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KIXE-TV
CityRedding, California
Channels
BrandingKIXE PBS
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerNorthern California Educational Television Association, Inc.
History
First air date
October 5, 1964 (59 years ago) (1964-10-05)
Former call signs
KIXE (CP, 1963–1964)[1]
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 9 (VHF, 1964–2008)
  • Digital: 18 (UHF, 2004–2008)
NET (1964–1970)
Call sign meaning
IX (Roman numeral 9) and Education[2]
Technical information[3]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID47285
ERP15 kW
HAAT1,091 m (3,579 ft)
Transmitter coordinates40°36′8.5″N 122°39′5″W / 40.602361°N 122.65139°W / 40.602361; -122.65139
Translator(s)see § Translators
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.kixe.org

KIXE-TV (channel 9) is a PBS member television station in Redding, California, United States, serving the northern Sacramento Valley. The station is owned by the Northern California Educational Television Association. KIXE's studios are located along North Market Street on the north side of Redding, and its transmitter is located atop Shasta Bally.

History

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Foundation and early years

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The Northern California Educational Television Association was formed in March 1953 to prepare an application for educational television in the far north of the state, including Butte, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity counties.[4] The association was largely inactive until 1961, after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved to assign channel 9 to Redding for commercial use. With the backing of the commercial stations in Redding and Chico (KVIP-TV and KHSL-TV), it began the process of compiling an application to use it as an educational station.[5]

Commercial interests also sought the new channel 9. The Redding-Chico Television Company was formed in April 1961 to apply for the new station,[6] It contended that a previous attempt by KVIP-TV and KHSL-TV's owners to move channel 9 to Susanville amounted to a bid to block further competition and claimed a fourth VHF channel could also be assigned,[7] though the educators believed that channel 11 could only cover Redding.[8] In the meantime, the Northern California Educational Television Association formally applied for channel 9 on June 21, 1961.[9]

The FCC rejected the channel 11 proposal in November 1961,[10] but channel 9 remained unadjudicated. When the association threatened to drop the case because it lacked money to pay lawyers in Washington, KVIP and KHSL contributed the funds, a move met with disdain by the Redding-Chico Television group.[11] The case reached comparative hearing at the FCC in January 1963,[12] but shortly after, stockholders in Redding-Chico formed Sacramento Valley Television and moved to buy KVIP-TV, dropping their channel 9 application in the process.[13]

On October 10, 1963, an FCC hearing examiner granted the construction permit, finding that the association had made an adequate showing of their financial resources.[14] The group struggled with fundraising issues and deadlines that were tighter owing to the commercial classification of the channel.[15] The station was assigned the call sign KIXE-TV, consisting of the Roman numeral IX (nine) and an E for education.[2] To get the station on the air, the association opted to cut back most of its plans for the first year and operate the new station as a satellite station of KVIE, the public television station in Sacramento, with no local programming.[16] Later, a deal was reached with Chico State College to house a temporary studio and limited local programming facilities.[17]

With the broadcast of the in-school children's program Let's Figure, KIXE-TV began on October 5, 1964.[18] Using a transmitter borrowed from channel 7 (now KRCR-TV),[19] it provided educational television to nearly 20,000 students in 22 districts in four counties.[20]

In its first year, KIXE-TV only operated during the day, and it went off the air entirely when school let out for the summer.[19] In March 1965, it made a special evening telecast of a state senatorial debate,[21] Its next evening broadcast was a televised auction, partially simulcast by KRCR-TV and KHSL-TV and produced by the latter station, to raise funds.[22] After the auction, the station began airing regular evening programming.[23] The station moved from Chico State to facilities in Redding in 1967, first at 1304 East Street[24] and then to a converted meat locker[25] at 825 Industrial Street after a second move in 1972. This gave the station its own studio for the first time.[26] In 1971, the station obtained a new transmitter, enabling it to broadcast in color.[27]

Attempted relocation to Chico

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The 1972 studio on Industrial Street utilized black-and-white production equipment on permanent loan from Shasta College in Redding, which in turn received use of the studio for its academic courses. By 1974, the station was considering moving to the Shasta College campus, enabling it to utilize the resources of its telecommunications program while maintaining autonomy.[27] The college's board of trustees approved a deal in January 1975,[28] but the move was called off after the California state government cut funding to community colleges.[29]

