KCET (Television station : Los Angeles, Calif.)

History

Background of educational television in Southern California

KCET was the second attempt at establishing an educational station in the Los Angeles area: KTHE, operated by the University of Southern California, had previously broadcast on channel 28, beginning on September 22, 1953. It was the second educational television station in the United States, signing on six months and four days after KUHT in Houston, but ceased broadcasting after only nine months on the air because its primary benefactor, the Hancock Foundation, determined that the station was too much of a financial drain on its resources.

Station history

KCET—the call letters of which stand for either California Educational Television, Committee for Educational Television, Community Educational Television, or Cultural and Educational Television—first signed on the air on September 28, 1964, as an affiliate of National Educational Television (NET). The station was originally licensed to the non-profit group Community Television of Southern California (CTSC). Part of the station's initial funding came from four of Los Angeles's commercial stations–KNXT (channel 2; now KCBS-TV), KNBC (channel 4), KTTV (channel 11) and KCOP (channel 13)–along with grants from the Ford Foundation and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. KCET initially broadcast in black and white from Monday through Friday. James Loper, a co-founder of CTSC, served as the station's director of education from 1964 to 1966 and then vice president and general manager from 1966 to 1971. Loper then served as president of KCET from 1971 to 1983. Creative Person—John Burton a 30-minute film biography of Glass artist and Philosopher John Burton was the first color film commissioned by KCET-TV in 1965. It won the first two Los Angeles area Emmys for KCET for John Burton, and for the production by George Van Valkenburg. Van Valkenburg also produced a one-hour documentary film titled Paris Air Show 1967 for KCET.

KCET was originally located at 1313 North Vine Street in Hollywood, at what was the original Mutual-Don Lee Broadcasting System Building. The facility was also originally home to two of Los Angeles' first television stations—KTSL (channel 2; now KCBS-TV), and KFI/KHJ-TV (channel 9; now KCAL-TV, which both signed-on the air in May, and August 1948 respectively. Both stations eventually moved out by the early 1960s, just a couple of years before KCET officially took to the air. ABC also began taking up occupancy in the building, using it as a secondary studio facility for its television studio lot (which at the time also housed KABC-TV, channel 7) near the eastern end of Hollywood.

Prior to applying for and receiving a construction permit to build the new channel 28, CTSC attempted to acquire one of Los Angeles's seven existing VHF commercial stations. In 1968, Community Television of Southern California emerged as a potential buyer of KTLA's channel 5 license from then-owner Gene Autry, but could not raise the cash needed to make a serious offer. If CTSC succeeded in moving KCET to channel 5, the move would have mirrored a similar occurrence seven years earlier in the New York City area, where local broadcasters assisted a non-profit group in purchasing commercial independent VHF station WNTA-TV and converting it into non-commercial, educational WNDT (it is now WNET).

Subchannel history

In 2006, KCET launched a digital channel, KCET Desert Cities, for digital television and cable for the Coachella Valley. (In September of that year, KCET announced a similar channel for Orange County in partnership with California State University, Fullerton to be launched in late 2007, when it replaced a simulcast of KCET's analog signal.) In August 2007, KCET began carrying PBS and American Public Television's cultural, news and history-oriented network World on digital subchannel 28.4, and the Spanish language educational network V-me on digital subchannel 28.3.

With KCET discontinuing its membership with PBS on January 1, 2011, KCET restructured its subchannel offerings; KCET-DT 28.2 converted to children's programming service under the brand KCET Kids & Family, itself a conversion of KCET Desert Cities and KCET Orange (with programs seen on the respective channels being shifted to KCET's main channel to occupy a daytime lifestyle block), while World was replaced by MHz Worldview on KCET-DT4. (V-me programming continued to be carried on KCET-DT3.) KCET primary subchannel offered themed nights during the first year of operation. On January 1, 2013, as a byproduct of the Link Media merger, LinkTV—under the brand "KCETLink", which replaced the channel's national feed on local cable and satellite providers and simulcasted LinkTV-licensed content—replaced KCET Kids & Family on digital subchannel 28.2.

