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KCET

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KCET, channel 28, is a non-commercial educational, independent television station located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The station's studios are located in Burbank, California, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson. 

KCET was a charter member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) at its inception in 1970. The station was Southern California's flagship PBS member station until December 31, 2010, when it ended its partnership with PBS after 40 years to become the nation's largest independent public television station. KCET's management cited unresolvable financial and programming disputes among its major reasons for leaving PBS.[1]

For much of its time on air, KCET had broadcast from its studios in Hollywood until moving to new offices in Burbank's media district in 2012. The move has left CW affiliate KTLA (channel 5) as the last remaining radio or television broadcaster in that neighborhood as stations have moved on to other cities and neighborhoods in the region.

In October 2012, KCET announced that it was merging with non-commercial satellite network Link TV to form a new nonprofit entity, to be called "KCETLink" and headquartered in KCET's Burbank facilities; the merger is intended to also simulcast LinkTV on one of KCET's subchannels.[2]

Background

KCET 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 September 22, 1953.[3] 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. 

History

KCET first signed on the air on September 28, 1964 as an affiliate of National Educational Television (NET), with Jim Case heading all of the program direction. James Loper, a co-founder, served as the station's director of education from 1964 to 1966 and then vice president and general manager from 1966 to 1971.[4] Loper then became President of KCET from 1971 to 1983.[4][5] The stations initial funding came from the local stations: KNXT, KNBC, KHJ, KCOP AND KTTV. The station broadcasting then in black and white from Monday through Friday.[6]

In 1970, KCET became a charter member of PBS. For most of the next 40 years, it was the second most-watched PBS station in the country.

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

KCET's long time studios in Los Angeles.

Previously, KCET was headquartered in a historic area of Hollywood, used as a film and television studio from 1912 to 1970. KCET purchased the former Monogram Pictures property in 1971, assisted financially in part by both the Ford Foundation and the Michael Connell Foundation. The newest building was named the Weingart Educational Telecommunications Center and housed KCET's master control, digital control rooms, ingest, and editing stations on the first floor and engineering, new media operations, and news and public affairs on the second floor.

KCET originally planned to purchase the KOCE-TV PBS station together with the KOCE-TV Foundation from the Coast Community College District but dropped out previous to bidding.[7]

In 2004 as part of its image reclaiming public relation after the Gulf oil spill, BP started granting KCET half the funding for preschool shows including "A Place of Our Own" and "Los Ninos en Su Casa", a Spanish language version. The other half of the $50 million grants for the show and supporting outreach programs came from First 5 California plus additional funding from a secret donor. The show would win Peabody and local Emmy awards and be shown national over PBS. KCET renamed its production studio to BP Studios in thanks.[8]

In 2006, KCET launched a digital channel, KCET Desert Cities, for digital television and cable for the Coachella Valley. In September, KCET announced a similar channel for Orange County, KOCE's market, in partnership with California State University, Fullerton. The channels would be funded by area-specific pledge drives and area foundations and corporations partnerships.[7]

PBS included BP's and other grants for the pre-school shows in its complex progressive dues structures, while the grants could not be used for administrative costs. PBS dues previously were $4.9 million but with the grants included up the dues by 40% to close to $7 million. Other large funding sources were slowing funding thus could not be tapped to pay the dues. KCET request relieve from the due on the grants which PBS executives indicated PBS general anticipate and increase reserves to pay and would not grant special treatment to KCET. With the January 2010 1/2 year payment coming up, KCET offered to reducing their status to a secondary affiliation with a $1.3 million due with CPB paying $750,000 and a special campaign to raise the rest. PBS rejected the offer want the station to remain as the primary affiliate.[8]

A proposed Southern California consortium of PBS was proposed to be formed to unite various functions, certain programming, fundraising and marketing, to save money.[9]

Independent public station

On October 8, 2010, KCET announced that it could not reach an agreement to remain with PBS and would become an educational independent station on January 1, 2011. KCET joining the consortium was consider still on the table for the station to align itself with PBS.[9] KOCE-TV (channel 50), licensed to Huntington Beach in Orange County, replaced KCET as the area's primary PBS station.[10]

