About WVIZ/PBS ideastream

The Idea Center at Playhouse SquareWVIZ/PBS signed on the air as the 100th noncommercial educational television station in the United States on February 7, 1965, with studios in Cleveland’s Max Hayes Trade School. The station, now located at the Idea Center at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland, is licensed to ideastream. WVIZ/PBS serves a 17-county Northeast Ohio market, which includes the metropolitan areas of Cleveland and Akron.

Take a photographic tour of the Idea Center here!

Mission of WVIZ/PBS

To strengthen our communities by providing distinctive, thought-provoking programs and services that enlighten, inspire, educate and entertain.

Vision of WVIZ/PBS

ideastream will be recognized as an indispensable resource critical to the future success of the region and deserving of philanthropic and public support.

History of WVIZ/PBS

WVIZ/PBS signed on the air as the 100th noncommercial educational television station in the United States on February 7, 1965, with studios in Cleveland’s Max Hayes Trade School. The station, now located on Brookpark Road in Cleveland, is licensed to the Educational Television Association of Metropolitan Cleveland, a 501 ( c ) (3) non profit corporation governed by a board of volunteer trustees. WVIZ/PBS serves a 17-county Northeast Ohio market, which includes the metropolitan areas of Cleveland and Akron.

WVIZ/PBS Televised AuctionWhen WVIZ/PBS signed on the air in 1965, it broadcast 50 hours of programming over 5-1/2 days in black and white. Its purpose was to offer daytime programming to the schools and alternate choices of programming to Northeastern Ohio residents. Today, WVIZ/PBS distributes programs across an array of platforms including videotapes, CD-ROM, internet, microwave signals, cable, and more. The WVIZ/PBS television signal is on the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing high-quality programming for children and adults and is viewed by over one million households in an average month.

In Summer, 2001, WCPN and WVIZ/PBS joined forces to create a new multiple media organization - ideastream - that combines the vision of a multiple media future with the legacy of a rich public service past.

As a community-based public media organization, ideastream has a strong commitment to provide in-depth news, arts and cultural programming, jazz and intelligent talk that strives to inspire people to reflect upon events in their community and around the world. ideastream operates in concert with a mission statement that reflects this commitment.

WVIZ/PBS Timeline

1939 Television demonstrated at NY World’s Fair.
1951 Color television introduced.
1952 FCC sets aside television channels for noncommercial educational use.
1961 Mayor Anthony Celebrezze appoints special commission to study bringing educational television to Cleveland.
1965 Station signs on the air as the 100th noncommercial, educational television station in the nation. Studios and offices at the Max Hayes Trade School.
1967 WVIZ moves to Brookpark Road location.

K.K. & Joe Sullivan Control Room1968 WVIZ interconnects colleges, public schools and hospitals via microwave network.
1969 WVIZ and other stations organize the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as a national organization to share programs and meet common interests and needs.
1969 WVIZ converts to color.
1973 College credit telecourses begin airing on WVIZ.
1978 WVIZ enters the satellite era, hooking up with the PBS satellite distribution system.
1984 WVIZ creates Adult Learner Television, a cable service presenting college credit telecourses and programming geared toward lifelong learning opportunities.
1984 WVIZ establishes Viz-Tec to assist schools in training and utilization of educational multi-media technology.
1985 WVIZ is the first station in Ohio to broadcast in stereo.
1987 WVIZ is the first station in Ohio, and one of the first in the nation, to utilize the Descriptive Video Service, a service for the blind and visually impaired.
1988 WVIZ introduces Learning Link, a computer network for teachers.
1988 WVIZ is the first station in Ohio to bring live, interactive educational television via satellite into area classrooms.
1990 WVIZ’s Learning Link offers access to the Internet to schools and teachers.
1995 Anticipating the conversion to digital, WVIZ begins to replace key pieces of analog equipment with digital equipment.
1996 WVIZ, fourteen schools and three colleges and universities collaborate to create the Northern Ohio Technology Association, a fully interactive distance learning system allowing students in several schools to participate in classes simultaneously.
1997 WVIZ produces a multimedia interactive learning package for math proficiency with video and CD-ROM.
2000 WVIZ/PBS receives first funding for digital conversion with state and federal grants to purchase production equipment including the first multi-format digital television cameras capable of creating simultaneous High Definition and Standard Definition pictures.
2001 90.3 WCPN and WVIZ/PBS join forces to create a new multiple media organization - ideastream.
2003 Simultaneous analog and digital broadcasting begins. Video compression technology will permit multicasting of up to four channels of enhanced video and audio.
2006 Simultaneous analog and digital broadcasting will cease. From this point forward, FCC timeline calls for broadcast in an all-digital environment.