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KUEN (channel 9), known as UEN-TV, is an educational
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
Ogden, Utah Ogden ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the United States Census ...
, United States, serving
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 ...
and the state of Utah. The station is owned by the Utah Board of Higher Education and part of the
Utah Education Network The Utah Education Network (UEN) is a broadband and digital broadcast network serving public education, higher education, applied technology campuses, libraries, and public charter schools throughout the state of Utah. The Network facilitates inte ...
(UEN), which provides connectivity services to the state's K-12 and higher education systems. KUEN's studios are located at the
Eccles Broadcast Center The Dolores Doré Eccles Broadcast Center (often shortened to Eccles Broadcast Center) is headquarters of three broadcast stations and a statewide educational consortium. The center houses KUED, KUER, KUEN and the Utah Education Network. Th ...
on the
University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...
campus; its transmitter is located at
Farnsworth Peak Farnsworth Peak is a peak located on the northern end of the Oquirrh Mountains, Oquirrh Mountain range, approximately south east of Lake Point, Utah and south west of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The mountain is named for Philo Farnswo ...
in the
Oquirrh Mountains The Oquirrh Mountains ( ) is a mountain range that runs north–south for approximately 30 miles (50 km) to form the west side of Utah's Salt Lake Valley, separating it from Tooele Valley. The range runs from northwestern Utah County– ...
, southwest of Salt Lake City, and is extended by dozens of broadcast translators across the state. Channel 9, an educational channel since 1962, had been unused since 1973, when KOET was shut down by the Ogden school board.
Weber State College Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy and earned its current name in 1991. As of fall 2023, the student population reached 30,536 students, cons ...
obtained a construction permit to reactivate channel 9 in 1984, but it lacked funding to construct or operate the station. The permit was transferred to the Utah higher education system in 1985, and construction and operation of channel 9 was assigned to the University of Utah. The station began broadcasting on December 1, 1986, as KULC ("Utah's Learning Channel") with a selection of telecourses for college credit from institutions across the state. In 1989, the Utah Education Network was formed to coordinate this activity and, ultimately, internet connectivity for public schools in Utah. KULC, along with the University of Utah's public broadcasting stations, moved into the Eccles Broadcast Center in 1993. As part of efforts to reinforce the brand of its parent, KULC changed its call sign to KUEN in 2004 and became known as UEN-TV. The station offers educational programming, secondary public television programming from independent producers, and a limited amount of local production.


Prior history of channel 9 in Ogden

Channel 9 in
Ogden Ogden may refer to: Places Canada *Ogden, Calgary, in Calgary, Alberta *Ogden, Quebec, a small municipality in the Eastern Townships * Ogdensville, British Columbia or Ogden City, alternate names for gold rush-era Seymour Arm, British Columbia *Og ...
had originally been assigned as a commercial channel and went on the air as KVOG-TV on December 5, 1960. It operated as an
independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
until the owner, Arch G. Webb, opted to exit the television business. The Ogden city school system, which had long planned educational television broadcasts, agreed to acquire KVOG-TV in January 1962. Upon acquiring KVOG-TV at a final cost of $155,500, the board changed the call letters to KOET, for "Ogden Educational Television", and converted the license to noncommercial operation. As early as 1967, Ogden school officials wanted to sell KOET but found that the noncommercial designation of the channel hindered their efforts. James Lavenstein agreed to buy KOET with the intention of converting it back to a commercial station; the sale application stalled at 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), which denied it in 1970 because of the recent or discussed closure of other educational stations in northern Utah, such as
Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gove ...
's short-lived KUSU-TV and the Weber County school system's
KWCS-TV KWCS-TV (channel 18) was a non-commercial educational television station in Ogden, Utah, United States, which broadcast from 1960 until the early 1970s. Owned by Weber County Schools, the station broadcast instructional programming for students i ...
. Commercial broadcasters, resisting competition, said that a fourth commercial station in Salt Lake would hinder the development of UHF broadcasting. KOET and KWCS-TV merged operations in 1971, but after Weber County withdrew from the partnership in 1973, the station closed. Ogden school leaders regretted changing the channel to noncommercial use. KOET was deleted by the FCC in February 1975.


History


Weber State plans

Momentum for putting channel 9 to use again started with
Weber State College Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy and earned its current name in 1991. As of fall 2023, the student population reached 30,536 students, cons ...
in Ogden. By early 1982, it was preparing an application to the FCC for channel 9, which it hoped would be a laboratory for students learning broadcast journalism and a station providing local programming. Under an agreement with the Standard Corporation, parent of the Ogden ''
Standard-Examiner The ''Standard-Examiner'' is a daily morning newspaper published in Ogden, Utah. With roughly 30,000 subscribers on Sunday and 25,000 daily, it is the third largest daily newspaper in terms of circulation in Utah, after ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' ...
'' and Salt Lake City TV station
KUTV KUTV (channel 2) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside independent station KJZZ-TV (channel 14) and St. George, Utah, St. George–licensed MyNetwor ...
, Weber State would receive financial and facilities assistance. By November 1983, a second application had been received for the channel from Way of the Cross of Utah, a group based in
Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...
. Weber State received the construction permit in 1984; the college had already proposed building a transmitter on Mount Vision in the
Oquirrh Mountains The Oquirrh Mountains ( ) is a mountain range that runs north–south for approximately 30 miles (50 km) to form the west side of Utah's Salt Lake Valley, separating it from Tooele Valley. The range runs from northwestern Utah County– ...
, southwest of Salt Lake City. In spite of corporate support and a federal grant, however, Weber State proved unable to raise the funds necessary to build channel 9. The federal grant required a local match, which was not feasible. One proposal that could have provided the funding came from
KSTU KSTU (channel 13) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company alongside Provo-licensed KUPX-TV (channel 16), an independent station. KSTU's stud ...
(channel 20), which proposed swapping channels to move KSTU to channel 9 and the Weber State station to channel 20. However, channel swaps between public VHF and commercial UHF stations were controversial, leading college administrators to deny the offer. In addition, there was no source of funding for recurring expenses.


