Editing WNET (section)

===Educational/public television station (1962–present)===
During the transition, and after the inaugural broadcast, WNDT faced an immediate crisis. The [[American Federation of Television and Radio Artists]] (AFTRA) was concerned about the use of teachers—some of whom were union-certified performers—on non-commercial television, and how they would be compensated should their work be distributed nationally.

AFTRA called a strike on the morning of WNDT's debut. Engineers and technicians who were members of the [[International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers]] (IBEW) refused to cross the AFTRA picket line, leaving the station's management and other non-union employees to produce the three-hour inaugural broadcast. Immediately afterwards, channel 13 went off the air again, as the strike continued for nearly two weeks.<ref name="EBCH">{{Cite web |url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/educational-broadcasting-corporation-history/ |title=Educational Broadcasting Corporation History |website=fundinguniverse.com |access-date=March 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726235502/http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/educational-broadcasting-corporation-history/ |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |url-status=live  }}</ref><ref name=JamesDay /><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1962/1962-09-24-BC.pdf#page=125 |title=Strike keeps New York's WNDT off |page=125 |date=September 24, 1962 |magazine=Broadcasting |access-date=May 3, 2019 |via=World Radio History}}</ref> The striking workers returned WNDT to the air after ten days<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1962/1962-10-01-BC.pdf#page=72 |title=WNDT (TV) back to air, but strike continues |pages=72–74 |date=October 1, 1962 |magazine=Broadcasting |access-date=May 3, 2019 |via=World Radio History}}</ref> and on September 28, the labor dispute was settled.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1962/1962-10-01-BC.pdf#page=10 |title=AFTRA strike ends; WNDT resumes |page=10 |date=October 1, 1962 |magazine=Broadcasting |access-date=May 3, 2019 |via=World Radio History}}</ref> However, the station's financial resources were drained, requiring an infusion of cash from the [[Ford Foundation]] to help keep the station running.<ref name="EBCH"/><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1962/1962-10-01-BC.pdf#page=10 |title=Ford fund ETV grants: $16.3 million in 1962 |pages=56–57 |date=January 7, 1963 |magazine=Broadcasting |access-date=May 3, 2019 |via=World Radio History}}</ref>

NET originally wanted to merge its operations with WNDT, which would have given the station a direct line of funding as well as make channel 13 NET's flagship station. The Ford Foundation, which supported both groups, stopped the proposed mergers on at least two different occasions in 1962 and 1965.

Events that began in 1967 led the Ford Foundation to change its stance and push for a WNDT-NET merger. The newly formed [[Corporation for Public Broadcasting]] (created by an [[Public Broadcasting Act of 1967|act]] of the [[United States Congress]]) initially supported NET's network role, while providing government funding for programming. But that move was followed two years later by the establishment of the Public Broadcasting Service as the CPB's own distribution system—which was a direct threat to NET's territory. It has been intimated that the CPB's creation was an attempt to curb NET's production of controversial documentaries and replace it with a less controversial, government-friendly broadcaster, less hostile in particular to the [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]], and later the [[Nixon]] administrations (NET ignored the demand and continued with the production of the critically acclaimed documentaries). At one point, President Nixon, frustrated with NET's documentaries criticizing his administration, especially its handling of the [[Vietnam War]], almost managed to cut NET's $20&nbsp;million funding grant in half.<ref>{{cite book|last=Barnouw|first=Erik|title=Tube of Plenty|year=1990|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-19-506484-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/tubeofplentyevol00barn/page/454 454]|url=https://archive.org/details/tubeofplentyevol00barn/page/454}}</ref> This led both the Ford Foundation and the CPB to threaten NET with funding withdrawal in early 1970, unless it merged its operations with WNDT. Not long after, the Ford Foundation brokered the merger of WNDT and NET, which took effect on June 29, 1970.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://current.org/timeline-the-history-of-public-broadcasting-in-the-u-s/ |title=Timeline: The History of Public Broadcasting in the U.S. |website=current.org |date=January 2, 2018 |access-date=September 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180928161240/https://current.org/timeline-the-history-of-public-broadcasting-in-the-u-s/ |archive-date=September 28, 2018 |url-status=live  }}</ref> Channel 13's call sign was changed to the present WNET on October 1, 1970.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1970/1970-10-05-BC.pdf#page=30 |title=Call letters changed in NET-WNDT merger |page=30 |date=October 5, 1970 |magazine=Broadcasting |access-date=May 3, 2019 |via=World Radio History}}</ref> NET ceased network operations three days later, with PBS taking over the following day. The station continued to produce some shows for the national PBS schedule with the NET branding until early 1972, when they began to be identified as "WNET/13" programs;<ref name="b-nettownet13">{{cite magazine |title=No longer as such: NET |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1972/1972-01-31-BC.pdf#page=9 |magazine=[[Broadcasting & Cable|Broadcasting]] |date=January 31, 1972 |page=9 |access-date=October 9, 2020 |via=World Radio History}}</ref> a formal consolidation of the corporation's separate national and local production facilities occurred later that year.<ref name="b-wnetnetmerger72">{{cite magazine |title=All together now |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1972/1972-05-29-BC.pdf#page=33 |magazine=[[Broadcasting & Cable|Broadcasting]] |date=May 29, 1972 |page=33 |access-date=October 9, 2020 |via=World Radio History}}</ref>

