charlotte slogan tuned in . channels digital 11 vhf virtual 42 psip translators 14 uhf hickory affiliations .1 pbs .2 nhk world .3 create owner central piedmont community college first air date august 27 1965 ; 51 years ago 1965 08 27 call letters meaning television information former channel number s analog 42 uhf 1965 2009 former affiliations net 1965 1970 transmitter power 2.2 kw height 363 m facility id 10645 transmitter coordinates 35 17 14 n 80 41 45 w 35.28722 n 80.69583 w 35.28722 ; 80.69583 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wtvi.org wtvi virtual channel 42 vhf digital channel 11 is a pbs member television station located in charlotte north carolina united states . the station is owned by central piedmont community college . wtvi maintains studio facilities located in the chantilly commonwealth section of east charlotte and its transmitter is located in the unincorporated area of newell in northeastern mecklenburg county just northeast of the charlotte city limits . wtvi is the only public television station in north carolina that is not operated by unc tv and is one of three pbs member stations serving the charlotte television market along with unc tv s wung channel 58 and south carolina educational television scetv s wnsc tv channel 30 . wtvi is aired on cable channel 5 in charlotte and surrounding areas channel 4 in kannapolis and metrolina and channel 9 in york and lancaster counties the area s actual channel 9 wsoc tv is seen on cable channel 4 . in recent years wtvi has been carried on cable in troy which is within the greensboro media market . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 references 4 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on august 27 1965 ; 1 it was originally owned by the charlotte mecklenberg board of education . the wtvi call letters were first used by what is now ktvi in st. louis missouri from 1953 to 1955 when it was licensed to belleville illinois on the east side of the mississippi river . wtvi s original station manager was donna lee davenport who was also instrumental in creating the station . in 1982 wtvi s license was transferred to the not for profit charlotte mecklenburg public broadcasting authority turning the station into a community owned entity . mecklenburg county covered the debt on wtvi s digital broadcasting equipment and maintains the station s studios located on commonwealth avenue in charlotte . the county also paid wtvi 95 000 annually to broadcast county commission meetings . 2 in 2004 wtvi cut back on more well known pbs programs . ratings increased for a while with alternative shows but after several years the station ended up in trouble . 3 on june 30 2011 wtvi s board was advised that the station was running a 300 000 deficit and that its long term operation was questionable if its financial situation did not improve . 2 on march 13 2012 central piedmont community college offered to take over the station . the college requested 1.35 million from mecklenburg county ; 357 000 to complete the purchase and about 800 000 to give the station a significant technical overhaul . the mecklenburg county commission approved funding for the deal on march 20 . without county money central piedmont community college would have been unable to complete the purchase and the station would have likely ceased operations on june 30 2012 . 4 the deal was approved by the federal communications commission on may 21 2012 5 and the acquisition of wtvi was completed on july 1 2012 with the broadcast licenses being transferred the following day . 6 as a result wtvi became an educational licensee for the second time in its history . at that time it became one of seven full time pbs member stations to be operated by a community college alongside milwaukee public television ; wdcq tv in bay city michigan ; wvut tv in vincennes indiana ; kacv in amarillo texas ; knct in killeen texas ; wsre in pensacola florida and wbcc in orlando florida wbcc now wefs has since left pbs . three months after taking over operations central piedmont community college brought back familiar pbs shows such as downton abbey nova and nature to the schedule . additional local programming is planned including some previously aired on the college s cable channel . among the new shows is off the record hosted by david rhew and similar to jerry hancock s final edition dropped in 2009 for budget reasons . 