WEDU

WEDU, virtual channel 3 (VHF digital channel 13), is a PBS member television station located in Tampa, Florida, United States and serves the Tampa Bay Area including St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota and Lakeland. The station is owned by Florida West Coast Public Broadcasting. WEDU's studio facilities are located on North Boulevard in Tampa, and its transmitter is located in Riverview. WEDU is one of two PBS stations in the Tampa Bay market. It carries the main PBS schedule, while WUSF-TV, channel 16, carries alternate PBS programming.

History

The station first signed on the air on October 17, 1958. For many years, WEDU has been one of the highest-rated stations in the PBS system. At one point, it was the third most-watched PBS member station in the country.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WEDU shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 3, on February 17, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television (which Congress had moved the previous month to June 12). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 54. That channel was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcast service. So WEDU relocated to VHF channel 13 on June 12, 2009. Channel 13 originally was the analog channel for Fox owned-and-operated station WTVT but that station vacated Channel 13 on the rescheduled date of the digital television transition, using PSIP to display WEDU's virtual channel as 3 on digital television receivers.