KPJK (channel 60) is a
non-commercial
A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
television station licensed to
San Mateo, California
San Mateo ( ; ) is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. About 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco, the city borders Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough to the west, San Francisco Bay and Foster C ...
, United States, serving the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
. Owned by
Northern California Public Media
Northern California Public Media (formerly Rural California Broadcasting Corporation) is a non-profit public media outlet based in Rohnert Park, California, United States, that serves the San Francisco Bay Area. The organization owns PBS and inde ...
(not to be confused with
Northern California Public Broadcasting
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ...
), it is
sister
A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...
to
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 station
KRCB (channel 22) and
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
member stations
KRCB-FM
KRCB-FM (104.9 FM) is a public radio station licensed to Rohnert Park, California, and broadcasting to the Santa Rosa-Sonoma County area. The station became the primary radio frequency for Northern California Public Media's public radio service ...
(104.9) and
KRCG-FM
KRCG-FM is a non-commercial public broadcasting radio station licensed to Santa Rosa, California, serving Santa Rosa, Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Geyserville, Windsor, Sebastopol, Forestville, Calistoga and surrounding areas in California. KRCG-F ...
(91.1). KPJK's studios are located on West Hillsdale Boulevard on the campus of the
College of San Mateo
College of San Mateo (CSM) is a public community college in San Mateo, California. It is part of the San Mateo County Community College District. College of San Mateo is located at the northern corridor of Silicon Valley and situated on a 15 ...
in southwestern San Mateo, and its transmitter is located atop
Sutro Tower
Sutro Tower is a unique three-legged tall TV and radio lattice tower located in San Francisco, California. Rising from a hill between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro near Clarendon Heights, it is a prominent feature of the city skyline and a landma ...
in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
.
KPJK operates 24 hours a day with programming coming from
American Public Television
American Public Television (APT) is an American nonprofit organization and syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. It distributes public television programs nationwide for PBS member stations and independ ...
and other independent producers. Previously, the station was owned by the College of San Mateo, and operated as KCSM-TV.
History
The KCSM stations were originally established by the College of San Mateo as
college radio
Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...
and
student television station training facilities for radio and television broadcasters. Many well-known media personalities were educated at CSM, including tabloid television reporter
Steve Wilson,
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...
announcer
Jon Miller
Jon Miller (born October 11, 1951) is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his broadcasts of Major League Baseball. Since 1997 he has been employed as a play-by-play announcer for the San Francisco Giants. He was also a baseball annou ...
and
K101 on-air personality
Jeff Serr
Jeff Serr (born August 20, 1955) is an American voice actor and former radio personality, best known for radio programs heard in Los Angeles, and San Francisco, on popular stations including KYA, KIOI, and KIIS-FM. In recent years, Serr has lent ...
.
Between 1964 and 1980, CSM offered a full range of courses in broadcasting and broadcast electronics, unusual for a community college; they were much more extensive than better known four-year university programs. The television station and its companion FM radio outlet were staffed and operated by students. This was discontinued in the 1980s, and today KCSM is operated by professional broadcasters.
Television
KCSM-TV first signed on the air on October 12, 1964; the station was founded by Dr. Jacob H. Wiens, chair of the electronics department at the College of San Mateo. It was originally a member station of
National Educational Television
National Educational Television (NET) was an American non-commercial educational, educational terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It o ...
until 1970, when that service was succeeded by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). During its early years, broadcasting on channel 14, it operated on campus from black and white studios with 13,800 watts of power from a transmitter at the college, comparable to today's
low-power stations. In 1979, KCSM reached a deal with
Spanish International Network
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
station
KDTV to begin operating from its full-power color facilities and moved to channel 60 atop
San Bruno Mountain
San Bruno Mountain is horst fault block mountain located in northern San Mateo County, California; with some northern slopes crossing over into southern San Francisco, it is also surrounded by San Francisco Bay and the cities of Brisbane, Colma ...
's Radio Peak on March 5, 1979, KDTV subsequently moved to UHF channel 14.
KCSM ceased regular programming on its analog signal, over
UHF channel 60, on May 15, 2004, due to a costly rent increase for full-power transmitter space. The station ran a billboard for the next several days advising viewers that they would only operate its digital signal from then on, though it continues to be available through
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
. KCSM shut down its analog signal nine days later, on May 24. On May 3, 2005, KCSM received Special Temporary Authorization from the FCC to restore its analog signal at low power, operating on the campus of the
College of San Mateo
College of San Mateo (CSM) is a public community college in San Mateo, California. It is part of the San Mateo County Community College District. College of San Mateo is located at the northern corridor of Silicon Valley and situated on a 15 ...
