Television stations that broadcast on the public airwaves are required by law to operate in the “public interest, convenience,and necessity.” Brookings has a good history of this phrase and how it has been interpreted. There is some controversy over what “public interest” means, but surely if it means anything, airing infomercials 24 hours a day, seven days a week, does not qualify.

But that’s what channel 59, WAOE-TV is doing. Every day in high definition, the station offers no entertainment programming, no news programming, no sports programming, no local programming, no network programming, almost no programming of any kind that could be considered in the public interest except for three hours of children’s programming per week to meet FCC mandates. Other than that, it’s nothing but paid commercial programming around the clock.

What’s the benefit to the television-watching public? The public airwaves are a scarce resource. Surely there are better ways to use such a limited resource than wall-to-wall commercials. But perhaps in this age of streaming programs over the internet, this is just the death rattle of over-the-air television. If so, maybe it’s time to pull the plug.

In fairness, they do have two standard-definition digital subchannels:

• 59.2 is TheGrio, which provides programming “focused on the African American community,” according to their website.
• 59.3 is VPOD TV, which airs TV shows and movies in the public domain as well as some original content.

However, neither of these channels provide any local programming, and being standard-definition, the quality of the sound and picture are not very good by current standards. Peoria deserves better.