As a result, KIXE-TV began talking with Chico State University about relocation. Chico State had just opened a new, color-capable television studio in the new Learning Activities Resource Center, and the two institutions had an ongoing relationship dating back to channel 9's launch. While the facility would be available to KIXE rent-free and provide synergies with Chico State's academic programs and cost savings and improved access to Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants, the station would have to relocate most of its operation from Redding to Chico. Concerns were raised about the potential loss of autonomy of KIXE-TV vis-a-vis Chico State over time and the loss of a cultural resource in Redding.[29][30] The latter was echoed by civic leaders in Redding, including the city council, and by volunteers who feared the loss of equity built up from years in Redding.[31]

The nine-member board of directors of the Northern California Educational Television Association approved the move to Chico on November 16, 1976, on a 5–1 vote.[32][25] When three vacancies came up on the board, opponents of the move were successful in electing their slate of candidates, and an additional vacancy was filled by the appointment of a Redding woman.[33] As a result, move opponents held a 5–4 majority[32] and voted by that margin to reverse the move decision in September 1977. The three pro-Chico directors walked out after the vote[34] and generally refused to open the issue.[35]

New studios in Redding

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In the early 1980s, KIXE-TV management began to analyze the expansion or relocation of the station's studios in Redding.[36] This activity came to fruition after Victor Hogstrom left a cable-only public TV station in Rockford, Illinois, to direct channel 9 in 1983.[37] KIXE acquired a building on North Market Street (State Route 273) in Redding in April 1985. That November, work began to convert the building into new studios for KIXE-TV, larger than the former meat locker on Industrial. The facility was completed in December 1986 thanks to a mix of viewer donations and federal equipment grants, with naming rights having been sold to rooms including the lunch room and broom closet.[38]

During the Hogstrom years, KIXE-TV emerged as one of the best-supported public TV stations in the nation by its small audience, with the highest per-capita viewership in California and seventh in the U.S. Membership more than doubled from 7,000 to 15,000 in 1991, when Hogstrom departed to run WTCI in Chattanooga, Tennessee.[39] It grew to 26 full-time staff and a local programming output of 25 hours a year, including specials such as the Red Bluff Roundup and Shasta Dixieland Jazz Festival.[40] However, the final year of Hogstrom's management proved challenging. After his departure for Chattanooga, it was revealed that he had concealed information about KIXE-TV's finances from its board and had tussled with the board president. An independent audit completed in February 1991, a month after Hogstrom left, warned that the station's poor cash flow and high expenses threatened to send it into "liquidation status" within months. Station employees said they were afraid to tell Hogstrom about financial issues because they feared retribution, with one calling him an "intimidating man".[39] The station laid off 35 percent of its staff in response to the loss it recorded in 1990.[41]

Over the years, KIXE has featured numerous local media personalities, including Cal Hunter, Mike Mangas, Ray Roberts, and Ken Murray.

Technical information

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Subchannels

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The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KIXE-TV[42]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
9.1 720p 16:9 KIXE-DT Main KIXE-TV programming / PBS
9.2 480i CREATE Create
9.3 WORLD

Chico fill-in translator

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Viewers in Chico, Paradise, Oroville, Magalia, Orland, and surrounding areas who had originally had trouble receiving KIXE's digital signal from Redding began to notice a substantial improvement with a new fill-in transmitter on Cohasset Ridge that went online on September 21.[when?] The 4,000-watt transmitter is located 200 feet up on a transmission tower and rebroadcasts KIXE's regular programming lineup as well as the CREATE channel. The transmitter is broadcast on their pre-transition UHF channel 18, but digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as channel 9.[citation needed]

Analog-to-digital conversion

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KIXE-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 9, on August 18, 2008. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 18 to VHF channel 9.[43] Translators finally converted on September 1.

Early switch

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KIXE is currently broadcasting in a digital format on VHF channel 9. The exclusive digital broadcast began August 22, 2008, well before the then planned transition date in 2009. The early switch was mainly due to the transmission location being covered with snow on the original switchover mandate of February 2009.[44] KIXE became the second all-digital PBS station in California, after KCSM-TV in San Mateo (which serves the San Francisco Bay Area).

