Wikipedia

WTVP

This article is about the PBS station in Peoria, Illinois. For the station in Decatur, Illinois, which formerly used this call sign, see WAND (TV).

WTVP (channel 47) is a PBS member television station in Peoria, Illinois, United States, owned by the Illinois Valley Public Telecommunications Corporation. The station's studios are located on State Street in downtown Peoria, and its transmitter is located along Interstate 474 in East Peoria.

WTVP
WTVP studios on State Street in downtown Peoria
Channels
BrandingWTVP PBS
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerIllinois Valley Public Telecommunications Corporation
History
First air date
June 27, 1971 (53 years ago) (1971-06-27)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 47 (UHF, 1971–2009)
  • Digital: 46 (UHF, until 2020)
Call sign meaning
Television Peoria
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID28311
ERP155 kW
HAAT213.8 m (701 ft)
Transmitter coordinates40°37′44″N 89°34′12″W / 40.62889°N 89.57000°W / 40.62889; -89.57000
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.wtvp.org

Serving as the Peoria area's public television station since 1971, WTVP broadcasts PBS and local programming. Originally housed on studios at the campus of Bradley University but separately owned, WTVP moved to its present facility in 2003. However, borrowing costs from construction and insufficient pledge revenues led to a near-foreclosure and shutdown of the station in January 2008 by its lender. Sufficient support from the community allowed WTVP to settle its debts and remain on the air. In 2023, a financial crisis was revealed at the station following the suicide of its general manager.

History

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Early years

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Illinois Valley Public Telecommunications Corporation applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on March 10, 1970, for permission to build an educational television station on channel 47 in Peoria—even though channel 47 was not the originally designated channel for such a station.[2] It was the second application for the channel that had been filed within two years, as Bradley University (BU) had also filed with the FCC to build such a station in February 1969.[3] The university had been responsible for broadcasting educational television over closed-circuit and microwave systems to participating schools since 1965, and its transmissions reached 30,000 students in 100 schools by 1967.[4] BU, however, opted to form the corporation with five local community groups: Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, Peoria Public Schools, Peoria Public Library, Pekin Public Schools, and Illinois Central College.[5] Phil Weinberg, an academic dean at the university, also arranged for Sesame Street to be aired locally by commercial station WMBD-TV prior to the station's launch.[6]

WTVP began broadcasting on June 27, 1971.[4] For the next 25 years, it was managed by Elwin Basquin, who was named to the station manager post within months of sign-on and rose to general manager and president in the late 1980s; Basquin remained with WTVP until his retirement in 1996. During that time, in 1993, a new transmission facility was built, extending coverage to another 275,000 homes.[7]

A downtown move; near-foreclosure

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In 2000, WTVP announced a large fundraising campaign, "Funds for FortySeven", to finance its conversion to digital television and a move off the Bradley campus to a warehouse on State and Water streets in downtown Peoria; the existing quarters at Bradley were cramped for the station, which had to split its staff between two offices.[8] During this time, in January 2002, WTVP became the region's first station to begin digital TV transmissions.[9] The 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) riverfront facility opened in July 2003 at a cost of $4 million for the building and $5 million more in digital equipment.[10]

However, the financial cost of the move, particularly in borrowing, proved to be a major issue for the station, which had benefited for 32 years from rent-free space on the BU campus.[11] The facility had been paid for by $10.3 million in bonds, and in 2005, WTVP was found to be in technical default after failing to meet covenants related to pledge goals despite continuing to pay down the bonds. Other issues included the bond agreement, signed amid a recession, and an inability to secure federal grant monies to pay for the digital conversion that WTVP had already made out of pocket. In December, Bank of America—the primary lender—issued WTVP a deadline of January 15, 2008, to restructure the agreement with $6.9 still owing on the bonds.[12] For WTVP, this was an existential crisis, as Bank of America indicated that it would foreclose on and put WTVP's assets up for sale; to avoid this fate, WTVP would have to raise about as much money in six weeks as it had in six years.[13] It instead aimed for a $2 million goal, which it believed would be sufficient to permit a restructuring of the bonds.[14]

As 2007 turned to 2008, WTVP had secured $1.4 million.[15] A final offer of $4 million cash, backed by the pledges as well as remaining cash reserves, a loan from National City Bank, and the Illinois Facilities Fund, was made—even though WTVP officials felt the bank had not negotiated in good faith[16]—and rejected.[17][18] The banks eventually indicated they would agree to be paid a higher amount, requiring further fundraising,[19] and a tentative deal for a $5.25 million payment was made—but WTVP had to raise another $450,000 by February 28 for the deal to hold.[20] The money was raised with a day to spare.[21] Of the money raised from viewers, 70 percent came from first-time donors.[22]

WTVP shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 47, at 11:59 p.m. on February 17, 2009,[23] 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 46, using virtual channel 47.[24]

