WDSE (TV)

WDSE (channel 8), branded on-air as PBS North, is a PBS member television station in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. Owned by the Duluth–Superior Area Educational Television Corporation, it is sister to adult album alternative radio station WDSE-FM (103.3). The two outlets share studios on rented space at the University of Minnesota Duluth; the television station's transmitter is located west of downtown Duluth in Hilltop Park.

WDSE
CityDuluth, Minnesota
Channels
BrandingPBS North
Programming
Affiliations8.1: PBS (1970–present)
8.2: PBS Explore/World Channel
8.3: Create
8.4: Minnesota Channel
8.5: PBS Kids[1]
Ownership
OwnerDuluth–Superior Area Educational Television Corporation
WDSE-FM
History
First air date
September 1, 1964 (1964-09-01)
Former call signs
WDSE-TV (1964–2009)
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
8 (VHF, 1964–2009)
Digital:
38 (UHF, 2003–2009)
NET (1964–1970)
Call sign meaning
Duluth–Superior Educational
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID17726
ERP34 kW
HAAT295 m (968 ft)
Transmitter coordinates46°47′29.7″N 92°7′21.4″W
Links
Public license information
Websitepbsnorth.org
Satellite station
WRPT
Channels
Programming
Affiliations31.1: PBS (2008–present)
31.2: PBS Explore/World Channel
31.3: Create
31.4: Minnesota Channel
31.5: PBS Kids
Ownership
OwnerDuluth–Superior Area Educational Television Corporation
History
First air date
December 27, 2008 (2008-12-27)
Call sign meaning
Iron Range Public Television
Technical information[3]
Facility ID159007
ERP250 kW
HAAT167 m (548 ft)
Transmitter coordinates47°22′53″N 92°57′16″W
Links
Public license information

WRPT (channel 31) in Hibbing, Minnesota, operates as a full-time satellite of WDSE; this station's transmitter is located at Maple Hill Park south of Hibbing. WRPT covers areas of Minnesota's Iron Range (including Grand Rapids, Virginia and Chisholm) that receive a marginal to non-existent over-the-air signal from WDSE, although there is significant overlap between the two stations' contours otherwise. WRPT is a straight simulcast of WDSE; on-air references to WRPT are limited to Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-mandated hourly station identifications during programming. Aside from the transmitter, WRPT does not maintain any physical presence locally in Hibbing.

History

WDSE first went on the air on September 13, 1964, as the second educational station in Minnesota. The founding general manager was George Beck, former principal of Duluth Central High School, who had led the campaign for educational television in the Twin Ports for over a decade.

The station originally operated from the Bradley Building in downtown Duluth. When the building was condemned to make room for Interstate 35, UMD offered the station space on campus for a new studio. WDSE moved to its current facility in 1978. It is named the Sax Brothers Memorial Communications Center in honor of the brothers of Duluth physician Milton Sax, who gave the initial $200,000 bequest for the project.

In November 1982, WDSE was the first Minnesota television broadcaster to utilize a circularly polarized broadcast antenna, and in April 1985 it was the first in Minnesota to begin full-time stereo television broadcasting. Its digital signal first went on the air on April 28, 2003, and in May 2003, WDSE became the first broadcaster in Minnesota to launch a channel, 8.2 PBS-HD, fully devoted to high-definition programming. In June 2008, WDSE became the first station in the Duluth–Superior market to begin producing local programming in high definition. WDSE/WRPT was the first station in the Duluth–Superior market to begin broadcasting in 5.1 Dolby surround sound starting June 12, 2009. On June 16, 2009, WDSE-TV/DT officially changed the station's call sign to simply WDSE, dropping the "TV" or "DT" at the end of the call sign.

WRPT began broadcasting December 27, 2008, utilizing a directional antenna that beams the signal across the Minnesota Iron Range communities. Much of this area had been among the few areas without a clear over-the-air signal from a PBS station; Iron Range viewers had only been able to watch WDSE when cable arrived in the area in the 1970s. WRPT was one of the first of two construction permits ever granted by the FCC as a "digital singleton" facility; making it a rare ground-up digital only station that had no analog counterpart. On March 1, 2010, WRPT-DT officially changed the station's call sign to simply WRPT dropping the "DT" at the end of the call sign.

In late August 2010, WDSE was rebranded from "PBS eight" to "PBS North" to reflect their extended coverage with WRPT into more of northeastern Minnesota. In 2012, the stations rebranded under their call letters as "WDSE-WRPT". The PBS North branding was reinstated in January 2023, with a new North Star-inspired logo symbolizing the stations' goal to "illuminate, inspire and enrich lives to strengthen community".[4]

Programming

Along with programming from PBS, Minnesota Public Television and PBS Wisconsin, locally produced programs such as Minnesota Legislative Report, WDSE Cooks, Almanac North, Venture North, Native Report, Great Gardening, Lawyers on the Line, and Doctors on Call are area favorites included in the broadcast schedule. WDSE produces, broadcasts, and supplies to the networks an intensive schedule of local and regional programming.

Technical information

Subchannels

The stations' digital signals are multiplexed:

Subchannels of WDSE[5] and WRPT[6]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
WDSEWRPTWDSEWRPT
8.131.1 1080i16:9WDSEpbsWRPTpbsMain programming / PBS
8.231.2 720p[1]WDSE2ndWRPT2ndPBS Explore / World Channel
8.331.3 WDSEcrtWRPTcrtCreate
8.431.4 480iWDSEmnWRPTmnMinnesota Channel
8.531.5 WDSEkidsWRPTkidsPBS Kids[1]

Analog-to-digital conversion

WDSE discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[7] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 38 to VHF channel 8.

Translator

City of license Callsign Channel Translating ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates Owner
KabetogamaK36LA-D 36WRPT0.1 kW125 m (410 ft)1410648°21′40.0″N 93°00′37.0″WKoochiching County

The last translator owned directly by WDSE was K67CT in Grand Marais. Rather than move from channel 67 to a channel between 2 and 51 as required to comply with the digital television transition in the United States, the translator was taken off the air December 1, 2011.[8]

References

  1. "PBS Kids, More HD Channels Coming to Duluth-Superior". Northpine.com. January 22, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
  2. "Facility Technical Data for WDSE". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. "Facility Technical Data for WRPT". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  4. "Minnesota-Wisconsin PBS stations switch to new name". NewscastStudio. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
  5. "RabbitEars TV Query for WDSE". www.rabbitears.info. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
  6. "RabbitEars TV Query for WRPT". www.rabbitears.info. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
  7. List of Digital Full-Power Stations
  8. "Grand Marais Translator Service Ends 12/1". WDSE • WRPT - PBS 8 & 31. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
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