User:Nathan Obral/WNEO

WNEO (channel 45) is a non-commercial educational television station licensed to Alliance, Ohio, United States. Simulcast full-time over satellite station WEAO (channel 49) in Akron, Ohio, both are member stations of PBS and jointly brand as PBS Western Reserve. Owned by Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio (NETO), WNEO is the Youngstown market's primary PBS outlet for, while WEAO is the Cleveland–Akron–Canton market's secondary PBS outlet. Both stations operate from studios on Kent State's campus in Kent; WNEO's transmitter is located in Salem, while WEAO's transmitter is based in Copley Township.

PBS Western Reserve was born in 1973 with WNEO's establishment under NETO, originally a consortium of the University of Akron, Kent State University and Youngstown State University; all three institutions applied for two open educational television licenses, prompting the consortium's establishment by the Ohio Educational Television Network Commission, a state agency responsible for the further development of ETV in Ohio. WEAO was signed on in 1975 to add coverage in both the Akron and Cleveland areas.

WNEO also operates W13DP-D, a low-power digital translator in Youngstown, which serves low-lying areas in the Mahoning Valley that are not covered from the main WNEO signal. The translator signed on as analog W58AM in May 1980, converted to digital as W44CR-D in November 2009, and moved to its current channel in November 2019.

History
In March 1951, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in the middle of a self-imposed freeze on issuing television licenses while studying future ultra high frequency (UHF) channel allocations, proposed three new channels for Akron, Ohio: channels 49, 55 and 61, with channel 55 designated for non-commercial educational television (ETV) usage. Kent State University (KSU), the University of Akron (AU) and the Akron Public Schools jointly petitioned to reserve the channel 55 allocation for ETV purposes in May 1951; radio stations WAKR and WADC (both failing to land a license for VHF channel 11 prior to the freeze ) filed for the two available commercial allocations. Akron school superintendent Otis C. Hatton explained, "This means we are asking for a channel. It doesn't mean we will have TV in the next few years."

Both KSU and AU had considerable experience in broadcasting. KSU's WKSU-FM signed on in 1950 and moved to the university's newly-constructed Music and Speech Center in 1961, which also housed "WKSU", a closed-circuit television (CCTV) station. AU had carrier current radio station "WUOA" which became fully-licensed WAUP in 1962, in addition to housing a CCTV operation of their own. Youngstown State University (YSU) had no licensed broadcast operation—WYSU signed on in 1969 —but also expressed interest in building an ETV station. However, no further action or agreement had been reached between the two universities regarding the allocation over the next ten years, and out of the three proposed UHF channels for Akron, only WAKR-TV took to the air in 1953.

Under Ohio Governor Michael DiSalle, the Ohio Council on Educational Television was established in 1959 to study the feasibility of establishing ETV stations across the state to supplement existing ETV stations in Cincinnati, Columbus, Oxford, Athens, Dayton and Toledo. Their findings resulted in the creation of the Ohio Educational Television Network Commission (OETNC) in 1961, tasked to work in conjunction with the state's universities and networking in-school instructional programming. KSU's trustees approved a plan on November 16, 1962, to refit their CCTV station "WKSU" into that of a licensed ETV facility, a plan KSU saw as necessary so Northeastern Ohio would have ETV service, but AU considered to be made in haste. While KSU floated the idea of entering a joint venture with AU to operate the station, AU officials turned down an invitation to a KSU-hosted dinner meeting with other civic organizations, citing an ongoing study committee on ETV led by Akron mayor Edward O. Erickson.

The joint venture never took hold, and by 1964, little sign of progress existed between AU and KSU, even with OETNC urging both universities to find a resolution. KSU's Washington counsel Stanley Neustadt ended his ties with the university over conflict of interest concerns with OETNC, whom he also represented. The National Association of Educational Broadcasters proposed two ETV channels as part of the FCC's revision of their UHF allocation table: channel 23 in Akron and channel 17 in Kent. In Cleveland, WVIZ took to the air on February 7, 1965, from a tower in North Royalton; the tower siting choice was criticized by several business leaders who felt a location near Streetsboro would be better able to serve Akron, Canton and Youngstown as a regional ETV service, while the organization operating WVIZ felt such a location could result in a weaker signal in Cuyahoga County. As part of WAKR-TV's successful petition to move from channels 49 to 23 on December 1, 1967, the FCC reassigned the channel 55 ETV allocation to channel 49. WAKR-TV parent Summit Radio donated equipment to AU in the process, including the former channel 49 UHF mast on top of the First Central Tower. One of OETNC's proposed stations included a Youngstown facility, but their application met resistance from YSU, which was reluctant to withdraw their existing application.

Jack G. McBride, general manager for Nebraska Educational Television Commission, was hired by the Ohio Board of Regents to resolve the AU–KSU–YSU dispute. McBride's report on April 18, 1969, proposed a consortium be formed among all three universities to operate a regional service instead of one institution prevailing over another. As part of the plan, the consortium would jointly operate a tower near Alliance on either channel 45 in Alliance or channel 67 in Canton; channel 45 was originally assigned to Youngstown and used first by WKST-TV, then by WXTV; the 1965 table revision kept the open allocation in place. AU president Norman P. Auburn opposed the plan but found support from both KSU president Robert I. White and YSU president Albert Pugsley, and was approved by the Regents on February 20, 1970. Progress on building out a station was bogged down by multiple issues, including tower siting challenges for the Alliance station, frequency usage (OETNC preferred channel 45 for Akron, conflicting with YSU's channel 45 application) and concerns from AU and YSU that KSU would have a disproportionate role in the service.

