Iowa Public Television

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Iowa Public Television
Iptv.png
statewide Iowa
Channels Digital: see table below
Virtual: see table below
Subchannels .1 PBS (IPTV Digital)
.2 PBS (IPTV Learns)
.3 PBS (IPTV World)
.99 IRIS (Reading for the Blind)
Affiliations PBS
Create / PBS Kids (DT2)
PBS World (DT3)
Owner Iowa Public Broadcasting Board
First air date 1969
Call letters' meaning all stations:
K
2nd letter: see table below
Iowa
Network
Former callsigns see notes below
Former channel number(s) see table below
Former affiliations NET (1969-1970)
Transmitter power see table below
Height see table below
Facility ID see table below
Transmitter coordinates see table below
Website www.iptv.org

Iowa Public Television (IPTV) is a network of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member stations in the state of Iowa. AIt is owned by the Iowa Public Broadcasting Board, an agency of the state education department which holds the licenses for all the PBS member stations in the state. IPTV's studios are located in Johnston, Iowa; a suburb of Des Moines.

Contents

History [edit]

Iowa is a pioneer in educational broadcasting; it is home to two of the oldest educational broadcast stations in the world, the University of Iowa's WSUI and Iowa State's WOI. In 1933, The University of Iowa experimental TV station W9XK, later W9XUI provided twice a week video programming, with WSUI providing the audio channel. By 1941, the FCC allocated TV channels 1 and 12 for the W9XUI television station.[1] This early attempt at educational broadcasting ended with US entrance into World War II.[2][3]The concept of pure educational television, which Dr. E.B. Kurtz and his Iowa colleagues pioneered, was buried by the commercial television system which dominated development of the electronic media in Iowa after World War II.[4]

WOI-TV in Ames had signed on in 1950 as a sister station to WOI radio, and had carried some National Educational Television programming until Des Moines Public Schools signed on KDPS-TV as the educational station for central Iowa. However, in the 1960s the only other areas of the state with a clear signal from an educational station were the southwest (from Nebraska ETV's KYNE-TV in Omaha), the northwest (from South Dakota ETV's KUSD-TV in Vermillion), and east from The University of Iowa's WSUI-TV in Iowa City.

In 1969, the state of Iowa bought KDPS-TV from the Des Moines Public Schools and changed its calls to KDIN-TV, intending it to be the linchpin of a statewide educational television network. As part of the state's ambition, it rebranded KDIN as the Iowa Educational Broadcasting Network.

The network's second station, KIIN-TV in Iowa City, already on the air (channel 12) since 1939[5] as WSUI-TV in Iowa City, joined IEBN in 1970 to expand state-wide educational programming to eastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois. Soon afterward, IEBN became a charter member of PBS. By 1977 the newly-renamed Iowa Public Broadcasting Network had eight full-power stations. The Iowa Public Television name was adopted in 1982. In 2003, it purchased KQCT-TV in Davenport, which repeated the programming of Quad Cities PBS station WQPT-TV in the Iowa side of the Quad Cities. The calls were changed to KQIN.

IPTV was originally run by the state's General Services Department before then-Gov. Terry E. Branstad signed a bill creating the Iowa Public Broadcasting Board on May 16, 1983. In 1986 IPTV became part of the state's Cultural Affairs Department, and on July 1, 1992, IPTV became part of the Iowa Department of Education.

Combined, the nine IPTV stations reach almost all of Iowa, plus portions of Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Missouri.

Stations [edit]

Nine full-power TV stations make up the network, all stations have callsigns beginning with a K, as licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), & ending in IN "IN" stands for Iowa Network.

