WQEX

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WQEX
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = WQEX: ShopNBC
analog = 16 (UHF)
digital = 26 (UHF)
post_transition = 38 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = ShopNBC
network =
founded =
airdate = 1959 [The "Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook" says September 14, while the "Television and Cable Factbook" says March 20.]
location = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
callsign_meaning = Quad Erdo EXtra
former_channel_numbers =
owner = WQED Multimedia
"(brokered to ShopNBC)"
licensee =
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = NET (1959-1970)
PBS (1970-2004)
America's Store (2004-2007)
effective_radiated_power = 661 kW (analog)
50 kW (digital)
65kW (post-transition)
HAAT = 213 m (both)
class =
facility_id = 41314
coordinates = coord|40|26|46.8|N|79|57|49.4|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.wqed.org/wqex/index.shtml WQEX site at WQED]

WQEX is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 16, and its digital signal on UHF channel 26. It currently airs programming from ShopNBC.

History

Channel 16 in Pittsburgh started out as WENS-TV, a commercial station which operated from 1953 to 1957 before going dark. The station became WQEX in March 1959, after WQED acquired the station for use as its secondary channel for its educational programs; it went dark in November 1961, but returned to the air over a year later, in January 1963.

WQEX was one of the last stations in Pittsburgh (if not North America) to convert to color, in the 1980s (for decades, it had used the old black-and-white WENS transmitter). Having to live in the shadow of the much more powerful WQED, the money had never been available to convert WQEX to a color picture format. However, that changed in February 1985, when the transmitter broke down and the necessary parts to fix the obsolete transmitter were no longer available, forcing the station to go dark.

With limited time to restore WQEX to the air (to avoid forfeiture of the license), WQED-TV became far more aggressive in its pursuits to raise money to pay for a new transmitter, at times risking WQED's image along the way. Since pledge monies had to be diverted to WQEX, WQED had to reduce its broadcast hours in order to lower its own operating costs. The money saved went towards the transmitter piggybank.

WQEX finally returned to the air in the summer of 1986 in color. They explained their extended time off the air between programs with a vignette called "The Little Transmitter That Could... couldn't anymore." One Pittsburgh radio engineer said there was nothing little about the old transmitter; that it "was the size of a Port Authority Transit Bus".

WQEX also became one of the first TV stations in the Pittsburgh market to introduce then-state-of-the-art Beta tape technology for airing its shows. Most local programming among its competitors had been delivered on film, reel videotape, or U-matic videocassettes. (Note that the Betacam professional format is very different from the failed Betamax consumer format.) It produced a high-quality picture with crisp on-air resolution that gained popularity among television broadcast stations not only because of its quality, but also because of its smaller size and ease of storage.

After switching to color, the station had a schedule for a while that resembled an independent station, with reruns, movies and British situation comedies. The station even had an on-camera host, Pip Theodor, who introduced the programs, similar to what was done on MTV and Britain's ITV.

What was notable about this station during this era was its nightly sign-off -- WQEX ended each night with a comedy sketch involving some men trying to make it home from a bar after 2 a.m., set to the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Monty Python's "The Life of Brian". This sketch is accompanied by fake closing credits -- viewers could have their names in these credits by making a pledge to WQEX as part of the "QEX Sign-Off Society". [ [http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,37820.30.html Sign-Offs ] ]

The station's sign-on message also developed an on-air persona of its own, with the message followed by the 1955 Chuck Berry hit "Sweet Little Sixteen" introduced as a "morning wake-up call from Mr. Charles Berry."

When funds began to run low in the mid-1990s, the station began to simulcast WQED instead.

Analog-to-digital conversion

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] , WQEX will move its digital broadcasts to channel 38 [http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101233579&formid=387&fac_num=59442 CDBS Print ] ] http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=619184] , which is currently being used by sister station WQED. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WQEX's virtual channel as 16.

Controversy

Due to a combination of high costs of continuing national programming production, bloated payroll expenses, and what the station's critics identify as a top-heavy management structure and a long history of mismanagement within WQED, [ [http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=signal_degradation Signal Degradation, Jerold M. Starr, American Prospect, November 30, 2002] ] the owner of WQEX, WQED's total liabilities at one point had mounted beyond $10 million, station debts were being paid four months behind schedule and approximately 100 of the 220 staff jobs at WQED were abruptly eliminated. A station once-respected for having originated programming such as "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and "National Geographic" specials was quickly finding itself relegated to the role of a primarily-local producer of educational programming.

WQED began to seek a removal of the non-commercial educational status which restricted the WQEX license as early as 1996, with the intention of selling the secondary UHF station outright in the hope that an infusion of cash would solve some of the financial woes of the main station.

Its initial application to take WQEX commercial was rejected outright by the Federal Communications Commission, [ [http://www.current.org/ptv/ptv614q.html FCC won't allow dereservation of WQEX Pittsburgh, Current, Aug. 5, 1996] ] leaving it to pursue an alternate plan by which the station was almost sold to religious broadcaster Cornerstone Television in 1999. The original plan was to move WPCB-TV from channel 40 (a commercial license) to channel 16 (non-commercial educational WQEX), with Paxson Communications buying channel 40 and converting it to a Pax TV affiliate.

