Our first program, Time for Science, an elementary school science program, went on the air on local commercial station WTTG. Until October 1961, we produced programs for in-school use and aired them on WTTG.
On May 8, 1961, FCC Chairman Newton Minow accepted the application, submitted by a group of visionaries led by Washington publisher Willard Kiplinger and Elizabeth P. Campbell for the activation of WETA. On October 2, WETA Channel 26 went on the air with an inaugural program, The New Era, that included the reading of a message from President John F. Kennedy. Station manager George Baker calls the historic moment, “the inauguration of a new dimension in television.” Programming consisted entirely of educational programs produced for and used by local schools: Children’s Literature, Elementary Spanish, and Window on Our World.
Check out the current television schedule on-air on our website at weta.org/schedule or download the free PBS App to stream your favorite programs anytime.
On February 23, 1967, WETA premiered Washington Week in Review, a showcase for top Washington journalists to examine candidly the stories behind national headlines. The first panel consisted of Richard Fryklund of The Washington Evening Star, Stephen Rosenfeld of The Washington Post, Neil MacNeil of Time Magazine, and David Willis of The Christian Science Monitor. WETA’s public affairs director Jack Davenport was the moderator. The show first aired locally on WETA; a few months later it began broadcasting over Eastern Educational Network, a group of 14 stations located between the nation’s capital and Maine. In 1970, the Public Broadcasting Service launched its national distribution of programming to public televisions, and Washington Week becomes the first station-produced program to be accepted for national distribution.
Watch Washington Week each Friday at 8 PM or anytime on the free PBS App.
What is now PBS NewsHour began with public television’s unprecedented, gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. Senate Watergate hearings in 1973 by Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer. In 1975, The Robert MacNeil Report debuted locally on Thirteen/WNET in New York, with Lehrer as Washington correspondent, reporting from WETA Washington, D.C. Within months, the program was re-titled The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and was distributed nationally by PBS. In 1983, the program was renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.
With MacNeil’s departure in 1995, the program debuted as The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, produced from WETA’s studios in Arlington, VA. In December 2009, Lehrer transitioned the program from The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer to PBS NewsHour.
In 2013, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff were named co-anchors and managing editors of PBS NewsHour. Ifill and Woodruff’s appointment marked the first time a U.S. network broadcast had a female co-anchor team. In late 2022, chief correspondents Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett were named the nightly news broadcast’s co-anchors, effective January 2023, and John Yang was named as the new anchor for PBS News Weekend.
Watch PBS NewsHour nightly at 7 PM and PBS News Weekend Saturday and Sunday at 6 PM or anytime on the free PBS App.
Linda Carducci is classically trained as a pianist. For more fun facts about all of our WETA Classical hosts, visit our website at https://weta.org/fm/hosts.
In 1970, WETA 90.9 FM went on the air broadcasting classical music, jazz and folk music as well as coverage of debates, hearings and other important events. We switched to a news and talk radio format in 2005 but in 2007, after the DC area’s last remaining commercial classical radio station announced that it would be dropping the format, WETA picked up the mantle and returned to the classical music format.
Listen live to WETA Classical at Listen Live | WETA, and be sure to check out our podcast Classical Breakdown and our Classical Score blog.
James Herriot’s adventures as a veterinarian in 1930’s Yorkshire got a glorious adaptation in a brand-new series, All Creatures Great and Small, based on his beloved books. Exciting newcomer Nicholas Ralph made his television debut as the iconic vet who became renowned for his inspiring humor, compassion and love of life.
Since their first publication in 1970, the beloved books of James Alfred Wight, published under the pen name James Herriot, have held a special place in people’s hearts throughout the world. This new adaptation preserved the rich spirit, tone and values of Herriot’s iconic characters and stories and brought to life his sharply observed, entertaining and incredibly funny tales of country life in the North of England.
Stream all three seasons with WETA Passport!
For more than five decades, WETA has been one of the top producers for PBS, creating exceptional television such as Ken Burns, Lynn Novick's and Sarah Botstein's The U.S. and the Holocaust and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s Finding Your Roots and Making Black America: Through the Grapevine. The documentary HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: YOUTH MENTAL ILLNESS is a central part of Well Beings, WETA's multi-year, multiplatform health campaign.
In 1990, WETA worked with a then little-known filmmaker to produce The Civil War, which became the most-watched program in PBS history. The series marked the beginning of WETA’s long partnership with Ken Burns, which has resulted in such notable series as Jazz, Baseball, THE WAR, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, The Dust Bowl, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, The Vietnam War, Country Music, Muhammad Ali and The U.S. and the Holocaust. Watch the Ken Burns Collection with WETA Passport on the free PBS App.
More recently, WETA has enjoyed a production partnership with the acclaimed Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. that has brought to the American public the history documentaries Making Black America: Through the Grapevine, Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise, Africa’s Great Civilizations, Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song and the beloved genealogy series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Stream Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on the free PBS App and watch insightful documentaries like Making Black America: Through the Grapevine and The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song with WETA Passport on the free PBS App.
John and Christine have visited 36 unique neighborhoods around the DC area!
If You Lived Here is WETA’s house-hunting series which spotlights a wide array of neighborhoods and properties throughout the national capital area while celebrating each area’s history, culture, notable places and flavor. Follow hosts John Begeny and Christine Louise as they explore the DMV and stream If You Lived Here on the free PBS App.
Make sure you check out another local show, Signature Dish, with host Seth Tillman, as he discovers the standout dishes at a wide array of the region’s best restaurants, from the latest dining hot spots to strip-mall eateries serving up authentic global cuisines. Stream on the free PBS App.
And you won’t want to miss our newest local offering, Get Out of Town, featuring mother-daughter duo Laurita and Lauren Portee as they travel on road trips to amazing destinations near the nation’s capital. Catch new episodes Mondays at 9 PM on WETA PBS or stream on the free PBS App.
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