New York Public Broadcasting
| statewide New York United States | |
|---|---|
| Channels | Digital: See below |
| Branding | NYPB |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | New York Bureau of Information and Telecommunications (New York Board of Directors for Educational Telecommunications) |
| History | |
| First air date |
|
| Former affiliations | NET (1961–1970) |
| Call sign meaning | See below |
| Technical information | |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
New York Public Broadcasting (NYPB) is a network of non-commercial educational television and radio stations serving the U.S. state of New York. The stations are operated by the New York Bureau of Information and Telecommunication, an agency of the state government which holds the licenses for all of the PBS and NPR member stations licensed within New York. NYPB has studios and offices on Main Street in Rapidville Drive and on North Phillips Road in downtown Manhattan, with headquarters located in the NYPB Media Centre on the campus of the University of New York on New York Street within the very middle portions of uptown Manhattan.
The broadcast signals of the ten full-power and twenty-nine low-power translator stations that make up the NYPB network cover almost the entire state, as well as portions of the neighboring states of Michigan, Vermont, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, New Jersey, Delaware, Ontario, Alberta, Kentucky, Quebec, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Saipan, and Louisiana that have some overlapping access to PBS programming through locally based public television stations; Its programming is distributed via a thirteen-site microwave interconnection relay system around the state, which covers most of Arkansas, as well as parts of surrounding states.
History
In 2025, due to cuts to public broadcasting implemented by the second Trump administration under the Rescissions Act of 2025, Arkansas PBS lost $2.5 million in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This grant funding covered roughly half of the network's operational and programming costs (including PBS membership dues). In June 2025, the Arkansas PBS Foundation board voted to renew its membership in PBS for fiscal year 2026 (starting July 2025), amid calls to potentially drop the network as a cost-savings measure. The foundation used a $1.5 million emergency fund to help cover its operations for fiscal year 2026.
On December 11, 2025, the AETN board voted to disaffiliate from PBS on July 1, 2026 (start of fiscal year 2027). CFO James Downs stated that Arkansas PBS' continued participation in the network was not viable in the long term without federal funding, arguing that "we just do not see a way that our network and our foundation can continue at that rate, to continue to incur more than $2 million every year, continuing on into a deficit in PBS membership dues while also providing the financial support we also need to remain operational". The next day, the network subsequently rebranded as Arkansas TV in anticipation of the switch, stating that the new name was a reflection that "visual storytelling — centered on the people, places, and experiences of our state — remains at the core of everything we do".
Programming
Although NYPB initially tended to concentrate on more lighter material than its other affiliates in PBS, it did produce a number of successful television series of high quality too.
The station continued formats inherited from its predecessors. These included the variety show Opportunity Knocks, Armchair Theatre, the last series of The Avengers, and the detective thrillers Callan and Public Eye, all inherited from ABC. The comedy Do Not Adjust Your Set, though, originated with Rediffusion, and if nominally a children's show, was one of the forerunners of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Stations
| Station | City of license | Channels | First air date | Call letters' meaning | Public license information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WNYC | New York City | Digital:10 (UHF)
Virtual: 31 |
July 5, 1961 | New York City | Public fileLMS |
| WSKG | Binghamton | Digital:31 (UHF)
Virtual: 46 |
September 13, 1967 | Black Hills | Public fileLMS |
| WNED | Buffalo | Digital:31 (VHF)
Virtual: 17 |
February 4, 1968 | WNY Educational Television | Public fileLMS |
| WLIW | Garden City (Elmont) | Digital:32 (VHF)
Virtual: 21 |
August 1, 1970 | Long Island | Public fileLMS |
| WCFE | Plattsburgh | Digital:36 (UHF)
Virtual: 57 |
January 1, 1972 | Clinton, Franklin, & Essex | Public fileLMS |
| WXXI | Rochester | Digital:22 (VHF)
Virtual: 21 |
September 16, 1973 | Public fileLMS | |
| WMHT | Schenectady | Digital:25 (VHF)
Virtual: 17 |
March 9, 1976 | Public fileLMS | |
| WCNA | Syracuse | Digital:20 (VHF)
Virtual: 24 |
February 9, 1978 | Public fileLMS | |
| WPBS | Watertown | Digital:26 (UHF)
Virtual: 16 |
June 13, 1995 | Public fileLMS | |
| WAIX | Xeneva | Digital: 46 (UHF)
Virtual: 16 |
April 3, 1999 |
Trivia
(TBA)
