South Carolina Educational Television-Radio

The South Carolina Educational Television-Radio Network (SCETV-Radio) began broadcasting in 1972 when WETR (90.1) Greenville signed on the air, the first transmitter site of what became an eight-transmitter, statewide public radio network. As of 2006 transmitter sites included Beaufort, Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Sumter, Aiken, Conway, and Rock Hill. These sites have allowed SCETV- Radio to fulfill its mission of providing continuous public radio programming to more than three hundred thousand people per week in three states.

SCETV-Radio began as a unit of the South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV) commission, under the guidance of Vice President William D. Hay, and continued into the twenty-first century to be governed and licensed by this commission. SCETV-Radio has benefited from its association with SCETV since, as each SCETV- Radio transmitter site began operations, SCETV transmission towers and engineers were in place to support SCETV-Radio transmissions, allowing SCETV-Radio to offer statewide public radio service before most states were able to do so. Since 1995 SCETV-Radio has used computer automation systems and content partnerships to offer NPR news, various music formats, and entertainment programming. Automation allowed SCETV-Radio to move to a twenty-four- hour operation day in 1996. Popular, locally produced programs include Arts Daily, Southern Read, Walter Edgar’s Journal, and Your Day. In addition, SCETV-Radio is home to Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, the recipient of two Peabody awards. The program debuted in 1980 and is currently the longest-running jazz series on public radio. The majority of funding for SCETV-Radio is secured through listener memberships to the ETV Endowment of South Carolina. Remaining funding is secured through corporate underwriting and an annual grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.