KETC,
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 ...
9 (
UHF digital
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Technology and computing Hardware
*Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals
**Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...
channel 23), 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
Member may refer to:
* Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon
* Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set
* In object-oriented programming, a member of a class
** Field (computer science), entries in ...
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 ...
licensed
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
, United States. The station is owned by St. Louis Regional Public Media. KETC's studios are located at the Dana Brown Communications Center on Olive Street in St. Louis' Grand Center neighborhood, and its transmitter is located in South
St. Louis County.
History
The station first signed on the air on September 20, 1954. It was the first community-licensed
educational television
Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable telev ...
station in the United States. The station's first general manager was
Charles Guggenheim
Charles Eli Guggenheim (March 31, 1924 – October 9, 2002) was an American documentary film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was the most honored documentary filmmaker in the academy history, winning four Oscars from twelve nominations ...
, who hired the technical staff and first group of producer/director/writers, five in all. While waiting for the broadcasting tower to be completed, a number of programs were recorded using
kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940 ...
recording technology (the same as used for ''
The Honeymooners
''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom which originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It fol ...
''). Once on the air, there were a number of award-winning programs produced by Mayo Simon, Bill Hartzell, Ran Lincoln and Guggenheim. They included the first live broadcast of the St. Louis City Council. Another featured the ''
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...
'' nature columnist Leonard Hall of Possum Trot Farm. Among the taped program series was a pioneering science program intended for sixth graders to see in their classrooms, ''Science in Sight'', produced by Martin L. Schneider. Film making was encouraged, and with Len Hall's collaboration a documentary film about the rare beauty of the relatively unprotected
Current River was produced. It was later used by the
National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...
in the successful effort to make Current River the first
National Scenic River under the protection of the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
.
Soon after the station went live, its emphasis on current affairs and local politics, fostered by Guggenheim, rattled the political leaders. Following a public controversy, covered by the ''Post-Dispatch'', and under the influence of the well-connected local
public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...
firm Fleishman and Hillard (now
FleishmanHillard
FleishmanHillard Inc. (formerly, Fleishman–Hillard) is a public relations and marketing agency founded and based in St. Louis, Missouri. It was acquired by Omnicom Group in 1997, becoming part of the Diversified Agency Services (DAS) division. T ...
), Guggenheim was replaced by Martin Quigley, who had no experience in broadcasting. A few months later, Shelby Storck was hired. An experienced broadcaster recommended by Guggenheim, he emceed the station's first evening of broadcasting.
KETC originally broadcast from temporary studios in McMillan Hall on the campus of
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
, with transmitting facilities atop the former Boatmen's Bank Building (now the Marquette Building) in downtown St. Louis. In 1955, it moved to the Julius and Freda Baer Memorial Building, also on the Washington University campus. It was the first facility specifically built for an educational television station. It activated its current tower in South County in 1970, allowing it to begin
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 ...
broadcasts a year later. In 1998, the station moved its studios from the Washington University campus to the Dana Brown Communications Center in the Grand Center district.
During the
2004 elections, KETC partnered with area
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
affiliate
KSDK
KSDK (channel 5) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Downtown St. Louis, and its transmitter is located in Shrewsbury, Mi ...
(channel 5) to provide St. Louisans with comprehensive and up-to-date local and national election results. This partnership was first utilized to simulcast a
gubernatorial
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political_regions, political region, ranking under the Head of State, head of state and in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of ...
debate between
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
candidate Missouri Secretary of State
Matt Blunt
Matthew Roy Blunt (born November 20, 1970) is an American former naval officer and politician who served as the List of governors of Missouri, 54th Governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2009. Before his election as governor, Blunt served ten years in ...
and
Democratic candidate State Auditor
Claire McCaskill
Claire Conner McCaskill (; born July 24, 1953) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Missouri from 2007 to 2019 and as State Auditor of Missouri from 1999 to 2007.
McCaskill is a native of Rolla, Missouri. She gr ...
. On election night (November 9), KSDK aired NBC's prime time election coverage with
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American retired network television journalist and author. He first served as the co-anchor of ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anchor and managing editor of '' ...
and
Tim Russert
Timothy John Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's ''Meet the Press''. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Wa ...
as well as segments of local results. KETC, meanwhile, ran three hours of local election results hosted by KSDK anchors
Mike Bush and
Karen Foss. Viewers could also watch election results online on the websites of both stations.
