KEEF-TV, channel 68, was a short-lived public television station in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It operated briefly in 1987, but was shut down after only a few months of operation and its

non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (TV ads or radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was or ...

broadcast construction permit ultimately revoked.

History

Prior use of channel 68 in Los Angeles

Channel 68 was used originally by the Viewer Sponsored Television Foundation as

KVST-TV KVST-TV was a television station on channel 68 in Los Angeles, California, owned by the Viewer Sponsored Television Foundation. Broadcasting from May 5, 1974, through December 23, 1975, KVST-TV was an early experiment in public-access and communi ...

, which broadcast from May 5, 1974, through December 23, 1975. It was a station with a strong community focus and aired alternative programming, much of it leftist in nature. However, it constantly struggled for viewer support and suffered through tumultuous internal politics, leading to its closure.

As KEEF-TV

On February 24, 1983, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) authorized the Black Television Workshop to construct a non-commercial TV station on channel 68 in the Los Angeles area. The station, which was oriented to black and Hispanic viewers, went on the air in May 1987 as KDDE. The station promised a lineup of programs by and for minority viewers—particularly Black viewers—including films from the Caribbean and Africa and British fare from

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

. The station changed its call letters to KEEF-TV on June 15. Problems were very quick to come along. After Mary V. Woodfork, one of the station's board members, made a series of claims against Black Television Workshop head Booker T. Wade's conduct, the FCC ordered the station off the air on August 8, because it broadcast with a different power and antenna height from a different location from that authorized, while it investigated—an unusual move for the commission. The battle tied up the television station, a series of creditors, and a company that had paid for the KEEF-TV transmitter so it could use it to send data. In 1989, a deal was reached to sell the station as a distress sale to Hispanic Christian Communications Network, which proposed a Spanish-language Christian station; the commission dismissed the proposal the next year because a federal appeals court had ruled that policy unconstitutional. In 1991, after the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

upheld the policy, the FCC determined that the station had not been actually built and thus would not have been eligible anyway. The construction permit was ultimately revoked by the FCC on November 19, 1992. A final review was denied by the commission in 1994. Channel 68 was last used in Southern California by KRCA-DT, a digital simulcast of

KRCA KRCA (channel 62) is a television station licensed to Riverside, California, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language Estrella TV network to the Los Angeles area. It is the flagship television property of Burbank-based Estrella Media. ...

(channel 62) in

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

. As of the end of the 2009 digital television transition, channel 68 was outside the authorized band for television broadcasting in the United States; at which time KRCA moved to channel 35. Since 2018, as part of the FCC's spectrum repack, KRCA has shared VHF channel 7 with

KABC-TV KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains stud ...

. Plans for the digital transition did not include a digital replacement channel for the former channel 68 allocation in Los Angeles.

References

{{LA TV EEF-TV Defunct television stations in the United States Television channels and stations established in 1987 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1987 1987 establishments in California 1987 disestablishments in California EEF-TV