Alabama Public Television
Alabama Public Television is a state network of Public Broadcasting Service member television stations serving the U.S. state of Alabama. It is operated by the Alabama Educational Television Commission, an agency of the Alabama state government which holds the licenses for all of the PBS member stations licensed in the state. The broadcast signals of the nine stations cover almost all of the state, as well as parts of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. The network produces public affairs and documentary programming; broadcast and online education programs for classroom use and teacher professional development; and electronic field trips serving K-12 students.
The network's offices and network operations center are located in Birmingham. APT also maintains studios adjacent to Patterson Field in the state capital of Montgomery, as well as a small secondary studio in the basement of the Alabama State House. APT also operated a studio in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the Folger Shakespeare Library. The AETC also operates a public radio station, WLRH in Huntsville.
History
Alabama was one of the earliest states to enter into educational television broadcasting when the Alabama General Assembly created the Alabama Educational Television Commission in 1953. In an unusual move at the time, the Commission requested allocations for four stations which would air the same programming at all times, fed from a central studio in Birmingham. At the time, it was apparent that much of the state outside of Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile was too poor and too rural to support a standalone educational station. The Commission thus wanted to ensure that all of the state's children would have access to educational television.After two years of preparation, it signed on the nation's ninth educational television station, WEDM in Munford, serving Talladega. The transmitter was located atop Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama. When WBIQ in Birmingham came online in April 1955, Alabama became the first state in the nation with an educational television network. Alabama Educational Television made its first broadcast as a network shortly after WBIQ signed on. Since then, 25 other states have started public television networks, all based on Alabama's model. The network changed its name to the Alabama Public Television Network in the late 1960s, and shortened the name to simply Alabama Public Television in 1988.
WAIQ in Andalusia went on the air in August 1956, bringing APT to south Alabama for the first time before being reassigned to Montgomery in December 1962. WAAY-TV 25 was issued a construction permit in Huntsville in 1962, but never signed on the air. Channel 25 in Huntsville would later become WHIQ in 1965. WAIQ was the first APT station to broadcast a digital signal in 2003, on UHF channel 14, but that signal was later moved to channel 27 on account of Montgomery station WSFA signing on its digital signal on channel 14. Commercial-licensed station WALA-TV in Mobile donated its former transmitter in Spanish Fort to APT in 1964, allowing WEIQ to bring the network to Alabama's Gulf Coast counties that November. WEIQ's transmitter power was increased during the 1980s.
The AETC took over the operation of Huntsville public radio station WLRH in 1977.
In January 1982, a major ice storm caused the collapse of the WCIQ tower, which was then rebuilt.
In August 2004, APT began datacasting on its digital broadcast signals to distribute digital multimedia content to ten elementary and secondary schools, in a pilot program. The datacasting model was replaced by APTPLUS, an online distribution of multimedia content which became available to every school in Alabama via the Internet. Every public school in Alabama registered to use APTPLUS within its first year of operation. Many private school teachers and home school families are also registered users.
For more than a quarter century, Alabama Public Television aired a nightly public affairs program, For the Record, covering statewide news and Alabama politics. The longest-running program of its kind on a PBS member station or regional or state network, it won an award for Best Local News Program from the National Educational Telecommunications Association, an organization of public television stations. Capitol Journal succeeded For the Record in 2008 and is produced at APT's Statehouse studio in Montgomery.
APT began broadcasting a high definition channel in 2005. In December 2006 it launched a digital how-to channel featuring established cooking, gardening, decorating, crafts and sewing programs called APT Create. A third digital channel, APT IQ, debuted in March 2007. Originally called APT IQ, the channel became APT World in October 2012 and offers news and documentary programming. 2017 brought the addition of "PBS Kids" statewide.
Board members
The members of the Alabama Educational Television Commission Board as of 2012 are: Ferris W. Stephens, Chairman, Birmingham, Gregory O. Griffin, Sr., Vice-Chairman, Montgomery, Dr. Rodney D. Herring, Secretary, Opelika, Bebe Williams, Huntsville, Les Barnett, Mobile and Dr. Dannetta K. Thornton Owens, Birmingham.Stations
Notes:- 1. Aside from their transmitters, the APT stations do not maintain any physical presence in their cities of license.
- 2. WCIQ used the call sign WEDM from January to March 1955, and then WTIQ to 1959. Also, the station's city of license was previously Munford from its 1955 sign-on to 1960, and then, Cheaha State Park, where the station's transmitter is located on the mountain. Because the tower is located in Cleburne County, Nielsen Media Research and therefore the FCC considers the station to be a part of the Atlanta, Georgia television market.
- 3. WDIQ used the call sign WAIQ from its 1956 sign-on to 1961. This station's city of license was Andalusia from its 1956 sign-on to 1962.
- 4. The WGIQ transmitter is in Texasville, but WGIQ is licensed to Louisville, Alabama.
Coverage areas
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
| x.1 | 1080i | APT | Main APT programming / PBS | |
| x.2 | 480i | PBSKIDS | PBS Kids | |
| x.3 | 480i | CREATE | Create | |
| x.4 | 480i | WORLD | World | |
| x.5 | 480i | ETV | Huntsville ETV |
Analog-to-digital conversion
Although the DTV Delay Act extended the mandatory deadline to June 12, 2009, APT shut down the analog signals of all ten stations as originally scheduled on February 17, 2009.- WAIQ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 26; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 27. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 26.
- WBIQ shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 10; the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 53, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 10.
- WCIQ shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7; the station's digital signal relocated to VHF channel 7.
- WDIQ shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 2; the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 11 to channel 10. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 2.
- WEIQ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 42; the station's digital signal relocated to UHF channel 30. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 42.
- WFIQ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 36; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 22. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 36.
- WGIQ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 43; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 44. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 43.
- WHIQ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 25; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 24. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 25.
- WIIQ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 41; the station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 41.
Controversies
In 1976, the Federal Communications Commission delayed the renewal of, then briefly revoked AETC's licenses due to APT's refusal to air programs pertaining to the Vietnam War or the African-American community. APT management feared that airing these types of programs would cause angry public officials to cut the network's funding and put the network's future in jeopardy. Therefore, APT followed orders by state officials not to air certain programming during the 1960s and 1970s. However, it has taken a more independent stance over the last 30 years.In May 2019, APT was one of several PBS member stations that declined to broadcast an episode of the animated children's series Arthur because it featured a same-sex wedding. The programming director said that broadcasting the episode would "break parents' trust in the network." PBS offered free online streaming of the episode for a limited time to families desiring to view it.