Channel 48, owned and operated by the non-profit Greater Cincinnati Television Educational Foundation, was the first non-commercial educational television station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.
With an annual budget of some $6,000,000 and operating from the multi-million dollar Crosley Telecommunications Center built in the mid 1970s, Channel 48 has the studios, staff and equipment necessary to produce the highest quality programming. In the most recent audience survey, the station served the entire tri-state area and reached a weekly cumulative audience of over 413,000 households.
Channel 48 has produced a variety of informative and entertaining programs for national and international audiences. The list includes: "Powel Crosley, Jr. and the 20th Century," honored with a Silver Award in the Cultural Documentary category from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and an Emmy Award in the Documentary category; "The Friendship Years," produced in cooperation with Radio Netherlands TV and narrated by former CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite; "Billy Sunday: Baseball, the Bible and Ballet," "The Voyage of Charles Darwin," "Marie Curie," and "Alice," a ballet adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland"; "Myron Floren Presents Stars of the Lawrence Welk Show," and, most recently, "Keep America Singing." Information and education series national productions include: "Congressional Outlook," "Zoo Lab," and "Zoo, Zoo, Zoo"; and the popular, long-running PBS series, "Lilias!"
Channel 48 regularly produces local programs that address the problems and needs of people in our viewing area. The station was recently honored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with a Silver Award for local programming for "Kids' Korner." The station received an award for Best Program in the Public Affairs category from the Eastern Educational Television Network, an OEBIE Award in the "Community Information" category from Ohio Educational Broadcasting for the program "The ABC's of School Funding." And, in 1990, Channel 48 was honored by Ohio Educational Broadcasting in the "Program of the Year category for "Project Literacy U.S."
In these programs and specials, Channel 48 has worked with many community organizations. Cooperative efforts include: "FutureThon," with area commercial stations and the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, which resulted in bringing thousands of mentors and tutors into area schools; annual Election Specials with the non-profit, non-partisan Education Fund of the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area designed to give voters in-depth information about candidates and issues; community outreach programs such as "Chemical People" and "Not in My Backyard" focused local efforts on setting up positive activities aimed at reducing the drug problem among youth. Channel 48 maintains an on-going presence in local programming with "Focus 48."