Ontario Public State Broadcasting
| Type | public non-commercial educational statewide broadcast television subnetwork |
|---|---|
| Branding | PBS Ontario |
| Country | United States |
| Availability | statewide Ontario |
| TV stations | See § Stations |
| TV transmitters | 13 |
| Radio stations | See § Stations |
| Radio transmitters | 13 |
| Headquarters | Eaton Civic Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada TVO Civic Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Owner | Ontario Educational Communications Authority |
Launch date | January 8, 1955 |
Picture format | |
| Affiliation | |
Former affiliations | TV: NET (1966–1970) |
Official website | www |
Search Ontario Public State Broadcasting on Amazon.
Ontario Public State Broadcasting, branded PBS Ontario, is a public educational statewide television network serving the state of Ontario. The network comprises twelve stations, and a network of 60 low-power repeaters within most of Ontario.
History
The Community Television Foundation of Ontario was formed in November 1955. It immediately jumped into the bidding for Ontario's first non-commercial educational television station. The only major competition came from the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Ultimately, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) awarded licenses to both groups in a time-share arrangement. They signed on channel 2 as a shared operation on August 12, 1955, operating as a member station of National Educational Television (NET) under the call letters WNIX. Under the arrangement, the school board and the foundation alternated airtime on channel 2, airing their programming from separate studios. The school board would air five hours of educational programming during the day, while the Community Television Foundation was responsible for evening programming. The agreement remained in effect long after the station had officially changed its callsign to WNOT, with the deal finally expiring in Middle 2011.
By February 1999, the network launched an afternoon Britcom programming block, Afternoon Tea, replacing children's programming on Sundays and Wednesdays. By 2009, OPSB was airing kids' programming during the day on its OPSB Select channel. In September 2015, as part of budget cuts, OPSB outsourced its master control operations to Public Media Management—a joint venture of Boston PBS member WGBH and Sony Corporation.
Funding
Funding for Ontario Public State Broadcasting comes from five major sources. Approximately 65% of its primary funding comes from private contributions and an annual broadcasting grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 31% of its primary funding is provided by the State of Idaho, while the remaining 4% of its primary funding is provided by the Federal Government.
Programming
As a PBS member station, much of OPSB’s program schedule consists of educational and entertainment programming distributed by PBS to its member stations, including non-OPSB productions, as well as other programs either syndicated or produced for exclusive local broadcast within the Ontario market. For the better part of almost every chapter within its history, OPSB has been a major producer of programming for PBS and its major predecessor network NET, and is the second-most prolific production affiliate supplying shows within the PBS national schedule, only being surpassed by WGBH-TV. Due to a strong program for journalism and broadcasting within the University of Ontario, many of the state network's local students and regional programs are produced by various students who reside within its campus. Its best-known children's television offering was Sesame Street, which was discovered in October 1966 after a meeting with Joan Ganz Cooney, Lloyd Morrisett, and Muppets creator Jim Henson.
Stations
Radio Station(s)
Ontario Public State Broadcasting airs a mix of news, talk, visual arts, dramedy, science, regional sports, and/or children's programmes from either NPR, Public Radio Exchange (PRX), American Public Media (APM), the BBC World Service and other sources. Stations in the lineup include:
| Call sign | Frequency
(MHz) |
City of license | Facility ID | ERP
(W) |
Height |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WNOF | 95.31 | Aultsville (Toronto)[1] | 58359 | 50,000 | 190 m (620 ft) |
Television Station(s)
Television stations included in the state network are:
- WNOT (Aultsville-Toronto)
- CHCH (Hamilton)
- CKCO (Kitchener-Waterloo)
- WFPL (London)
- CBOT (Ottawa)
- CHWI (Windsor)
- CRMH (Richmond Hill)
- CBRT (Brampton)
- CUAV (Vaughan)
- CUIS (Mississauga)
- CICI (Sudbury)
- WRCK (Westward)
Technical Information
The station's signal is Multiplexed:[3]
| Station | City of license | Channels | First air date | Call letters' meaning | ERP | HAAT | FCC Facility ID |
Transmitter coordinates | Public license information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WNOT | Aultsville (Toronto)[2] | Digital: 34 (UHF) Virtual: 2 |
July 5, 1961 | University of Ontario |
{| class="wikitable"
!Channel !Res. !Aspect !Callsign !Programming |- |19.1 |4K |16:9 |OPTV-1 |Main OPTV Programming / PBS |- |19.2 |1080i |16:9 |OPTV-2 |OPTV2 |- |19.3 |1080i |16:9 |OPTV-3 |Create |- |19.4 |1080i |16:9 |OPTV-4 |World |- |19.5 |1080i |16:9 |OPTV-5 |PBS Kids |- |19.6 |1080i |16:9 |OPTV-6 |TVOntario |- |19.7 |1080i |16:9 |OPTV-7 |Business |- |19.8 |1080i |16:9 |OPTV-8 |Other OPTV Programming |} Ontario Public State Broadcasting (OPSB) discontinued regular programming on its analog signal (over UHF channel 24) on June 11, 2009, the day before the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States (which included all Canadian-based PBS stations at the time) transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 16. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 21.
However, as part of the SAFER Act, OPSB kept its analog signal on the air until July 10, 2009, to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters. OPSB had been awarded a $1,493,578 federal contract for an outreach initiative to help Ontario's over-the-air viewers prepare for the digital transition.
Staff
Ontario Public State Broadcasting (OPSB)'s current staff directory is listed below as notes.
- Van Beusekom (President/CEO)
- Saturday Bains (Vice President)
- Omaha Taylor (Chief Creative Officer)
- Sean Chouhan (Chief Sports Officer)
- Heather Bastin (Chief Marketing Officer)
- Jocelyn Eisert
- Binny Boparai-Gill
- Selwyn Jacob
- Sonia Lachar
- Phil Leong
- Eve Munro
- Anne O'Shea
- Alan Littler
- James Rzeznik
- David Neziol
- Paul Sarnoff
- Valerie Parnell
- Tord Larsson
- Charles Amurao
Trivia
(TBA)
References
- ↑ WNOF and WNOT are the flagship stations for the state network through official radio and television affiliations deals respectively, and both outlets serving the Greater Toronto Area through its license hooks at Aultsville)
- ↑ WNOF and WNOT are the flagship stations for the state network through official radio and television affiliations deals respectively, and both outlets serving the Greater Toronto Area through its license hooks at Aultsville)
- ↑ RabbitEars TV Query For OPTV
