24hrkpop

24hrkpop, also known as KPOP-TV, is a television channel which airs on KMTP, channel 32-6, and on KMMC channel 40-2, and is located in San Francisco, California, USA. 24hrkpop is a Terrestrial Broadcaster, with coverage that includes San Francisco, CA, USA and Silicon Valley, CA, USA, and covers over 2.5 million households. Broadcast from a state-of-the-art facility in San Francisco, programming content is focused on K-POP music, videos, culture, fashion, shopping, K-Drama, and all things Hallyu. 24hrkpop's main programs are music videos but the channel occasionally features local Asian Community events, celebrity interviews, news coverage, and prize giveaways.

24hrkpop airs some content sourced from Korean Broadcaster Arirang. These programs include Showbiz Korea, Pops in Seoul, The Innerview, Simply KPOP, and After School Club. 24hrkpop also airs locally produced programming which includes KPOP Time, Non-Stop KPOP, and smaller pieces such as Featured Artists and a K-pop dance series called KPOP Dance. 24hrkpop also has a local community news program that includes coverage of events such as the Northern California Cherry Blossom Queen Program and local Korean community events such as the Korean Culture Festival at Union Square. 24hrkpop also features K-Drama reviews by its staff, Korean Language segments, and TV specials such as the San Francisco KPOP Competition Preliminaries and the hour long KCON TV Specials.

Overview

The main KPOP-TV transmitter is located at Sutro Tower in San Francisco. The Sutro Tower reaches a height of 977’ and is considered by the FCC to be the most complicated broadcast facility in the United States. It is located in the best physical location for a TV broadcast site in the entire San Francisco Bay Area.

Terrestrial coverage ranges from Sonoma County, San Jose, Fremont, and Hayward. With viewership that stretches beyond Sacramento as well, 24hrKPOP reaches approximately 2.5 million homes throughout the Bay Area.

Though KPOP-TV airs mostly programs from Arirang, 24hrkpop also features its own productions such as KPOP Time, Non-Stop KPOP, and Dance KPOP. KPOP-TV productions typically include "VJ"s, staff members that introduce music videos, conduct interviews, essentially anything on-screen produced by KPOP-TV.

History

CEO Kelly Quan, a broadcaster with over 40 years in the Entertainment industry, started 24hrkpop "...to introduce K-POP entertainment to the US market and to bring a level of understanding of the music and culture..."^[1]

KPOP-TV first went on the air on May 16, 2012. KPOP-TV started its 24-hour programming in January 2012 with technical trials to ensure that the programming would be uninterrupted and reliable from the first day that it went live. During this period, all technical and programming needs were tested, evaluated, and refined to ensure that the first day of live broadcast would reflect a high standard of quality and reliability.

KPOP-TV first programming consisted of music videos and programming supplied from Korean Broadcaster Arirang. The programs ran 24 hours a day with no local host in a radio style music rotation.

Within a month after first going on air, VJ Bekki was introduced as VJ of the show KPOP-TIME, an hour long show featuring K-pop music videos. Her involvement included development of the current format of the show in addition to research and writing background material and scripts for the show. She was the first VJ to go beyond just introducing music videos and would discuss the background of the artists while adding in discussions of Korean culture in the hopes of making the viewing experience more enjoyable to the audience.

Other VJs appeared as hosts or guest hosts on the show starting mid 2013 and were added to the VJ lineup.

References