With the ending of PBS affiliation on January 1, 2011, KCET changed its subchannels:

  • .1 going independent,
  • .2 changing from KCET Orange to KCET Kids & Family,
  • .3 V-me continued,
  • .4 PBS World will be replaced by MHz Worldview and
  • KCET Desert Cities will be converted to KCET Kids & Family with its shows moving to KCET’s daytime lifestyle block.[11] KCET primary subchannel will have themed nights with the blocks being - Sunday: Hollywood and movies, Monday: action and travel, Tuesday: science, Wednesday: Drama, Thursday: grab-bag and Fridays: news. Kids' programming continued in the weekday mornings with two Henson show.[12]

On February 4, 2011, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined KCET $10,000 for failure to make its public file available for inspection by the general public. The fine stemmed from an incident on August 19, 2010, when an FCC agent, not identifying himself as such, told the security guard on duty that he would like to see the public file; the guard denied him access, as he was told that he would need to make an appointment. A return visit the following day (August 20) gave the same results. It was not until another visit that day that the agent was able to see the public file, but only after identifying himself as an FCC agent. According to the FCC document, the Executive Assistant for KCET explained that "the General Counsel of Station KCET was not in the office during those two days and that she did not know the exact organizational rules regarding public access to the station's public inspection file." The Security Supervisor also said that he was just following the station's security procedures. The FCC later levied the fine, citing that while security delays are reasonable, the fact that the examiner was unable to see the public file without an appointment and without identifying himself as an FCC agent led to the fine.[13]

On March 30, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that KCET was in negotiations to sell the Hollywood studio to the Church of Scientology, with KCET relocating to a smaller location following the sale, in light of KCET's sharp decreases in ratings and pledges following disaffiliation from PBS.[14] The sale of the property, which was sold for $45 million,[15] closed on April 25, 2011, with part of the proceeds going towards KCET's leasing of the studios[15] until new facilities were found.[16][17] KCET relocated to a new complex in a high-rise state-of-the art building, The Pointe, in April 2012, located in Burbank.[15] At the end of the 2011 Fiscal Year, contributions and grants to KCET decreased even further, down 41% from the previous year to $22.3 million.[15]

In October 2012, KCET announced it was merging with San Francisco-based Link Media to form KCETLink, a single 501(c)(3) multimedia organization, based in Burbank. KCETLink reaches a much wider broadcast audience that includes Link Media's 33 million subscribers on DirecTV and Dish Network, and KCET’s 5.6 million households in Southern and Central California.[18] Link's feed on Cable/Satellite was renamed KCETLINK and replaced KCET Kids & Family on subchannel 28.2.[citation needed]

On July 9, 2013, NHK World was selected as the replacement for MHz Worldview on subchannel 28.4. (MHz Worldview moved to a subchannel of KLCS-DT.)[19]

On September 10, 2014, it was announced that after negotiations with the Los Angeles Unified School District, owners of PBS member station KLCS, KCET and KLCS will 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 will retain separate licenses.[20][21] Earlier in the year, KLCS had participated in a trial of channel sharing with KJLA.[22][23][24][25]

On January 5th, 2015, former ABC Family boss Michael Riley is announced as the new CEO of KCETLINK, replacing Al Jerome who exited in March 2014.[26]

Programming

While being the flagship PBS station for the Pacific Time Zone, KCET was not a major producer of PBS programming.[27] It produced the acclaimed Carl Sagan series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage from 1978 to 1979. KCET produced or presented Hollywood Television Theater, Trying Times, and the Hispanic family drama American Family for PBS, and 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.

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 was produced at the KCET lot, until its effective cancellation in 2013 following the death of Howser.

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.

