Branding KPBS Television | ||
Owner San Diego State University(The Board of Trustees of the California State University for San Diego State University) First air date June 25, 1967; 49 years ago (1967-06-25) Call letters' meaning K PublicBroadcastingService | ||
KPBS, virtual channel 15 (UHF digital channel 30), part of KPBS Public Media, is a PBS member television station located in San Diego, California, United States. The station is owned by San Diego State University. KPBS maintains studio facilities located on the SDSU campus on Campanile Drive in San Diego, and its transmitter is located on San Miguel Mountain in southwestern San Diego County.
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On cable, the station is available on Cox Communications (in standard definition), Time Warner Cable and AT&T U-verse channel 11 and Cablemás channel 146 and in high-definition on Cox on digital channel 1011 and Time Warner Cable digital channel 711, AT&T U-verse channel 1011 and Cablemás digital channel 168. It is one of two PBS member stations that operate as border stations – alongside WPBS-DT in Watertown, New York; in this case, KPBS serves viewers in both the United States and Mexico.
History
In 1960, San Diego State College (now San Diego State University) applied for a license from the Federal Communications Commission to operate a noncommercial educational television station to serve San Diego. The station first signed on the air on June 25, 1967 as KEBS-TV. The station was originally a member of National Educational Television, before becoming a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) when it launched on October 6, 1970, at which time the station changed its call letters to KPBS. Despite the calls, which mimic the callsign schemes used by stations owned by ABC, NBC and CBS in New York City and Los Angeles, it is not an owned-and-operated station, as PBS therefore cannot own or operate any of its member stations or regional member networks due to the network's local and non-profit nature; the KPBS callsign reflects the station's affiliation and programming, but not any special status within the PBS network.
On January 1, 2011, when Los Angeles' longtime PBS station KCET dropped its membership with the network, KPBS began to be carried on cable providers in the Bakersfield market, alongside fellow PBS stations KVCR-DT in San Bernardino and KVPT in Fresno. It is also one of three PBS member stations that serve the Palm Springs market, alongside KVCR-DT and KOCE-TV in Huntington Beach (which succeeded KCET as Los Angeles' primary PBS member station). As with most other PBS members, KPBS carries nationally distributed programs from PBS, American Public Television, and other distributors.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KPBS shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 15, 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 30. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 15. KPBS had indicated that it might shut down its analog signal on April 30, 2009, in advance of the national digital transition that would occur two months later. The station's website, however, states that KPBS continued analog transmissions until the June 12, 2009 transition date.
News operation
KPBS produces a nightly half-hour news program on weeknights titled KPBS Evening Edition, a self-contained television newscast that is an extension of the Midday Edition newscast aired by its radio sister. KPBS' news department is editorially independent from the station's management, San Diego State University and corporate underwriters and donors. The station's investigative reports are conducted in collaboration with the nonprofit newsgathering organization Investigative Newsource, which shares a newsroom with KPBS television and radio at the Campinale Drive studios. In addition, the station collaborates on breaking news coverage and shares news video with ABC affiliate KGTV (channel 10).