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24-643: In 1963, several men first met at Coughlin High School in Wilkes-Barre to discuss bringing an educational television station to Northeastern Pennsylvania . Twelve of the men formed the Northeast Pennsylvania Educational Television Association, chaired by Wilkes-Barre superintendent of schools Walter Wood. They received a license for channel 44 a year later. The station's first employee, general manager George Strimel, Jr.,

48-529: A part of the community; it won the Corporation for Public Broadcasting 's award for community involvement for two straight years in the 1970s. It was the only public television station in Pennsylvania to stay on the air during a 1970 budget crisis. When Hurricane Agnes struck the area in 1972, WVIA preempted its programming to air weather reports around the clock, and lent its equipment to WBRE so it could stay on

72-720: A second high school in Wilkes-Barre in 1925, the building was dedicated as James M. Coughlin High School in memory of Superintendent James Martin Coughlin, who served in that capacity from 1890 to 1918. The main building was closed on December 23, 2015, after 104 years of continuous use. This came as a result of a lengthy series of meetings by the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board , where it was decided that Coughlin and another Wilkes-Barre Area High School ( Elmer L. Meyers Junior/Senior High School ) would close and combine after

96-515: A time. WCLH continued to broadcast after the tower collapse through the internet via their "Radio Stream" on their website. WCLH was able to broadcast over the air again after the tower collapse via a low powered signal from a temporary site by the end of December 2007. By December 28, 2007, the WCLH antenna (which survived the tower collapse) and transmitter was moved to a new tower 1 km east, northeast of its former location where it again resumed over

120-506: Is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania , United States, the station serves the Scranton area. The station is currently owned by Wilkes University. The station has obtained a construction permit from the FCC for a power increase to 205 watts. The station plays alternative rock, heavy metal, and most recently adding rap/hip-hop to the programming schedule. It also airs

144-484: The Coughlin site is closed, and rebuilt. The Annex building would continue to house 11th and 12th grade students until the new school is built, and 9th and 10th grade students placed in a recently renovated former Mackin Elementary School building, and the 11th and 12th graders will be placed in the old Times Leader building next to Coughlin. It was then later decided to include G.A.R Junior/Senior High School in

168-466: The Doctor and Homegrown Concerts , and shows that focus on Pennsylvania and Northeast Pennsylvania . WVIA has historically aired children's programs during the day, and for many years, when it was an hour-long program, aired Sesame Street three times on weekdays, including the previous weekday's episode in the morning, and the current day's episode at noon and at various times in late afternoon. With

192-573: The advent of the PBS Kids subchannel, WVIA has scaled back its children's programming on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. on its main channel. WVIA serves one of the largest coverage areas east of the Mississippi River . This area is very mountainous meaning that some areas cannot get a clear signal from the main transmitter. James M. Coughlin High School James M. Coughlin High School

216-685: The air as of February 15, 2010 with assistance from WNEP-TV , using the ABC affiliate's transitional digital channel 49 transmitter and tower. The station moved to digital channel 50 post-transition in December 2009 to reduce interference with Philadelphia/ Atlantic City Telemundo affiliate WWSI , but did not disassemble the former channel 49 facilities to transmit all of their services. Like WVIA's digital channel 41, all channels remapped via PSIP to Channel 44. In August 2011, thieves stole 400 feet (122 m) of copper transmission line from WVIA's tower while WVIA

240-1062: The air. In 1978, WVIA activated its current tower on Penobscot Knob . It increased the station's coverage by 20%, enabling it to reach 20 counties and giving it a coverage area comparable with most of the area's commercial stations. The station also operates the largest translator network in Pennsylvania. For many years, WVIA was available on cable systems beyond the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre TV market, including Cablevision in Fairfield County, Connecticut and Nassau County, New York . It carried Saturday and Sunday morning sitcom reruns , and Leave it to Beaver , The Dick Van Dyke Show , and The Honeymooners on weekday afternoons, and on Saturday nights ran science-fiction series , including Star Trek , which ran on WVIA from 1984 to 1994, The Twilight Zone , The Outer Limits , Doctor Who , and Lost in Space on Saturday mornings. Later in

264-459: The building, the Annex, was built in 1955 and formally dedicated on November 2, 1955. The main building has four floors, a basement, and an attic, and the Annex has three with a partial basement. It is the oldest public school in Pennsylvania being built in 1909, the older of the two buildings that makes up Coughlin is over 100 years old. The second building is about 60 years old. With the construction of

