KPTS (channel 8) 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 ...

licensed to

Hutchinson, Kansas Hutchinson is the largest city in and the county seat of Reno County, Kansas, Reno County, Kansas, United States. The city is located on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887 (thus its nickname of "Salt City") but locals ...

, United States, serving the Wichita area. It is owned by Kansas Public Telecommunications Service, Inc., a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

educational Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also fol ...

organization. KPTS' studios are located on East 32nd Street in northeastern Wichita. The station broadcasts from two over-the-air transmitters—its main tower is located in northeastern Reno County (east of Hutchinson), and its signal is relayed on a fill-in low-power translator station on

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 17 in south Park City for the Wichita metro area.

History

In June 1965, the Garvey Foundation purchased a transmitter site in Hutchinson, with the intent to start a non-commercial educational television station. Shortly afterward, on July 21, 1965, the Sunflower Educational Television Corporation was chartered to start a public television station for the Wichita market. A year later, the SETC's board of trustees filed for a

construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...

with the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) for a non-commercial educational license on VHF channel 8, which was eventually assigned KPTS as its call letters. The station first signed on the air on January 5, 1970; for its first ten months on the air, it served as a member station of

National Educational Television National Educational Television (NET) was an American non-commercial educational, educational terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It op ...

(NET), before becoming a member of PBS when it launched on October 5, 1970. In 1978, Sunflower Educational Television Corporation was reorganized as the Kansas Public Telecommunications Service. In 1980, the station moved to its second studio facility at 320 West 21st Street North in Wichita. In January 2021, KPTS transitioned to a new name, PBS Kansas Public Television. The move highlights how PBS Kansas serves the majority of Kansas residents. The station moved to its current studio building on East 32nd Street North a year later.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's 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

KPTS signed on its digital signal on channel 8 at 10 a.m. February 16, 2008. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on January 5, 2009. One month later on February 18, the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition

channel 29 to VHF channel 8. Due to reception problems that occurred after the transition due to the short height of its previous transmitter tower near Buhler and the fact that the transmitter operated at a lower power that limited the station's coverage area, resulting in signal loss issues – especially in areas of lower terrain located south and east of Wichita, KPTS began raising funds to sign on a fill-in translator from a tower north of Wichita in 2011. Plans called for construction on the tower to begin in the summer of 2013 with the translator signing on by September; however, these plans were delayed due to frequent occurrences of record rainfall during July and August.Photos of KPTS Tower Project in 2013.
/ref> The translator began operating on November 8, 2013.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kpts 1970 establishments in Kansas PBS member stations Television channels and stations established in 1970 PTS