Following the merger, [[David Loxton]] established the [[TV Lab at Thirteen/WNET|TV Lab]] in 1972<ref name="EBCH"/> with support from the Rockefeller Foundation and New York State Council on the Arts. TV Lab provided artists with equipment to produce video pieces through an artist-in-residence program. The Independent Documentary Fund and Video Tape Review series were both produces of TV Lab. TV Lab ended in 1984 when the CPB withdrew funds.

Since 1979, the station has been known on-air as "Thirteen". It continued to include Newark in its legal IDs (though logos for national productions read "New York") until the late 1990s. Since then, it has identified mostly as "New York", though it is still legally licensed to Newark.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Even after becoming a noncommercial station, channel 13 retained its original studios and offices at the Mosque Theater in Newark. The station eventually moved to the Gateway Center office building, also in Newark. In 1982, more than 20 years after becoming the New York area's flagship public television station, WNET moved its operations to the [[Hudson Hotel]] at 237 West 58th Street in Manhattan, while retaining the Gateway Center studios for a few more years.

In 1987, channel 13 celebrated its silver anniversary with a series of rebroadcasts of older programs titled ''[[Thirteen Revisited]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=O'Connor |first1=John J. |title=TV Reviews: Channel 13 Reviews Its 25 Years |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/16/arts/tv-reviews-channel-13-reviews-its-25-years.html |access-date=July 24, 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=September 16, 1987 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725033617/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/16/arts/tv-reviews-channel-13-reviews-its-25-years.html |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

In 1998, WNET moved to [[450 West 33rd Street]], straddling the railroad tracks going into [[Pennsylvania Station (New York City)|Pennsylvania Station]].

Channel 13's transmitter facilities, including a newly installed digital transmission system, were destroyed in the [[terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001]]. Gerard (Rod) Coppola, channel 13's head transmitter engineer, was among those who died when the north tower collapsed. His remains were discovered on December 25, 2001.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Decade Later, the Loss Still Deep|url=http://www.tvtechnology.com/feature-box/0124/a-decade-later-the-loss-still-deep/210198|publisher=tvtechnology.com|access-date=July 23, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113033551/http://www.tvtechnology.com/feature-box/0124/a-decade-later-the-loss-still-deep/210198|archive-date=November 13, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> For the next ten months, WNYE-TV, headquartered in [[Brooklyn]], became WNET's surrogate transmitter and airwave: for those without cable, repeats of WNET's prime time schedule were broadcast on WNYE until Channel 13 could re-establish transmission facilities back at the Empire State Building.

Some time later, in February 2003, WNET completed its merger with Long Island PBS broadcaster WLIW (licensed to Garden City and based in [[Plainview, New York|Plainview]]), combining the two stations into one operation.<ref name="EBCH"/> While most of the two stations' operations have been merged, they still have separate studio facilities, separate governing boards, and conduct separate fundraising efforts.
[[File:OneWorldwidePlaza.JPG|thumb|WNET's studio, One Worldwide Plaza]]
During 2009, WNET's parent company, WNET.org, sustained financial difficulties, and in January, the company pared its workforce from 500 employees to 415, due to severe problems with its budget and fundraising. In October, WNET announced that its studios at 450 West 33rd Street would soon be up for sale, as it no longer needed the extra space. In November, WNET announced that all WNET.org employees would take an unpaid furlough for three to five days between Christmas and New Year's Day, with a skeleton crew of engineers remaining during that time to keep the stations on the air; however, they, too, would have to go on furloughs at the start of 2010.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://neptune.observer.com/2009/media/mandatory-furloughs-wnet |title=Furloughs Hit WNET |last=Gillette |first=Felix |date=November 4, 2009 |website=The New York Observer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809195137/http://www.observer.com/2009/media/mandatory-furloughs-wnet |archive-date=August 9, 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref> In 2011, WNET moved its studios and offices to Worldwide Plaza.

