WSIU-TV


WSIU-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 8, is a Public Broadcasting Service member television station licensed to Carbondale, Illinois, United States. Owned by Southern Illinois University, it is a sister station to National Public Radio member and Public Radio International affiliate WSIU, also licensed to Carbondale. The two stations share studios on the university's campus in Carbondale; WSIU-TV's transmitter is located along US 51 near Tamaroa, Illinois.
WUSI-TV in Olney, Illinois operates as a full-time satellite of WSIU-TV; this station's transmitter is located on North Shipley Road near Dundas. WUSI-TV covers areas of southeastern Illinois and southwest Indiana that receive a marginal to non-existent over-the-air signal from WSIU-TV, although there is significant overlap between the two stations' contours otherwise. WUSI-TV is a straight simulcast of WSIU-TV; on-air references to WUSI-TV are limited to Federal Communications Commission -mandated hourly station identifications during programming. Aside from the transmitter, WUSI-TV does not maintain any physical presence locally in Olney. WUSI-TV is a sister station to WUSI, also licensed to Olney, which simulcasts the programming of WSIU. WUSI-TV also serves as the default PBS member station for the Illinois side of Terre Haute, Indiana market and the Illinois side of the Evansville, Indiana market.
WSIU-TV operates several UHF translators at the edges of its main coverage area where the station's signal is hard to receive, although it also operates a translator that serves Carbondale. All of these translators map to virtual channel 8 and use the WSIU-TV callsign even though the translators broadcast on different channels. These translators are located in Carbondale, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Edwardsville, Illinois, and Vienna, Illinois.

History

WSIU-TV first signed on the air on November 6, 1961; WUSI-TV signed on as a satellite of WSIU-TV on August 19, 1968.

Digital television

Digital channels

The stations' digital signals are multiplexed:

WSIU-TV

WUSI-TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

WSIU-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, at 9 p.m. on January 29, 2009. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 40 to VHF channel 8 for post-transition operations.
WUSI-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 16, at 9 p.m. on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 16.

Programming

During Southern Illinois University's academic year, WSIU-TV broadcast a live student-produced newscast, River Region Evening Edition, which airs on Monday through Thursday evenings at 5:00 p.m., with repeats of WSIU InFocus shown on Friday at 5:00 p.m. Three other student-produced programs also air on WSIU/WUSI, , Studio A, and Scholastic Hi-Q. Both alt.news 26:46 and Studio A occasionally air on the station on Sundays at 10:00 p.m. with Scholastic Hi-Q airing each Sunday at 5:00 p.m. Since WUSI-TV operates as a full-time satellite of WSIU-TV, it simulcasts the programs produced from WSIU-TV, with no local insertion.