Channels Analog: 68 (UHF) Former callsigns KDDE (1987) | First air date May 1987 | |
Affiliations Non-commercial independent Owner Black Television Workshop Last air date August 8, 1987
(construction permit revoked in 1993) | ||
KEEF-TV, channel 68, was a short-lived public television station in Los Angeles, California. It operated briefly in 1987, but was shut down after only a few months of operation and its non-commercial educational broadcast license ultimately revoked.
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It replaced KVST-TV, a television broadcaster which broadcast on channel 68 for less than two years.
As KVST-TV
Channel 68 was used originally by the Viewer Sponsored Television Foundation as KVST-TV: a television station in Los Angeles which broadcast from May 5, 1974 through December 23, 1975.
After KCET originally went on the air in 1964 its owners, Community Television of Southern California, had sought Los Angeles' second non-commercial television allocation on UHF channel 58. The Los Angeles Unified School District and the Viewer Sponsored Television Foundation had also filed applications for the channel. Eventually, the FCC gave the construction permit for channel 58 to the School District to build KLCS, a secondary PBS member station launched in 1973.
The FCC, however, was impressed with the public television concept of the Viewer Sponsored Television Foundation and allocated a third non-commercial channel (UHF 68) to Los Angeles so that a construction permit could be awarded to build and launch KVST.
KVST signed on in 1974. Billed as a significant experiment in using television to promote social change, KVST-TV operated by checking out portable video recorders (the only type which existed then was the Sony Portapak, a 1/2" reel-to-reel machine with a separate camera) to community organizations which were "on the cutting edge of social change". Members of these organizations would document their meetings and proactive solutions to various issues within the communities which they served. This material would then be edited into viewable TV programs for broadcast.
The aim was to "put television in the hands of the people" inside a major TV market, in what was a forerunner of today's public-access television. Traditionally, such programming could be found mainly on local cable TV.
One of KVST's notable programs included the first television appearance of the new wave rock group Oingo Boingo in 1975.
Due to technical problems (such as transmitting the audio channel too high from the video channel), underfunding and constant internal political strife (the station went through three managements in its short lifespan), KVST signed-off after only 19 months on the air. The channel would remain dark for over a decade.
As KEEF-TV
In 1983, the Federal Communications Commission (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, changed its call letters to KEEF-TV on June 15, and was shut down on August 8 by the FCC's Mass Media Bureau. Most viewers were unaware of KDDE/KEEF, as the station was never listed in TV Guide or the Los Angeles Times TV listings.
The Bureau alleged that the station had used different antennas and antenna height than what was authorized by the FCC. Later, other questions about the broadcaster arose (including a dispute over control of the station), and on June 23, 1993 Black Television Workshop's permit was revoked.
Demise
According to an article appearing in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section, unsuccessful efforts were made in the early 1990s to restart Channel 68 as a Hispanic Christian TV station.
Channel 68 was last used in Southern California by KRCA-DT, a digital simulcast of KRCA (channel 62) in Riverside, California. As of the end of the 2009 digital television transition, channel 68 was outside the authorized band for television broadcasting in the United States; KRCA now transmits on channel 35. Plans for the digital transition did not include a digital replacement channel for the former channel 68 allocation in Los Angeles.