WNET Logo History

WNET is the PBS affiliate located in New York City (although it is licensed to Newark, New Jersey). They first signed on the air on May 15, 1948, originally an independent commercial station under the calls WATV; National Telefilm Associates bought the station in 1957, renaming it to WNTA-TV in 1958. Though NTA hoped to use the station as the flagship of their short-lived NTA Film Network, NTA ran up debt (thanks to the NYC area having three other independent stations) and ultimately sold the station to the non-profit Educational Television for the Metropolitan Area (ETMA, later renamed the Educational Broadcasting Corporation) in 1961.
Rechristened in 1962 as WNDT (for New Dimensions in Television), it joined NET and became a non-commercial educational station. WNDT merged with NET in 1970, becoming WNET, in part because of government pressure on NET to stop producing programming that upset politicians; this directly resulted in NET being replaced by PBS, with WNET becoming one of PBS' most prolific stations. WNET continued to produce national programming under the NET name for another two years, before the WNET brand fully replaced it in 1972.
In addition to WNET itself, the WNET Group (formerly the Educational Broadcasting Corporation) also owns WLIW 21 (serving Long Island) and operates NJ PBS (formerly NJTV) on behalf of the state government (replacing the New Jersey Network in 2009).