WCET (TV)

WCET, virtual channel 48 (UHF digital channel 34), is a PBS member television station located in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The station is owned by the Greater Cincinnati Television Educational Foundation, a subsidiary of Public Media Connect. WCET was the first licensed public television station in the United States. Its studios are located in the Crosley Telecommunications Center on Central Parkway in Cincinnati, and its transmitter is located along Warner Street in the Mount Auburn section of Cincinnati. Master control operations are based at the studios of sister PBS member station WPTD in Dayton.

History

The Federal Communications Commission assigned channel 48 to WCET in 1951. A corporate charter and construction permit were granted in 1953. WCET began broadcasting on July 26, 1954, from a converted closet on the third floor of Music Hall. The first day of programming began with Tel-A-Story, a half-hour reading program by the Cincinnati library. On March 11, 1955, the FCC granted WCET the first non-commercial educational broadcast license in the country. WCET remained at Music Hall until 1959, when it moved to the former WLWT studios on Chickasaw Street.