Station City of license (other cities served) Channels Former Channels First air date Second letter’s
meaning		 ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter Coordinates
KBIN-TV Council Bluffs
(Omaha)		 33 (UHF)
Virtual: 32 (PSIP)		 Analog: 32 (UHF) September 7, 1975 Council Bluffs 200 kW 98 m 29108 41°15′14.6″N 95°50′8.1″W / 41.254056°N 95.835583°W / 41.254056; -95.835583 (KBIN-TV)
KDIN-TV1 Des Moines 11 (VHF)
Virtual: 11 (PSIP)		 Analog: 11 (VHF)
Digital: 50 (UHF)		 April 27, 1959 Des Moines 22.5 kW 600 m 29102 41°48′33″N 93°36′53″W / 41.80917°N 93.61472°W / 41.80917; -93.61472 (KDIN-TV)
KHIN Red Oak 35 (UHF)
Virtual: 36 (PSIP)		 Analog: 36 (UHF) September 7, 1975 Horizons 600 kW 475 m 29085 41°20′39.4″N 95°15′21.9″W / 41.344278°N 95.256083°W / 41.344278; -95.256083 (KHIN)
KIIN3,4 Iowa City
(Cedar Rapids)		 12 (VHF)
Virtual: 12 (PSIP)		 Analog: 12 (VHF)
Digital: 45 (UHF)		 January 1, 1939 / February 8, 1970 Iowa City 57 kW 439 m 29095 41°43′15″N 91°20′29.4″W / 41.72083°N 91.341500°W / 41.72083; -91.341500 (KIIN)
KQIN2 Davenport 34 (UHF)
Virtual: 36 (PSIP)		 Analog: 36 (UHF) December 16, 1991 Quad Cities 368 kW 233 m 5471 41°18′44″N 90°22′46″W / 41.31222°N 90.37944°W / 41.31222; -90.37944 (KQIN)
KRIN5 Waterloo 35 (UHF)
Virtual: 32 (PSIP)		 Analog: 32 (UHF) December 15, 1974 WateRloo 250 kW 584 m 29114 42°18′58.4″N 91°51′31.1″W / 42.316222°N 91.858639°W / 42.316222; -91.858639 (KRIN)
KSIN-TV Sioux City 28 (UHF)
Virtual: 27 (PSIP)		 Analog: 27 (UHF) January 4, 1975 Sioux City 400 kW 348.3 m 29096 42°30′52.8″N 96°18′16″W / 42.514667°N 96.30444°W / 42.514667; -96.30444 (KSIN-TV)
KTIN Fort Dodge 25 (UHF)
Virtual: 21 (PSIP)		 Analog: 21 (UHF) April 8, 1977 Television 600 kW 355 m 29100 42°49′3.1″N 94°24′42″W / 42.817528°N 94.41167°W / 42.817528; -94.41167 (KTIN)
KYIN Mason City 18 (UHF)
Virtual: 24 (PSIP)		 Analog: 24 (UHF) May 14, 1977 Your 533 kW 448.5 m 29086 43°28′32″N 92°42′30″W / 43.47556°N 92.70833°W / 43.47556; -92.70833 (KYIN)

Notes [edit]

  • 1. KDIN-TV used the callsign KDPS-TV from its 1959 sign-on until 1969.
  • 2. KQIN used the callsign KQCT as a relay of WQPT from its 1991 sign-on until it was acquired by IPTV in 2003.
  • 3. KIIN operated as W9XUI from 1939 to WW2 and then as WSUI-TV from 1946 to until 1970.
  • 4. KDIN's pre-transition digital channel assignment was UHF channel 50 and KIIN's pre-transition digital channel assignment was UHF channel 45. PSIP was used to display their virtual channels as 11 and 12 respectively, corresponding to their analog channel assignments at the time. Both stations returned their digital broadcasts to their former analog channel assignments, 11 (KDIN) and 12 (KIIN) respectively on June 12, 2009. Hence the virtual channel mapping now stays with the physical RF channel assignments of KDIN and KIIN.
  • 5. The remainder of the full-power stations in the IPTV system remained on their pre-transition digital channel assignments after the digital transition, continuing to use PSIP to have the virtual channel display reflect the former analog channel assignments of the individual stations. Example: KRIN was analog channel 32 and digital channel 35 but always has, and still does, remap to virtual channel 32 via PSIP. See the "channels" column in the above table for the digital RF and virtual channel listings of the individual IPTV stations.

The network also has eight low-power repeater signals, located in Ottumwa (channel 18 K18GU), Keosauqua (channel 24 K24IM-D), Rock Rapids (channel 25 K25AA), Decorah (channel 28 K28KK-D), Sibley (channel 33 K33AB), Fort Madison (channel 38 K38AB), Lansing (channel 41 K41AD), and Keokuk (channel 44 K44AB).