3 wtvi is one of the few pbs member stations that don t clear the weekend editions of pbs newshour . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 7 42.1 1080i 16 9 wtvi hd main wtvi programming pbs 42.2 wtvi nh nhk world 42.3 480i wtvi ct create prior to february 17 2009 wtvi carried the civic channel on digital subchannel 42.2 create on digital subchannel 42.3 42.4 pbs kids on digital subchannel 42.4 and a high definition feed of wtvi on digital subchannel 42.5 ; the fourth and fifth subchannels were dropped on february 17 with create moving to 42.3 and the main channel on 42.1 upgrading to high definition . in july 2010 the civic channel was replaced by mhz worldview . in november 2015 mhz worldview was dropped and a simulcast of create was placed on subchannel 42.2 ; in february 2016 nhk world was added to subchannel 42.2 . analog to digital conversion edit in 2000 wtvi began broadcasting its digital signal on vhf channel 11 carrying four digital subchannels including one high definition channel . wtvi was the first television station in charlotte to produce programming in high definition . wtvi shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 42 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 . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition vhf channel 11 . 8 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 42 . references edit about us a b washburn mark july 1 2011 . charlotte s public tv station in dire straits . the charlotte observer . archived from the original on july 1 2011 . a b washburn mark 2012 10 06 . struggles remain in the air for wtvi . the charlotte observer . access date requires url help perlmutt david . county board split on cpcc wtvi merger . the charlotte observer 2012 03 21 http www.charlotteobserver.com 2012 05 21 3257751 briefly.html celebrating 31 years with wtvi rabbitears tv query for wtvi dtv tentative channel designations for the first and the second rounds pdf . retrieved 2012 03 24 . external links edit www.wtvi.org wtvi official website query the fcc s tv station database for wtvi biafn s media web database information on wtvi tv v t e television stations in the charlotte north carolina area reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with cable television digital television wbtv 3.1 cbs 3.2 bounce 3.3 grit wsoc tv 9.1 abc 9.2 laff whky tv 14.1 ind. 14.2 this 14.3 comet tv 14.4 heartland 14.5 infomercials wccb 18.1 cw 18.2 antenna 18.3 metv 18.4 qvc wcnc tv 36.1 nbc 36.2 justice 36.3 decades wjzy 46.1 fox 46.2 movies 46.3 heroes & icons 46.4 ion wmyt tv 55.1 mntv 55.2 buzzr 55.3 sbn waxn tv 64.1 ind. 64.2 gettv 64.3 escape low power digital wcee lp 16.1 estrella w21ck d 21.1 3abn 21.2 3abn proclaim 21.3 3abn latino 21.4 3abn radio 21.5 radio 74 whwd ld wdmc ld 21.1 25.1 daystar 21.2 wsic wlnn cd 24.1 ind. wgtb cd 28.1 rel . wtbl cd 48.1 ind. 48.2 wlnn cd simulcast public broadcasting wune tv 17 wung tv 58 17.2 58.1 pbs 17.3 58.2 kids 17.1 58.3 explorer 17.4 58.4 north carolina wnsc tv 30.1 pbs scetv 30.2 create 30.3 world wtvi 42.1 pbs 42.2 nhk world 42.3 create cable television spectrum news fox sports carolinas north carolina broadcast television areas by city asheville charlotte greensboro greenville nc myrtle beach sc norfolk va raleigh wilmington south carolina broadcast television areas by city augusta ga aiken charleston charlotte nc columbia greenville sc myrtle beach savannah ga hilton head see also tri cities tv v t e pbs member stations in the state of north carolina operated by unc tv asheville market wunw 27 canton wunf 33 asheville charlotte market wune 17 linville wung 58 concord greensboro market wunl 26 winston salem greenville nc market wunm 19 jacksonville wunk 25 greenville myrtle beach sc market wunu 31 lumberton norfolk va market wund 2 edenton raleigh market wunc 4 chapel hill wunp 36 roanoke rapids wilmington market wunj 39 wilmington other wtvi 42 charlotte see also abc cbs cw fox ion mynetworktv nbc pbs other stations in north carolina retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wtvi & oldid 742837075 categories television stations in north carolinatelevision channels and stations established in 1965pbs member stationsdigital low power stationshidden categories pages using citations with accessdate and no url 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 links this page was last modified on 6 october 2016 at 03 11 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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