KQED (TV)
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| KQED | |
|---|---|
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| San Francisco, California | |
| Branding | KQED |
| Channels | Analog: 9 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 9.1 HD 9.2 Life/Encore 9.3 World 9.4 V-me 9.5 Kids |
| Translators | KQET ch.25 analog / ch.58 digital, Watsonville/Monterey/Salinas, California |
| Affiliations | PBS |
| Owner | Northern California Public Broadcasting, Inc. |
| First air date | 1954 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Quod Erat Demonstrandum |
| Sister station(s) | KQED-FM |
| Former affiliations | NET (1954-1970) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 777 kW (digital) |
| Height | 509 m (analog) 437 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 35500 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.kqed.org |
KQED is a PBS-member station in San Francisco, California, broadcasting on VHF channel 9. This channel is also carried on Comcast cable TV and via satellite by DirecTV and Dish Network. Its transmitter is located on Sutro Tower in San Francisco.
Noteworthy KQED television productions include the first installment of Armistead Maupin's miniseries Tales of the City, Tongues Untied by Marlon Riggs, and a series of programs focusing on the historic neighborhoods in San Francisco, such as The Castro and The Fillmore District. Ongoing productions include The Josh Kornbluth Show, California Connected, Check, Please! Bay Area, Spark, This Week in Northern California and QUEST[1].
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[edit] History
KQED was organized and created by veteran broadcast journalists James Day and Jonathan Rice June 1, 1953 and first went on air April 5, 1954. It was the sixth public broadcasting station in the United States, debuting shortly after WQED in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station's call letters, Q.E.D., literally translated from the Latin phrase, quod erat demonstrandum, mean: which was to be demonstrated.
KQED Television had a sister station, KQEC, which broadcast on Channel 32. KQED had inherited the station in 1970 (as KNEW-TV) from Metromedia, but found they could not profitably operate it. Various PBS and locally produced programs from KQED would air erratically and at different times of the day on KQEC. In 1988, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revoked KQED's license to operate KQEC citing excessive off-air time, further charging dishonesty in previous filings with regard to the specific reasons. The alleged dishonesty was in reference to KQED's claim of financial woe's for keeping KQEC off the air for most of 1972 through 1977, and again for several months in 1979 and 1980. After being pulled from KQED, the reassigned license was granted to the Minority Television Project (MTP), one of the challengers of the KQED/KQEC filing.[2] KQEC was re-branded KMTP-TV under the new license.
On May 1, 2006, KQED, Inc. and the KTEH Foundation merged to form Northern California Public Broadcasting.[3] The KQED assets including its television (KQED TV) and FM radio stations (KQED-FM) were taken under the umbrella of that new organization. Both remain members of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR), respectively.
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Televising executions
During the early 1990s, when the State of California reinstituted the death penalty, the KQED organization waged a highly controversial legal battle for the right to televise the forthcoming execution of Robert Alton Harris at San Quentin State Prison.[4] The decision to pursue the videotaping of executions was controversial amongst those on both sides of the capital punishment debate;[5] contemporary reports noted that a number of KQED's members (primarily families throughout the Bay Area) dropped their financial support for the station, intending for their charitable contributions to KQED to support programs such as Sesame Street rather than legal fees.[citation needed]
[edit] Tales of the City
KQED was co-producer of the television adaptation of Armistead Maupin's novel, Tales of the City, which aired on PBS stations nationwide in January 1994. The six-part miniseries stirred controversy over the gay themes, nudity and illicit drug use in this fictional portrayal of life in 1970s San Francisco. The controversy led to calls from the public to cancel the series, a bomb threat at WTCI in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which forced that station to pull the program an hour before airtime, and threats from state and federal governments to cut funding for the network and its stations. Although the program gave PBS its highest ratings ever for a dramatic program, the network decided to forgo participation in the production of an adaptation of the second book in the series, More Tales of the City.
[edit] Digital television
KQED-DT is an ATSC digital television signal broadcast over channel 30 from Sutro Tower available over-the-air with a digital tuner, or through digital cable service from Comcast.[6] With either, there is an offering of five sub-channels:
- KQED HD on DT9.1 / 30.1 (Comcast 709)
- KQED Life-Encore on DT9.2 / 30.2 (Comcast 189)
- KQED World on DT9.3 / 30.3 (Comcast 190)
- V-Me on DT9.4 / 30.4 (Comcast 191)
- KQED Kids on DT9.5 / 30.5 (Comcast 192)
[edit] KQET
KQED's television programming is repeated in the the Monterey/Salinas/Santa Cruz market on KQET, analog channel 25 and digital channel 58, licensed to Watsonville.
KQET was founded in 1989 as KCAH, a locally-owned PBS member station that served the Monterey area.
In the late 1990s, San Jose PBS member station KTEH acquired KCAH, becoming a satellite of KTEH.
KCAH changed its call letters to KQET on August 12, 2007, months after the merger of KQED and KTEH. On October 1, 2007, KQET switched programming sources from KTEH to KQED.[7]
[edit] Radio
[edit] Publishing
In 1955, KQED began publishing a programming guide called KQED in Focus. The program guide began to add more articles and took on the character of a regular magazine. The name was later changed to Focus Magazine and then to San Francisco Focus.[8] In 1984, a new programming guide, Fine Tuning was separated off from Focus, with Focus carrying on as a self-contained magazine.[9] In the early 1990s, San Francisco Focus was the recipient of number of journalism and publishing awards, including a National Headliner Award for feature writing in 1993. In 1997, KQED sold San Francisco Focus to Diablo Publications in order to pay off debts.[10] In 2005, San Francisco Focus was resold to Modern Luxury Media, who rebranded the magazine as simply San Francisco.[11]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.kqed.org/quest/about
- ^ Alex Friend. "FCC revokes license for San Francisco public TV station KQEC", Current.org, 11 May 1988. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
- ^ KQED Pressroom (2 May 2006). "KQED, Inc. and KTEH Foundation Form New Broadcast Organization". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
- ^ Michael Schwarz. Witness to an execution. Indiana University School of Journalism. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
- ^ Jill Smolowe. "The Ultimate Horror Show", TIME Magazine, 3 June 1991. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
- ^ Comcast San Francisco Channel Lineup. Comcast. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
- ^ KQET Fall 2007 Schedule (2006). Retrieved on October 16, 2007.
- ^ "About KQED: The 1950s", KQED.com.
- ^ "About KQED: The 1980s", KQED.com.
- ^ "About KQED: The 1990s", KQED.com.
- ^ "San Francisco magazine re-launches in a new format that redefines city and luxury magazine publishing" (press release), Modern Luxury Media, October 18, 2005.
[edit] External links
- KQED Official website
- California Connected Official website
- This Week in Northern California Official website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KQED
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KQED-TV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KQET
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KQET-TV
- KQED-TV (analog) coverage map
- KQED-DT (digital) coverage map
- Forum discusses proposed changes to KQED's bylaws, which would eliminate members' voting rights.
- Results of Member Elections include the elimination of their voting rights
- KQED Workers Authorize Strike
- Programming information
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