Some of the transmitters are located a fair distance from their cities of license:

-KIIN's transmitter, while listed as residing in Iowa City (Johnson County), is actually situated north of West Branch in Cedar County. It was moved there in 1970 from the University of Iowa campus, so it could serve all of eastern Iowa, including the Quad Cities.

-KRIN's city of license is Waterloo but its transmitter is located on the KCRG-TV tower in southern Buchanan County between Rowley and Walker co-located with Cedar Rapids licensed ABC affiliate station KCRG-TV, who owns the tower, as well as the new digital transmitter of Cedar Rapids based CBS affiliate station KGAN-TV, and the main transmitter for Cedar Falls-based NPR affiliate station KUNI-FM; meaning half of the stations on the tower used by KRIN are licensed to Cedar Rapids while the other half are licensed to Cedar Falls or Waterloo. The KCRG-TV tower is approximately half-way in between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo-Cedar Falls.

-KQIN's analog transmitter for UHF channel 36 was located in central Davenport, between the KWQC-TV studios (no connection to the station, other than giving its analog channel to KWQC for its post-transition DTV channel assignment) and the St. Ambrose University campus, near VanDerVeer Park. However, its digital transmitter for UHF channel 34 is co-located with most of the other digital transmitters for the Quad Cities market along U.S. Highway 150 in Orion, Illinois. KQIN is thus the only IPTV station whose transmitter isn't physically located in Iowa.

Digital programming [edit]

The stations broadcast a multiplexed digital signal:

Channel Name Video Programming
x.1 IPTV 1080i Main IPTV Programming / PBS
x.2 IPTV Learn 480i PBS Kids (5pm-10pm)
Create (10pm-5pm)
x.3 IPTV World PBS World

Programming [edit]

Although IPTV provides PBS programming and also coordinates several political debates during the Iowa Caucuses, it also produces original programs such as Iowa Press, a panel discussion show; and Market to Market, a nationally distributed show about agribusiness. Dan Wardell is the Host of the Children's Television block, featuring programs such as "The Big Comfy Couch" and "Sesame Street".

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Television stations authorized by the FCC, January 1, 1941". RCA Radio Travel-Log. 1941. Retrieved August 12, 2012. 
  2. ^ "The FCC: Seventy-Six Years of Watching TV". FCC. Summer 2003. Retrieved 14 July, 2012. 
  3. ^ Rick Plummer. "A Short History of Television Station W9XK/W9XU". Early Television Museum. Retrieved 14 July, 2012. 
  4. ^ "The Untold Story, W9XK - Iowa City". Wartburg College. Retrieved 14 July, 2012. 
  5. ^ "Early Television Stations in U.S.". Early Television. Retrieved 29 November, 2012. 
  • IPTV History from the Iowa Public Television web site, accessed April 1, 2006

External links [edit]

Television in eastern Iowa (including Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Iowa City, and Dubuque)
Stations
Television in central Iowa (including Des Moines and Ames)
Local stations
Defunct
Reception varies by geographical location; some stations only available on cable television
Local stations
Local cable channels
Adjacent locals
Kansas City
KCTV 5 (CBS)
KCPT 19 (PBS)
KSHB 41 (NBC)
Quincy
KHQA 7 (CBS)
WGEM 10 (NBC)
Des Moines
WOI 5 (ABC)
KDSM 17 (Fox)
Cedar Rapids
KGAN 2 (CBS)
KCRG 9 (ABC)
KIIN 12 (PBS/IPTV)
Omaha stations
Council Bluffs stations
Cable-only stations
Defunct stations
ATSC-M/H Mobile DTV
Television stations in the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area
Stations
Market Coverage in Iowa Counties
Market Coverage in Illinois Counties
Stations
Defunct
Stations
Local stations
Defunct stations
PBS Member Stations in the state of Iowa (IPTV)

Coordinates: 41°39′50.6″N 93°42′28.2″W / 41.664056°N 93.707833°W / 41.664056; -93.707833 (Iowa Public Television)

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