alabama united states branding apt slogan america s first . alabama s only . yours exclusively channels digital see table below subchannels see table below affiliations pbs since 1970 owner alabama educational television commission first air date january 7 1955 ; 61 years ago 1955 01 07 call letters meaning all stations w second letter see table below intelligence quotient sister station s wlrh fm huntsville former affiliations net 1955 1970 transmitter power see table below height see table below facility id see table below transmitter coordinates see table below licensing authority fcc public license information public television profile public television cdbs website www.aptv.org alabama public television is a state network of pbs member television stations serving the u.s. state of alabama . it is operated by the alabama educational television commission which holds the licenses for all the pbs member stations licensed in the state . the broadcast signals of the nine stations cover almost all of the state as well as parts of florida georgia mississippi and tennessee . the network produces public affairs and documentary programming ; broadcast and online education programs for classroom use and teacher professional development ; and electronic field trips serving k 12 students . the network s offices and network operations center are located in birmingham . apt maintains offices and studio facilities located adjacent to patterson field in the state capital of montgomery as well as a small secondary studio located in the basement of the alabama state house . apt also operates a studio in washington d.c. in partnership with the folger shakespeare library . the aetc also operates a public radio station wlrh 89.3 fm in huntsville . contents 1 history 2 board members 3 stations 3.1 coverage areas 4 digital television 4.1 digital channels 4.2 analog to digital conversion 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit apt logo used from the 1960s to the 1980s . alabama was one of the earliest states to enter into educational television broadcasting when the alabama general assembly created the alabama educational television commission in 1953 . in an unusual move at the time the commission requested allocations for four stations which would air the same programming at all times fed from a central studio in birmingham . at the time it was apparent that much of the state outside of birmingham montgomery and mobile was too poor and too rural to support a standalone educational station . the commission thus wanted to ensure that all of the state s children would have access to educational television . after two years of preparation it signed on the nation s ninth educational television station wedm in munford serving talladega . the transmitter was located atop cheaha mountain the highest point in alabama . when wbiq in birmingham came online in april 1955 alabama became the first state in the nation with an educational television network . alabama educational television made its first broadcast as a network shortly after wbiq signed on . since then 25 other states have started public television networks all based on alabama s model . the network changed its name to the alabama public television network in the late 1960s and shortened the name to simply alabama public television in 1988 . apt s studio in montgomery . waiq in andalusia now wdiq in dozier went on the air in august 1956 bringing apt to south alabama for the first time before being reassigned to montgomery in december 1962 . waiq was the first apt station to broadcast a digital signal in 2003 on uhf channel 14 but that signal was later moved to channel 27 on account of montgomery station wsfa signing on its digital signal on channel 14 . commercial licensed station wala tv in mobile donated its former transmitter in spanish fort to apt in 1964 allowing weiq to bring the network to alabama s gulf coast counties that november . weiq s transmitter power was increased during the 1980s . in 1976 the federal communications commission delayed renewal of aetc s licenses due to apt s refusal to air programs pertaining to the vietnam war or the african american community . apt management feared that airing these types of programs would cause angry public officials to cut the network s funding and put the network s future in jeopardy . therefore apt followed orders by state officials not to air certain programming during the 1960s and 1970s . however it has taken a more independent stance over the last 30 years . the aetc took over the operation of huntsville public radio station wlrh in 1977 . in january 1982 a major ice storm caused the collapse of the wciq tower which was then rebuilt . in august 2004 apt began datacasting on its digital broadcast signals to distribute digital multimedia content to ten elementary and secondary schools in a pilot program . the datacasting model was replaced by aptplus an online distribution of multimedia content which became available to every school in alabama via the internet . every public school in alabama registered to use aptplus within its first year of operation . many private school teachers and home school families are also registered users . apt logo used from the 1980s to the early 2000s . for more than a quarter century alabama public television aired a nightly public affairs program for the record covering statewide news and alabama politics . the longest running program of its kind on a pbs member station or regional or state network it won an award for best local news program from the national educational telecommunications association neta an organization of public television stations . capitol journal succeeded for the record in 2008 and is produced at