WDSC-TV

WDSC-TV, virtual channel 15 (UHF digital channel 24), is an independent non-commercial educational television station licensed to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, United States. The station is owned by Daytona State College. WDSC-TV's studios are located at the Center for Educational Telecommunications on the DSC campus in Daytona Beach, and its transmitter is located near Bithlo, Florida.

WDSC-TV
New Smyrna Beach/Daytona Beach/
Orlando, Florida
United States
ChannelsDigital: 24 (UHF)
Virtual: 15 (PSIP)
BrandingChannel 15
SloganPublic television that matters
Programming
Subchannels15.1: Educational Ind.
15.2: The Florida Channel
15.3: Deutsche Welle
Ownership
OwnerDaytona State College, Inc.
History
First air dateFebruary 8, 1988 (1988-02-08)
Former call signsWCEU (1988–2008)
Former channel number(s)Analog:
15 (UHF, 1988–2008)
Digital:
33 (UHF, until 2020)
Former affiliationsPBS (1988–2011)
Call sign meaningDaytona
State
College
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID12171
ERP282 kW
HAAT490.4 m (1,609 ft)
Transmitter coordinates28°36′36″N 81°3′34″W
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
Websitewww.wdsctv.org

History

In 1985, DSC (then known as Daytona Beach Community College), Bethune-Cookman College, Stetson University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the Atlantic Center for the Arts formed the Coastal Educational Broadcasters in order to bring a public television station to Volusia and Flagler counties. They felt WMFE-TV, the PBS station in Orlando, was neglecting Daytona Beach. Channel 15 signed on February 8, 1988 as WCEU with a limited schedule of three hours a day, three days a week. Support in the area was enough that within nine months, it was recognized by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. By January 1989, it was a full-fledged PBS member station, though it didn't expand to a fuller broadcast day until 1993.

In 1992, a signal expansion and must-carry rules expanded WCEU's audience to over 1.3 million viewers in Central Florida, including Orlando itself. It moved to its current facility in 1999. DBCC became the sole licensee in 2002.

In 2005, WCEU rebranded itself as DBCC 15 to better reflect its relationship with DBCC. In January 2008, it rebranded itself again merely as Channel 15, after DBCC became Daytona Beach College. The college subsequently changed its name again to Daytona State College; to reflect this, in November 2008, channel 15 changed its call letters to the current WDSC-TV, after purchasing the rights to the call letters from a radio station in Dillon, South Carolina.[1]

With the advent of digital broadcasting, WDSC-TV began billing itself as a full-market PBS station, including Orlando. While it had been available on cable in Orlando for over a decade, its digital signal, located in Bithlo with most other television stations in the market, gives it an over-the-air coverage area comparable to the market's previous primary PBS station WMFE-TV. However, on June 16, 2011, WDSC and PBS announced that the station would leave PBS, as Daytona State College could no longer afford to purchase its programming, following $4.8 million of funding to Florida's public radio and television stations vetoed by Governor Rick Scott in May 2011. PBS programming disappeared from channel 15 on July 1, 2011; WMFE also left PBS on the same date due to its then-planned sale to Daystar.[2] These moves left WBCC of Cocoa, which began branding as WUCF-TV at that time, as the only PBS station in the Central Florida television market.[2] (WUCF-TV moved to the former WMFE-TV in 2012, a move that led to WBCC, now WEFS, departing PBS as well.)

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[3]
15.11080i16:9WDSC-HDMain WDSC-TV programming
15.2480iWDSC-EDThe Florida Channel
15.34:3WDSC-WVDeutsche Welle (Coming soon)

Analog-to-digital conversion

WDSC-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 15, which due to major equipment failure had been operating at significantly reduced power since September 25, 2008[4][5] on December 15 of that year. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 33.[6] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 15.

The station continues to air public television from other sources such as American Public Television and the National Educational Telecommunications Association.[7]

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References
  1. Harper, Mark (October 28, 2008). "Public TV station to change call letters". The Daytona Beach News-Journal. Retrieved November 3, 2008.
  2. Bodeker, Hal (June 17, 2011). "PBS: Daytona Beach station will stop PBS lineup July 1". The Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on June 19, 2011. Retrieved June 20, 2011.
  3. RabbitEars TV Query for WDSC
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86YLWbNNgTI
  5. "Notification of Suspension of Operations". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. November 14, 2008. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
  6. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  7. Boedeker, Hal (June 27, 2011). "What happens to programming at former PBS stations WMFE, WDSC?". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
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