Technical Profile: WSRE-DT

TV Technical Profile: WSRE

Channel:: 24
Programming:: 23.1 - to be: Public Television (Independent)
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view 1 | view 2] South of Patterson Road, near the intersection with Ernest Patterson Road, south of I-10 in Baldwin County. Co-located with WPMI-DT, WDPM-DT and WMPV-DT; FM stations WXBM, WRGV and WTKX.
Power (ERP):: 859 kW
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT):: 1,810 feet
Antenna:: Directional
Other Information:: 41 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC. (OSM Link); [FCC]
[FCCdata]
[RabbitEars]; [Wikipedia]; [Pensapedia]

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[Article] Pensacola News-Journal (paywall) article on the station's plans to drop PBS programming in June 2026, and to de-certify the WSRE Foundation. From 17 September 2025.
[Article] Pensacola News-Journal (paywall) article on the station's line-up after the 1 July 2026 switch to being an independent public station. From 18 June 2026.

[Studio] Street View imagery of the station's studio space on the campus of the Pensacola State College in Pensacola.

Owned by Pensacola State College
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued to the Board of Public Instruction of Escambia County, Florida in May 1965. Originally granted for channel 21, it was updated to channel 23 in the initial grant, for 37.7 kW (visual) from an antenna at the Sheriff's Department off West Fairfield Drive near North L Street. The antenna height was listed as 485 feet, using an RCA TTU-2A antenna. The studio location was listed as 100 College Boulevard in Pensacola. The original permit would expire unbuilt and had to be renewed twice, with a license to cover only being filed in September 1967. The call sign has always been WSRE for Santa Rosa-Escambia. At launch, the station provided a mix of local educational programming and NET (National Education Television) programming. The station would pick up PBS in 1970.

In 1971, the license was transferred to the Board of Trustees of Pensacola Junior College in 1971. The station began transmitting in color that same year.

The station was granted a permit to increase effective radiated power (ERP) to 3.02 MW with the installation of a new Andrew antenna. A license to cover for that change was granted in March 1986. Although this boosted coverage, it was still relegated in these analog years to coverage of Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, mostly.

The station was notable for being one of the first PBS stations in the country to enable the broadcasting of multiple audio channels, using it launch a Descriptive Video Service for the visually impaired, as well as a Sightline reading service for blind listeners. More information on this and history from the 80's and 90's can be found at the Wikipedia link, above.

In 1999, the station was granted a permit for a digital companion channel, and used the opportunity to increase their coverage area by having it located on a common transmission tower in Baldwin County east of Robertsdale, where many other stations in the market were already located. The first permit was for 151 kW on RF channel 31, with a slightly directional antenna pattern. In 2001, the station was granted a boost to the maximum digital ERP of 1 MW, significantly boosting coverage of the station along the gulf coast. A license to cover for this wasn't filed until March 2007!

Although the station carried much of the same PBS programming as Alabama Public Television (APT) in Mobile, it differentiated itself by catering to the Hispanic community with the v-Me Spanish language network on the —.4 subchannel. PBS World was on the —.2 subchannel and PBS Create was on the —.3 subchannel.

The station would drop v-Me for PBS Kids in March 2017. A few months later in August the station was granted a permit to relocate from RF channel 31 to 24 as part of another FCC repacking process. The station filed a license to cover for that RF channel 24 facility in late November 2019.

The station added The Florida Channel, a public affairs channel run by the Florida Legislature, to the —.5 subchannel in August 2021. At some point after launching, the channel also began airing a slate of programs under the "WSRE PBS Connect" name when the Florida Channel is not airing programming.

It was reported in August 2025 that the station was no longer available on DirecTV, with no reason given for the removal. In mid-September 2025, it was reported that the station would be dropping PBS affiliation from June 2026, citing budget constraints tied to Congressional cutbacks and the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was scheduled to cease operations completely. The Pensacola News-Journal reported that the station was considering moving to an upstart alternative to PBS called ECHO, the Education Community Health Opportunity network. Although the move to drop PBS affiliation encountered push back from supports of the station, as of June 2026 the plan was set to drop PBS at the end of that month. From the start of July 2026, the station will drop to just one channel, down from five subchannels, and consolidate programming around a mix of locally produced shows, independent public television productions and overnight simulcasting of The Florida Channel.

On 1 July 2026 it was observed the station had dropped PBS programming, with The Florida Channel simulcast at midnight leading into the newly independent foray into educational programming. Although the subchannels appeared to still show up in the channel lineup, they had no content or data to display.