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WBEC-TV
Channels
BrandingBroward Education Communications Network
Programming
Affiliations63.1/63.2: Educational independent
Ownership
Owner
WKPX
History
First air date
1999 (25 years ago) (1999)
Former call signs
WPPB-TV (1986–2008)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 63 (UHF, 1986–2009)
  • Digital: 40 (UHF, 2009–2018)
Call sign meaning
Broward Education Communications
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID51349
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT285 m (935 ft)
Transmitter coordinates25°59′10″N 80°11′36.3″W / 25.98611°N 80.193417°W / 25.98611; -80.193417
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.becon.tv

WBEC-TV (channel 63) is an educational television station owned and operated by Broward County Public Schools, licensed to Boca Raton, Florida, United States. WBEC-TV broadcasts from studios in Davie and a transmitter in Pembroke Park; the school district also owns WKPX (88.5 FM), a non-commercial radio station. Although the station is based in Broward County, WBEC-TV's city of license, Boca Raton, is located within Palm Beach County.

History

Instructional television in the Broward County school system dates to the establishment of a system to send programming among the Broward County schools using Title I funds.[2] The first program was broadcast January 29, 1968.[3] By 1977, it was distributing 80 series—internally and externally produced—throughout the school system and selling some of its own productions nationally to other school districts.[4] This came in spite of a stretch earlier in the decade in which instructional television was faced with four budget cuts in as many years.[5] The number of series offered had risen to 130 by 1980.[6] However, changes were made to the ITV system in 1988 in response to a task force report that found it underused, particularly in the middle and high schools where broadcasts of programming from the ITV center did not correspond with class schedules.[7][8] It also began to add student-produced programming to its lineup.[3] Some ITV programs were also broadcast on local cable. One example was the ITV Homework Hotline, a weekly call-in show allowing students to ask a teacher questions about math problems.[3] The service changed its name to Broward Education Communications Network (BECON) in 1998.

Meanwhile, the channel 63 construction permit was issued in the late 1980s to Palmetto Broadcasters Associated for Communities and was slated to launch as WPPB-TV, the "Second Season" station, with programming aimed at senior citizens; Palmetto Broadcasters Associated for Communities was affiliated with Palm Beach Atlantic College. PBAC had ambitious broadcasting plans; at the same time it revealed information on the forthcoming WPPB-TV, it announced WTCE-TV (channel 21) in Fort Pierce, which it mostly built but ran out of money to start, alongside a station on channel 9 in Islamorada that would be known as "Hispanivision" (and was never built).[9]

Palmetto Broadcasters did not build the channel, and in 1999, with the construction permit still unbuilt, channel 63 was sold to The Christian Network for $300,000[10] and finally launched that same year with Christian programming. The Christian Network promptly sold the station to the Broward County school board for $3.6 million in January 2000.[11] With broadcast and cable coverage, the station adopted a format of educational and community programming.[12] On March 15, 2008, the station changed its call letters to WBEC-TV.

In 2019, an outside audit of BECON recommended augmenting its output of school board meetings and educational programming. It noted that equipment and job descriptions were aging, fundraising was weak, and that the primary way the district made revenue with BECON was leasing broadband spectrum.[13] The audit also noted that, of seven full-service TV stations owned by school boards in the United States, WBEC-TV was the only one not part of PBS.[14]

Technical information

Subchannels

WBEC-TV offers one program stream in high definition and standard definition.

Subchannels of WBEC-TV[15]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
63.1 1080i 16:9 WBEC-HD Main WBEC-TV programming
63.2 480i 4:3 WBEC-SD

Analog-to-digital conversion

WBEC-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 63, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 40, using virtual channel 63.[16]

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WBEC-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ Kolb, Anne (March 26, 1967). "Our ITV Station Will Need Funds". Fort Lauderdale News. p. 2H. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b c Menendez, Ana (January 31, 1993). "Broward kids still learn from ITV, after 25 years". The Miami Herald. p. Neighbors Northwest Broward 3, 6. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Davis, Jim (August 11, 1977). "Instructional TV Has Come A Long Way". Fort Lauderdale News. p. Back to School 6. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Mann, Raleigh (March 28, 1976). "'Teaching' TV: Under Budget Axe". The Miami Herald. p. 1BR, 8BR. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Froman, Andrew (September 8, 1980). "School TV faces costly rule change". Fort Lauderdale News. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. p. 6B. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ McCash, Vicki (August 5, 1988). "TV system in schools little used". Fort Lauderdale News. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. pp. 1B, 7B. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ McCash, Vicki (October 7, 1988). "TV center to undergo changes". Fort Lauderdale News. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. p. 7B. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ McGlynchey, Kevin (October 12, 1989). "New Station To Broadcast Next Year". Palm Beach Daily News. pp. 1, 2. Retrieved January 18, 2020. (Note that the source misspells WTCE as "WTCB")
  10. ^ "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. November 1, 1999. p. 75. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  11. ^ Hirschmann, Bill (January 19, 2000). "Schools want own TV station". Sun Sentinel. p. 2B. Retrieved January 30, 2020.
  12. ^ Kaminski, Nevy (February 23, 2005). "BECON-TV shines bright". South Florida Sun Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. p. Miramar 1, 7. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ Travis, Scott (September 5, 2019). "Broward schools' TV station could get revamp: BECON may start selling air time, distance learning videos". South Florida Sun Sentinel. p. B1. ProQuest 2284419058.
  14. ^ Carr, Riggs & Ingram (May 3, 2018). "Operational Assessment of Broward Education Communications Network (BECON)" (PDF). Broward County Public Schools.
  15. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WBEC". RabbitEars.
  16. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. May 23, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBEC-TV