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KCET

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KCET, public television for southern and central California, is watched by four million viewers a week in 11 counties, the largest broadcast reach of any public television station in the United States. Throughout its 40-plus year history, KCET has garnered hundreds of major awards for its local and regional news and public affairs programming, its national drama and documentary productions, its quality educational family and children's programs, and its outreach and community services.

It is one of four PBS member stations serving Los Angeles and Southern California, the others being KVCR-TV, KOCE-TV, and KLCS. Broadcasting on channel 28, the studio is located at 4401 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson, one of the highest points in Los Angeles County.

KCET and KTLA are the only broadcasters in the Los Angeles Area to be based in Hollywood, as many radio and television stations have left the community for other neighborhoods and cities. Neither KTLA nor KCET intend to leave their locations in Hollywood any time soon.

History

KCET signed on September 28, 1964 as an affiliate of National Educational Television, or NET. It was actually the second attempt at an educational station in the Los Angeles area. KTHE, operated by the University of Southern California, had previously broadcast on channel 28, beginning on November 29, 1953. It was the second educational television station in the United States, signing on six months and four days after KUHT in Houston, Texas, but it went dark after nine months due to its primary benefactor, the Hancock Foundation, determining that the station was too much of a financial drain on its resources.

The call letters KCET stand for Community Educational Television, not to be confused with the organization of the same name formed by Daystar Television Network in 2003, which made an unsuccessful bid to purchase Orange County public television station KOCE.

KCET is located in a historic area in Hollywood, California. It purchased the property for their studio in Los Angeles in 1971, assisted financially in part by both the Ford Foundation and the Michael Connell Foundation. The newest building is named the Weingart Educational Telecommunications Center which houses KCET's master control, digital control rooms, ingest, and editing stations on the first floor and the Engineering department, New Media department, and Life and Times on the second floor.

In 2000, channel 59 was designated as KCET-DT. As of 2007, Al Jerome is the president and CEO.

Today, all programs produced by KCET are in High Definition.

Programming

KCET produced the acclaimed Carl Sagan series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage in 1978-1979. 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.

As of 2007 productions include its award-winning and signature news and public affairs program Life & Times hosted by Val Zavala (underwritten by The Whittier Foundation, Jim & Anne Rothenberg, QueensCare, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Boeing, and the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department). Huell Howser's California's Gold is produced at the KCET lot.

KCET also produces the weeknight talk show Tavis Smiley and the new PBS science show, Wired Science. Peabody award-winning shows A Place of Our Own [1] and the Spanish language equivalent, Los Niños en Su Casa [2] are taped at the KCET studios. Both programs, part of the KCEd initiative, have received a generous grant from BP to expand its coverage as a nation-wide television program designed for care-givers.

KCET is also home to familiar PBS shows such as Antiques Roadshow, Nature, NOVA, Frontline, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Masterpiece Theatre, Soundstage, amongst others.

Award-winning California Connected ended its run in 2007 after five seasons.

For its first seven years on digital TV, the majority of the programming on KCET's high definition subchannel 28.1 (outside of most primetime shows) was different from the main signal on Channel 28 (which was initially operated on digital subchannel 28.2 and has since been replaced with KCET Orange), as is with most other PBS stations with HDTV capabilities. With the arrival of new programming services from PBS and V-me (which airs on digital subchannel 28.3) in mid 2007, programming from the main signal has been integrated into the HD subchannel to accommodate for space, while at the same time preserving the integrity and demand for quality HD programming. In August 2007, KCET began broadcasting PBS World under digital subchannel 28.4. World's lineup includes programming related to world culture, news and history.

Other ventures and partnerships

KCET's website produces original multimedia web content including CA Stories. There are also video clips, podcasts, television schedule, contact information, and a Life & Times blog.

In 2006, KCET established an exclusive media partnership with California State University, Fullerton. In 2007, KCET and CSUF announced that a new 24/7 digital cable channel, KCET Orange, will premiere in the fall of that year. Programs like Life and Times will feature expanded Orange County news coverage, plus additional arts and cultural programming tailored to Orange County. Contributions from students from Titan Communications TV[1] and the College of Communications[2] is intended to expand Cal State Fullerton's contribution to KCET. KCET Orange is broadcast under digital subchannel 28.2. [3].

KCET also has a digital cable channel, KCET Desert Cities, which is currently available for Time Warner Cable subscribers in the Palm Springs/Coachella Valley area. It is carried on Channel 218, and its programming schedule differs from the main Los Angeles signal.

In July 2007, the KCET Studios became the host studios for Camouflage (2007 TV series), a game show for cable TV's GSN (Game Show Network).

Rebroadcasters

KCET utilizes several repeaters to extend its coverage:

Call sign Analog channel Digital channel City of License Ownership Notes
K16FC 16 no San Luis Obispo KCET originally on channel 15 as K15BD, displaced for KSBY-DT
K26FT 26 no Santa Barbara KCET
K28GY 28 no Santa Barbara, etc. KCET
K46II 46 no Bakersfield KCET
K47CC 47 no Victorville KCET
KFLA-LD no 8 Palmdale, etc. Roy William Mayhugh
K14AT 14 no China Lake, etc. Indian Wells Valley TV Booster
K31JM-D no 31 (soon) China Lake, etc. Indian Wells Valley TV Booster currently holds a construction permit
K51DD 51 no Ridgecrest, Inyokern Indian Wells Valley TV Booster will flash-cut to digital
K46HT 46 no Daggett, etc. County of San Bernardino
K48EM 48 no Morongo Valley County of San Bernardino

Logos

References

  1. ^ Titan Communications TV
  2. ^ College of Communications
  3. ^ Titan TV's Announcement with President Gordon & Special Guests

See also

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