SOPTV

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KSYS / KFTS
KSYS: Medford, Oregon KFTS: Klamath Falls, Oregon
Branding	SOPTV
Slogan	"Connecting Our Community"
Channels	KSYS: 8 (VHF) KFTS: 22 (UHF) analog, KSYS: 42 (UHF) KFTS: 33 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	PBS
Owner	Southern Oregon Public Television, Inc.
Founded	KSYS: January 17, 1977 KFTS: March 1989
Website	www.soptv.org

Southern Oregon Public Television is the PBS member for most of Oregon south and east of the Williamette Valley. It operates KSYS, channel 8 in Medford and KFTS, channel 22 in Klamath Falls.

In 1965, Oregon Educational Broadcasting, forerunner of Oregon Public Broadcasting, persuaded the FCC to reassign channel 8 to from Brookings to Medford. OEB intended to make channel 8 the third station in its television network, which at that time included flagship KOAC-TV in Corvallis and KOAP-TV (now KOPB-TV) in Portland. Southern Oregon was the only region of the state without public television. However, OEB backed out after a protracted battle with several commercial applicants. The license eventually went to Liberty Television, owners of KEZI-TV in Eugene.

However, the owners of the two commercial stations in the area--Bill Smullin of KTVM-TV (now KOBI) and Ray Johnson of KMED-TV (now KTVL) helped a new nonprofit corporation, Southern Oregon Educational Company, buy the channel 8 construction permit from Liberty. They also pledged payments of $50,000 once the station signed on. Getting the funds to sign on proved more difficult than expected. With the FCC permit about to run out, KSYS went on the air on January 17, 1977 with the strongest signal of any station in the region, at 191,000 watts. This was still not enough to cover Klamath Falls, and SOEC (later renamed Southern Oregon Public Television, Inc.) immediately applied for another station to cover that region. However, it took 12 more years before KFTS went on the air.

The two stations are the only public television stations in the state not affiliated with OPB, but occasionally air some of OPB's programs.

[edit] External links

• SOPTV website
• History of Television in Southern Oregon
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KSYS
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KFTS

Broadcast television in the Medford/Klamath Falls market  (Nielsen DMA #141)
Medford: KOBI 5 (NBC) - KSYS 8 (PBS/SOPTV) - KTVL 10 (CBS/The CW on DT2) - KDRV 12 (ABC) - KMCW 14 (TEL) - KMVU 26 (FOX) - K28GG 28 (AS) - KBLN 30 (3ABN) - K39EF 39 (HSN) - KFBI 48 (i/MNTV) - K57EK 57 (TBN)
Klamath Falls: KOTI 2 (NBC) - K07PU 7 (CBS) - KFTS 22 (PBS/SOPTV) - KDKF 31 (ABC) - K39DP 39 (HSN) - K41ID 41 (i/MNTV) - K44DZ 44 (FOX) - K48HV 48 (3ABN) - K58BG 58 (TBN)
Brookings: K07JT 7 (NBC) - K10LR 10 (CBS) - K18EP 18 (PBS/SOPTV) - K31GP 31 (FOX) - K36HM 36 (ABC) - KBSC 49 (A1) - K57GP 57 (3ABN)
Local cable television channels
KMFD cable 11 (The CW)