Joint management experiment with WILL and 2023 financial crisis

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In 2013, WTVP entered into a joint management agreement with Illinois Public Media, the public media service of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Chet Tomczyk, WTVP's president and CEO, was named interim general manager of Illinois Public Media's WILL stations. Tomczyk retired the next year, and Maurice "Moss" Bresnahan was named president and CEO of both organizations, reporting to the University of Illinois and the Illinois Valley Public Telecommunications Corporation board.[25] The dual leadership arrangement was a prelude to a possible merger, though WTVP ultimately sought to keep its local identity and ended the agreement in 2019 to seek its own executive while continuing programming and other collaborations with WILL.[26] Also in 2014, WTVP began managing master control functions for WQPT, the public television station of Western Illinois University-Quad Cities in Moline.[27] Involvement of WTVP with other public broadcasting in west-central Illinois had first been envisioned in the 1970s when planners linked WTVP to the Convocom educational consortium, whose public television station went on the air as an independent project and is now WSEC in Springfield.[28][29]

WTVP launched WTVP Remote (47.5), a subchannel with educational content for K-12 students, during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020.[30] The next year, it acquired the assets of Peoria Magazine, a monthly publication that was being discontinued by its publisher, and the annual business events it organized.[31]

On September 27, 2023, Lesley Matuszak, the station's director, resigned from her position. The next day, she died at the age of 66 in what was later confirmed to be a suicide.[32] Shortly after Matuszak's death, it transpired that the station had financial issues when it moved to cut $1.5 million from its budget due to what it called "questionable, unauthorized or improper" use of funds; the station had lost money in fiscal year 2022 and was projected to lose more in fiscal year 2023.[33] Police later found that there would have been probable cause to charge Matuszak with embezzlement and forgery; she paid for personal expenses, including jewelry and political donations, using station funds and forged a donor's signature on an invoice for jewelry.[34] As a result, nine employees were laid off, and the station announced Peoria Magazine would cease publication "for the foreseeable future" with its November 2023 issue.[35][32] The Illinois Attorney General's Office and the Peoria Police Department opened investigations into the station's spending.[36] Additionally, the station requested interim funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which decided to refer the matter to its internal inspector general and halted the disbursement of the station's Community Service Grant pending the review.[37][38]

The chair and vice chair of WTVP's board of directors resigned in January 2024, with nine board members resigning the next month. Eight new board members, including Republican state senator Win Stoller and former president and CEO Chet Tomczyk,[39] were elected to replace them.[40] The new board chair, John Wieland, began offering an apology to viewers; he noted in interviews that the criminal investigation into the station centered on misuse of funds, not embezzlement, and that a surge in existing donations would keep the station from going under.[41]

Local programming

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Local programs from WTVP include At Issue, a weekly public affairs series, as well as agriculture program A Shot of Ag with Rob Sharkey and the music performance series State & Water, in addition to documentaries and other special programs.[42]

WTVP originated local television coverage of Bradley Braves men's basketball with its broadcasts of the opening three home games of the 1979–80 season, while the station was housed on the university's campus. More recently, the station broadcast up to 10 men's home games per season from the 2006–07 through 2011–12 seasons. The station was also the first broadcaster of Bradley women's basketball, averaging four home games per year starting in the 1996–97 season. All basketball coverage was dropped for the 2012–13 season due to mounting financial losses.[43][44]

Subchannels

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The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WTVP[45]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
47.1 1080i 16:9 WTVP-HD PBS
47.2 480i WTVP-KD PBS Kids
47.3 World World
47.4 4:3 Create Create
47.5 Remote WTVP Remote[30]
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References