On August 5, 2013, KCET replaced MHz Worldview with NHK World on subchannel 28.4. (MHz Worldview moved to a subchannel of KLCS-DT.) On March 30, 2017, KCET ceased carrying V-Me on its subchannel as the network transitioned to a commercial ad-supported channel. It was replaced by KCETLink+ on the same day. KCETLink+ was eventually shut down and NHK World moved up to the 28.3 subchannel with its former 28.4 subchannel discontinued.

Programming

While it acted as the flagship PBS station for the Los Angeles metropolitan area, KCET mainly distributed Los Angeles-based productions for other independent producers, rather than producing much programming by itself for the national PBS system.

KCET produced Roger Fisher's The Advocates (1969–1984), Boboquivari (1970–1971), Leon Russell's Homewood Session (1970 TV Special), Meeting of Minds (1977–1981), and Artbound (2012–).

In 1971, KCET began producing Hollywood Television Theater, TV movies directed by Norman Lloyd, Stacy Keach, Ivan Dixon, Lee Grant, and others. In 1976, KCET began producing Visions.

It produced the acclaimed Carl Sagan series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage from 1978 to 1979. KCET produced or presented The Cousteau Odyssey, Trying Times, and the Hispanic family drama American Family for PBS. It was one of the consortium of stations that produced American Playhouse.

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, KCET produced a six-part miniseries in conjunction with the BBC called Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State.

Huell Howser's California's Gold was produced at the KCET lot, until the series ended following Howser's death in 2013.

KCET also produced the weeknight talk show Tavis Smiley and a PBS science show, Wired Science. A television program designed for care-givers, A Place of Our Own and its Spanish language equivalent, Los Niños en Su Casa are taped at the KCET studios, produced with a grant from BP.

A few children's programs have also come from KCET—Storytime, The Puzzle Place, Adventures from the Book of Virtues, The Charlie Horse Music Pizza, and Sid the Science Kid (the latter now airing on KOCE).

KCET also produced California Connected, a television newsmagazine about various people, places and events throughout California, co-produced with KQED in San Francisco, KVIE in Sacramento, and KPBS in San Diego. This series ended its run in 2007 after five seasons.

Life and Times

Life & Times was a local news magazine and public affairs series produced by and broadcast on KCET from 1991 to 2007.

It was KCET's award-winning signature local program, and was hosted by Val Zavala. Co-hosts for Life & Times had included Patt Morrison, Hugh Hewitt, Rubén Martínez, Kerman Maddox, Errol St. Clair Smith, Jess Marlow, Warren Olney, and Jerry Nachman.

Over its 16 years on the air, Life & Times covered major issues such as politics, education, the environment, demographics, transportation, science, culture and arts. It also offered viewers profile, features, and interviews with authors, community leaders, elected officials, educators, artists, activists, actors and scholars. While it was on air it won more than 25 L.A. Area Emmy awards, numerous Golden Mikes and many other awards.

Technical information

Analog-to-digital conversion and spectrum incentive auction

KCET began transmitting a digital television signal on UHF channel 59 in 2000. From that point until 2007, the majority of the programs (apart from most of those that aired during prime time) that were carried on KCET's main channel—which, like most PBS stations that transmitted digital television signals during that time period, served as a designated high definition feed—differed from the schedule maintained by its analog UHF channel 28 signal. It was simulcast on digital subchannel 28.2. In August 2007, programming from the main signal was integrated into the HD subchannel to accommodate for spectrum space, while at the same time preserving the integrity of the HD transmissions.

The station shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 28, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal operated on a high-band UHF channel (in the 52–69 channel range) that was removed from broadcast use after the official June 12, 2009, transition date; as a result, KCET selected its former analog channel allocation on UHF channel 28 for its post-transition digital operations.

On September 10, 2014, it was announced that after negotiations with KLCS' licensee, the Los Angeles Unified School District, KCET and KLCS would consolidate their broadcast signals onto one over-the-air channel band, so the remaining wireless spectrum can be divested during the FCC's 2016 spectrum incentive auction. Both stations would retain separate licenses. Earlier in the year, KLCS had participated in a trial of channel sharing with KJLA.

Translators

K04SB-D Bakersfield

K25QB-D Lucerne Valley

K09XW-D Palm Desert, etc.

K35LA-D Palm Springs

K16FC-D San Luis Obispo

K33QS-D Santa Barbara, etc.

K26FT-D Santa Barbara

K23OM-D Victorville