WETP-TV

WETP-TV

Sneedville–Johnson City–Kingsport– Bristol, Tennessee United States
City	Sneedville, Tennessee
Channels	Digital: 24 (UHF) Virtual: 2
Branding	East Tennessee PBS
Programming
Affiliations	2.1: PBS for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	East Tennessee Public Communications Corporation
History
First air date	March 20, 1967 (57 years ago) (1967-03-20)
Former call signs	WSJK-TV (1967–1979) WSJK (1979–2002)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 2 (VHF, 1967–2009) Digital: 41 (UHF, 2000–2019)
Former affiliations	NET (1967–1970)
Call sign meaning	East Tennessee Public Television
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	18252
ERP	313 kW
HAAT	566.9 m (1,860 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	36°22′52.3″N 83°10′48.8″W / 36.381194°N 83.180222°W / 36.381194; -83.180222 (WETP-TV)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.easttennesseepbs.org
Satellite station
WKOP-TV
Knoxville, Tennessee
Channels	Digital: 29 (UHF) Virtual: 15
Programming
Affiliations	15.1: PBS for others, see § Subchannels
History
First air date	August 15, 1990 (34 years ago) (1990-08-15)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 15 (UHF, 1990–2008) Digital: 17 (UHF, 2003–2019)
Call sign meaning	Knoxville's Own Public Television
Technical information[2]
Facility ID	18267
ERP	146 kW
HAAT	551.3 m (1,809 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	35°59′44.4″N 83°57′23.1″W / 35.995667°N 83.956417°W / 35.995667; -83.956417
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS

WETP-TV (channel 2) and WKOP-TV (channel 15), together branded as East Tennessee PBS, are public television stations serving Knoxville and the Tri-Cities in East Tennessee, United States. The stations are owned by the East Tennessee Public Communications Corporation and broadcast from studios and offices on East Magnolia Avenue in downtown Knoxville. WETP-TV, licensed to Sneedville, Tennessee, is broadcast from a transmitter atop Short Mountain near Mooresburg, while WKOP-TV's transmitter is situated on Sharp's Ridge in North Knoxville.

Channel 2 began broadcasting on March 20, 1967, as WSJK-TV. It was the first in what would ultimately be four stations opened by the Tennessee Department of Education to extend educational television service beyond the cities of Memphis and Nashville. The station's assignment to Sneedville was necessary in order to use VHF channel 2, also allotted to Nashville and Atlanta; however, this resulted in middling reception in Knoxville and the Tri-Cities. WSJK-TV programs originated from studios in Knoxville and Johnson City, though the Johnson City studios diminished in importance and ultimately closed in 1980.

In the early 1980s, a controversy about the production of a film seen as too favorable to governor Lamar Alexander led to scrutiny of Tennessee's state-owned public television stations. Internal and external reports found the system to be inequitable in funding. The state of Tennessee exited public broadcasting with the Tennessee Educational Television Network Act of 1981 and spun out its four stations, including WSJK-TV, to new community licensees in the years that followed. After years of planning, WKOP-TV began broadcasting in 1990 in order to improve the signal in Knoxville. WSJK-TV was renamed WETP-TV in 2003 as part of the launch of a new brand, East Tennessee Public Television, for the service; the stations became known as East Tennessee PBS in 2010. East Tennessee PBS produces a variety of regional programming in the areas of health, education, and culture.