KNPB (channel 5), branded PBS Reno, is a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

member

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

, United States, owned by Channel 5 Public Broadcasting, Inc. The station's studios are located on North Virginia Street in Reno, and its transmitter is located on Red Hill between US 395 and SR 445 in Sun Valley.

History

In 1964, following authorization of federal matching grants for the construction of

non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (television advertisement, TV ads or radio advertisement, radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Fed ...

television facilities, there was a proposal for a state network of educational television stations offering television programming originating from

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. The proposal was opposed by educators in other parts of the state of Nevada, and the Clark County School District's trustees gave up the proposal of a statewide service in 1966. KLVX signed on the air in March 1968 to serve Southern Nevada; Reno would not receive a public television station of its own until 1983. During that time, PBS programming was made available to Northern Nevada from the city's commercial stations on a per-program basis (i.e. ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'' was on KOLO-TV). Cable systems in northwestern Nevada (including Reno and

Carson City Carson City, officially the Carson City Consolidated Municipality, is an independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the 6th most populous city in the state. The m ...

) piped in KVIE in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

, which was available over-the-air in the extreme western portions of the market. Northeastern Nevada, including Elko, was served by KUED in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, which also operated several over-the-air translators in the region; northeastern Nevada is part of the Salt Lake City market. KNPB began broadcasting on September 29, 1983, with the first program being ''Sesame Street''. The station's studios and offices were located in the College of Education building on the campus of the

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada, United States. It is the state's flagship public university and prim ...

. In 1995, KNPB moved into its current facility on Virginia Street, also on the university campus. The station's main transmitter is located on Red Peak in Sun Valley. A low-power digital translator, licensed as KNPB-LD and also broadcasting on channel 15, serves the communities surrounding

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; Washo language, Washo: ''dáʔaw'') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest a ...

and the

Truckee, California Truckee is an List of municipalities in California, incorporated town in Nevada County, California, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 16,180, reflecting an increase of 2,316 from the 13,864 counted in the 2 ...

region from a location on the flanks of Mt. Rose. A network of other community translators retransmit KNPB's signal across much of northern Nevada and bordering portions of California.

Programming

Programs presented by KNPB include ''Wild Nevada'' and ''Beauty of Oil Painting with Gary and Kathwren Jenkins''.

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— ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

KNPB was the first television station to offer digital broadcasts on September 29, 2000. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on February 17, 2009, the original date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

channel 15, using

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered as digits on a receiver's ...

Translators

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

* Battle Mountain * Battle Mountain * Beowawe *

* Cedarville, CA * Duckwater * Elko * Elko * Eureka * Eureka *

Golconda Golconda is a fortified citadel and ruined city located on the western outskirts of Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparudra in the 11th century out of mud walls. It was ceded to the Bahmani ...

* Golconda * Hawthorne * Litchfield, CA * Lovelock * Mina / Luning * Orovada * Ryndon * Schurz * Silver Springs * Susanville, etc., CA * 31 Tahoe City, CA * 22 Truckee, CA *

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, recei ...

* Walker Lake * Wells * Winnemucca

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knpb 1983 establishments in Nevada PBS member stations Television channels and stations established in 1983 NPB