This move, which would have led to a $35 million payout being split equally between Cornerstone and WQED, was approved conditionally by the Federal Communications Commission in 2000, after intense lobbying by Republican Senator John McCain on behalf of PAX's Lowell Paxson, [ [http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/010600wh-gop-mccain-text.html McCain's Letter to F.C.C. and Excerpts From Replies, New York Times, January 6, 2000] ] an intervention which Senator McCain would later deny having made. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022202634_pf.html McCain Disputed On 1999 Meeting: Broadcaster Recalls Urging FCC Contact, James V. Grimaldi and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, Washington Post, February 23, 2008] ]

However, in response to vociferous concerns from members of the Pittsburgh local community, [ [http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/19991230fcc2.asp WQEX deal squeaked through FCC in 3-2 vote, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 30, 1999] ] [ [http://www.postgazette.com/columnists/20000121tony.asp Future dim for WQEX, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tony Norman, January 21, 2000] ] the FCC did impose one condition on the sale: half of Cornerstone's programming needed to be of educational value, effectively respecting the non-commercial educational condition of WQEX's existing license. [ [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~smonti/wqex/schneider2.html FCC Says Cornerstone Must Prove it is "Educational", Michael Schneider] ] Cornerstone flatly refused, abruptly backing out of the proposed deal. [ [http://www.current.org/ptv/ptv001q.html WQEX deal wins at FCC, loses in the end, George Miles / Jerry Starr, Current, Jan. 24, 2000] ]

Religious programming doesn't qualify as educational if it's "primarily devoted to religious exhortation, proselytizing or statements of personally held religious views or beliefs," according to the FCC's ruling conditionally allowing religious broadcaster Cornerstone TV to take over WQEX and add educational content to the station. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3169/is_2_40/ai_58529257 Religion Rules Clarified, Television Digest with Consumer Electronics, January 10, 2000] ] [ [http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/20000120fcc3.asp Deal looks dead, but debate isn't, January 20, 2000, Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette] ] Although the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) abruptly reversed its position less than a month later [ [http://www.techlawjournal.com/cong106/rel_bcast/20000128.htm FCC Order on Reconsideration of its December 29, 1999 Order on religious broadcasting. Re: Applications for Transfer of Licenses of WQED Pittsburgh and Cornerstone, January 28, 2000] ] removing the condition in response to intense political and legislative pressure, [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3169/is_/ai_62238288 Bill Protects Religious Broadcasters, Television Digest with Consumer Electronics, May 22, 2000] ] Cornerstone withdrew its application and the sale was cancelled, keeping WQEX as a WQED-TV simulcast. [ [http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/20000120wqed1.asp WQEX deal falls apart, January 20, 2000, Sally Kalson and Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette] ]

In July 2002, the FCC abandoned its long-held position on instructional content, removing WQEX's non-commercial educational status outright in response to continued claims of economic hardship by WQED [ [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030106/odriscoll The 'Public Interest', Bill O'Driscoll, January 6, 2003, The Nation.] ] - hardships which the station has long blamed not on its own past management practices but on the local economic situation and the long-term decline of Pittsburgh's industrial base. [ [http://www.bostonradio.org/nerw/nerw-020722.html WQEX Loses the Asterisk, Scott Fybush, North East RadioWatch: July 22, 2002] ]

From 2004 to March 2007, WQEX brokered much of its airtime to America's Store, a discount shopping channel from Home Shopping Network, with WQED-TV presenting a total of three hours of required Educational/Informational (E/I) programming for kids on Monday and Tuesday mornings, plus repeats of WQED's news magazine, "OnQ", on Monday mornings. [ [http://www.cipbonline.org/secondary_pages/shopping_network.htm Shopping Network to lease WQEX, April 7, 2004, Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette] ] In January 2007, America's Store announced it would cease operations on April 3 of the same year; WQEX switched its programming to ShopNBC on March 26. [ [http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07076/770164-237.stm TV Notes: WQEX to become ShopNBC, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 17, 2007] ] Rumors about a possible WQEX sale still come up from time to time.

While the ultimate fate of WQEX remains unresolved (though at least two stations in Pittsburgh--CW owned and operated station WPCW and low-powered independent WBGN--would both potentially benefit from buying the WQEX license) [ [http://pbrtv.com/blog/entry_636.php?w=my_weblog#message Pittsburgh Radio & TV Online - PBS 45/49 moves some offices to Akron and will change on air identity ] ] , the issues of the role of non-commercial public educational broadcasting and of the ongoing political interference in the FCC decision-making process [ [http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=42079 Bad Reception: The Media Scandal Behind John McCain's Campaign Finance Scandal, Tucson Weekly, Jan 13, 2000] ] would continue to haunt McCain for years, ultimately becoming an issue in the 2008 US presidential elections due to his having held a position on the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the FCC. [ [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_553691.html Pittsburgh TV deal part of McCain controversy, Eric Heyl, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, February 22, 2008] ]

External links

* [http://www.wqed.org/wqex/index.shtml WQEX site at WQED]
*TVQ|WQEX
*BIA|WQEX|TV|TV

References