On February 2, 1975,^[2] W39AA, a translator of WBGU-TV in Bowling Green, Ohio, signed on the air on channel 39; the coverage of W39AA was generally restricted to the immediate Fort Wayne area, as its coverage was not powerful enough to cover the entire market. This low-power repeater station was merely a placeholder, as channel 39 was allocated as a full-power educational channel in Fort Wayne. In December 1985, the station became a translator of Indianapolis PBS station WFYI,^[2] after the translator was allowed to originate programming.^[3]

In October 1984, Fort Wayne Public Television applied to build a full-power station on channel 39. The FCC approved on January 29, 1985; WFWA signed on the air on December 5, 1986, bringing northeast Indiana its own PBS station for the first time ever.^[2] However, it was not until October 1, 1989, that WFWA was programmed separately from WFYI.^[4]

In 2003, WFWA became the first television station in the Fort Wayne market to broadcast a digital signal, originally carrying the national PBS HDTV feed on a separate subchannel from its regular programming; funding issues would later cause the national HD feed to be pulled, leaving all programming in standard definition for several years. It was announced that WFWA's main channel 39.1 would broadcast in high-definition full-time at some point during summer 2010.^[5] During a summer 2010 pledge break, general manager Bruce Haines announced that the change would occur on July 4, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. Due to advancements in video compression, the station was able to upgrade its main channel to HD without sacrificing the video quality of its other three SD subchannels.

In May 2013, the station announced a fundraising drive to upgrade its infrastructure over the next three years, including a signal boost, the purchase of remote production equipment, and improvements to the station's master control.

Subchannels edit

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Previously, WFWA had shown the national PBS Kids feed (also seen nationally on digital cable/satellite) on channel 39.2. The service ended on September 26, 2005, but WFWA continued the channel by self-programming it locally until 2017, when the national 24/7 PBS Kids Channel launched.

Channel 39.3 was originally a 24-hour delayed feed from PBS ("PBS Encore"), but it was replaced by the national Create TV channel on July 1, 2006.^[7]

WFWA aired the Annenberg/CPB Channel on 39.4 until October 1, 2008. The satellite feed for Annenberg was discontinued at that time.^[8] WFWA now programs the subchannel locally with news and information programming and other documentaries supplied by PBS and various public media distributors. It was originally branded as "39-4you" (using a similar logo to PBS YOU, though it had no affliation with that retired service), and later became known as "Explore" in 2014.

Analog-to-digital conversion edit

WFWA shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 39, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 40,^[9] using virtual channel 39.

As part of the SAFER Act,^[10] WFWA kept its analog signal on the air for 2+ weeks to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.

• Official website