WJCT Public Media

WJCT Public Media is the nonprofit, community-owned public media organization of Jacksonville and the First Coast. It runs the PBS television station Jax PBS (Channel 7) and the NPR radio station WJCT News 89.9 from its studios at 100 Festival Park Avenue in downtown Jacksonville's Stadium District.

The station grew out of a local campaign led by Jacksonville podiatrist Dr. Heywood Dowling. At a time when most educational stations belonged to universities, he proposed that Jacksonville's station be owned and funded by the community itself. Civic leaders backed the idea, and after several years of fundraising the FCC granted a construction permit for Channel 7 in February 1957. The call letters stand for "Jacksonville Community Television."

WJCT went on the air on September 10, 1958, opening with a report on educational television by Florida Governor LeRoy Collins. It was the second public television station in Florida, after Miami. With no studio of its own at first, Channel 7 produced its programs in the studios of the city's two commercial stations, today's WJXT and WTLV. Its signal reached beyond Jacksonville to St. Augustine, Palatka, Live Oak and Folkston, Georgia. In its early years it carried programs from National Educational Television, and in 1969 it became a member station of the newly founded PBS.

On April 10, 1972, WJCT launched its radio station as "Stereo 90," offering music, fine arts, news and public affairs. In October 1973 the TV and radio stations aired their first joint simulcast, a concert by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. That same year WJCT and WFSU in Tallahassee began a program covering the Florida Legislature, distributed to the state's public television stations.

In 2009 WJCT switched off its analog signal ahead of the national digital transition. In 2014 it led the creation of the Digital Convergence Alliance Network Operations Center, a shared master control center built in partnership with other public broadcasters with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 2020 the radio station became all news and talk as WJCT News 89.9, and in February 2021 the TV station was renamed Jax PBS.

Today WJCT also runs Jacksonville Today, a digital local newsroom and newsletter; the Jacksonville Music Experience; a radio reading service for people with visual impairments; and educational programs for children, parents and teachers. Its studios host concerts, film screenings, community events and studio rentals.
PRODUCTS & SERVICES:
Jax PBS television (channels 7.1 Jax PBS, 7.2 Create, 7.3 Jax PBS Kids, 7.4 The Florida Channel, 7.5 Jax PBS World); WJCT News 89.9 FM with local show First Coast Connect; HD radio streams Classical 24, Anthology and Jacksonville's Jazz Radio; Jacksonville Today local news; Jax PBS Passport on-demand streaming; podcasts; radio reading service; Jax PBS Kids Club and Kids Writers Contest; educator resources and field trips; Film at WJCT Studios; studio and soundstage rentals; podcast production services; memberships, planned giving and corporate sponsorship.