WJCT (channel 7), branded Jax PBS, is a PBS member television station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It is owned by WJCT, Inc., alongside NPR member WJCT-FM 89.9. The two outlets share studios on Festival Park Avenue in Downtown Jacksonville's Stadium District; the TV station's transmitter is located on Hogan Road in the city's Killarney Shores section.
History
Before the airwaves
In 1952, Dr. Heywood Dowling, a local podiatrist, learned that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had reserved 242 local television channels for non-commercial educational use, including the allocation for channel 7 for Jacksonville. Dowling then undertook a six-year campaign to license and fund an educational television station for the First Coast region.[2] His efforts were successful, and WJCT signed on the air on September 10, 1958.[3]