ABOUT EAST TENNESSEE PBS
Our community is at the heart of what we do. We bring people, ideas, and resources together to address the issues that matter here at home. And you help make it possible.
Discover our purpose
OUR PURPOSE
We exist to serve the needs of East Tennessee as a community partner affecting positive change by educating, entertaining and challenging minds.
We address community needs by working with partners who bring expertise in workforce development, health and wellness, Tennessee life, history and heritage, and education for all ages. Together, we use our broadcast and digital platforms, trusted audiences, and storytelling strengths to connect people with information, resources, and opportunities.
You keep this work going. Your support helps put our mission into action, here in the community we share.
FOUR PRIORITIES. ONE COMMUNITY.
Our focus guides the programs we produce, the partnerships we build, and the ways we show up in our community. Your support helps make each of these priorities possible.
Help people see a future here. We connect learning to local careers, introduce the people behind the jobs, and work with employers and educators to make pathways into work easier to understand.
YOUR SUPPORT HELPS OPEN DOORS
Jobs Explained · Job Pop! · Chip Kids
Make useful health information part of everyday life. With community experts and partners, we share approachable conversations, resources, and encouragement for healthier living at every age.
YOUR SUPPORT HELPS NEIGHBORS LIVE WELL
Health Matters · Fit and Fun · Caregiving stories
Keep curiosity growing. From a child’s first discoveries to a student’s moment on Scholars’ Bowl and an adult’s next new interest, we help make learning a lifelong possibility.
YOUR SUPPORT KEEPS CURIOSITY GROWING
PBS KIDS · Scholars’ Bowl · Family engagement
Tell the stories that help us know this place and one another. We share our region’s people, arts, traditions, and history, while supporting an informed, connected, and safer community.
YOUR SUPPORT HELPS OUR STORIES LIVE ON
Tennessee Life · Black in Appalachia · Local storytelling
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE. SHARED PURPOSE.
BUILT WITH OUR COMMUNITY
Our partners bring expertise, relationships, and a firsthand understanding of local needs. We bring storytelling, production, trusted audiences, and platforms that help useful ideas reach more people.
That can mean working with The University of Tennessee Medical Center on Health Matters, connecting with regional employers and educators through Jobs Explained, or bringing families together with community partners for learning beyond the screen.
Sometimes the right approach is a full program. Sometimes it is a short video, an interstitial, a community event, or a connection to a helpful resource. We start with the issue and work together on the response.
Have a community project? Let’s talk. ↗OUR HISTORY
Since 1967, our community has helped shape this station. What began as a service to local classrooms has grown into a regional public media organization, with learning and community service at its heart.
WSJK in Sneedville begins broadcasting instructional programs to K–12 schools. Under the Tennessee State Board of Education, its first purpose is to support classroom teaching.
WSJK supplies on-site video at Knoxville’s World’s Fair, bringing the station’s production capabilities to a defining moment for the region.
East Tennessee Public Communications Corporation takes over governance from the state, beginning a new chapter as a locally governed nonprofit.
WKOP begins broadcasting from Sharp’s Ridge, improving service to Knoxville and surrounding counties and extending the station’s regional reach.
Digital broadcasting and high-definition service expand the viewing experience. WSJK becomes WETP, and the stations are known as East Tennessee Public Television, or ETPtv.
The station adopts the East Tennessee PBS name to reflect its role as the region’s PBS affiliate and its educational service, on and off the air.
Today, we carry that educational purpose into workforce development, health and wellness, Tennessee stories, and learning for all ages. Your support helps keep this community service growing with the people it serves.
Historical milestones drawn from the station’s archived history (2010).
OUR ROOTS & OUR REACH
Our two broadcast transmitters connect communities across state lines. Streaming, digital storytelling, and in-person events extend that service beyond the television screen.
WETP in Sneedville and WKOP in Knoxville extend our public television service across the region.
Serving East Tennessee and parts of Southern Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, and Western North Carolina.
Broadcast, streaming, digital stories, and community events bring our work into everyday life.
Streaming availability varies by program and location.
LOCALLY LED. COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABLE.
East Tennessee PBS is operated by East Tennessee Public Communications Corp., an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our station leadership and volunteer governing board guide our work, with community input through our Community Advisory Board.
Meet the people helping shape our service and learn how to participate in our open meetings.
YOU KEEP US GOING
When you give to East Tennessee PBS, you support the community we share. You help a child discover something new, a young person see a career possibility, a neighbor find useful health information, and a local story reach the next generation.
Individual donors, businesses, foundations, and community partners all have a part in sustaining this service. Whether you give monthly, make a special gift, sponsor an initiative, or bring us an idea, you help keep this work moving forward.
Thank you for keeping East Tennessee PBS here for our community.
YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR PUBLIC MEDIA.
Have a project that benefits our community? An issue we should understand? An idea for a partnership? We’d like to hear from you.