Lakeshore PBS Back On The Air

Repairs were further delayed by the lack of availability of a crew licensed to work on a 950-foot tower.

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Lakeshore Public Media in northwest Indiana says repairs to its transmission line are complete and Lakeshore PBS is broadcasting once again after more than two months off the air. The station was able to install a temporary low-power transmitter after a severe storm damaged the previous transmitter beyond repair.

Lakeshore PBS is now available again to views over the air, as well as on DirecTV, Dish Network and AT&T. However, the station says over the air viewers may still be affected by a signal outage due to the smaller coverage area of the low-power transmitter.

The station received the temporary transmitter in August, however its transmission lines were damaged by vandals which caused further delays. The station also had trouble finding an available tower crew that was licensed to work on a TV tower of that height, nearly 1000 feet tall.

"We are very appreciative of the many viewers and members who’ve reached out to us during our outage, letting us know that they miss their programming and their local PBS station," said James Muhammad, chief executive officer of Lakeshore Public Media. "Their biggest concern was that we were going dark permanently."

Lakeshore PBS has invested more than $250,000 to purchase a new full-power transmitter, which it says is now in transit. The new transmitter took eight weeks to build and test, and the station hopes to install and transition to the new system by October 16.