Athens, Ga. – WUGA-TV, the public television station of the University of Georgia, has increased its coverage in northeast Georgia and throughout the greater Atlanta television market.
Station officials recently concluded agreements with DirectTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-Verse and Comcast cable for either new or expanded carriage that makes the station available to 100 percent of the households in the Athens, Gainesville and Toccoa corridor via satellite, cable or over-the-air transmission. In addition, the station is now available to satellite subscribers throughout the Atlanta market.
“It was key to WUGA-TV’s success that we find a way to get better market coverage,” said Tom Jackson, UGA vice president for public affairs. “With the addition of these satellite services to the already existing over-the-air and cable services, viewers from the Alabama state line to North Carolina now receive the station and can discover its quality public broadcasting programming.”
WUGA-TV now can be seen on both satellite services and AT&T U-Verse on Channel 32, its over-the-air channel in the Athens, Gainesville and surrounding counties, and on Comcast cable channel 96 in Barrow County and in portions of Jackson, Hall and north Gwinnett counties. Previously, the station has been carried on Charter cable in Athens and Gainesville, Comcast and Windstream cable in Hart and Elbert counties, and other cable systems in the area.
“This new carriage agreement effectively doubles WUGA-TV’s audience potential in its Northeast Georgia home market and greatly expands its reach into Atlanta, the nation’s ninth largest television market,” said Jimmy Sanders, director of TV and radio at UGA. “WUGA-TV’s geographic coverage is now greater than any other television station, commercial or public, in the state of Georgia.”
WUGA-TV began broadcasts on May 1, 2011, as a public station in partnership with Georgia Public Broadcasting. The station’s format offers a mixture of programs, including such classic PBS shows as PBS NewsHour, Nature and History Detectives, through an affiliation with the World Network, and UGA and community-focused local news, documentary and entertainment offerings. Local programs produced and broadcast on WUGA-TV include music shows, such as UGA Performs and It’s Friday; news profile and interview programs, including Unscripted with Alan Flurry and Dream Makers with Charlie Mac; the UGA Alumni Show; Public Health Impact produced by the UGA School of Public Health; the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine show; and Grady Newsource, the student-operated news program. Future programs are in pre-production. WUGA-TV also produces the area’s only local television news and weather updates, which air hourly throughout the day.
Funding for WUGA-TV and its affiliated radio station WUGA-FM is provided in part through sponsorships, underwriting and listener contributions. For more information on WUGA-TV, see http://www.wugatv.org/.
