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|---|---|
| City | Erie, Pennsylvania |
| Channels | |
| Branding | WQLN PBS |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner | Public Broadcasting of Northwest Pennsylvania, Inc. |
| WQLN-FM | |
| History | |
First air date | August 13, 1967 (57 years ago) (1967-08-13) |
Former channel number(s) |
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| NET (1967–1970) | |
Call sign meaning | "We Question and Learn" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 53716 |
| ERP | 191kW |
| HAAT | 277.7 m (911 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°2′33.3″N80°3′55.8″W / 42.042583°N 80.065500°W /42.042583; -80.065500 (WQLN) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WQLN (channel 54) is aPBS membertelevision station inErie, Pennsylvania, United States, owned by Public Broadcasting of Northwest Pennsylvania, Inc. Its studios and transmitter are located inSummit Township onPeach Street, south of the Erie city limits; the road to the station is namedSesame Street.
In addition to its local viewership inNorthwestern Pennsylvania and portions of nearbyOhio andNew York State, WQLN is also seen in theLondon, Ontario, area onRogers Cable channel 8, and on other cable systems inSouthwestern Ontario, Canada.
Groundwork for aneducational television 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 "Learn"), but those letters were already being used by apublic radio station inMiami, 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 as anNPR member station.
WQLN is the second-smallest PBS member in Pennsylvania. Its coverage area is limited due to Erie being sandwiched betweenPittsburgh to the south,Youngstown to the west andBuffalo to the north, along withCleveland'sWVIZ also being accessible in parts of the market. As a result, the station has struggled financially for most of its history. Like most PBS member stations along theU.S.–Canada border, particularly in smaller markets, it also depends heavily on viewership and donations from Canadian audiences. In WQLN's case, that extended audience is acrossLake Erie in the London, Ontario area. At various times in the station's history, PBS mainstays such asMister Rogers' Neighborhood,Nova, andTheMacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour were not seen on WQLN.
The station's transmitter was knocked off-air early September 15, 2008, after its antenna and transmission line were damaged byHurricane Ike. There was also additional damage (possibly from a prior lightning strike) to the 680-foot (210 m) transmission line.[2] The station later returned using a temporary digital antenna, making WQLN the first Erie station to become fully digital.[3][4] With the impending end of analog broadcasting only four months away, the station opted against rebuilding its analog facility and is broadcasting exclusively in digital.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WQLN-DT | PBS |
| 54.2 | 480i | CREATE | Create | |
| 54.3 | WORLD | World | ||
| 54.4 | 1080i | KIDS | PBS Kids |
Rogers Cable carries WQLN as the PBS station on some of its systems inSouthwestern Ontario, includingLondon, which has almost three times the population of WQLN's American coverage area. As a result of its cable carriage, a major portion of WQLN's financial contributions have come from viewers in Canada.[6] For decades, the station has identified as "Erie–London" to acknowledge its Canadian viewership.
However, in July 2009, Rogers announced that it would be replacing both WQLN andWatertown, New York'sWPBS-DT (carried inOttawa) on its cable systems withDetroit'sWTVS due to concerns over signal quality, as a result of the stations not havingfiber optic signals available to Rogers. The plan by Rogers was faced with criticism from WQLN's general manager Dwight Miller, who stated that WQLN would not be able to stay on the air without the support of its Canadian viewers. Miller claimed that in recent years, the bulk of WQLN's fundraising revenue came from Canada.[6] The threat of losing its Canadian cable viewership came as an additional unwelcome blow for WQLN which, like other PBS members in Pennsylvania, lost all state funding as of 2009. WQLN would face a loss of about $800,000 of state funding.[7]
On July 30, 2009, Rogers announced that WQLN would be retained on its Southwestern Ontario systems, as a result of WQLN providing a fiber optic connection to Rogers' London headend.[8]