WEIU-TV, virtual channel 51 (UHF digital channel 30), is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Charleston, Illinois, United States. Owned by Eastern Illinois University (EIU), it is a sister station to campus radio station WEIU (88.9 FM). The two stations share studios on the EIU campus in Charleston; WEIU-TV's transmitter is located near Humboldt, Illinois.
WEIU-TV is a member of PBS' Program Differentiation Plan (PDP), previously known as the "Beta Group". As a secondary PBS member station for the Champaign–Springfield–Decatur market, it airs 25% of the PBS network schedule.
History[]
WEIU-TV began operations on July 1, 1986, as an independent non-commercial station offering public affairs and instructional programming, as well as the student-run news program News Scan. On January 30, 1992, WEIU-TV officially joined PBS. In January 2002, the newscast was renamed News Watch; it currently airs from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. News Watch won its first Emmy Award in 2009 and its second Emmy in 2010.
WEIU-TV launched its first digital broadcast in 2006, on UHF channel 50 (tuned as virtual channel 51). The station began broadcasting in high definition (HD) on March 22, 2010. It offered the first local HD newscast for viewers in central Illinois. Before June 2010, no commercial television stations in the market were producing news in HD, which changed when NBC affiliate WAND became the first to make the switch.