The successful KETC/KSDK partnership was used again in September 2005 when, along with radio partners
KYKY
KYKY (98.1 FM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the Greater St. Louis region of Missouri and Illinois. KYKY airs a Hot AC radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. KYKY operates from offices and studios located on ...
(98.1 FM) and
KEZK-FM
KEZK-FM (102.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to St. Louis, Missouri. It broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. From mid-November through the Christmas holiday, KEZK switches to an all-Christma ...
(102.5 FM), a
telethon
A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause.
Most telethons f ...
for
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
relief was simulcast that raised more than $5 million. The telethon featured an appearance by
Affton
Affton is a census-designated place (CDP) in south St. Louis County, Missouri, United States, near St. Louis. The population was 20,417 at the 2020 United States Census.
Geography
Affton is located at 38°33'4" North, 90°19'25" West (38.551052 ...
native
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the ABC comedy series '' Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he received a Golden Globe Award, an ...
, who now calls
home and whose family went missing for a time during the storm's peak.
Kennett native
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, pop, country, folk, and blues. She has released eleven studio albums, five compilations and three li ...
and her then fiancé
Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. Regarded as a sports icon for winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 Tour de ...
urged viewers to call when they were interviewed by phone from the region.
In May 2008,
E! contracted with KETC to film two episodes of the
cable network
Networking cables are networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, opt ...
's weekly pop culture series ''
The Soup
''The Soup'' is an American television series that aired weekly on E! from July 1, 2004, until December 18, 2015 as a revamped version of ''Talk Soup'' that focused on recaps of various popular culture and television moments of the week. The ...
'' at the KETC studios to accommodate host
Joel McHale
Joel Edward McHale (born November 20, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, and television host. He is best known for hosting ''The Soup'' (2004–2015) and his role as Jeff Winger on the NBC sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015). He has performed i ...
's filming of ''
The Informant!
''The Informant!'' is a 2009 American biographical-crime comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh. Written by Scott Z. Burns, the film stars Matt Damon as the titular informant named Mark Whitacre, as well as Scott Bakula, Joel McHale and Mela ...
'' in the St. Louis area. After being known for most of its history as "KETC 9," the station rebranded itself as "The Nine Network" in 2010. On October 13, 2010, the station partnered with the ''
St. Louis Beacon'', an online-only, non-profit news publication, to form the Public Insight Network, a
citizen journalism
Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, a ...
initiative created in conjunction with
American Public Media
American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and oper ...
. On January 10, 2021, the station rebranded as Nine PBS, adopting the current PBS corporate logo.
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KETC shut down its analog signal, over
VHF channel 9, 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 39.
Through the use of
PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...
, 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 VHF analog channel 9.
Programming
KETC is known among viewers in St. Louis for preempting PBS programs to air library program content or less controversial
pledge drive
A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise that a contributor makes to send in funding at regular interval ...
programs, such as
WQED-produced
doo-wop
Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...
specials, using the default
network feed in late night to premiere those PBS programs instead, though St. Louis has traditionally had stations, commercial and non-commercial, preempt programming from their networks due to content. KETC has given some leeway as far as some preemptions, such as a case where ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' columnist Eric Mink wrote an editorial complaining about the station's scheduling of a pledge drive
ice skating
Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across an ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be per ...
show instead of a PBS documentary on the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
; KETC announced the next day that it would instead air the 9/11 documentary as nationally scheduled.
Some of the programs produced by KETC for national distribution include selected episodes of ''
Inside/Out''. The station also produced ''
The Letter People
''The Letter People'' is a children's literacy program. The term also refers to the family of various characters depicted in it.
Original program
Elayne Reiss-Weimann and Rita Friedman created the concept of Letter People as teachers in Nanuet, ...
'', an instructional program about reading, which was seen on many PBS and educational television stations in the mid-1970s, as well as ''
A Time for Champions
''A Time for Champions''http://timeforchampions.org is a 2009 documentary film produced by Bud Greenspan's Cappy Productions and St. Louis PBS member station KETC. It chronicles the Saint Louis University soccer dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s ...
'', an hour-long documentary chronicling the
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s; and ''Homeland'', a miniseries examining the topic of immigration in the United States.
References
External links
*
KETC-TV Collection Finding Aidat th
St. Louis Public Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ketc
PBS member stations
Television stations in St. Louis
Television channels and stations established in 1954
1954 establishments in Missouri