Overview
WTVI is a sophisticated public television station offering a diverse mix of quality programs and services designed to inform, educate and entertain. 75 percent of this can be classified as family entertainment.

WTVI reaches more than 380,000 households in its 13-county area in both North and South Carolina. They are: Mecklenburg, Gaston, Lincoln, Rowan, Iredell, Stanly, Union, Anson, Catawba, Cabarrus, Cleveland in North Carolina and York and Lancaster in South Carolina. To view a map of our coverage area click here.

The lifeblood of WTVI lies in its broad spectrum of viewers and, as always, WTVI's main purpose is to meet the needs of these viewers. WTVI is an essential, educational resource contributing to the vitality of the region.


Our History
In 1965, the first U.S. combat forces arrived in Vietnam; Charlotte College became the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and WTVI signed on the air under a license held by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education.

Station manager Donna Lee Davenport pushed the button that put WTVI’s signal out on the night
air. It was Friday, August 27, 1965 at exactly 6:58 and 17 seconds. Home television receivers equipped for UHF picked up the station’s 2-hour program schedule supplied on film by
National Educational Television. The first broadcast was a
children’s show called What’s New?

The first locally-produced show to air on WTVI was a preview of the local high school football season on September 2nd and 30th in 1965. By 1968, the station was broadcasting 14 hours each weekday with instructional programs for classrooms, in-service for teachers in the afternoons and educational, cultural, public affairs and entertainment programs in the evenings.

In 1982, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Broadcasting Authority assumed WTVI’s license, and the station took on a broader community-oriented role.