WETA-TV (channel 26) is the primary PBS member television station in Washington, D.C. Owned by the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, it is a sister station to NPR member WETA (90.9 FM). The two outlets share studios in nearby Arlington County, Virginia; WETA-TV's transmitter is located in the Tenleytown neighborhood in Northwest Washington. WETA-TV also effectively, but unofficially serves as one of three flagship stations of PBS, alongside WGBH-TV in Boston and WNET in New York City. Among the programs produced by WETA-TV that are distributed nationally by PBS are the PBS NewsHour, Washington Week, and several cultural and documentary programs, such as the Ken Burns documentaries and A Capitol Fourth. History In 1952, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated 242 channels for non-commercial use across the United States; channel 26 was allocated for use in Washington, D.C. In 1953, the Greater Washington Educational Television Association (GWETA) was formed to file for a channel 26 construction permit, joining the D.C. Board of Education. The Board of Education would drop its bid in 1954. GWETA credits Elizabeth Campbell with having founded the organization. In the early days, before it was granted a license for its own channel, GWETA produced educational programming for WMAL-TV and WTTG. An application was finally filed on May 3, 1961, and approved on June 12, for a construction permit for the channel. GWETA was eventually granted a license by the FCC to activate channel 26; WETA-TV first signed on the air on October 2, 1961, with the first televised class being aired on October 16. WETA originally operated out of Yorktown High School in Arlington; the station later relocated its operations to the campus of Howard University in 1964. Rapid growth led a station that had been described as having "a rough time meeting the monthly bills" in 1963 to even pursue thoughts of a second channel in 1965. In 1967, WETA began producing Washington Week in Review (now simply titled Washington Week), a political discussion program that became the station's first program to be syndicated nationally to other non-commercial educational stations and is now the network's longest-running public affairs program. Around 1970, the Greater Washington Educational Television Association changed its name to the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association to reflect the oversight of the new WETA (FM). In 1972, the producing organization National Public Affairs Center for Television merged into WETA. In 1992, WETA broadcast the