KOZK
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KOZK, virtual and UHF digital channel 21, is a PBS member television station located in Springfield, Missouri, United States. The station is owned by Missouri State University. KOZK maintains studio facilities and offices located on the Missouri State University campus on National Avenue in southern Springfield, and its transmitter is located on Switchgrass Road/Highway FF in rural southwestern Webster County (north of Fordland).
The station's programming is simulcast on satellite station KOZJ, virtual and UHF digital channel 26), in Joplin; its transmitter is located on West 13th Street/Junge Boulevard in northwestern Joplin. The two stations utilize the unified brand Ozarks Public Television, and both their signals cover the Ozarks region of southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, northwestern Arkansas and far northeastern Oklahoma.
History
KOZK's history can be traced to the founding of Springfield Community Television, a nonprofit group that was formed in 1974 to bring public television to the area. At the time, it was standard practice for PBS to offer its programming to commercial television outlets in markets without a PBS station of their own. For instance, NBC affiliate KYTV (channel 3) aired Sesame Street at 9:00 a.m. during the week. After securing a license from the Federal Communications Commission and funding from various groups, Springfield Community Television was able to launch its first station. KOZK first signed on the air on January 20, 1975, broadcasting from a former Naval Reserve center located on the campus of Drury University. From there, the station originally broadcast five days a week with seven employees on its staff (augmented by a lot of student volunteerism), eventually expanding to a 24-hour operation with 25 employees. The station borrowed transmitter space from Springfield CBS affiliate KOLR (channel 10).
On June 1, 1986, KOZJ signed on from Joplin as KOZK's sister station. Its business offices are located in downtown Joplin, with its broadcasting equipment located at Missouri Southern State University. Prior to that station's sign-on, the Joplin/Pittsburg market had been one of the few markets in the United States that did not have a PBS member station of their own.
In 1990, the station moved its operations to the new Shewmaker Communications Center on the campus of Drury College. In 2001, the board agreed to sell the station to Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University); later that year, the station's operations moved to Strong Hall on the MSU campus. Two years later, in 2003, KOZK moved its transmitter facilities to a 1,980-foot (600 m) broadcast tower located on Switchgrass Road in rural southwestern Webster County (north of Fordland), which was donated to the university by KYTV station management.
On April 19, 2018, at about 9:32 a.m., the KOZK transmission tower collapsed as maintenance was being done on the structure. The maintenance involved upgrades to the transmitter in preparation for the station's upcoming allocation shift under the spectrum repack. The six-person maintenance crew employed with Columbia, South Carolina-based Tower Consultants Inc., who were working replacing crossbeams at about the 105-foot (32 m) mark of the tower as they began to realize that the tower had likely become structurally unstable, were vacated the tower shortly before it collapsed. One worker, 56-year-old Stephen Lamay, died from injuries sustained when he became trapped under the tower debris. Three other workers were transported to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries and were subsequently released.
Although KOZK's signal remains off the air, it continues to be available to Mediacom subscribers via a direct auxiliary feed transmitted by fiber optic to the cable provider; service was restored to AT&T U-verse and DirecTV customers by April 20, though (as of 23 April 2018[update]) KOZK remains unavailable on Dish Network. (The tower was also used by local NOAA Weather Radio station WXL46, whose signal also remains off-air.)[1][2][3][4]
Digital television
Digital channels
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP short name | Programming[5] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21.1 26.1 |
1080i | 16:9 | KOZK-HD KOZJ-HD |
Main KOZK/KOZJ programming / PBS |
| 21.2 26.2 |
480i | Kids | PBS Kids | |
| 21.3 26.3 |
Create | Create |
Analog-to-digital conversion
On June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television, Ozark Public Television shut down the analog transmitters of its two stations. Listed below are the post-transition channel allocations for each analog transmitter:[6][7]
- KOZK shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 13, on June 12. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 23; through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 21.
- KOZJ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 11, on June 12. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 25; through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 26.
As a part of the broadcast frequency repacking process following the 2016-2017 FCC incentive auction, KOZK will relocate its digital signal to UHF channel 23 to UHF 16 by the November 30, 2018 deadline for the first group of television stations designated for repacking to shift to new digital allocations; KOZJ will relocate its digital signal from UHF channel 25 to UHF 35 by the April 12, 2019 deadline for the second group of stations eligible for repacking to re-allocate. Using PSIP, KOZK will continue to display its virtual channel number as 21, while KOZJ will continue to display its virtual channel as 26[8]. As of September 1, 2018, KOZJ Joplin relocated to UHF channel 35.
References
- ^ Harrison Keegan; Giacomo Bologna (April 19, 2018). "1,980-foot TV tower collapse in Webster County; 1 dead, several injured, officials say". Springfield News-Leader. Gannett Company.
- ^ Frances Lin (April 20, 2018). "Following Tower Collapse: KOZK Restores Some Service". KOLR/KOZL-TV. Nexstar Media Group. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
- ^ John Eggerton (April 19, 2018). "Missouri TV Tower Collapses". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
- ^ "NOAA Weather radio alerts impacted by tower collapse in Fordland". KYTV. Gray Television. April 19, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
- ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for KOZK". RabbitEars. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
"RabbitEars TV Query for KOZJ". RabbitEars. Retrieved April 23, 2018. - ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "NAB Spectrum Repacking Clearinghouse". National Association of Broadcasters. Retrieved June 28, 2017.