TV Worth Watching on Channel Two! ETP-TV (East Tennessee Public Television) is a PBS affiliate licensed by the FCC to serve the Knoxville and Tri-Cities regions of East Tennessee.
It has two channels in operation:
- WETP-TV Channel 2 (DT-41) in Sneedville (serving the Tri-Cities)
- WKOP-TV Channel 15 (DT-17) in Knoxville
WETP-TV was founded in 1967 as WSJK-TV (Sneedville-Johnson City-Knoxville) as one of four stations owned and operated by the state board of educaton (the others being WLJT-TV in Jackson, WTCI-TV in Chattanooga and WCTE-TV in Cookeville). For 23 years, it was the only public television station between the Tri-Cities and Chattanooga because the 1955 legislation authorizing a public television system in the state mandated that these stations serve the school populations first. Sneedville, located halfway between the Tri-Cities and Knoxville, was selected as the best location to serve the schools in both areas. Studios were set up at the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville. However, reception was spotty at best in both Knoxville and the Tri-Cities. Numerous attempts were made from 1972 on to build stations for the Tri-Cities and Knoxville, but collapsed due to lack of funding.
In 1981, the legislature passed a law that allowed the state board to transfer its four stations to community organizations. WSJK was the first to complete the separation, in 1983. Almost immediately, plans were approved to build WKOP as Knoxville's PBS station. WSJK (renamed WETP in 2002) would serve as the Tri-Cities PBS station. WKOP took to the air in 1990.
Although WETP may appear to be the main station, the station's main studios are located in Knoxville.
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