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South Carolina Educational Television
statewide South Carolina
Branding	ETV
Channels	Digital: see table below
Subchannels	South Carolina Channel XX.2 ETV World XX.3
Affiliations	PBS
Owner	South Carolina Educational Television Commission (South Carolina Educational Television Commission)
Founded	September 1963 (television) September 1972 (radio)
Former affiliations	NET (1963–1970)
Transmitter Power	see table below
Height	see table below
Facility ID	see table below
Transmitter Coordinates	see table below
Website	www.myetv.org

South Carolina Educational Television is the statewide public television and public radio network in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It consists of all the PBS member television stations and NPR member radio stations in the state. It is operated by the South Carolina Educational Television Commission, an agency of the state government.

History

Station identification for ETV HD, c. 2009.

The network traces its history to 1957, when the General Assembly authorized a study in the use of television in the state's public schools. A studio opened in the state capital, Columbia, a year later. The Commission began operations on June 3, 1960, and by 1962 extended television service to all 46 of South Carolina's counties. Also in 1963, the Commission opened the first educational television station in South Carolina, WNTV in Greenville. A year later, WITV in Charleston signed on. Two years later, the network's flagship, WRLK-TV in Columbia, signed on. The network now comprises 16 stations. After years of receiving NET and PBS programs on tape-delay, it entered PBS' satellite network in 1978. In 2000, SCETV broadcast the first digital television program in the state. Since 2003, the network has been known on-air as simply "ETV."

The Commission entered public radio in 1972, when WEPR in Clemson signed on (WEPR later moved to Greenville). Eventually, the network expanded to eight stations and was known as the South Carolina Educational Radio Network (SCERN) until 2003, when it became known as ETV Radio – while "ETV" generally refers to television, SCETV views "ETV" as a general brand name for all SCETV-related media, not just television.

Television

SCETV's television network consists of 11 all-digital transmitters that cover almost all of South Carolina, as well as eastern parts of Georgia (including Augusta and Savannah) and southern portions of North Carolina (including Charlotte and Asheville). The Anderson/Clemson Area is the only large area of the state without a ETV Radio or TV Station.

SCETV completed its transition from analog to digital television at midnight on February 18, 2009.

As of 2009, the SCETV stations are:

Notes:

• 1. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says WNTV signed on September 15, while the Television and Cable Factbook says it signed on September 29.
• 2. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says WRLK signed on September 5, while the Television and Cable Factbook says it signed on September 6.
• 3. WNSC-TV (ETV Carolinas), WRJA-TV (ETV Sumter), WRET-TV (ETV Upstate) and WJWJ-TV (ETV Lowcountry) are full-fledged stations that occasionally break off from the main signal at WRLK-TV (ETV Headquarters) in Columbia to produce regional programs. The other five stations are operated as full-time relay stations of WRLK-TV.
• 4. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says WRET signed on September 4, while the Television and Cable Factbook says it signed on September 8.

Digital television

SCETV offers three digital television services over its network of 11 digital transmitters across South Carolina available over-the-air with an ATSC tuner, or through some digital cable providers. SCETV's digital channels map to their original analog channel numbers using PSIP, and each station has three digital subchannels. ETV HD is the primary feed with high definition content from PBS and SCETV broadcast at a screen resolution of 1080i. The other two digital subchannels are in standard definition at resolution of 480i.

The lineup of the sub-channels are as follows:

Analog-to-digital conversion

Despite the DTV Delay Act national transition extension to June 12, 2009, SCETV ended analog services on its 11 full-power transmitters at midnight on February 18, 2009.

After this, the following changes occurred: ^[1]

• WITV's digital signal in Charleston moved to its old analog position on channel 7^[2], requiring viewers to re-scan or manually add the new station.
• WNTV, WRLK, WJPM, WEBA, WJWJ, WRJA, WNSC, WHMC, WRET, and WNEH remained on their pre-transition digital channel numbers (9, 32, 45, 33, 44, 28, 15, 9, 43, and 18). ^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]}

Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display virtual channels for each SCETV station corresponding to their previous analog channel numbers.

Radio

SCETV Radio consists of eight FM transmitters covering almost all of South Carolina and parts of Georgia and North Carolina.

