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WNVT
WNVT (channel 23.3) is a non-commercial educational television station licensed to Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia, United States, serving the Richmond metropolitan area. The station's transmitter is located in the Richmond suburb of Bon Air in Chesterfield County. WNVT is operated in a pair with Culpeper-licensed WNVC (channel 41.3), which serves the Charlottesville area from a transmitter atop Carters Mountain. The two stations are owned by Richmond-based VPM Media Corporation, and broadcast programming from World Channel.
WNVT first signed on March 1, 1972, on channel 53 as PBS member station "Northern Virginia Public TV". The station, licensed to Goldvein, was owned by the Northern Virginia Educational Television Association, which had been formed in 1965, and served the Virginia side of the Washington, D.C., television market. WNVT originally operated from Northern Virginia Community College. When the station was under construction, the school offered an associate of arts in broadcast engineering technology.
The Central Virginia Educational Television Corporation (later Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation, now VPM Media Corporation) purchased the station in 1974.
As WNVT's transmitter was located in Independent Hill, Virginia, in rural Prince William County to the south of the Washington metropolitan area, reception in the more populated portions of Northern Virginia was difficult. Translator W14AA went on the air from Arlington in 1976 to increase coverage. WNVT began building WNVC in 1981, and received special permission to broadcast Congressional hearings over W14AA.
Fairfax-licensed WNVC signed on in May 1983 on channel 56, after being known as WIAH during the construction process. W14AA was sold in late 1981 and still broadcasts today as WMDO-CD. As the Washington market already had two full-service PBS stations in WETA-TV and WMPT, WNVC did not operate as a repeater of WNVT. Instead, it continued W14AA's coverage of Congress, along with State Department briefings, the Virginia General Assembly, county and local governments, school boards and fire districts. At the time, WNVC was billed as the only public television station independent of PBS in the nation.
On weekends in the late 1980s, WNVC had an unusual reputation for sports coverage. The station showed as many syndicated college basketball games as possible, including from the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in the era before every game was on national television. As there was generally only demand for Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference games in Washington, WNVC picked up games from major and minor conferences in other regions for relatively low cost. Its noncommercial status in turn freed it from the prospect of having to sell advertising for games that were likely to draw microscopic audiences. Director of development Mike Baker went on air during commercial breaks and halftimes with live appeals for donations. This stream of programming began to dry up in the early 1990s, when CBS and ESPN began national coverage of the entire tournament and increased coverage of regular-season games.
In 1993, a pledge drive featuring a week of foreign films generated unexpectedly high interest, convincing management there was an audience for foreign-language content. WNVC rebranded as "World View TV" on September 1, 1994, carrying international television programming in multiple languages and local ethnic programming on the weekends. At launch, the station's most popular program was the Russian state newscast Vremya, shown live at 9 p.m. Moscow Time (1 p.m. Eastern); it also aired Brazilian and Italian soccer, an in-studio celebration of Diwali in 1997, and some local programming, including a Spanish-language health call-in program. WNVT engaged in discussions throughout the 1990s to move its studios to Mary Washington College in Stafford County, but the move was scuttled in 1999 by rising costs, which had doubled in just two years.
WNVT continued as a standard PBS member station through 1999, though it did not air the network's evening programming. Beginning January 1, 2000, WNVT disaffiliated from PBS, reverting to an educational independent station during the day. WNVT also began relaying MuchMusic USA, an American spinoff of Canadian specialty channel MuchMusic, in afternoons and evenings.
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WNVT
WNVT (channel 23.3) is a non-commercial educational television station licensed to Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia, United States, serving the Richmond metropolitan area. The station's transmitter is located in the Richmond suburb of Bon Air in Chesterfield County. WNVT is operated in a pair with Culpeper-licensed WNVC (channel 41.3), which serves the Charlottesville area from a transmitter atop Carters Mountain. The two stations are owned by Richmond-based VPM Media Corporation, and broadcast programming from World Channel.
WNVT first signed on March 1, 1972, on channel 53 as PBS member station "Northern Virginia Public TV". The station, licensed to Goldvein, was owned by the Northern Virginia Educational Television Association, which had been formed in 1965, and served the Virginia side of the Washington, D.C., television market. WNVT originally operated from Northern Virginia Community College. When the station was under construction, the school offered an associate of arts in broadcast engineering technology.
The Central Virginia Educational Television Corporation (later Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation, now VPM Media Corporation) purchased the station in 1974.
As WNVT's transmitter was located in Independent Hill, Virginia, in rural Prince William County to the south of the Washington metropolitan area, reception in the more populated portions of Northern Virginia was difficult. Translator W14AA went on the air from Arlington in 1976 to increase coverage. WNVT began building WNVC in 1981, and received special permission to broadcast Congressional hearings over W14AA.
Fairfax-licensed WNVC signed on in May 1983 on channel 56, after being known as WIAH during the construction process. W14AA was sold in late 1981 and still broadcasts today as WMDO-CD. As the Washington market already had two full-service PBS stations in WETA-TV and WMPT, WNVC did not operate as a repeater of WNVT. Instead, it continued W14AA's coverage of Congress, along with State Department briefings, the Virginia General Assembly, county and local governments, school boards and fire districts. At the time, WNVC was billed as the only public television station independent of PBS in the nation.
On weekends in the late 1980s, WNVC had an unusual reputation for sports coverage. The station showed as many syndicated college basketball games as possible, including from the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in the era before every game was on national television. As there was generally only demand for Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference games in Washington, WNVC picked up games from major and minor conferences in other regions for relatively low cost. Its noncommercial status in turn freed it from the prospect of having to sell advertising for games that were likely to draw microscopic audiences. Director of development Mike Baker went on air during commercial breaks and halftimes with live appeals for donations. This stream of programming began to dry up in the early 1990s, when CBS and ESPN began national coverage of the entire tournament and increased coverage of regular-season games.
In 1993, a pledge drive featuring a week of foreign films generated unexpectedly high interest, convincing management there was an audience for foreign-language content. WNVC rebranded as "World View TV" on September 1, 1994, carrying international television programming in multiple languages and local ethnic programming on the weekends. At launch, the station's most popular program was the Russian state newscast Vremya, shown live at 9 p.m. Moscow Time (1 p.m. Eastern); it also aired Brazilian and Italian soccer, an in-studio celebration of Diwali in 1997, and some local programming, including a Spanish-language health call-in program. WNVT engaged in discussions throughout the 1990s to move its studios to Mary Washington College in Stafford County, but the move was scuttled in 1999 by rising costs, which had doubled in just two years.
WNVT continued as a standard PBS member station through 1999, though it did not air the network's evening programming. Beginning January 1, 2000, WNVT disaffiliated from PBS, reverting to an educational independent station during the day. WNVT also began relaying MuchMusic USA, an American spinoff of Canadian specialty channel MuchMusic, in afternoons and evenings.