Translators

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The cities served by translators (except Big Bend) had cable headends nearby.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ "FCC History Cards for KIXE-TV".
  2. ^ a b "Educational TV Programs From Chico State". The Dunsmuir News. Dunsmuir, California. March 12, 1964. p. 13. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KIXE-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  4. ^ "Group Seeks Educational TV for Area". Record-Searchlight. Redding, California. March 6, 1953. p. 2. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Educational TV station in works". Record-Searchlight. Redding, California. January 20, 1961. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Newly formed TV net seeks Redding outlet". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. Associated Press. April 29, 1961. p. 9. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Room for all: 4th TV channel may be available". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. June 6, 1961. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Educational TV Group Wary of Channel 11 Story". Enterprise-Record. Chico, California. June 9, 1961. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Education TV group seeks channel 9". Record-Searchlight. Redding, California. June 22, 1961. p. 7. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "FCC postpones decision on education TV channel". Record-Searchlight. Redding, California. November 16, 1961. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "KVIP, KHSL save educational TV by giving $8,250 to pay lawyers". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. October 3, 1962. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Hearing begins on Redding TV". Record-Searchlight. Redding, California. Associated Press. January 9, 1963. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Hearing on Channel 9 Is Held in Washington". Red Bluff Tehama County Daily News. Red Bluff, California. March 21, 1963. p. 10. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "State may not grant funds for educational TV station". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. October 31, 1963. p. 9. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Educational TV station misses building deadline". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. January 29, 1964. p. 3. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Educational TV may go on air in August". Record-Searchlight. Redding, California. June 25, 1964. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Starmer Named to Head Educational TV Channel". Enterprise-Record. Chico, California. July 22, 1964. p. 3A. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Channel 9 to begin TV broadcasts on Monday". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. October 3, 1964. p. 13. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ a b Asbury, William (June 7, 1965). "Educational TV fund drive lags". Record-Searchlight. Redding, California. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "For ETV Channel: 'Dish' Atop CSC Building Cause of Many Comments". Enterprise-Record. Chico, California. October 17, 1964. p. 10B. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ "Candidates Will Be on Channel 9 Sunday Evening". Enterprise-Record. Chico, California. March 11, 1965. p. 3A. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "KIXE auctioneers raise $5,000, Larner says". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. August 28, 1965. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Pacific Teletronics Will Move Channel 9's Signal". Enterprise-Record. Chico, California. August 23, 1965. p. 5A. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "New KIXE Studio". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. August 26, 1967. p. Magazine 13. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ a b Lawson, John (September 21, 1977). "KIXE began broadcasting first in Chico". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. pp. 1, 2. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "Moving day at KIXE". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. August 28, 1972. p. 13. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ a b Bentley, Clyde (October 5, 1974). "Channel 9 celebrates 10th birthday in October". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. pp. Magazine 12, 13. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ "KIXE Moves To Shasta College Site". The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, California. January 28, 1975. p. B2. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ^ a b Sanders, Garth (March 30, 1976). "KIXE considers move to Chico". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. p. 1. Retrieved September 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ^ Fineberg, Gail (September 4, 1976). "KIXE directors explore move". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. pp. 1, 4, 8. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ Fineberg, Gail (September 10, 1976). "KIXE vows full airing of Chico move". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. p. 15. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ^ a b Lawson, John (July 30, 1977). "KIXE crux: Local programming". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. p. 15. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ^ Lawson, John (May 24, 1977). "Move foes elect three directors to KIXE board". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. p. 9. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  34. ^ Lawson, John (September 28, 1977). "Three directors resign: Redding keeps KIXE". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. pp. 1, 3. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  35. ^ Lawson, John (September 29, 1977). "Posey: Chico faction won't fight KIXE decision". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. p. 1. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  36. ^ Crowe, John (February 3, 1981). "KIXE's manager tunes in to funding". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. p. 39. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  37. ^ Miller, Bill (September 20, 1983). "KIXE manager views potential". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. p. D-1. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  38. ^ Lease, Betty (March 5, 1987). "Fund-raiser Clicks: KIXE-TV builds on community support". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. p. B-9. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  39. ^ a b "KIXE looks inward as healing efforts begin". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. February 17, 1991. pp. A-1, A-12. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  40. ^ Lease, Betty (November 19, 1988). "Hogstrom gets high ratings as KIXE general manager". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. p. TC-1A. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. ^ Farrell, Ed (March 9, 1991). "North state public TV station on the rebound". Enterprise-Record. Chico, California. p. 3A. Retrieved September 5, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  42. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for KIXE
  43. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  44. ^ KIXE has gone digital Trinity Journal August 27, 2008
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