Three of them broadcast a mix of NPR information programs and classical music; five of them broadcast strictly NPR news and information. However, they simulcast NPR's more popular shows, such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

News and classical music

News and information

Until 2001, all of the stations aired a format similar to the Classical stations today. However, since much of the state gets grade B coverage from at least two full NPR member stationss, SCERN Radio opted to split into two networks. WJWJ was the first to split off, in 2001, because its coverage area also gets classical music from WSVH in Savannah. It was followed by WRJA and WHMC later in 2001, with WLJK joining in 2003. Presently, the only area of the state that doesn't get grade B coverage from two NPR stations is WEPR's coverage area in the west.

Until the rebranding to ETV Radio, WJWJ-FM, WSCI, and WEPR had local studios with occasional local shows. Due to budget cuts and the creation of the two ETV Radio networks, all stations now are fed programming directly from Columbia, although ETV maintains several local offices.

From 2001 to 2008, WNSC-FM in Rock Hill broke off from the rest of the network to air jazz music in order to avoid programming duplication with WFAE in Charlotte. However, starting on July 1, 2008, WNSC-FM joined the NPR News network. SCETV president Moss Bresnahan told The Charlotte Observer that SCETV didn't want to deny people on the South Carolina side of the Charlotte market access to SCETV's growing slate of local programming. The move left the Charlotte market without a jazz station of its own.^[13] Ironically, WNSC was the Charlotte area's first NPR station when it signed on in 1979; WFAE didn't sign on until 1981.

In 2009, ETV Radio began streaming both the Classical and News networks on the Web. It had been one of the few NPR members not to offer live streaming.

Logos

SCETV and SCERN's logo from 1978 to 2003

SCETV's secondary logo from 2000 to 2003

The present logo, used since 2003

SCETV original programming (current and past)

• At Home Southern Style
• Firing Line
• NatureScene (SCETV's long-running outdoors program, syndicated to PBS stations nationwide)
• Making it Grow
• Carolina Journal
• Jobman Caravan
• Stateline
• Palmetto Places
• Carolina Business Review (in conjunction with UNC-TV in North Carolina and WTVI in Charlotte, North Carolina)
• State House Tonight
• Mary Long's Yesteryear (no longer in production, Mary Long died in 1998, but reruns continue on ETV as well as on SC Channel on cable)
• The Magic School Bus (Animated Nelvana/Ellipse production based on the children's book series; presented by SCETV and aired on PBS from 1994–1998)
• Sandlapper's Corner (Late 1970s children's educational show focused on South Carolina culture and history)
• Profile (Part of the ETV Classics series branding)
• Studio See (SCETV's magazine-style children's show, seen nationwide on PBS in the late-1970s and early-1980s)
• Under The Blue Umbrella (In-school program from the 1970s that dealt with a single-subject; nationally-syndicated to PBS stations)
• Under The Yellow Balloon (Similar to Blue Umbrella; from the early-1980s)
• Six Gun Heroes (1980s series on the western stars from the golden age of cinema; also seen nationwide on PBS stations)
• The Dooley and Pals Show (SCETV distributes the secular version of this children's series to PBS stations)

ETV occasionally broadcasts college sports from various state colleges in South Carolina.

References

1. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
2. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231023&formid=387&fac_num=61005
3. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231030&formid=387&fac_num=61010
4. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231034&formid=387&fac_num=61013
5. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231025&formid=387&fac_num=61008
6. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231020&formid=387&fac_num=61003
7. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231026&formid=387&fac_num=61007
8. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231032&formid=387&fac_num=61012
9. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231029&formid=387&fac_num=61009
10. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231022&formid=387&fac_num=61004
11. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231031&formid=387&fac_num=61011
12. ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231028&formid=387&fac_num=60931
13. ^ Washburn, Mark. Sorry, Jazz fans, change may have you singing blues. The Charlotte Observer, 2008-07-01.

External links

• SCETV official site
• SCETV Regional Stations
• ETV Lowcountry (WJWJ-DT) official site
• ETV Carolinas (WNSC-DT) official site
• ETV Upstate (WRET-DT) official site
• The South Carolina Channel
• ETV Radio official site
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNTV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WITV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WRLK-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WJPM-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WEBA-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WJWJ-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WRJA-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNSC-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WHMC
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WRET-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNEH
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WLJK
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WJWJ-FM
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WSCI
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WLTR
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WHMC-FM
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WEPR
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WNSC-FM
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WRJA-FM