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288-465: The closure and consolidation plan. Therefore, all three Wilkes-Barre Area High School buildings would close and merge to the new Wilkes-Barre Area High School. The G.A.R. building would be converted to a middle school for grades 6-8. Construction was expected to be completed by early 2018, when all three former high schools would converge in the new school. However, the Board was unable to move forward with

312-573: The day, the station aired The Waltons at 4:30 and 5 p.m. and All in the Family at 6 p.m. from 1989 to 1991. From 1991 until 2009, WVIA aired Little House on the Prairie from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. All shows were broadcast according to PBS standards, airing commercial-free with underwriting announcements added before and after each show. On December 16, 2007, the top section of WVIA's tower collapsed due to severe ice, wind, and snow. The felled top section of

336-456: The nationally syndicated shows Democracy Now , Making Contact, CounterSpin , Radio Goethe and The Full Armor of God Broadcast . Like most college radio stations, it is run by a staff of students with the exception of a faculty general manager to oversee the day-to-day operations. WNEP -TV's transmission tower broadcasting the analog signal on channel 16 and WCLH's FM signal collapsed on December 16, 2007 due to severe ice, winds, and snow at

360-498: The plan to use the Coughlin site. On March 5, 2018, the Board voted to purchase land in Plains, Pennsylvania for the merged high school. The plans faced vocal opposition, but Wilkes-Barre Area High School opened as a new consolidated high school for the 2021–2022 school year. The Coughlin property was sold for $ 1.65 million in January 2021. WCLH WCLH (90.7 FM )

384-583: The service area has been limited. Earlier that same day, the neighboring tower supporting the antennas for analog WNEP-TV and WCLH (90.7 FM) collapsed completely due to the ice and winds. The tower collapse also destroyed the transmitter building but no one was hurt in either incidents. In 2009, following the end of the Pennsylvania Public Television Network , the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania cut WVIA's funding by $ 970,000, which forced

408-498: The station to end production of several local programs. On February 17, 2009, WVIA-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 44, meeting the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate, which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41. Through

432-411: The tower supported the antennas for the analog TV signal on channel 44 and the digital TV signal on channel 41. WVIA-FM 's antenna survived since it was located on the portion of the tower which did not collapse. After the incident, WVIA quickly put the analog TV signal back on the air through the use of a shorter back-up tower and antenna also located on Penobscot Knob. However, due to the shorter height,

456-407: The transmitter location on Penobscot Knob . The tower collapse also destroyed the transmitter building. No one was injured during the incident. The collapse of the tower supporting the antennas for WCLH (FM) and WNEP (analog TV) also damaged the nearby WVIA tower putting WVIA-TV off the air and severed power to the transmitters for WYOU-TV and WBRE-TV putting those stations off the air for

480-474: The use of PSIP , digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 44. WVIA suffered another disruption to its signal on February 12, 2010, when the building housing the transmitters for WVIA-TV and WVIA-FM was destroyed by fire. Though the tower was not impacted, the loss of the transmitters forced the stations off the air. The station quickly worked to restore programming to cable systems. The station returned to

504-618: Was an urban school located in Wilkes-Barre , Pennsylvania . It served grades 9–12 in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District . Established in 1890 as Wilkes-Barre High School , the current school structure was scheduled to be built on the original school's site in 1905, but due to a flood—which flooded the entire basement and first floor—building had to be restarted. The building was opened unofficially on September 11, 1911, and formally dedicated in October 1912. The second part of

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528-525: Was done from the transmitter site. The station grew rapidly, and within a year moved its offices from First Presbyterian Church in Wilkes-Barre to office space donated by King's College , and later to a school in Scranton . In 1969, WVIA moved to a specially-built studio at Marywood College in Scranton. In 1971, WVIA moved to its current studio in Jenkins Township . The station didn't take long to become

552-538: Was hired in 1965 and given two years to get the station on the air. He was able to do so within nine months, and WVIA-TV signed on for the first time on September 26, 1966. The fledgling station received a considerable assist from the area's commercial stations. WNEP-TV donated the old transmitter and tower facility from WARM-TV, one of the two stations that merged to form WNEP ten years earlier, while WBRE-TV (channel 28) and WDAU-TV (channel 22, now WYOU ) made their studios available for local productions. All production work

576-611: Was still temporarily using WNEP-TV 's old tower, delaying a return to channel 41 and their own tower. WVIA resumed use of their channel 41 transmitter and tower in March 2012. The station sold its spectrum in FCC 's broadcast auction ending February 10, 2017 for $ 25.9 million. The proceeds were placed in its endowment. In conjunction with the auction result, the station announced a channel sharing agreement with WNEP, which permits it to stay on its virtual channel 44. WVIA-TV produces shows such as Call

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