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  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WTVP". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "FCC History Cards for WTVP". Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ "$25,000 Caterpillar Grant To Aid Bradley TV Project". The Pantagraph. March 20, 1969. p. A-12. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved December 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "This Week in Peoria's Past -- Educational TV gets under way". Peoria Journal Star. June 23, 2003. p. C6.
  5. ^ "Start New TV Channel". The Pantagraph. November 1, 1969. p. 5A-. Archived from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved December 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Tarter, Steve (February 3, 2012). "'Renaissance man' for Bradley, Peoria - Educator Weinberg, 86, brought public television to central Illinois homes". Peoria Journal Star. Retrieved July 23, 2012.
  7. ^ Towery, Terry (March 24, 1996). "Channel 47 chief plans retirement". Peoria Journal Star. p. C11.
  8. ^ Green, Angela (June 7, 2000). "WTVP airs its plan to move, go digital; TV station needs to raise $1.5 million more for renovations". Peoria Journal Star. p. B5.
  9. ^ Tarter, Steve (August 31, 2003). "WTVP digs its new digital Downtown station - Channel 47's hightech studio could lure business and improve programming". Peoria Journal Star. p. B1.
  10. ^ Brown, Dayna R. (July 16, 2003). "WTVP-TV travels to new home -- Public TV stations [sic] closes up shop at Bradley for Downtown digs". Peoria Journal Star. p. B6.
  11. ^ Bibo, Terry (December 21, 2007). "Building at their own risk - Borrowing for new facility, pledge shortfall helped lead to financial woes for WTVP-TV". Peoria Journal Star. p. A1.
  12. ^ Tarter, Steve (December 1, 2007). "WTVP 47 postpones fund drive amid crisis - Public TV station owes $6.9 million on defaulted loan, will need support". Peoria Journal Star. p. B1.
  13. ^ Bibo, Terry (December 6, 2007). "WTVP in danger of going off the air - Public television station needs to come up with money to satisfy its creditors". Peoria Journal Star. p. A1.
  14. ^ Bibo, Terry (December 11, 2007). "Donations flood in to help WTVP - Public television station needs $2 million to stay on the air". Peoria Journal Star. p. A1.
  15. ^ Bibo, Terry (January 5, 2008). "WTVP making final push for funds - Channel 47 to put 'best offer on the table' Tuesday when it meets with creditors". Peoria Journal Star. p. A1.
  16. ^ Bibo, Terry (January 12, 2008). "WTVP makes $4 million offer - Tuesday deadline looms to repay $6.9 million debt". Peoria Journal Star. p. A1.
  17. ^ Bibo, Terry (January 15, 2008). "WTVP rejected again - Banks not shutting down station yet, but next steps still remain murky". Peoria Journal Star. p. A1.
  18. ^ Bibo, Terry (January 16, 2008). "WTVP-TV not throwing in the towel - Despite latest rejection from bank, officials will ask for more time to garner pledges". Peoria Journal Star. p. B1.
  19. ^ Bibo, Terry (January 25, 2008). "WTVP, creditors closer to accord - Television station's future looks more hopeful as financial gap fills in". Peoria Journal Star. p. A1.
  20. ^ Bibo, Terry (January 29, 2008). "WTVP required to raise a little more cash - Station excited about pending $5.25 million deal with banks". Peoria Journal Star. p. A1.
  21. ^ Bibo, Terry (February 28, 2008). "Viewers come through for WTVP-TV - Public television station saved from extinction by many generous donors". Peoria Journal Star. p. A1.
  22. ^ Rushton, Bruce (June 25, 2008). "Peoria saves struggling TV station". The State Journal-Register. Springfield, Illinois. p. 4.
  23. ^ "WTVP 47 - Public Television for Central Illinois". WTVP. Archived from the original on February 13, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  24. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  25. ^ Wurth, Julie (July 26, 2014). "CEO to oversee two stations - Man who ran public TV station in Seattle taking reins of those in Champaign, Peoria". The News-Gazette. p. B-1.
  26. ^ Sefton, Dru (March 13, 2019). "Illinois stations end dual-CEO arrangement". Current. Archived from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
  27. ^ Sefton, Dru (August 11, 2014). "In Illinois, WTVP takes over TV broadcast operations for WQPT". Current. Archived from the original on December 25, 2022. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
  28. ^ "Hope is seen for public television network". The Rock Island Argus. February 14, 1978. p. 12. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  29. ^ "$45,000 presented to regional public TV". The Argus. August 10, 1978. p. 30. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  30. ^ a b Renken, Leslie (May 20, 2020). "New WTVP channel will help area kids learn during the shutdown — and beyond". Peoria Journal Star. Archived from the original on May 21, 2020.
  31. ^ Renken, Leslie (November 13, 2021). "After 32 years, this local magazine is ending". Peoria Journal Star. p. B1.
  32. ^ a b Howell, Jason (October 26, 2023). "Cause of death released for former head of WTVP". 25 News. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  33. ^ Seils, Lizzie; Packowitz, Howard (October 10, 2023). "WTVP to cut $1.5 million from budget, finds 'questionable, unauthorized or improper' spending". 25 News. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  34. ^ Shelley, Tim (August 16, 2024). "Police report: Evidence supported charges of embezzlement, forgery for WTVP's Lesley Matuszak". WCBU. Retrieved September 12, 2024.
  35. ^ Howell, Jason (October 20, 2023). "November to be last Peoria Magazine issue 'for foreseeable future' amidst financial climate at WTVP". 25 News. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  36. ^ Shelley, Tim (November 15, 2023). "State and local law enforcement are probing spending at embattled public TV station WTVP". WCBU. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  37. ^ Shelley, Tim (November 16, 2023). "Corporation for Public Broadcasting is reviewing WTVP's grant request, but may ask watchdog to dig deeper". WCBU. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  38. ^ Shelley, Tim (December 14, 2023). "WTVP won't receive Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding pending a deeper investigation". WGLT. WCBU. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
  39. ^ "Board of Directors". WTVP.org. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
  40. ^ Wyllie, Julian (January 17, 2024). "WTVP board members resign in wake of financial improprieties". Current.
  41. ^ Pinkins, Jerimiah; Kravetz, Andy (January 26, 2024). "New WTVP chairman says misuse of money, not embezzlement, the issue". WMBD.
  42. ^ "2021 Local Content and Service Report to the Community" (PDF). WTVP. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  43. ^ "WTVP To Televise Bradley Basketball in 2010-11". Bradley University Athletics.
  44. ^ Tarter, Steve (October 26, 2012). "On the Air: WTVP-TV taking a pass on BU hoops". Peoria Journal Star.
  45. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WTVP". RabbitEars. Archived from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
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