apt s statehouse studio in montgomery . apt began broadcasting a high definition channel apt hd in 2005 . in december 2006 it launched a digital how to channel featuring established cooking gardening decorating crafts and sewing programs called apt create . a third digital channel apt iq debuted in march 2007 . originally called apt iq the channel became apt world in october 2012 and offers news and documentary programming . today apt s mission continues to be focused mainly on education . it provides educational services to alabamans online on air through three digital subchannels and through outreach services to educators and service provides statewide . board members edit the members of the alabama educational television commission board as of 2012 are ferris w. stephens chairman birmingham 6th congressional district gregory o. griffin sr. vice chairman montgomery 2nd congressional district dr. rodney d. herring secretary opelika 3rd congressional district bebe williams huntsville 5th congressional district les barnett mobile 1st congressional district and dr. dannetta k. thornton owens birmingham 7th congressional district . stations edit map all coordinates using osm map all coordinates using google map up to 200 coordinates using bing export all coordinates as kml export all coordinates as georss export all coordinates as gpx map all microformatted coordinates place data as rdf the alabama public television stations are station city of license channels tv rf first air date second letter meaning original research erp haat transmitter coordinates facility id public license information waiq montgomery 26 psip 27 uhf december 18 1962 alabama 600 kw 178.7 m 32 22 55 n 86 17 33.3 w 32.38194 n 86.292583 w 32.38194 ; 86.292583 waiq 706 profile cdbs wbiq birmingham 10 psip 10 vhf april 28 1955 birmingham 3 kw 426.2 m 33 29 4.5 n 86 48 25.5 w 33.484583 n 86.807083 w 33.484583 ; 86.807083 wbiq 717 profile cdbs wciq1 mount cheaha 7 psip 7 vhf january 7 1955 cheaha 34.8 kw 575.8 m 33 29 6.2 n 85 48 32.7 w 33.485056 n 85.809083 w 33.485056 ; 85.809083 wciq 711 profile cdbs wdiq2 dozier 2 psip 10 vhf august 8 1956 dozier 30 kw 224.8 m 31 33 17 n 86 23 31.4 w 31.55472 n 86.392056 w 31.55472 ; 86.392056 wdiq 714 profile cdbs weiq mobile 42 psip 41 uhf november 18 1964 educational 199 kw 185 m 30 39 33.9 n 87 53 33.5 w 30.659417 n 87.892639 w 30.659417 ; 87.892639 weiq 721 profile cdbs wfiq florence 36 psip 22 uhf august 9 1967 florence 418.8 kw 207.6 m 34 34 41 n 87 47 1.8 w 34.57806 n 87.783833 w 34.57806 ; 87.783833 wfiq 715 profile cdbs wgiq louisville 43 psip 44 uhf september 9 1968 greater alabama 925 kw 262 m 31 43 4.8 n 85 26 2.9 w 31.718000 n 85.434139 w 31.718000 ; 85.434139 wgiq 710 profile cdbs whiq huntsville 25 psip 24 uhf november 15 1965 huntsville 396 kw 338.2 m 34 44 12.7 n 86 31 45.3 w 34.736861 n 86.529250 w 34.736861 ; 86.529250 whiq 713 profile cdbs wiiq demopolis 41 psip 19 uhf september 13 1970 informational 1000 kw 324 m 32 21 46.1 n 87 52 30.5 w 32.362806 n 87.875139 w 32.362806 ; 87.875139 wiiq 720 profile cdbs notes 1 . wciq used the callsign wedm educational munford from january to march 1955 1 and then wtiq the t standing for talladega to 1959 . 2 also the station s city of license was previously munford near cheaha mountain from its 1955 sign on to 1960 3 and then mount cheaha state park where the station s transmitter and the mountain it is based on is located . because the tower is located in cleburne county nielsen media research and therefore the fcc considers the station to be a part of the atlanta georgia television market . 4 2 . wdiq used the callsign waiq the a standing for andalusia from its 1956 sign on to 1961 . 5 this station s city of license was andalusia from its 1956 sign on to 1962 . 6 coverage areas edit station signal reach waiq montgomery and the southern portion of the geographical center of the state wbiq birmingham and the northern portion of the geographical center of alabama and the west central counties of the state including the city of tuscaloosa wciq talladega anniston gadsden and auburn and the east central portion of the state to western georgia including the western outskirts of metro atlanta ; also provides secondary signal for birmingham wdiq the south central portion of the state to interstate 10 in the florida panhandle weiq mobile and baldwin counties along alabama s gulf coast and several counties to the north as well as parts of southeastern mississippi and the far western florida panhandle and the city of pensacola wfiq florence and the northwestern portion of the state and some counties in southern central tennessee and northeastern mississippi ; secondary signal for decatur wgiq dothan and most of the southeastern portion of the state and some parts of southwestern georgia ; closest aptv signal to phenix city whiq huntsville decatur and most of the north central and northeastern portion of the state as well as some counties in southern central tennessee ; secondary signal for gadsden wiiq much of southwestern alabama in the region known as the black belt as well as meridian and some counties in eastern central mississippi ; secondary signal for tuscaloosa and selma digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 x. 1 720p 16 9 apt main apt programming pbs x. 2 480i 4 3 apt world x. 3 apt create analog to digital conversion edit although the dtv delay act extended the mandatory deadline to june 12 2009 apt shut down the analog signals of all ten stations as originally scheduled on february 17 2009 . 16 waiq shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 26 ; the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 27 . through the use of psip digital television receivers display the