KCPT (channel 19), branded on-air as Kansas City PBS or KC PBS, is a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

member

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

, United States. It is owned by Public Television 19, Inc., alongside adult album alternative radio station

KTBG KTBG (90.9 FM, 90.9 The Bridge) is a listener-supported, non-commercial NPR Music member radio station serving the Kansas City, Missouri market, broadcast from Warrensburg, Missouri, United States. It is currently owned by Public Television 19, ...

(90.9 FM) and online magazine ''Flatland''. KCPT and KTBG share studios on East 31st Street in the Union Hill section of Kansas City, Missouri; KCPT's transmitter is located near 23rd Street and Stark Avenue in the city's Blue Valley section. KCPT also serves as the default PBS member station for the

St. Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: * Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand * Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, a ...

(which borders the northern portions of the Kansas City market), as that market does not have a PBS member station of its own; the station is available in that market on cable providers (including

Suddenlink Communications Suddenlink was an American telecommunications subsidiary of Altice USA trading in cable television, broadband, IP telephony, home security, and advertising. Prior to its acquisition by Altice, the company was the seventh largest cable operator wi ...

) and on

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via

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

and

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; its transmitter also produces a city-grade signal that reaches St. Joseph proper and rural areas in the market's central and southern counties.

History

KCPT Ruckus Event with Country Club Bank's Ambassador Club

The station first signed on the air on March 29, 1961 as KCSD-TV. It was founded by the Kansas City School District, and originally operated as a member station of National Educational Television (NET); it later became a charter member of PBS when it launched on October 6, 1970. The school district put the station's license up for sale in 1971. A group of civic leaders formed a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

broadcasting entity called Public Television 19, Inc., and bought the license. The station changed its callsign to KCPT in January 1972. That fall, it began broadcasting PBS programs in

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

for the first time. In 1973, the station held its first televised auction. In 1984, KCPT relocated its operations to facilities in the Union Hill neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, located south of downtown Kansas City, which had originally served as the broadcast facility of KCTV (channel 5) from 1955 to 1983; that station's trademark transmission tower still rises above the building. In 2002, KCPT won a National

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Best Documentary for ''Be Good, Smile Pretty'', a film which documents Tracy Droz Tragos's journey to find the father she lost in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. In 2008, KCPT began broadcasting its programming in

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...

. In December 2013, KCPT gained a sister radio station when Public Television 19, Inc. finalized its purchase of

(90.9 FM) in Warrensburg from the

University of Central Missouri The University of Central Missouri (UCM) is a public university in Warrensburg, Missouri. In 2019, enrollment was 11,229 students from 49 states and 59 countries on its 1,561-acre campus. UCM offers 150 programs of study, including 10 pre-profes ...

for $1.1 million, plus $550,000 in "in kind" services; the transmitter for the station would also be moved west to adequately cover most of the Kansas City area. In 2014, KCPT launched the online magazine ''Flatland''. The KCPT logo was standalone from 1989 to February 9, 2016 and the PBS logo was added in 2000. It is used as a

digital on-screen graphic A digital on-screen graphic, digitally originated graphic (DOG, bug, or network bug) is a watermark-like station logo that most television broadcasters overlay over a portion of the screen area of their programs to identify the channel. They are ...

during programs. In July 2020, the station changed its branding to Kansas City PBS.

Programming

In addition to carrying PBS programs and programs syndicated for public television distribution, KCPT produces local programs such as ''Kansas City Week in Review'', ''Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations'', the political affairs program ''Ruckus'', ''

Check, Please! ''Check, Please!'' is a multi-Emmy Award winning restaurant review program that began on Chicago's PBS member station WTTW in 2001. The show's popularity inspired spin-offs in several other markets. A San Francisco version of the show, ''Check, ...

Kansas City'' and ''The Local Show''. Some of KCPT's former on-air program hosts have included John Masterman (the host of ''Kansas City Illustrated'') and Laurel Defoe, who joined the station from commercial outlet

WDAF-TV WDAF-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Summit Street in the Signal Hi ...

(channel 4).

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: In addition to its main channel, KCPT operates digital subchannels: KCPT2 on digital channel 19.2 offers a second schedule of PBS programming; KCPT Create on digital channel 19.3 features how-to and other instructional programming from the Create network; both subchannels launched in 2008. KCPT4 on digital channel 19.4 offers programming from PBS Kids and launched in January 2017.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KCPT shut down its analog signal, over

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 19, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 18. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...

as its former UHF analog channel 19.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kcpt PBS member stations Television channels and stations established in 1961 Television stations in the Kansas City metropolitan area 1961 establishments in Missouri