KQED Inc. is a

non-profit 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 ...

public media 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 ...

outlet based in 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 ...

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 ...

, which operates the radio station

KQED-FM KQED-FM (88.5 MHz) is a NPR-member radio station in San Francisco, California. Its parent organization is KQED Inc., which also owns its television partners, both of which are PBS member outlets: KQED (channel 9) and KQEH (channel 54). Studio ...

and the television stations KQED/KQET and

KQEH KQEH, virtual channel 54 (ultra high frequency, UHF Digital terrestrial television, digital channel 30), branded on-air as KQED Plus, is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Network affiliate#Member stations, member television station city of lice ...

. KQED's main headquarters are located 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 ...

and its

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

office is located in San Jose. In 2019, the San Francisco headquarters broke ground on a 90 million renovation project, which was completed in late 2021. Improvements included a larger newsroom and studio, as well as a top floor outdoor terrace. The heart of the KQED headquarters is a 238-seat multipurpose event center called The Commons. The renovated venue hosts KQED Live, a series of lectures, concerts, discussions and other live events with entertainers, journalists, politicians, musicians, authors, chefs, and other guests. Reopening events for the public were postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

History

KQED was organized and created by veteran broadcast journalists James Day and

Jonathan Rice Jonathan Rice (1916 – July 22, 2001) was an American public television station and network executive, who, with James Day, co-founded the San Francisco public television station KQED. Rice was born in St. Louis, graduated from Stanford Unive ...

on June 1, 1953, and first went on air April 5, 1954. It was the sixth

public broadcasting 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 in the United States, debuting shortly after WQED in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, Pennsylvania. The station's

call letters In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

, Q.E.D., are taken from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

phrase, ''

quod erat demonstrandum Q.E.D. or QED is an initialism of the Latin phrase , meaning "which was to be demonstrated". Literally it states "what was to be shown". Traditionally, the abbreviation is placed at the end of mathematical proofs and philosophical arguments in p ...

'', commonly used in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

was founded by James Day in 1969 as the radio arm of KQED Television. On May 1, 2006, KQED, Inc. and the KTEH Foundation merged to form Northern California Public Broadcasting. The KQED assets including its

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

(KQED TV) and FM radio stations (KQED-FM) were taken under the umbrella of that new organization. Both remained members of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and

National Public Radio (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 ...

, respectively. With this change, KQED and KTEH are considered as sister-stations today. The "Northern California" name did not become widely used, so in December 2010, the umbrella organization was renamed "KQED, Inc.". KTEH changed its call letters to

and rebranded as ''"KQED Plus"'' on July 1, 2011 after research found that most viewers were unaware that KTEH was affiliated with KQED.

KQED public television

KQED 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

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 in San Francisco, California, broadcasting digitally on UHF channel 30 (Ex-Analog Channel 9). This channel is also carried on

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

and via satellite by

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

Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...

. Its

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

is located on

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 ...

, and has studios based in San Francisco's

Mission District The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...

KQED public radio

KQED-FM (88.5 FM) is an

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

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

owned by

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 ...

in San Francisco, California. KQED public radio is the most-listened-to public radio station in the nation.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kqed Inc. . Television in the San Francisco Bay Area Public television in the United States Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco Mass media in the San Francisco Bay Area

History

KQED public television

KQED public radio

See also

References

External links