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owner = Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association|
owner = Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association|
former_callsigns = None|
former_callsigns = None|
former_affiliations = Independent (1961-1970)|
homepage = [http://www.whro.org/ www.whro.org]|
homepage = [http://www.whro.org/ www.whro.org]|
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Revision as of 06:14, 29 September 2007

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WHRO-TV, channel 15 is the PBS member for Hampton Roads, Virginia (the NorfolkPortsmouthNewport News television market (DMA). The station is licensed to Hampton, with 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 is 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 in 1961, owned by the Norfolk and Hampton school systems. It is the oldest public television station licensed in Virginia. 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 is one of only two PBS member stations between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta that is not part of a statewide network; the other one is 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.

In 1974, WHRO assumed operation of Hampton Roads' NPR station, WTGM-FM 89.5, changing the calls to WHRO-FM in 1978 and WHRV-FM in 1990. A decade-long quest to get a second radio frequency bore fruit in 1990, when WHRO-FM 90.3 signed on. Classical music and fine arts programming were consolidated on 90.3, with NPR news and talk, jazz and alternative music staying on 89.5.

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).