WHRO-TV

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WHRO-TV
Image:whrotv.PNG
Hampton-Norfolk, Virginia
Branding WHRO
Slogan Hampton Roads' Own
Channels Analog: 15 (UHF)

Digital: 16 (UHF)

Affiliations PBS
Owner Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association, Inc.
First air date October 2, 1961
Call letters’ meaning Hampton ROads or
Hampton Roads' Own
Former affiliations NET (1961-1970)
Transmitter Power 2880 kW (analog)
950 kW (digital)
Height 294 m (analog)
360.6 m (digital)
Facility ID 25932
Transmitter Coordinates 36°48′32.5″N, 76°30′11.3″W (analog)
36°48′31.8″N, 76°30′11.3″W (digital)
Website www.whro.org

WHRO-TV channel 15 is the PBS member for Hampton Roads, Virginia (the NorfolkPortsmouthNewport News television market DMA). The station is licensed to both Hampton and Norfolk with the studios at the Public Telecommunications Center for Hampton Roads on the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk. Its transmitter is located in Suffolk, Virginia. It's owned by the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association (HRETA), a consortium of 19 Hampton Roads and Eastern Shore school systems—Accomack, Gloucester, Isle of Wight, Mathews, Middlesex, Northhampton and York counties and the independent cities of Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Poquoson, West Point and Williamsburg.

The station signed on September 27, 1961, as the first educational station licensed in Virgnia. It was a member of National Educational Television. Only two years later, it moved to its current facility in Norfolk, which was heavily renovated in 1990. Eight other school systems began using WHRO's services in 1966 and HRETA was formed two years later. It became a charter member of PBS in 1970.

It's one of only two PBS member stations between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta that's not part of a statewide network; the other one it's Charlotte's WTVI.

WHRO is well known for its instructional programming, much of which is distributed to other PBS stations.

WHRO also had an annual fundraising auction marathon, The Great TV Auction, which featured local celebrities as auctioneers.

WHRO also sponsors the Consortium for Interactive Instruction (CII), which is a partnership among all the Hampton Roads area school divisions as well as many private schools for the advancement of technology in the school curriculum. One of the key events that CII sponsors is the Great Computer Challenge. This is a competition for students at all levels of K-12 education in many areas of computer technology. For example, students at the middle and high school levels compete in categories varying from web design to C++, Visual Basic and Java programmimng, as well as music composition and Computer Aided Design and Desktop Publishing and Desktop Presentations (PowerPoint).

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