WTVP

WTVP is the PBS station for Peoria, Bloomington, and Galesburg, Illinois. It operates on TV digital channel 46 and uses virtual channels starting with 47 to reflect its previous analog channel number. WTVP has 3 digital subchannels: WTVP HD, WTVP World, and WTVP Create. Its studio is located in Peoria and its broadcast tower is located in East Peoria. The station serves a radius of 50 miles (80 km), with viewers in 20 counties.

History

Early educational television in region

After World War II, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosted the National Association of Educational Broadcasters for the establishment of broadcast allocations (AM/FM radio and TV channels) for non-commercial education programming. The outcomes from these meetings established the foundation for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System.

Commercial broadcast television networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) and their local Peoria affiliates provided some educational programming for children in the 1950s and 1960s, but this program content disappeared by 1970.