With the excitement of Clay Aiken performing on PBS this year, I wanted to know more about PBS.  I have to admit that I have not watched the station as much as I probably should.  I watch Antiques Roadshow and my grandkids love Sesame Street and Dragon Tails.  However, I think its time to start watching some of the outstanding shows that are a part of the PBS schedule.

When I visited the PBS website, I found out so much more about PBS.  The following is a small part of the information they have on their site.

PBS: AN OVERVIEW

PBS in Brief

• PBS is a private, nonprofit corporation, founded in 1969, whose members are America’s public TV stations.

• PBS provides quality TV programming and related services to 356 noncommercial stations serving all 50 states, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa.

• PBS acquires content and provides content distribution and promotion; education services; new media ventures; fundraising support for stations; engineering and technology development; and home video marketing.

PBS Member Stations

• 168 noncommercial, educational licensees operate 356 PBS member stations.

• Of the 168 licensees, 87 are community organizations, 56 are colleges/universities, 20 are state authorities and five are local educational or municipal authorities.

PBS Programming Activities

• The National Programming Service (NPS) is the major package of programs that PBS distributes to its member stations. The NPS features television’s best children’s, cultural, educational, history, nature, news, public affairs and science programming.

• Programs distributed on the NPS are produced by PBS stations, independent producers and other sources around the world. PBS does not produce programs.

The Public Television Audience

• PBS averaged a 1.1 primetime rating during the 2008-2009 season.**

• More than 59 million people in 37 million households watch public television on-air during an average week. Each month, more than 110 million people watch their local stations and more than 18.7 million people access PBS content online.

  **Source: Nielsen Media Research. Public television primetime AA rating and full day weekly cume averages from October 2008-September 2009, and monthly cume and online unique visitors (Google Analytics) from October 09.

• PBS’ primetime audience is significantly larger than many of the commercial channels frequently cited as competitors, including HBO (0.9), History Channel (0.8), Discovery Channel (0.8), CNN (0.8), The Learning Channel (0.7) and Bravo (0.5).

For more information on PBS, please visit their site PBS

The following PBS stations have indicated that they will be showing Clay’s PBS Special.  The list changes daily so please check our PBS tab at the top of CANN to get the most up-to-date information.  And, of course, if you know of a station that is not listed, please let us know!

This list is from alienpal, a fan who works for PBS:
WKNO/Memphis 8/15 at 8p, 11p and 2a 800-895-8810
KQED/San Francisco 8/2 at 9p, 8/7 at 9p and 1030p 800-568-9999
WLJT/Martin TN 7/31 at 7p 800-366-9558
KERA/Dallas will air in Aug
NPT/Nashville 8/1 at 8p 800-355-5210
OPB/Oregon state network will air in Sep
WILL/Champagne-Urbana will air in Sep
KVIE/Sacramento 7/31 at 930a, 8/6 at 8p
OETA/Oklahoma state network 8/7
KAET/Phoenix working on Aug, iffy
WGBH/Boston probably in Aug
Rocky Mtn PBS/Denver 7/31 at 4p, 8/1 at 1130p 800-274-6666
WFYI/Indianapolis working on Aug
WUSF/Tampa will air in Aug
New Hampshire Public TV 8/2 at 930p
UNCTV/North Carolina state network working on it
WGTE/Toledo 8/2 at 1p & 10p, 8/6 at 11p 800-380-4664
WLIW/Long Island NY will air in Sep
KCET/Los Angeles will air, not sure if it will be Aug/Sep or in Dec
KUAT/Tuscon AZ 8/9 at 8p, 8/12 at 9:30p, 8/14 at 6:30p 800-223-7192
WEAO/Akron OH 8/7 at 9:30p, 8/9 at 9:30p 800-677-4549
WTTW/Chicago 8/26 at 7:30p, 8/29 at 1:30a
WETP/Knoxville will air in Aug
KLUX/Las Vegas 8/1 at 7:30pm, 8/5 at Midnight, 8/7 at 3:00pm

This list is from different fans who have contacted stations to find out about the special.

WCNY/Syracuse will air in Sep
WMFE/Orlando 8/5 at 8p
WETA/Wash DC 8/4 at 8p
KCTS/Seattle 8/1 at 8:00 PM, 8/7 at 11:00 PM,
WCET/Cincinnati 8/5 at 8p
WXEL/West Palm Beach will air in Aug
WPBT/Miami will air in Aug
Think TV/Dayton 8/5 at 930p
MPT/Maryland will air in Aug
NET/Omaha 7/31 6:30 PM
WTVS/Detroit 8/10 8:00 PM
MontanaPBS TBD
WTTW/Chicago 8/26 7:30 PM & 8/29 1:30 AM
WGVU/Grand Rapids – TBD/September
KUHT/Houston – TBD/September
WNED/Buffalo, NY – TBD/Aug or Sept
KETG, KETZ, KAFT, KTEJ, KETS, KEMV/Arkansas Educational TV – 8/5 8:00 at PM
KBYU/Provo, UT – 8/3 7:00 PM
WNEO/Youngstown, OH – 8/7 at 9:30 PM and 6/9 at 9:30 PM
WITF/Harrisburg PA 8/1 at 8:00 PM, 8/5 at 1:00 PM
KVPT/Fresno CA will air in Aug
KNME/Albuquerque 8/2 at 9:30p
WGTV, WNGH, WMUM, WJSP, WACS, WABW, WXGA, WCES/Georgia TBD
WOSU/Columbus, OH – 8/1 at 11:30 PM, 8/8 at 4:30 PM & WOSU Plus 8/2 at 8:00 PM
WYES/New Orleans, LA – 7/31 at 9:00 PM
KYVE/Yakima 8/5 at 12:30 AM, 8/7 at 11:00 PM
KLPA/Alexandria, LA 8/3 at 7:00 PM
WLPB/Baton Rouge, LA 8/3 at 7:00 PM
KLTM/Monroe, LA 8/3 at 7:00 PM
KLPB/Lafayette, LA 8/3 at 7:00 PM
KLTL/Lake Charles, LA 8/3 at 7:00 PM
KLTS/Shreveport, LA 8/3 at 7:00 PM

It is exciting to see the list of stations broadcasting the special grow.  We can only hope that Clay, Decca and International Media are as excited as we are.