 9 wqln dt main wqln programming pbs 54.2 480i 4 3 create create 54.3 world world history edit logo for wqln from 1978 to 2014 groundwork for an educational television station in northwest pennsylvania was laid in 1953 with the founding of educational television of erie . its initial effort to sign on a station was unsuccessful but the group eventually reserved channel 54 for noncommercial use . the group which was renamed educational television of northwest pennsylvania in 1964 pressed on until finally winning a construction permit on december 6 1966 . the group initially chose the call letters wlrn for learning but those letters were already being used by a radio station in miami florida . they then went with their next choice wqln we question and learn . on august 13 1967 ; wqln finally went on the air . wqln fm signed on in 1973 . wqln is the second smallest pbs member in pennsylvania . its coverage area is limited due to erie being sandwiched between pittsburgh to the south youngstown to the west and buffalo to the north . as a result the station has struggled financially for most of its history . at various times in the life of the station pbs mainstays such as mister rogers nova and macneil lehrer newshour were not seen on wqln . the station s transmitter was knocked off air early september 15 2008 after its antenna and transmission line were damaged by hurricane ike . there was also additional damage possibly from a prior lightning strike to the 680 foot transmission line . 2 the station later returned using a temporary digital antenna making wqln the first erie station to become fully digital . 3 4 with the impending end of analog broadcasting only four months away the station opted not to rebuild its analog facility and broadcast exclusively in digital . canadian coverage edit rogers cable carries wqln as the pbs station on some of its systems in southwestern ontario including london which has almost three times the population of wqln s american coverage area . as a result of its cable carriage a major portion of wqln s financial contributions have come from viewers in canada . 5 for decades the station has identified as erie london to acknowledge its canadian viewership . however in july 2009 rogers announced that it would be replacing both wqln and watertown new york s wpbs dt carried in ottawa on its cable systems with detroit s wtvs due to concerns over signal quality as a result of the stations not having fiber optic signals available to rogers . the plan by rogers was faced with criticism from wqln s general manager dwight miller who stated that wqln would not be able to stay on the air without the support of its canadian viewers . miller claimed that in recent years the bulk of wqln s fundraising revenue came from canada . 5 the threat of losing its canadian cable viewership came as an additional unwelcome blow for wqln which like other pbs members in pennsylvania lost all state funding as of 2009 . wqln would face a loss of about 800 000 of state funding . 6 on july 30 2009 rogers announced that wqln will be retained on its southwestern ontario systems as a result of wqln providing a connection to rogers london headend . 7 references edit http www.rabbitears.info market.php request station search & callsign wqln station http www.wqln.org antenna scott fybush 2008 10 13 . northeast radio watch . retrieved 2008 10 13 . wqln on air again jim carroll erie times news october 11 2008 a b london free press loss of london viewers could sink erie station 22 july 2009 . erie times news wqln to stay on in london state budget leaves uncertain future 30 july 2009 . london free press rogers retains pbs affiliate wqln 31 july 2009 . external links edit wqln website query the fcc s tv station database for wqln biafn s media web database information on wqln tv v t e broadcast television in northwestern pennsylvania including erie reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with cable television local stations wlep ld 9.1 sonlife wicu tv 12.1 nbc 12.2 metv 12.3 cbs wjet tv 24.1 abc 24.2 laff 24.3 escape w32dh d 32.1 3abn 32.2 3abn proclaim 32.3 dare to dream 32.4 3abn latnio 32.5 3abn radio 32.6 3abn radio latino 32.7 radio 74 wsee tv 35.1 cbs 35.2 the cw 35.3 nbc w45ec d 45.1 silent future station wqln 54.1 pbs 54.2 create 54.3 world wfxp 66.1 fox 66.2 grit 66.3 bounce tv pennsylvania broadcast television binghamton new york buffalo new york elmira new york erie johnstown altoona state college new york city philadelphia pittsburgh scranton wilkes barre susquehanna valley harrisburg washington dc youngstown ohio see also cleveland buffalo ontario tv v t e pennsylvania public television network stations whyy tv witf tv wlvt tv wpsu tv wqed wqln wvia tv wybe v t e pbs member stations in the state of pennsylvania wpsu 3 clearfield wqed 13 pittsburgh witf 33 harrisburg wlvt 39 allentown wvia 44 scranton wqln 54 erie whyy 12 philadelphia other wnjs 23 camden nj see also abc cbs cw fox ion mynetworktv nbc pbs other stations in pennsylvania retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wqln tv & oldid 736021666 categories pbs member stationstelevision stations in erie pennsylvaniatelevision channels and stations established in 1967 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 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