WNET has been broadcasting [[Digital television transition in the United States|digital-only]] since June 12, 2009.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |title=List of Digital Full-Power Stations |website=hraunfoss.fcc.gov |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |archive-date=August 29, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref><ref name="FCCForm387">{{cite web|url=http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101233708&formid=387&fac_num=18795|title=CDBS|publisher=FCC}} {{dead link|date=March 2019}}</ref><ref>[http://media.myfoxny.com/pdf/WWORForm388Update091508.pdf WWOR-DT FCC Form 387] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321131859/http://media.myfoxny.com/pdf/WWORForm388Update091508.pdf |date=March 21, 2012 }}, Exhibit 4, September 15, 2008</ref>

On July 1, 2011, WNET took over the programming of [[New Jersey Network]]'s television stations, which were relaunched as NJTV (now [[NJ PBS]]). The network features increased coverage of news and issues pertinent to New Jersey, as well as programming from the WNET and PBS libraries. The transfer of programming to WNET was part of Governor [[Chris Christie]]'s plan for the [[Government of New Jersey|New Jersey government]]'s exit from public broadcasting.<ref name=NJN061611>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nbc40.net/news/17927/ |title=Gov Christie Selects WNET for NJN Takeover |website=nbc40.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610161158/http://www.nbc40.net/news/17927/ |archive-date=June 10, 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=June 6, 2011 }}</ref> As part of the deal, WNET airs NJTV's nightly statewide newscast, ''NJ Today'' (which was renamed ''NJTV News'' on November 4, 2013), to meet its local programming obligations since it still operates on a frequency allocated to Newark. Previously, it had aired NJN's newscast, ''[[NJN News]]'', which it co-produced with NJN from 1978 to 1981 (the program continued to air on WNET even after NJN took full control over its production).

In 2014, the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center were built at the southwest corner of [[66th Street]] and [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]]; this facility houses two television studios. The space can also accommodate lectures, screenings and concerts. The facility is named in honor of James S. Tisch and his wife, Merryl H. Tisch, whose $15&nbsp;million gift was, at that time, the single largest donation from individuals in WNET's history.<ref>{{Cite press release |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100507005050/en/Landmark-Philanthropic-Gift-WNET.ORG-New-Lincoln-Center |title=With a Landmark Philanthropic Gift, WNET.ORG Will Name Its New Lincoln Center Studios in Honor of Board Chairman James S. Tisch and His Wife, Merryl H. Tisch  |date=May 7, 2010 |via=Business Wire |access-date=March 17, 2019}}</ref>

On May 9, 2017, it was announced that WNET would resume broadcasting from Lower Manhattan at One World Trade Center by the end of the year.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://nypost.com/2017/05/08/one-world-trade-center-adds-ion-media-as-newest-broadcaster-tenant/ |title=One World Trade Center adds ION Media as newest broadcaster tenant |last=Cuozzo |first=Steve |date=May 8, 2017 |website=New York Post |access-date=March 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212222928/https://nypost.com/2017/05/08/one-world-trade-center-adds-ion-media-as-newest-broadcaster-tenant/ |archive-date=February 12, 2019 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

In 2019, WNET acquired New Jersey news website NJ Spotlight. The following year, it merged NJ Spotlight with NJTV's newsroom, with the NJTV newscasts becoming ''NJ Spotlight News''.<ref>{{Cite web| title = WNET Acquires NJ Spotlight, Fosters Closer Partnership with NJTV - NJ Spotlight| date =March 5, 2019| access-date =April 19, 2019| url = http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/19/03/04/wnet-acquires-nj-spotlight-fosters-closer-partnership-with-njtv/}}</ref> NJ Spotlight would merge with NJTV News in 2020.<ref>{{cite web |title=NJTV News And NJ Spotlight Combine News Teams And Rebrand As NJ Spotlight News Beginning October 5 |url=https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/njtv-news-nj-spotlight-combine-news-teams-rebrand-nj-spotlight-news-beginning-october-5/ |website=insidernj.com |date=October 5, 2020 |access-date=April 2, 2021}}</ref> On March 25, 2021, WNET.org was reorganized as The WNET Group.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wnet-rebrands-as-the-wnet-group-media-made-possible-by-all-of-you-301256254.html|title=WNET Rebrands as The WNET Group: Media Made Possible by All of You|agency=PR Newswire|publisher=The WNET Group|date=March 25, 2021|access-date=April 1, 2021}}</ref>

On July 2, 2020, at 9 a.m. during the [[FCC repack]], WNET relocated from channel 13 to channel 12.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Knight |first=Christina |date=June 16, 2020 |title=Over-The-Air Viewers: Rescan THIRTEEN on July 2 |url=https://www.thirteen.org/blog-post/over-the-air-viewers-rescan-for-thirteen-in-future/ |website=Thirteen.org}}</ref>