KCTS-TV

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KCTS-TV

Seattle–Tacoma, Washington United States
City	Seattle, Washington
Channels	Digital: 9 (VHF) (applied for 17 (UHF)[1]) Virtual: 9
Branding	KCTS 9
Programming
Affiliations	9.1: PBS 9.2: PBS Kids 9.3: Create 9.4: World
Ownership
Owner	Cascade Public Media
History
First air date	December 7, 1954 (66 years ago) (1954-12-07)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 9 (VHF, 1954–2009) Digital: 41 (UHF, 1999–2009)
Former affiliations	NET (1954–1970)
Call sign meaning	Community Television Service[2]
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	33749
ERP	21.7 kW 1,000 kW (application)[1]
HAAT	249 m (817 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	47°36′57″N 122°18′32″W / 47.61583°N 122.30889°W / 47.61583; -122.30889Coordinates: 47°36′57″N 122°18′32″W / 47.61583°N 122.30889°W / 47.61583; -122.30889
Translator(s)	K18AD-D 18 (UHF) Wenatchee
Links
Public license information	Profile LMS
Website	www.kcts9.org

KCTS-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 9, is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Seattle, Washington, United States and also serving Tacoma. The station is owned by Cascade Public Media.^[3][4][5][6] KCTS-TV's studios are located at the northeast corner of Seattle Center adjacent to the Space Needle, and its transmitter is located on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

KYVE (virtual channel 47, UHF digital channel 21) in Yakima operates as a semi-satellite of KCTS-TV, serving as the PBS member station for the western portion of the Yakima/Tri-Cities market. KYVE maintains its own studios on Second Street in Yakima and transmitter on Ahtanum Ridge.

History[]

KCTS studios at Seattle Center.

KCTS crew recording an interview with Dennis Kelso, then-commissioner of the , during the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

KCTS logo used from 1999 until late 2006. The logo is similar to WTVS' logo.

KCTS first went on the air on December 7, 1954, broadcasting from the campus of the University of Washington, the station's original licensee, and using equipment donated by KING-TV owner Dorothy Bullitt. Channel 9 was a sister station to KUOW-FM, which the University of Washington put on the air two years earlier.

During the 1950s and 1960s, KCTS primarily supplied classroom instructional programs used in Washington State's K–12 schools, plus National Educational Television (NET) programs. Outside of schoolrooms, KCTS' audience among the general public was somewhat limited, and most programming was in black-and-white until the mid-1970s (although the station did install color capability in 1967).

In 1970, NET was absorbed into the newly-created Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which commenced broadcasting on October 5. As a PBS member station, KCTS began offering a vastly enhanced scope of programming for the general public, including British programming.

Thanks to a major fundraiser drive during the mid-1980s, KCTS moved to its present location on the Seattle Center campus in October 1986; shortly after, in 1987, the University of Washington spun off KCTS, and the station became a community licensee, thus separating it from KUOW-FM.^[7]

KCTS is seen throughout southwestern British Columbia on local cable systems, as well as across Canada on the Bell Satellite TV and Shaw Direct satellite providers, as well as on many other Canadian cable TV systems. According to KCTS, around 2 million viewers from Canada tune in each week. KCTS receives substantial financial support from its far-flung Canadian audience as well as from viewers in Washington State.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2016, as part of a broader strategy redefine itself as a content provider for various other platforms other than television, the name of the licensee, KCTS Television became Cascade Public Media; its properties included KCTS-TV, Crosscut, a non-profit daily news site, and Spark Public. Cascade Public Media currently consists of KCTS, Crosscut and Piranha Partners.

KYVE history[]

KYVE

Semi-satellite of KCTS-TV
Yakima, Washington United States
Channels	Digital: 21 (UHF) Virtual: 47
Branding	KYVE
Programming
Affiliations	47.1: PBS (1970–present) 47.2: PBS Kids 47.3: Create
Ownership
Owner	KCTS Television (Cascade Public Media)
History
First air date	November 1, 1962 (58 years ago) (1962-11-01)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 47 (UHF, 1962–2009)
Former affiliations	NET (1962–1970)
Call sign meaning	Yakima Valley Educational
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	33752
ERP	50 kW
HAAT	280 m (919 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	46°31′57.5″N 120°30′37.2″W / 46.532639°N 120.510333°W / 46.532639; -120.510333
Translator(s)	17 K17IL-D Ellensburg
Links
Public license information	Profile LMS
Website	www.kcts9.org/about/kyve47

In 1994, KCTS merged with KYVE, which has served central Washington since November 1, 1962. However, this wasn't the first time that the two stations had partnered together; during the early 1960s KYVE's engineers switched to and from KCTS' signal until the station's owners, the Yakima Board of Education, got enough funding for the station to be self-supporting. The station became a community licensee in 1984, but found the going difficult until its merger with KCTS. KYVE did produce a few local programs, including the KYVE Apple Bowl with host Tony Leita, a high school quiz competition; Northwest Outdoors with Wally Pease, an outdoors program; and Country Roads with Gwyn Gilmore, a showcase of country music videos.

During the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, some programs included a combined KCTS/KYVE visual bug in the lower-right corner of the screen, indicating they were simulcast to both markets. However, since the early 2000s, KYVE has largely been a straight simulcast of KCTS. Combined, the two stations serve 2.4 million people, accounting for almost two-thirds of Washington state's population.

Its former studios were located at Braeburn Hall at Yakima Valley Community College. But since the start of the millennium, local origination was severely reduced, and eventually, Braeburn Hall was torn down. KYVE later moved to a small office on 2nd Street (at the bottom of the Larson Building). This office is now home to the ticket office and administration for the Yakima Valley Pippins baseball team, and KYVE has no presence in Yakima anymore besides the Ahtanum Ridge transmitter and the hourly station ID.

Digital television[]

Digital channels[]

The stations' digital signals are multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion[]

KCTS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 9, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.^[10] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 41 to VHF channel 9.

Translators[]

City of license	Callsign	Translating	Channel	ERP	HAAT	Facility ID	Transmitter coordinates	Owner
Ellensburg	K17IL-D	KYVE	17	0.105 kW	357 m (1,171 ft)	35004	46°53′14.4″N 120°26′33.2″W / 46.887333°N 120.442556°W / 46.887333; -120.442556 (K17IL-D)	Kittitas County TV Improvement District #1
East Wenatchee	K18AD-D	KYVE	18	0.06 kW	778 m (2,552 ft)	33751	47°16′26.4″N 120°24′22.2″W / 47.274000°N 120.406167°W / 47.274000; -120.406167 (K18AD-D)	Cascade Public Media

Programming[]

KCTS is perhaps best known for producing/distributing the popular PBS Kids show Bill Nye the Science Guy, as well as other programs such as (not a PBS-distributed program), , cooking shows by Nick Stellino, Chefs A' Field, and the annual televised high school academic competition KYVE Apple Bowl, among other shows.

References[]

External links[]

• KCTS 9
• KYVE
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KCTS-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KYVE-TV
• History KCTS from 1954 through 2003 (Seattle Times)
• Richard J. Meyer papers, at the University of Maryland libraries. He was a manager of KCTS from 1972-1982 and helped in updating equipment, securing a larger budget for the station, and increasing community representation in the show with new employees from the local community.