Mission

WEIU's Mission is to use its human and technological resources in partnership with others to benefit EIU, and help make Charleston and the surrounding area a better place to live, learn, work and play.

We do this by:

• Complementing the work of the Communication Studies and Journalism Departments of Eastern Illinois University by providing real world training on state of the art equipment to enable EIU students to become the most employable broadcast students in the United States.
• Promoting community service through quality programming that engages and educates; and community outreach that has a positive impact.

Vision

Our Vision is to be the model for broadcast education in the United States and to be a valued partner in improving the well being of the constituents that we serve.

Values

WEIU Values and works to make our community aware that we...

• Provide a service that is responsive to the needs of, and valued by the University, our community, our students, and our underwriters;
• Consistently strive for excellence and professionalism;
• Are accessible, dependable, honest and caring.

WEIU-TV is licensed to the Board of Trustees of Eastern Illinois University.
Our 255 kilowatt digital signal on Channel 51-1 is broadcast from our 492 foot tower located south and east of Humboldt, Illinois.

WEIU History

WEIU-TV 51 began operation on July 1, 1986 offering basic programming including local news, public affairs, and instructional programming to the people of East Central Illinois for the first time.  Things were a little rough in the beginning as dollars were tight and staff members were inexperienced.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome live, to the campus of Eastern Illinois University" with that Daniel Thornburgh the then director of University Relations christened WEIU-TV during it's live on-air dedication on July 1, 1986.

WEIU struggled at first to get picked up on local cable systems in the area.  Eventually this goal was accomplished as WEIU started to build a presence in the East Central Illinois region.

WEIU has always had a focus on local programming for a region that is under served by the commercial stations.  Being a public television station WEIU has many advantages over other stations when it comes to local programming.  Some of the first local programs that aired on WEIU included "Time Out for Trivia", "EIU Connection", and "Coach's Corner".

WEIU's news program at the time News Scan (now News Watch) aired on the campus cable system before the launch of WEIU and later made the transition to channel 51.  On September 1, 1986 News Scan aired on WEIU for the first time.  At the time about 50 students produced two live newscasts airing at 5:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.  daily.  The news was put on hold in 1990 when the amount of staffing for News Scan took a dramatic decrease.  The news returned to WEIU, however on February 13, 1990 airing a half an hour show at 6:00 p.m. and getting rid of the 9:30 news cast.

Sports programming has also been a strong part of the history of WEIU.  With shows like Panther Country (now Sports Talk) which have virtually been with the station from the start.  The first episode of Panther Country aired in August of 1987 with host David Kidwell. WEIU has also tried when ever possible to air live as many E.I.U sporting events as possible.

On January 30th, 1992 WEIU officially joined the PBS network airing 10 hours of PBS children's programming weekly.  Shows included "Captain Kangaroo", "Mr. Rogers", and "Reading Rainbow".  The station later took on more PBS programming as it has grown into the station that you watch today.