Alabama Public Television

Encyclopedia : A : AL : ALA : Alabama Public Television

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Alabama Public Television is a network of educational television stations serving the US state of Alabama. The stations are licensed by the Alabama Educational Television Commission which was created by the Alabama state legislature in 1953. The broadcast signals of the nine stations combine to provide complete geographic coverage of the state.

The network produces its own news and public affairs programming and broadcasts content produced by the state's universities for online education and course credit as well. All nine stations are affiliates of PBS.

History

The network's first station, with the transmitter atop Mount Cheaha, began broadcasting in January 1955 as WTIQ (now WCIQ) for Talladega, though the city of license was Munford. When flagship WBIQ in Birmingham came online in April, Alabama Educational Television became the first operational educational TV network in the United States. It made its first broadcast as a network shortly after WBIQ signed on. Twenty-five other states have started public television networks, all based on Alabama's model.

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 as Channel 14 in 2003, but it was later changed to Channel 27 on account of Montgomery station WSFA. Mobile television station WALA donated its former transmitter in Spanish Fort to APT in 1964, allowing WEIQ to bring the network to Mobile and Baldwin counties in November. WEIQ's power was increased during the 1980s.

In 1976, the FCC revoked AETC's licenses for not airing programs pertaining to the Vietnam War or the African-American community, but the licenses were reinstated shortly thereafter. APT management feared that airing these types of programs would have put the network's future in jeopardy, due to potential losses of appropriations from offended or outraged public officials. Therefore, APT followed orders by state officials not to air certain programming during the 1960s and 1970s. Although APT still faces threats of censorship due to Alabama's conservative predilections, it has maintained a more independent stance from state government in the past 30 years. In fact, since the 1980s, it has aired a weeknight news program, "For the Record", that takes a quite aggressive approach to covering state government.

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.

Stations

Alabama Public Television has 9 affiliates. Each callsign ends with the letters "IQ" meaning "intelligence quotient". The current number of affiliates have been in operation since 1971.

Station	Analog Channel	Digital Channel	City	2nd Letter Meaning	Founded	Signal Reach
WAIQ	26	27	Montgomery	Alabama	12/18/62	the southern portion of the geographical center of the state.
WBIQ	10	53	Birmingham	Birmingham	4/28/55	the northern portion of the geographical center of Alabama and the west central counties of the state including the city of Tuscaloosa to the Mississippi state line
WCIQ	7	56	Mt. Cheaha	Cheaha	1/7/55	the east central portion of the state to the Georgia state line
WDIQ	2	11	Dozier	Dozier	8/18/56	the south central portion of the state to the Florida state line
WEIQ	42	41	Mobile	Educational	11/6/64	Mobile and Baldwin counties along Alabama's Gulf Coast and several counties to the north as well as parts of southeastern Mississippi and northwestern Florida
WFIQ	36	22	Florence	Florence	8/16/67	the northwestern portion of the state and some counties in southern central Tennessee and northeastern Mississippi
WGIQ	43	44	Louisville	Greater Alabama	9/9/68	most of the southeastern portion of the state and some parts of southwestern Georgia
WHIQ	25	24	Huntsville	Huntsville	11/8/65	most of the north central and northeastern portion of the state as well as some counties in southern central Tennessee
WIIQ	41	19	Demopolis	Informational	9/13/71	much of southwestern Alabama in the region known as the "Black Belt"

On all stations, HDTV is on subchannel 1, and SDTV is on subchannel 2. The date the station commenced broadcasting is in parentheses.

The network's offices and Network Operations Center are located in Birmingham, but APT also operates a studio in Montgomery for pledge drives and the weeknight broadcasts of the newscast and public-affairs interview program "For the Record". The AETC also operates a public radio station, WLRH-FM 89.3 FM in Huntsville, Alabama.

See also

• List of television stations in Alabama

External link

• [Alabama Public Television]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WAIQ]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WBIQ]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WCIQ]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WDIQ]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WEIQ]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WFIQ]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WGIQ]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WHIQ]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WIIQ]

Terrestrial television>Broadcast television in the Central Alabama (Birmingham / Anniston / Tuscaloosa) market  [(Nielsen DMA #40)]

WBXA-CA 2 (MTV2) - WBRC 6 (Fox) - WVUA-CA 7 (i/A1/ShopNBC) - WCIQ 7 / WBIQ 10 (PBS/APT) - WVTM 13 (NBC) - WOTM-LP 19 (Ind) - WTTO 21 / WDBB 17 (The WB/''The CW) - WUOA 23 (i/A1) - WJXS 24 (FamNet) - WBUN-CA 28 (Daystar) - WCFT 33 (ABC) - W34BI 34 (HSC) - WJSU 40 (ABC) - WIAT 42 (CBS) - WPXH 44 (i) - W49AY 47 (Ind/Rel.) - WOIL-LP 47 (Daystar)- WBMA 58 (ABC) - WTJP 60 (TBN) - WABM 68 (UPN/My Network TV)

Broadcast television in the Mobile, Alabama / Pensacola - Fort Walton Beach, Florida market  [(Nielsen DMA #62)]

WEAR 3 (ABC) - WKRG 5 (CBS) - WRBD-LP 8 (Ind.) - WALA 10 (FOX) - WBQP-CA 12 (A1/S@H/MTV2) - WPMI 15 (NBC) - WMAH 19 (PBS/MPB) - WMPV 21 (TBN) - WSRE 23 (PBS) - WHBR 33 (CTN) - WFGX 35 (Ind./JWLTV/My Network TV) - W39BP (FamilyNet) - WEIQ 42 (PBS/APT) - WJTC 44 (UPN/Ind.) - WFBD 48 (Ind.)- W52BF (HSN) - WPAN 53 (S@H/JTV) - WBPG 55 (The WB/The CW) - WAWD 58 (Ind.) - WRBM-LP 60 (Ind.)

Broadcast television in the Columbus, Georgia market  [(Nielsen DMA #127)]
WRBL 3 (CBS) - WTVM 9 (ABC) - WCGT-LP 16 (IND) - WACS 25 (PBS/GPB) - WJSP 28 (PBS/GPB) - WLTZ 38 (NBC) - WGIQ 43 (PBS/APT) - WXTX 54 (FOX) (The Tube on DT2) - WLGA 66 (UPN)
See also: Broadcast television stations in the , , , and Markets

PBS Member Stations in the state of Alabama (APT)
WCIQ 7 (Mt. Cheaha) - WBIQ 10 (Birmingham) WEIQ 42 (Mobile) WGIQ 43 (Louisville) WDIQ 2 (Dothan) WHIQ 25 (Huntsville) - WFIQ 36 (Florence) WAIQ 26 (Montgomery) - WIIQ 41 (Demopolis)
See also: , , , , , and stations in Alabama

 

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