WSIU boosts area signal, thanks to anonymous Cape donor

WSIU, the Public Broadcasting System television station operated by Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, is upgrading its over-the-air signal throughout portions of Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois thanks to new equipment funded by a gift from an anonymous longtime viewer in Cape Girardeau.

"This exciting new improvement to our multistate PBS service was made possible by the generosity of a donor in Cape Girardeau who believes that public television should be available to as many people as possible, regardless of income," SIU-Carbondale chancellor Austin Lane said.

The new equipment, also referred to as a "signal translator," broadcasts on channel 28, but televisions will receive the signal when rescanned on "virtual channel 8," the original broadcast channel for WSIU-TV, according to WSIU interim executive director Jak Tichenor.

The translator has been installed at the KBSI television tower north of Cape Girardeau and broadcasts WSIU's PBS HD, World, Create, and the 24/7 PBS Kids channels to a 65-mile wide area that has historically experienced signal reception issues because of the Shawnee Hills and Missouri Ozarks terrain.

The station's original transmitter, at Tamaroa, Illinois, is more than 70 miles from the translator location north of Cape. The new translator will serve approximately 230,000 viewers in all or parts of Cape Girardeau, Perry, Scott Bollinger and Stoddard counties in Missouri, along with parts of Alexander, Pulaski, Union, Johnson, Jackson and Williamson counties in Illinois.

Tichenor said the new signal will also be available to cable and satellite TV providers, giving them more reliable and better quality service.

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