WXXI-TV

Rochester, New York United States
Channels	Digital: 22 (UHF) Virtual: 21
Branding	WXXI
Programming
Affiliations	21.1: PBS 21.2: World 21.3: Create 21.4: PBS Kids 22.7: WXXI Classical
Ownership
Owner	WXXI Public Broadcasting Council
Sister stations	WXXI (AM) WXXI-FM WXXO
History
Founded	1966
First air date	September 6, 1966 (57 years ago) (1966-09-06)
Former call signs	WROH (CP, 1952–1966)[1] WXXI (1966–1984)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 21 (UHF, 1966–2009) Digital: 16 (UHF, 2003–2019)
Former affiliations	NET (1966–1970)
Call sign meaning	"XXI" is the Roman numeral for 21
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	57274
Class	NCE DT
ERP	273 kW
HAAT	152 m (499 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	43°8′7″N 77°35′2″W / 43.13528°N 77.58389°W / 43.13528; -77.58389
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.wxxi.org

WXXI-TV (channel 21) is a PBS member television station in Rochester, New York, United States. It is owned by the WXXI Public Broadcasting Council alongside NPR members WXXI (1370 AM), WXXI-FM (105.9), and WXXO (91.5 FM). The three outlets share studios at 280 State Street near downtown Rochester; WXXI-TV's transmitter is located on Pinnacle Hill on the border between Rochester and Brighton.

Programming

National productions

WXXI-TV's national public television productions include A Warrior in Two Worlds, Echoes from the Ancients, Out of the Fire, Albert Paley: Man of Steel, Biz Kid$, and Flight to Freedom. WXXI-TV also produced Assignment: The World, a weekly current-events program for schools, which aired on approximately 100 public television stations nationwide, and was the nation's longest-running instructional television program. Due to funding cuts, it was canceled and its last episode aired on May 23, 2013.

Former programming

ThinkBright, broadcast from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on 21.3 until the digital transition.

Technical information

Subchannels

WXXI-TV entered the digital era in September 2003 when it signed on with Rochester's first full-power digital television signal.

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel 21.4, now PBS Kids since February 1, 2016, was originally a digital standard definition simulcast of WXXI-TV's analog signal.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WXXI-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 21, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 16.^[4] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 21.

As part of the SAFER Act,^[5] WXXI-TV kept its analog signal on the air until July 10, 2009, to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters. WXXI-TV had been awarded a $202,498 federal contract for an outreach initiative to help Rochester's over-the-air viewers prepare for the digital transition.^[6]