WHUT-TV

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WHUT-TV
Washington, D.C.
United States
Branding WHUT
Channels Digital: 33 (UHF)
Virtual: 32 (PSIP)
Subchannels 32.1 HD
32.2 SD
Affiliations PBS
Owner Howard University
First air date September 29, 1980; 43 years ago (1980-09-29)
Call letters' meaning Howard
University
Television
Sister station(s) WHUR-FM
Former callsigns WHMM-TV (1980-1998)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
32 (UHF, 1980-2009)
Transmitter power 100 kW
Height 254 m
Facility ID 27772
Transmitter coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Website www.whut.org

WHUT-TV is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member Public television station in the Washington, D.C. area. The station is owned and operated by Howard University, a historically black college. The studios are on the Howard University campus, and the transmitter is in Tenleytown. It is also co-owned with its radio partner, WHUR-FM.

History

Channel 32 was founded on September 29, 1980 as WHMM-TV. The station was the first African-American owned and operated public educational station in the United States. In 1998, the station changed its call letters to WHUT, standing for Howard University Television, the station's branding.

WHUT-TV station in Washington, D.C.

Since its founding, WHUT has won 11 Emmys and 8 Communications Excellence to Black Audiences Awards. Despite this success, budget cuts have forced the station to roll back programming hours in recent years. As of October 21, 2007 Channel 33 was on the air with a simulcast of the programming on Channel 32. By November 21, 2007 the station had corrected an earlier problem with the lack of PSIP data so that digital receivers could lock on to it.

Today, WHUT airs a variety of standard PBS programming, as well as programs produced by Howard University, and international programs focusing on regions such as the Caribbean and Africa.

Digital television

Digital channels

WHUT debuted an HD signal on September 1, 2009. The station's signal is multiplexed.

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming
32.1 1080i 16:9 WHUT-HD Main WHUT-TV programming / PBS
32.2 480i 4:3 WHUT-SD

In July 2009, Washington, D.C. TV stations became a test market for Mobile DTV, and WHUT was one of the participating stations.[1]

Analog-to-digital conversion

On June 12, 2009, WHUT-TV terminated its analog signal, on UHF channel 32, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[2] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 33. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display WHUT-TV's virtual channel as 32.

Like all of the DC-area Mobile DTV broadcasters, WHUT-TV commenced ATSC-M/H broadcasting on February 27, 2011. WHUT-TV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 32.1, labelled "WHUT PBS Mobile", and a feed of 32.2, labelled as "WHUT PBS Kids", with two audio-only feeds of WAMU-FM 88.5 (32.3) "WAMU 88.5 FM", and WETA-FM 90.9 (32.4) "WETA 90.9 FM", broadcasting at 3.67 Mbit/s.[3][4]

References

External links