WOSU-TV

WOSU-TV (digital channel 38, virtual channel 34) is an American public television station located in Columbus, Ohio, affiliated with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and is a service of WOSU Public Media. The station's signal covers most of central Ohio. It is owned by Ohio State University, and operates full-time satellite WPBO-TV in Portsmouth, Ohio. WPBO-TV broadcasts on digital 43, serving extreme southern Ohio and the western edge of the Huntington-Charleston, West Virginia market area.

History

Ohio State first sought an educational license in 1950, for channel 12. However, the FCC turned down two requests for that allocation (most likely due to concerns about interference with WKRC-TV in Cincinnati) instead giving OSU channel 34. WOSU-TV first broadcast on February 20, 1956. In 1959, a grant from the Ford Foundation allowed the station to purchase the first video tape recorder in Ohio. WOSU-TV began broadcasting in color in 1968, telecasting the football game between Ohio State and Michigan. The color telecast helped to popularize the UHF band in Columbus, an otherwise all-VHF market at the time.

WOSU

WOSU may refer to:

WOSU (AM)

WOSU (820 AM) was a National Public Radio news and talk radio station located in Columbus, Ohio serving the Columbus metro area. WOSU is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission as a daytime and nighttime radio station, operating with a non-directional power of 5 kW during the day, and dropping to 790 watts at night, to protect clear channel WBAP in Fort Worth, Texas. The license holder was The Ohio State University until the license changed hands over to St. Gabriel Radio Inc. It is now WVSG.

History

WOSU is the oldest radio station in Columbus. WOSU's origins trace back to 1920 when Ohio State University was granted an experimental license on April 20, 1920. On June 3, 1922, the station received the call letters WEAO (Willing Energetic Athletic Ohio). In 1933, the call letters were changed to WOSU.

For much of the 1960s and '70s, WOSU's programming was mostly locally originating featuring diverse music programs from classical and jazz...and later to the seasonal Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts on Saturday afternoons moderated by its long-time announcer Milton Cross and later by Peter Allen after Cross' passing leading to the gradual evolution of National Public Radio and its WOSU affiliation. WOSU also broadcast live remotes from the Ohio State Fair.