TV Alvorada (Floriano)

TV Alvorada (channel 6, also known as TV Alvorada do Sul) is a Brazilian television station based in Floriano, a city in the state of Piauí and is affiliated with TV Globo. It is owned by Sistema Clube de Comunicação, and together with TV Clube de Teresina, it makes up the Rede Clube network, covering 43 municipalities in the center-south of the state.

History
TV Alvorada started from a TV concession in Floriano that was disputed between senator João Lobo, owner of radio Alvorada FM and deputy Jesus Elias Tajra, owner of TV Pioneira de Teresina, a Band affiliate at the time (today TV Cidade Verde, an SBT affiliate). The concession was for a generator, with the arrival of George Pinho, João Lobo's son-in-law, he began to boost the station's project starting in 1995, with a deadline to follow. If the broadcaster did not follow the plan, the broadcaster would be left without a concession. At the time, Floriano did not have qualified labor to help create the station's headquarters, along with the high cost of equipment and the 30% inflation that Brazil had at the time. The biggest challenge at the time of construction was the tower. The old tower that was built for the radio station had to be dismantled, finding a way so that Alvorada FM would not go off the air during the construction of the new TV tower. Along with the tower, an 800kg antenna was installed. Much of the work had the support of Gorge Pinho, who had some knowledge in the technical field. At the request of his wife at the time, Rosa Lobo, the plan was to found the broadcaster before the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which would be on schedule.

Using amateur equipment, the first signal tests were carried out by pirating signals from other networks, and then pirating Globo's national signal. The signal was frequently cut off due to a complaint to make a query to eventually start relaying the network in compliance. To regularize the situation, negotiations were held with TV Clube in Teresina. At the time, TV Clube covered the entire state of Piauí and was afraid of losing coverage in the southern region. Jesus Tajra spoke to the Alencar family, from TV Clube, saying that he had no interest in the concession, offering the Floriano concession to Tajra and two partners from TV Clube, and then giving the concession to João Lobo.

TV Clube offered dated equipment for TV Alvorada for many years, since the station's inception. Before its foundation, TV Clube had a repeater in Floriano that frequently lost signal, receiving complaints, especially when the telenovelas were airing. The main justification for the concession was the fact that Floriano was an economic hub within the state and that at the time it was not able to display the Globo signal properly.

In August 1996, a team from Rede Globo was already training and selecting the professionals who would take over journalism at TV Alvorada. The first television station in the interior of Piauí, the second channel affiliated with Rede Globo in the state, was inaugurated on January 10, 1997, the year of Floriano's centenary, replacing the signal from the TV Clube repeater. Created by senator João Lobo in partnership with the Alencar family, it is made up of several departments: commercial, editorial, studio and journalistic. The first program aired by the new broadcaster was Piauí TV 2nd edition presented by Nilson Ferreira. This edition began with a brief speech by the presenter:

"Today, the city of Floriano definitively assumes control of TV Alvorada do Sul. Our television news department, guided by the Globo Quality Standard, has a single goal: to serve the community with information and record the history of the city in its daily life. We want your partnership, viewer. We are a media outlet with no political-partisan proposal. Our policy is the one that guides all of Rede Globo de Televisão’s production. We are the youngest of the affiliates, and from now on, we will listen and speak to the entire population of this immense southern region of the state. Our team's first work is coming on air."

which was followed by a report by Virgínia Fabris on the history and facets of the city.

PITV was the station's main program, produced and shown until 2019 with a set based on the former NETV studio of TV Globo Nordeste in Recife. The station initially didn't produce the first edition at noon, due to lack of motivation and resources, initially relaying the Teresina edition with reports coming from Floriano. In the 2000s, the slot of the first edition was taken by PITV Convida, an interview show.

The station also became a school for journalism professionals: reporters, presenters, cameramen, editors and producers. Many people who today work for large stations in Brasília, Teresina, Natal and other large centers first went through TV Alvorada.

Floriano's commercial life has also changed a lot since TV Alvorada went on air. The station has already been awarded several times as a highlight in sales in the Northeast Region. In 2013, local retailer JR Variedades got a boost in its income thanks to a year-end campaign that aired on commercial breaks on the channel.

In 2011, the station went through a period of expansion and modernization. The installation of a modern transmitter improved image quality and range. The signal reaches 80km and is already picked up in the nearest municipalities. It was also in June of the same year that TV Alvorada started transmitting the signal via satellite. An evolution that allows the immediate generation of reports and since November 25, 2011, live entries from Floriano on Piauí TV 1st edition on Rede Clube's programming. From this point on, the TV Alvorada signal reaches several municipalities in Piauí, thanks to satellite transmission. The station reaches Floriano, the Maranhão municipality of Barão de Grajaú and another 39 municipalities under the responsibility of TV Alvorada.

In 2012, TV Alvorada was unified with TV Clube in the capital and started using the same logo as the Teresina broadcaster to form Rede Clube, but the broadcaster only came under the control of Sistema Clube from 2013 onwards.

TV Alvorada has been operating in the same building since 1997, a building that has had no external renovations and has had the same facade since its foundation, and much of the equipment is still from that time, which means that the only news program generated by the station is not shown. in Full HD. TV Alvorada also has problems with lack of sponsorship, the broadcaster's commercial breaks are filled with bulletins from Globo Rural, advertisements from Som Livre and some advertisements from Rede Clube, with rare local sponsorship. The station also suffers from transmission issues in other municipalities in its coverage area. Only Floriano, Barão de Grajaú and nearby cities receive the signal via digital channel 6.1, while other cities such as Oeiras and Picos (the largest city in its coverage area) only receive the analog signal and are not decently reached by the TV journalism department Alvorada, which only sends reporters to cities close to Floriano. So much so that in Picos, the majority of viewers use subscription satellite TV to watch TV Clube.

On April 3, 2019, the station was the target of lightning that struck its tower, generating an electrical discharge that burned several pieces of equipment (including its electrical power clock, which exploded, leaving it without power), and burning the transmitter, taking the station off the air. The problem was reversed after 2 hours, a power generator was activated and the station returned to the air, but Floriano's Piauí TV 2nd edition was cancelled. One day later, on April 4, 2019, the station airs an edition recorded and edited on a common computer of Piauí TV 2nd edition, explaining to viewers what happened, and informing that the news program will go off the air until they solved the problem. After the events, Piauí TV 2nd edition of Floriano went off the air, giving way to the Teresina edition of the news program. On April 16, 2019, Piauí TV 2nd local edition returned to the air, but with many improvisations: without a teleprompter in the first few days, the presenters read the texts using a notebook and the station's character generator (which was also damaged) did not work. It was used again until the last news broadcast carried out by the station.

On October 25, 2019, the last Piauí TV 2nd edition generated locally by TV Alvorada aired. Rede Clube closed the station's local production and took a decision similar to that taken in 2006 by Rede Liberal and in 2017 by Rede Mirante, making it a mere producer of reports and live links to Teresina. Since October 26, the broadcaster has shown the Teresina edition of the news program.

Technical information
TV Alvorada started digital broadcasts on February 19, 2016. The launch of the digital signal was held at Hotel Rio Parnaíba with the participation of local figures and advertisers.