is a
Non-commercial television station licensed to
Newark, New Jersey . With its signal covering the three-state
New York Metropolitan Area , WNET is a flagship station of the
Public Broadcasting Service , along with stations such as
WGBH-TV in
Boston and
WETA-TV in
Washington, D.C. As such, WNET is a primary provider of PBS programming. Among its contributions are ''
Nature '', the
Charlie Rose show, ''
Great Performances '', ''Live From Lincoln Center'' and ''
American Masters ''.
The license-holder is the Educational Broadcasting Corporation, which is also the parent of
Plainview, New York -based PBS station
WLIW (channel 21). The current President and Chief Executive Officer is Dr. William F. Baker, who owns an extensive collection of historic microphones. WNET is the most watched PBS station in the country; its sister station WLIW is the fourth most-watched.
WNET commenced broadcasting on
January 2 ,
1948 as , a commercial television station. WATV was the first of three new stations in New York to sign-on during 1948, and was also the city's first
Independent Station . In
1958 its original owner, Atlantic Television, sold the station to
National Telefilm Associates , an early distributor of motion pictures and television programs. The call letters were changed to '''WNTA-TV''' to reflect the new ownership. WNTA produced schedule of programming with greater emphasis on the people and events of New Jersey, in comparison to the other commercial television stations. But channel 13 continued to lag behind New York's other independent stations -- WNEW-TV (now
WNYW ), WOR-TV (now
WWOR ), and
WPIX -- in terms of programming and popularity among viewers.
By the start of
1962 , it became clear that the New York market, despite being the largest in the country, could not support four independent stations. The Educational Broadcasting Corporation, a
Non-profit company, bought WNTA for $6.28 million and converted channel 13 into , a non-commercial, educational station affiliated with
National Educational Television . About $1 million of that amount came from WCBS, WNBC, and WNEW, which were eager to see a competitor off the dial. In addition,
CBS donated a theatre facility on Ninth Avenue in Midtown
Manhattan to WNDT and NET for production uses.
With legendary news reporter
Edward R. Murrow at the helm on the maiden broadcast, the switch occurred on
September 16 ,
1962 . This move gave New York City its first educational station, and with a dial position on the coveted VHF band. The
Federal Communications Commission had allocated to New York
UHF channel 25 as its non-commercial station, but it would be
1967 before it would come on the air (as
WNYE-TV ).
In
1970 the
Ford Foundation and the
Corporation For Public Broadcasting threatened to withdraw funding from NET if it didn't merge with the station. The threat was an attempt to curb NET's production of controversial documentaries and replace it with a less controversial broadcaster, less hostile to the
Nixon administration. NET was disbanded in the fall of that year and was replaced by the
Public Broadcasting Service . Channel 13's call sign was changed to the present shortly thereafter.
Channel 13's studios and offices were originally located in
West Orange, New Jersey , then in the Mosque Theater, and then for a short time at the Gateway Center office building, both in
Newark, New Jersey . The station eventually moved its operations to
New York City, New York , where most television stations and television networks were based.
Channel 13's transmitter facilities, including a newly installed digital transmission system, were destroyed on , Channel 13's head transmitter engineer, was among those who perished when the north tower collaped. For the next ten months WNYE-TV, headquartered in
Brooklyn , became WNET's surrogate transmitter and airwave (for those without cable, repeats of WNET prime-time schedules were screened on WNYE). After the surrogate period, WNYE branched more into independent public television, culminating
July 1 ,
2003 . The divorcement of WNYE from the network made WNET the only PBS station in New York City. In
February 2003 , WNET completed the merger with Long Island PBS broadcaster
WLIW (licensed to
Garden City and headquartered in Plainview), combining the two stations into one operation.
has also produced and created a number of PBS shows. This includes:
