WYES-TV (channel 12) is a PBS member television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, owned by the Greater New Orleans Educational Television Foundation. The station's studios are located on Navarre Avenue in the city's Navarre neighborhood, and its transmitter is located on Magistrate Street in Chalmette. WYES-TV is the only independently owned public television station in Louisiana as it is not part of Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB), which owns all of the PBS member stations in the state that are located outside of New Orleans, and maintains a programming agreement with and partial ownership of the city's independent public television station, WLAE-TV (channel 32). WYES-TV is also available on cable providers in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi, despite the presence of Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) transmitter WMAH-TV. WYES-TV carries PBS and American Public Television (APT) distributed programs, as well as programs from other distributors. Many national programs produced by WYES-TV are distributed by APT. History WYES-TV traces its history to 1953, when a group of civic leaders led by Marion Abramson formed the Greater New Orleans Educational Television Association. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had assigned the VHF channel 8 allocation in the New Orleans market for non-commercial use, and the group quickly snapped up the license. After numerous fits and starts, the station first signed on the air on April 1, 1957. It was the 12th educational television station to sign on in the United States and the second in Louisiana as well as New Orleans' third television station (behind WDSU and WVUE, but before WWL-TV and WGNO). The state's first educational station, KLSE signed on a month earlier from Monroe, but went off the air in 1964, making WYES the oldest continuously operating educational station in Louisiana. After KLSE shut down, WYES would be the only educational station in the state until LPB flagship WLPB-TV in Baton Rouge signed on in September 1975. It originally operated as a member of National Educational Television (NET); the station joined the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), when NET was reorganized in 1970. On June 8 of that year at 8:00 p.m., the station swapped channel positions with then-ABC affiliate WVUE and moved to channel 12, where the station remains today as its virtual channel. This was done in order for WVUE to be able to have a stronger broadcast signal which did not interfere with Jackson, Mississippi CBS affiliate WJTV, which also