On December 9, 2010, KCET announced its new program schedule after its disaffiliation from PBS in 2011. Programming included movies; travel, science, and drama programs, Britcoms and news programs, as the station maintains their relationship with program syndicators American Public Television and NETA, among others, which allow non-PBS stations to air their programming. Some of the programs that were announced and/or continued on the new lineup include Globe Trekker, Rick Steves' Europe, Burt Wolf: Travels and Traditions, The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, The McLaughlin Group, Inside Washington, BBC World News, Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By, Visiting With Huell Howser,[28] and KCET's newsmagazine, SoCal Connected.[29]

KCET's 2012 schedule included Open Call a weekly series showcasing arts and culture in Southern California hosted by opera singer Suzanna Guzmán; expansion of its interview program, LA Tonight with Roy Firestone; Your Turn to Care, a four-part documentary about caregivers hosted by Holly Robinson Peete; the BBC crime drama Inspector George Gently; the British ITV dramedy, Doc Martin; and Classic Cool Theater, a showcase of classic films, cartoons and newsreels.[15]

Digital television

All KCET programs are produced in high definition and the station's main channel is transmitted in 720p.

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[30]
28.1 720p 16:9 KCET-HD Main KCET programming
28.2 480i KCETLnk KCET Link
28.3 4:3 KCET-Vm V-me
28.4 16:9 N H K NHK World

In 2000, KCET signed on a digital signal on UHF channel 59. For its first seven years operating a digital signal from 2000 to 2007, 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 analog channel 28 (which was initially operated on digital subchannel 28.2 and was later replaced with "KCET Orange"), as was 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 was 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.

On June 12, 2009, KCET shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 28, as part of the digital transition in the United States. It had been broadcasting its pre-transition digital signal over UHF channel 59, from which it relocated to its former analog UHF channel 28, due to UHF channels 52-69 being removed from broadcasting use as part of the transition to digital television.

On January 1, 2011, with the suspension of its active membership in PBS, 28.2 became "KCET Kids and Family" airing mostly children's programs, 28.3 remained V-me (which operates independently of PBS), and 28.4 began airing MHz Worldview. The former had 28.2 as KCET Orange and 28.4 as PBS World. In March 2013, KCET Kids and Family was replaced with KCETLink, simulcasting LinkTV-licensed content.

On August 5, 2013, KCET dropped [1] MHz Worldview;[31] it was replaced by NHK World.

Other ventures and partnerships

One of KCET's multicast channels was digital subchannel network "KCET Orange", which aired on subchannel 28.2 until the January 2011 PBS dismembership, and the majority of Southern California digital cable systems. The network aired programs like Life and Times, plus additional arts and cultural programming tailored to Orange County.

Another KCET digital cable channel was KCET Desert Cities, which was available to Time Warner Cable subscribers in the Palm Springs/Coachella Valley area until the January 2011 PBS dismembership.[citation needed] It was carried on TWC channel 218, and its programming schedule differed from the main Los Angeles signal.

In 2006, KCET established a partnership with California State University, Fullerton. The signature program offering resulting from the partnership was the public-affairs show "OC Insight", which aired through 2011 when the partnership ended. Students and faculty from the university's College of Communications were integral to the show's production. Jeffrey D. Cook, the university's chief communications officer, served as executive producer of OC Insight during the show's final two years.

KCET offered their studio facilities to commercial productions to provide themselves an additional stream of revenue. The former Hollywood facility has been used mainly for the productions of the Game Show Network, including 2007's Camouflage and the 2010 revival of The Newlywed Game. KCET's studios also hosted the MTV game show webRIOT and the California Lottery's Saturday evening programs, The Big Spin and Make Me a Millionaire. KCET sold the studio facilities in 2012 to aid with their financial restructuring.

Rebroadcasters

KCET utilizes several repeaters to extend its coverage:

Call sign Analog channel Digital channel City of License Ownership Notes
K16FC-D no 16 San Luis Obispo KCET originally on channel 15 as K15BD, displaced for KSBY-DT
K26FT-D no 26 Santa Barbara KCET
K28GY-D no 28 Santa Barbara, etc. KCET
K46II-D no 46 Bakersfield KCET
K47CC-D 47 no Victorville KCET
K14AT-D 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-D no 51 Ridgecrest Indian Wells Valley TV Booster

APT Shows

Current Kids Programs

Current Prime Time Programs

  • France 24
  • Journal
  • BBC World News America
  • Nightly Business Report
  • BBC World News
  • Newsline
  • Visiting with Huell Howser
  • Rick Steve's Europe
  • Father Brown
  • Doc Martin

