WHRO-TV (channel 15) is a PBS member television station licensed to both Hampton and Norfolk, Virginia, United States.

The four stations share studios at the Public Telecommunications Center for Hampton Roads next to the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk; WHRO-TV's transmitter is located in Suffolk, Virginia.

Educational television first came to Hampton Roads in 1957 when commercial station WVEC-TV began broadcasting a limited amount of programs for Norfolk city schools.

Later in the 1960s, more school divisions in southeastern Virginia joined the association; the station's educational programming earned it a Peabody Award for 1972.

[2][3] Educational television did not come to Hampton Roads until September 1957, when WVEC-TV (then on channel 15) began broadcasting two hours a day of programs for Norfolk city schools.

[7] The two school systems formed the Hampton Roads Educational Television Association (HRETA), which formally applied for channel 15 on May 29, 1961.

[28] The facility was completed in August, at which time the station rented a mobile production unit from WVEC-TV to provide equipment until tape recorders and other hardware could be purchased.

[31] Two years later, the schools in the cities of Chesapeake, Newport News, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach, as well as those in Isle of Wight, Nansemond, and York counties, joined at the board's invitation.

[39] That year, WHRO-TV moved to a new tower and transmitter facility near Driver and became the first public television station on the UHF band to transmit with the maximum 5 million watts.

[41] Also in 1975, WHRO-TV merged with WTGM-FM, a struggling classical music station owned by the Virginia Cultural Foundation;[42] to reflect advances in technology and its expanded scope, HRETA renamed itself the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association in 1976.

[51] When it went on the air, WBOC-TV in Salisbury, Maryland, which also broadcast in analog on channel 16, complained of interference created by atmospheric ducting.

Cuts were prolonged as the station burned through cash reserves from its digitalization capital campaign; from 2003 to 2005, revenues declined by 27 percent.

[18] Widoff remained for five years at WHRO before resigning in September 2006;[55] he was replaced by Bert Schmidt, who joined from WVPT in Harrisonburg.

[57] As Virginia state subsidies continued to wane before ultimately being eliminated in 2012, WHRO extended its involvement in educational services sold to local schools.

[62] The station's signal is multiplexed: On the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Accomack County owns two translators, W18EG-D and W25AA-D (licensed to Onancock and broadcast from Mappsville), that provide the main channel of WHRO-TV alongside those of WTKR, WAVY-TV, and WVEC.