OETNC filed a joint application in May 1971 on behalf of all three universities for channel 49 in Akron and channel 45 in Alliance. Two months later, the consortium named Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio was formed. Negotiations for land for Alliance transmitter Kent State approval Akron U approval

WNEO first signed on the air on May 30, 1973.

It was originally intended to serve all of Northeast Ohio from Youngstown to Cleveland. Its city of license, Alliance, is split between both major markets in the region. Most of the city is in Stark County, which is in the Cleveland market; a small portion is in Mahoning County, However, it was later decided to reorient WNEO to serve Youngstown and sign on a satellite station to serve Akron and Cleveland. That station, WEAO, signed on the air more than two years later on September 21, 1975. After WEAO began broadcasting, the stations made their first on-air appeal for viewer donations in December 1975. By 1976, the stations were providing instructional programming to 99,000 students in more than 200 schools.

The Youngstown translator on channel 58, mounted on WFMJ-TV's tower, began broadcasting on November 4, 1980; the aim was to fill coverage gaps in the Youngstown and Warren areas, representing a fifth of WNEO–WEAO's total audience.

WNEO was WNEO-TV, suffixed, until April 1990.

In 1987, NETO sued Buena Vista Television, the syndication arm of Disney, charging it with breaching a contract to supply 178 episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney; the syndicator had withdrawn them because NETO complained about their sale to Cleveland independent station WOIO. A California court found in favor of the public stations the next year.

Both stations expanded to a 24-hour schedule on January 1, 1990, becoming the first public television stations in Ohio and two of only a few nationwide to broadcast around-the-clock. The move coincided with a new transmitter and antenna for WEAO which was regarded as more energy-efficient; the installation process was briefly delayed after a construction worker fell to his death along with the station's old antenna. WNEO–WEAO's hours were curtailed back to 18 hours by September 1992 after a series of funding cuts at the state level and increased costs for program acquisitions.

In 1991, a federal court ruled that public television syndicators' practices of restricting overlapping station broadcasts were not monopolistic, dismissing a three-year-old lawsuit against Eastern Educational TV and WVIZ. The rivalry between WNEO–WEAO and WVIZ deepened during this time: in 1988, the Akron Public Schools signed a one-year deal with WVIZ for the district's instructional TV rights over the two stations, citing WVIZ's larger array of technical and programming resources. That same year, WVIZ was awarded broadcast rights to All-American Soap Box Derby over WNEO–WEAO for what would be a ten-year arrangement with underwriter Bridgestone USA. Don Freeman, then the program manager for the two stations, later referred to WVIZ's origination of the Derby telecasts for PBS as being "...like a knife in the heart". By 1998, WVIZ also debuted Akron Memories, a documentary on area nostalgia inspired by the station's existing Cleveland Memories series.

Following the closure of WAKC-TV's news department in March 1996, WNEO-WEAO explored the idea of launching a nightly Akron-centered newscast, but decided against it due to cost issues. WNEO/WEAO instead launched NewsNight Akron, a weekly news and panel discussion program which ran from 1998 to 2013.

WNEO–WEAO jointly branded as "PBS 45 and 49" until renaming to "Western Reserve PBS" on October 1, 2008, timed with WNEO's conversion to all-digital broadcasting in what became a staggered process, as WEAO converted in June 2009. NETO rebranded as "Western Reserve Public Media" in July 2008, in recognition of NETO's involvement with both broadcast and internet. After WEAO's conversion to digital, both stations launched two new digital subchannels: "Fusion" on their second subchannel, and MHz Worldview on their third subchannel. At launch, Fusion featured programming from The Ohio Channel and Classic Arts Showcase, along with locally-produced content and assorted BBC Worldwide fare, including ten newly-acquired BBC sitcoms. A third subchannel, V-me, was later added to both station's multiplexes. MHz Worldview was replaced with First Nations Experience on March 1, 2020, with WNEO–WEAO becoming the first stations in Ohio to carry the Native American-oriented subchannel.

WEAO temporarily suspended broadcasting during April 2011 due to a faulty transmission line to its transmitter and inclement weather that impeded repairs, but programming continued to be available from WNEO and on cable and satellite.

In 2021, Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio began the process of converting from university ownership to full community ownership. NETO's 15-member board had previously included the three universities' presidents on an ex officio basis; the universities announced their exit from the station's governance, with the board becoming entirely composed of community members. The move coincided with KSU transferring management of WKSU to WVIZ owner Ideastream via a public service operating agreement.

Funding
In fiscal year 2022, PBS Western Reserve generated $6.56 million in revenue and support. Contributions represented more than $2 million, while the Corporation for Public Broadcasting contributed more than $1 million. There were more than 15,000 contributors to the station in the fiscal year.

Subchannels
The stations' signals are multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion
WNEO discontinued analog programming over UHF channel 45 on November 19, 2008, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television; WEAO ended analog broadcasting over UHF channel 49 on June 12, 2009. WNEO's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 46 to channel 45 on November 21, 2008, while WEAO's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 50.

Since 2018, WEAO and WRLM have operated in a channel sharing arrangement, with WRLM transmitting off of WEAO's spectrum.