WQLN

WQLN
Erie, Pennsylvania-London, Ontario
Branding	TV 54
Channel	Digital: 50 (UHF)
Subchannels	54.1 PBS 54.3 Create 54.3 PBS/local
Affiliations	PBS (1970-Present)
Owner	Public Broadcasting of Northwest Pennsylvania, Inc.
First air date	August 13, 1967
Callsign meaning	We Question and LearN
Sister station(s)	WQLN-FM
Former channels	Analog: 54 (1967-2008)
Former affiliations	NET (1967-1970)
Effective power	200 kW
Height	270.7 m
Facility ID	53716
Antenna coordinates	42°2′34″N 80°3′56″W / 42.04278°N 80.06556°W / 42.04278; -80.06556 (WQLN)
Website	www.wqln.org/

WQLN is the public television station in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is owned by Public Broadcasting of Northwest Pennsylvania, Inc.

WQLN, a PBS member station, broadcasts on digital channel 50, from transmitting facilities south of the city of Erie. The station's transmitter was knocked off-air early September 15, 2008 due to wind damage to antenna and transmission line after Hurricane Ike but returned in digital-only format on October 10 from a temporary antenna.^[1]

The analog transmission facilities were never rebuilt.

In addition to its local viewership in Northwestern Pennsylvania and portions of nearby Ohio and New York State, WQLN is also seen in the London, Ontario area on Rogers Cable channel 8, and on other cable systems in the area. To reflect audiences on both sides of Lake Erie, WQLN promotionally identifies as "Erie/London" on-air.

Twice each day WQLN lists the birthdays of children who are members of the WQLN Kids Club.

History

Groundwork for an educational station in northwest Pennsylvania was laid in 1953 with the founding of Educational Television of Erie. Its initial effort to sign on a station was unsuccessful, but the group eventually reserved channel 54 for noncommercial use. The group, which was renamed Educational Television of Northwest Pennsylvania in 1964, pressed on until finally winning a construction permit on December 6, 1966. The group initially chose the call letters WLRN (for LeaRNing), but those letters were already being used by a radio station in Miami, Florida. They then went with their next choice, WQLN (We Question and LearN). On August 13, 1967; WQLN finally went on the air. WQLN-FM signed on in 1973.

WQLN has long struggled financially, and as a result, at various times in the life of the station programs including Mister Rogers, Nova, and Macneil/Lehrer Newshour were not seen on WQLN.

WQLN's alternate logo

WQLN-TV was once offered on many cable systems in the Hamilton, Niagara and Grand River regions. In the early 1990s this station was replaced with WNEQ-TV in the Hamilton and Niagara regions. WQLN-TV was dropped from the cable systems in the Grand River regions and was not replaced.

The station decided to broadcast exclusively on its digital signal after a failed attempt to restore the analog signal on TV 54. After Hurricane Ike in September 2008, the station was knocked off-air by wind damage with a damaged power divider at the base of the transmitting antenna and additional damage (possibly from a prior lightning strike) to the 680-foot transmission line.^[2] The station later returned using a temporary digital antenna, making WQLN the first Erie TV station to become fully digital.^[3]

Threatened discontinuance on Rogers Cable

It was announced in July 2009 by Rogers Cable that they planned on dropping WQLN on their Southern Ontario systems for Detroit's PBS station, WTVS, on August 18th. ^[4]

WQLN General Manager Dwight Miller expressed fear that the station would end up closing down, as much of its pledges ($150,000 to $200,000) come from areas of Southwestern Ontario where WQLN is available, most of it from the immediate London area. Rogers submitted a statement, saying that WTVS's feed is much clearer than that of WQLN's; also, the statement said that "The programming on [WTVS] is vastly the same as [WQLN]."

On July 30, 2009, Rogers announced that WQLN will be retained on its southwestern Ontario systems; they also announced that WQLN will provide a fibre link to Rogers' London head end, to assure a reliable connection.^[5]

Likewise, WPBS-TV in Watertown, New York, which Rogers planned on dropping in Ottawa,^[6] was also retained via a fibre connection^[7] after a substantial outcry from affected subscribers. As with WPBS, WQLN first found out about Rogers' plans from concerned viewers in Ontario.

The threat of discontinuance on Rogers came as an additional unwelcome blow for WQLN which, like other PBS members in Pennsylvania, is facing a total loss of funding from the commonwealth in the 2009 state budget. WQLN would face a loss of about $800,000 of state funding.^[8]

Digital Programming

The station's signal is multiplexed

References

1. ^ WQLN on air again, Jim Carroll, Erie Times-News, October 11, 2008
2. ^ http://www.wqln.org/antenna/
3. ^ Scott Fybush (2008-10-13). "NorthEast Radio Watch". http://www.fybush.com/NERW/2008/081013/nerw.html. Retrieved 2008-10-13. 
4. ^ London Free Press: "Loss of London viewers could sink Erie station", 7/22/2009.
5. ^ London Free Press: "Rogers retains PBS affiliate WQLN", 7/31/2009.
6. ^ "WPBS of New York to disappear from Ottawa TV". CBC News. July 16, 2009. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2009/07/17/ottawa-pbs-rogers-cable-members-funding.html. Retrieved July 20, 2009. 
7. ^ Ottawa Citizen: "PBS Watertown wins reprieve from Rogers", 7/30/2009.
8. ^ Erie Times-News: "WQLN to stay on in London: State budget leaves uncertain future", 7/30/2009.

External links

• WQLN website
• WQLN Kids website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WQLN
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WQLN-TV

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