. It briefly simulcast the Jazz TV (60.3) feed for two hours every evening, with the rest of the broadcast day being a simulcast of KCSM (FM), but now offers only the simulcast (with relevant video "bulletin board" screens).
In March 2006, 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 ...
levied a $15,000 fine against KCSM for content in the documentary, ''
The Blues: Godfathers and Sons'', which the station had aired in March 2004. The series documented the birth and worldwide influence of the blues as a musical genre. One installment contained interviews with artists and others who expressed their feelings of oppression by the music industry, including the use of variations of the words "fuck" and "shit." The FCC determined the content to be "indecent." According to the FCC, "The gratuitous and repeated use of this language in a program that San Mateo aired at a time when children were expected to be in the audience is shocking." Within days of the decision, law firms from across the country offered their services
pro bono
( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...
to fight the ruling. Because of the upswell of support, KCSM requested an extension of time to file its appeal.
KCSM dropped its membership with PBS in 2009, and became an independent
public television
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
station (
KCET
KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV ...
, downstate in Los Angeles, would follow suit in January 2011; however, it would rejoin PBS in 2019). KCSM-TV retained an affiliation with
MHz Worldview
MHz Networks is an American public broadcaster that specializes in international television programming.
Washington, D.C., broadcast operations
MHz (pronounced "M-H-Z") Networks began as a project of the Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corpora ...
for programming feeds on its second
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
.
Sale
On December 7, 2011, the
San Mateo County Community College District
The San Mateo County Community College District is a community college system in California with three institutions: College of San Mateo in San Mateo, Cañada College in Redwood City, and Skyline College in San Bruno. The district serves more ...
announced plans to sell KCSM-TV, due to budgetary constraints as well as an operating deficit of $1 million. KCSM radio would continue operations as usual.
All bids in response to the initial request for proposals to purchase the television station were rejected on October 24, 2012 and the district subsequently issued a second request for proposals. On May 15, 2013, the district approved an agreement with
LocusPoint Networks
LocusPoint Networks LLC was an owner of television stations in the United States. The company is 99% owned by The Blackstone Group. After selling off most of their in 2017 and 2018 in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum auction a ...
, who will provide a $900,000 annual subsidy for up to four years and then split the proceeds of an auction of its spectrum allocation sometime in the next few years.
The KCSM-TV spectrum is expected to be sold for upwards of $10 million to wireless communication companies.
On July 15, 2013, KCSM dropped most of the programming syndicated by public television distributors (with the exception of those airing as part of a discrete afternoon block), moving the MHz Worldview feed to its main channel. It brought back aforementioned programming on July 15, 2014.
, LocusPoint Networks, hired by the district to sell the station due to its $1 million annual losses, claim fiscal mismanagement and incompetence by school officials and administrators to fulfill their basic obligations to facilitate the sale properly. In turn, the District has counter-sued LocusPoint, a multi-station operator, and its partner,
PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...
for failure to enter KCSM-TV into the FCC auction. Nonetheless, the station has continuously run a deficit for many years, with viewers citing programming that is irrelevant and uninteresting for a typical public television station.
As KPJK
On September 7, 2017,
Sonoma County
Sonoma County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa, California, Santa Rosa. It is to the n ...
public television station
KRCB (channel 22) announced that it would acquire KCSM-TV for $12 million.
The Rural California Broadcasting Corporation applied to change the station's call letters to KPJK;
the call letters were chosen to honor John Kramer, a professor at
Sonoma State University
Sonoma State University (SSU, Sonoma State, or Sonoma) is a public university in Rohnert Park in Sonoma County, California, US. It is one of the smallest members of the California State University (CSU) system. Sonoma State offers 92 Bachelor's d ...
who founded KRCB with his wife, Nancy Dobbs, in 1984.
On October 24, LocusPoint Networks filed a lawsuit to block the sale to KRCB, claiming that the sale is not valid and violates its contract with KCSM-TV.
On July 31, 2018, KRCB took control of KCSM-TV and the call letters were changed to KPJK.
Though KRCB sought to have KPJK rejoin PBS, its membership request was denied due to overlap with San Francisco's main PBS station,
KQED (channel 9), as PBS has sought to eliminate duplication of programming within the same
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, an ...
. The station also continues to simulcast KCSM radio on subchannel 60.5, under the branding "KCSM Jazz TV", even though the radio station was retained by the San Mateo County Community College District.
Technical information
Subchannels
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 ...
:
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kpjk
Television channels and stations established in 1964
1964 establishments in California
PJK
Public television in the United States
First Nations Experience affiliates