Our History

Our broadcast stations are licensed to Grand Valley State University as public radio and television facilities operating from the Meijer Public Broadcast Center, as part of the University's downtown Grand Rapids campus.

The first station, WGVC-TV 35 signed on the air on December 17,1972. In 1984 our Kalamazoo station, WGVK-TV, Channel 52, began operation. In 1987 the call letters of channel 35 were converted to WGVU-TV, reflecting Grand Valley State College's transformation to Grand Valley State University. WGVU-FM 88.5 began broadcasting on July 17 of 1983 and expanded it's power to 3,000 watts on December 17, 1987.

WGVU-AM 1480 began simulcast transmissions on May 22, 1992, and stations WGVS-AM 850 in Muskegon and WGVS-FM 95.3 in Whitehall came on-board in 1999. The television stations are affiliated with PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and the radio stations are affiliated with NPR (National Public Radio). Other divisions of the organization are Grand Valley Business Television (BTV) and Educational Services and Instructional Television (ITV).

We are licensed in the Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek designated broadcast market. It is the 38 th largest market in the United States, serving over 650,000 television viewers and 32,000 radio listeners weekly. The majority of our operating funds come from individual members in west Michigan (68%); other funds come from Grand Valley State University (9%), corporate underwriters (9%) and currently, the federal government (14%). We currently have approximately 20,000 television members and 1500 radio members who support our efforts to provide quality public broadcasting to west Michigan.

Our broadcast facilities offer several public service features not found anywhere else. For the hearing impaired, closed-captioning of programs is provided. Closed captioning displays the program's dialogue and sound effects in text across the bottom of the screen. Those who wish to use this service purchase a special decoder in order to read this text. We also have a Telecommunication Device for the Deaf (TDD) so we can receive messages about our programming from hearing impaired viewers. For the visually impaired, Descriptive Video Service (DVS) is also offered and can be obtained through the Secondary Audio Program (SAP) channel on newer model stereo TVs and VCRs. This service is also provided for those who speak foreign languages so that they may receive certain programs in languages other than English.