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KQEH, virtual channel 54 (UHF digital channel 50), is a PBS member station serving the San Francisco Bay Area that is licensed to San Jose, California, United States. The station is owned by KQED, Inc., alongside sister station KQED (channel 9) in San Francisco, its satellite KQET (channel 25) in Watsonville and NPR member radio station KQED-FM (88.5). The three stations share studios and offices located on Mariposa Street in San Francisco's Mission District, The KQEH transmitter is located on Monument Peak (Milpitas, California).
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History
The station first signed on the air on October 19, 1964, as KTEH. In the late 1990s, KTEH bought KCAH in Watsonville, which was founded in 1989 to serve as the PBS station for the Monterey/Salinas/Santa Cruz market. Before being acquired by KQED, KTEH maintained a Technical Volunteer program, which allowed volunteers to learn how to operate cameras, audio, shading, directing and other production and technical responsibilities, while minimizing its costs. These volunteers made up the technical crews for all of their pledge drives and auction programming, as well as other occasional live broadcasts.
In 2006, KQED and the KTEH Foundation agreed to merge to form Northern California Public Broadcasting, a name that was changed back to KQED, Inc. in 2011. As a result of the merger, KCAH changed its call letters to KQET on August 12, 2007. Subsequently on October 1, 2007, KQET, which became a satellite of KTEH following its acquisition of the station, switched programming sources from KTEH to KQED. KQEH's programming is carried on the second digital subchannel of KQET.
In December 2010, the Board of Directors of Northern California Public Broadcasting changed the organization's name to KQED Inc. The station changed its call letters to KQEH and rebranded as "KQED Plus" on July 1, 2011, after research found that most viewers were unaware that KTEH was related to KQED; other aspects of the station's operation, including programming and staff, were not affected by this change.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KQEH (as KTEH) shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 54, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 50, using PSIP to display KQEH's virtual channel as 54 on digital television receivers, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.
Programming
The station's daytime hours on weekdays are dominated by children's programming, including Dinosaur Train, Sesame Street and Wild Kratts. Weeknights begin with news programming – the Nightly Business Report and BBC World News – followed by mostly United Kingdom-originating dramas and comedies (such as EastEnders and Are You Being Served?). Weeknight prime-time contains mainly documentaries (like American Experience and Nature) and drama (such as Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery!). During the weekend, KQEH's morning schedule features children's programming, middays and afternoons contain a mix of instructional (home and cooking), entertainment, travel and cultural shows, and evenings present mostly British scripted shows. The current slogan for British programming on KQEH reflects this.
Programming history
Starting in April 1981, KTEH started showing the British science-fantasy show Doctor Who, which ran on the station until January 2003. On April 10, 2007, Doctor Who returned to the station with the airing of the programme's 2005 revival. KTEH has also aired another British sci-fi show, Red Dwarf. In 1998, KTEH aired the entire eighth series of Red Dwarf in one night. In doing so, many episodes were shown on KTEH before their broadcast on British television.
KTEH was also the first to air Neon Genesis Evangelion (subtitled) in America, as well as dubbed) Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and Tenchi Universe TV series. These shows were later shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block. Other anime that have aired on KTEH include, but were not limited to, Bubblegum Crisis, Key the Metal Idol, subtitled versions of Dirty Pair Flash, All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Urusei Yatsura, Sakura Wars and Corrector Yui, and dubbed versions of Serial Experiments Lain, City Hunter, Please Save My Earth, Ranma ½, Sailor Moon, Full Metal Panic!, Magic Knight Rayearth, Martian Successor Nadesico, Betterman, Robotech, Mobile Suit Gundam, Cardcaptor Sakura, Astro Boy, Gatchaman, and Samurai Pizza Cats.
Local productions
KTEH has produced many television programs over the years, some of which have been nationally broadcast. Its current production schedule includes:
KTEH was the production company for several other productions: