KCET, channel 28, is an independent, non-commercial public television station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KCET's studio is located on West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is atop Mount Wilson. Al Jerome is the current CEO and president, serving since 1996.

KCET was a charter member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) at its inception in 1970. The station was Los Angeles's main PBS affiliate until December 31, 2010, when it ended its partnership with PBS after 40 years. KCET's management cited unresolvable financial and programming disputes among its major reasons for leaving PBS.^[1] KOCE-TV (channel 50), licensed to Huntington Beach, Orange County, replaced KCET as the area's primary PBS affiliate.^[2]

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

History[link]

KCET signed on September 28, 1964 as an affiliate of National Educational Television, or NET, with Jim Case heading all of the program direction. It 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. 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 Daystar Television Network in 2003, which made an unsuccessful bid to purchase Orange County public television station KOCE.

KCET is located 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 is named the Weingart Educational Telecommunications Center which houses 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.

As of 2011, Al Jerome is the president and CEO.

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

On October 8, 2010, KCET announced that it could not reach an agreement to remain with PBS and would become an independent television service as of January 1, 2011. In a letter to viewers, board chairman Gordon Bava said that PBS wanted KCET to pay $7 million for its programming — more than double what KOCE was paying.^[4]

On March 30, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that KCET was in negotiations to sell the 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 dismembership from PBS.^[5] The sale of the property, which was sold for $45 million,^[6] closed on April 25, 2011, with part of the proceeds going towards KCET's leasing of the studios^[6] until new facilities are found.^[7][8] KCET currently has plans to relocate to a new complex in a high-rise building in Burbank.^[6]

At the end of 2011, contributions and grants to KCET decreased even further, down 41 percent from the previous year to $22.3 million.^[6]

Slogans[link]

• "Community Supported Television" (c. 1976-198?)

• "Member Supported Television for Southern and Central California" (198?-1997)

• "Infinitely More" (1997–2010)

• "Rethink TV" (January–December 2011)

• "Be Moved" (December 2011 – present)

Programming[link]

As the flagship PBS station for the Pacific Time Zone, KCET was a major producer of PBS programming.

It produced the acclaimed Carl Sagan series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage in 1978-1979. 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^[update] 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 is produced at the KCET lot.

KCET also produced the weeknight talk show Tavis Smiley and a PBS science show, WIRED Science. Peabody award-winning shows A Place of Our Own and its Spanish language equivalent, Los Niños en Su Casa are taped at the KCET studios. Both programs, part of the KCET initiative, have received a generous grant from BP to expand its coverage as a nation-wide television program designed for care-givers.

A few kids' shows 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).

Award-winning California Connected ended its run in 2007 after five seasons.

On December 9, 2010, KCET announced their new program schedule without PBS affiliation in 2011. Commercial-free programming will include classic and blockbuster movies, travel, science, and drama programs, British sitcoms 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, Doc Martin, The McLaughlin Group, Inside Washington, BBC World News, Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By and Visiting With Huell Howser.^[9]

Future programming plans for KCET during 2012 include expansion of its interview program, LA Tonight with Roy Firestone, to each weeknight; as well as Your Turn to Care, a documentary about caregivers hosted by Holly Robinson Peete; BBC crime drama Inspector George Gently; and Classic Cool Theater, a showcase of classic films, cartoons and newsreels.^[6]

Digital television[link]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Digital channels

For its first seven years on digital TV, 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 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 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 is KCET Orange and 28.4 is PBS World.

Other ventures and partnerships[link]

KCET's long time studios in Los Angeles

KCET's website produces original multimedia web content including CA Stories. There are also video clips, podcasts, television schedule, contact information, and a Life & Times blog.

In 2006, KCET established an exclusive media partnership with Cal State-Fullerton. In 2007, KCET and Cal State-Fullerton collaborated on the new digital subchannel network "KCET Orange", which aired on Channel 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. Contributions from students from Titan Communications TV^[10] and the College of Communications^[11] was intended to expand Cal State-Fullerton's contribution to KCET.^[12]

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

KCET offers their studio facilities to commercial productions to provide themselves an additional stream of revenue. They have 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.

Rebroadcasters[link]

KCET utilizes several repeaters to extend its coverage:

FCC actions[link]

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 was stemmed to an incident on August 19, 2010, when an FCC agent, not identifying himself as such, requested 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 wasn't until another visit that day that the agent was able to see the public file, but only after identifying himself as a 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 without identifying themselves as such led to the fine.^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• KCET Online
• KCET Desert Cities
• CA Stories
• KCET Podcasts
• KCET Lot History
• List of KCET's shows
• "Life & Times" community blog
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KCET
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KCET-TV
• Program Information for KCET at TitanTV.com