Former Programs

References

  1. ^ Collins, Scott (October 8, 2010). "Los Angeles PBS affiliate KCET exits network fold to go independent". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  2. ^ Collins, Scott (October 17, 2012). "KCET announces merger with satellite network Link TV". Los Angeles Times.
  3. ^ "Telecasting Yearbook 1954-55" (PDF). Broadcasting Telecasting: 64. 1954. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  4. ^ a b "R.I.P. James Loper". Deadline.com. 2013-07-11. Retrieved 2013-08-05.
  5. ^ Nelson, Valerie J. (2013-07-10). "James L. Loper dies at 81; helped make KCET a public broadcasting power". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-08-05.
  6. ^ Stein, Jeannine (June 16, 1989). "R.S.V.P. : Black-Tie Gala Helps KCET Celebrate 25 Years on the Air". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  7. ^ a b Berthelsen, Christian (September 21, 2006). "KCET Plans Channel With O.C. Content". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  8. ^ a b Collins, Scott (October 22, 2010). "How $50 million in donations led KCET to split from PBS". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  9. ^ a b Collins, Scott (October 8, 2010). "Los Angeles affiliate KCET is leaving the PBS network". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  10. ^ Larsen, Peter (October 8, 2010). "KOCE takes over as top PBS station after KCET cuts ties with network". The Orange County Register. Retrieved October 10, 2010.
  11. ^ Villarreal, Yvonne (December 28, 2010). "KCET announces digital channel lineup". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  12. ^ Collins, Scott (December 28, 2010). "KCET divides new programming lineup into themed blocks". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  13. ^ "NOTICE OF APPARENT LIABILITY FOR FORFEITURE: In the Matter of Community Television of Southern California, Licensee of Noncommercial Educational TV Station KCET, Los Angeles, California, Facility ID. No. 13058". Federal Communications Commission. February 4, 2011. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  14. ^ Vincent, Roger; Collins, Scott (March 30, 2011). "KCET-TV said to be in talks to sell landmark studio to Church of Scientology". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
  15. ^ a b c d e Collins, Scott (February 9, 2012). "Funding down 41% at KCET". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  16. ^ "Church of Scientology Acquires Hollywood Studio Facility" (Press release). PRWeb. April 25, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  17. ^ "KCET Sells Production Studios To Church Of Scientology". CBS Los Angeles. April 25, 2011. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  18. ^ Collins, Scott (October 17, 2012). "KCET announces merger with satellite network Link TV". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  19. ^ Alumia, Angelica. "KCETLink Partners with NHK WORLD TV to Launch 24-Hour Channel in Southern California". KCET. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  20. ^ "KCET, KLCS In Channel-Sharing Partnership". TVNewsCheck. 10 September 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  21. ^ "KCET, KLCS to Share Channel and Give Up Spectrum for Auction". Variety. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  22. ^ "FCC Grants STA for L.A. Spectrum Sharing". TV Technology. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  23. ^ "TV Stations in Los Angeles to Share a Channel to Free Up Spectrum". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  24. ^ "LA trial finds that broadcasters can share their TV channels". Gigaom. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  25. ^ "Overview of the KLCS/KJLA Channel Sharing Pilot — A Technical Report" (PDF). Alan Popkin, Director of Television Engineering & Technical Operations, KLCS-TV, Los Angeles
    Roger Knipp, Broadcast Engineer, KLCS-TV, Los Angeles
    Eddie Hernandez, Director of Operations & Engineering, KJLA-TV    . Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  26. ^ Collins, Scott. "KCET taps former ABC Family boss Michael Riley as new CEO". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  27. ^ Maerz, Melissa; Collins, Scott (December 26, 2010). "Why KCET never became a major player in the PBS network". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  28. ^ Williams, Cathy (December 9, 2010). "KCET Announces New Program Schedule" (Press release). KCET. Retrieved December 13, 2010.
  29. ^ "SoCal Connected". KCET. Retrieved February 28, 2013.
  30. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for KCET
  31. ^ MHz Networks Blog, retrieved August 7, 2013
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