Construction and operation

As a result of Weber State's financial inability to build channel 9 and a desire to prevent the channel from being lost to the state, on May 18, 1985, the
Utah State Board of Regents The Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) is the public university system of the state of Utah. It includes each of the state's sixteen public institutions of higher education, including its eight technical colleges. History On March 21, 1969, ...
—the governing body for the state's higher education institutions—approved a plan to transfer the channel 9 construction permit to a consortium of institutions. Under the consortium, channel 9 would share facilities and space with
KUED KUED (channel 7), branded PBS Utah, is a PBS member television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The station is owned by the University of Utah, and has studios at the Eccles Broadcast Center on Wasatch Drive in the northeaster ...
(channel 7), Utah's primary public television station, at the
University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...
. KULC ("Utah's Learning Channel") began broadcasting on December 1, 1986. It originally broadcast for four hours a day on weekdays only before debuting a regular schedule in January 1987. The statewide
microwave transmission Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by electromagnetic waves with wavelengths in the microwave frequency range of 300 MHz to 300 GHz (1 m - 1 mm wavelength) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwave signal ...
system enabled institutions across the state to originate telecourses for KULC, including the University of Utah, Utah State University, Weber State College,
Southern Utah State College Southern Utah University (SUU) is a public university in Cedar City, Utah, United States. Founded in 1897 as a normal school, Southern Utah University now has over 1,800 graduates each year with baccalaureate and other graduate degrees from its ...
, and
Snow College Snow College is a Public college, public community college in Ephraim, Utah. It offers certificates and associate degrees along with bachelor's degrees in music, software engineering, and nursing. Snow College is part of the Utah System of High ...
. Course offerings ranged from the coursework for a pilot's license and electrical engineering to introductory American history and geology. The station's facilities in Gardner Hall on the University of Utah campus were described as "the size of a closet". The
Utah Education Network The Utah Education Network (UEN) is a broadband and digital broadcast network serving public education, higher education, applied technology campuses, libraries, and public charter schools throughout the state of Utah. The Network facilitates inte ...
was formed by the state in 1989 as a successor to the prior State Educational Telecom Operations Center (SETOC). Ground was broken on the larger
Eccles Broadcast Center The Dolores Doré Eccles Broadcast Center (often shortened to Eccles Broadcast Center) is headquarters of three broadcast stations and a statewide educational consortium. The center houses KUED, KUER, KUEN and the Utah Education Network. Th ...
in 1989; KUED,
KUER-FM KUER-FM (90.1 MHz) is a public radio station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Owned by the University of Utah, its studios are located in the Eccles Broadcast Center on the University of Utah campus, while its main transmitter is located ...
, and KULC began broadcasting from the site in 1993. The station expanded its reach beyond the
Wasatch Front The Wasatch Front is a major metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Utah. It consists of a chain of contiguous cities and towns stretched along the Wasatch Range from Santaquin in the south to Pleasant View in the n ...
with the installation of new translators in areas such as
Richfield Richfield may refer to: Places Canada *Richfield, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighbourhood * Richfield, Nova Scotia *Richfield, British Columbia, a ghost town from the Cariboo Gold Rush United States * Richfield, California *Richfield, Idaho * Richfiel ...
and
St. George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...
and
Cedar City Cedar City is the largest city in Iron County, Utah, United States. Located south of Salt Lake City, it is north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15 in Utah, Interstate 15. Southern Utah University is located in Cedar City. It is the home of the Ut ...
. Concomitant with this expansion, enrollment in KULC telecourses increased from 965 students in 1988 to 4,336 in 1993. In 2000, KULC began 24-hour broadcasting, which allowed for overnight rebroadcasts of programs for K-12 schools as well as reairs of popular adult education programs. By this time, the station also aired children's programs and professional development programming for teachers, such as ''Critical Issues in School Reform'' and ''Principles for Principals''. In 2001, an expansion was built to the Eccles Broadcast Center to accommodate the burgeoning Utah Education Network operation. The station changed call signs to KUEN on September 10, 2004, as part of a campaign to reinforce the UEN brand for its parent organization. In 2020, the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB; stylized as cpb) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to ...
ordered KUEN to repay more than $1.3 million in Community Service Grants it had received for the 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 fiscal years because the Utah Education Network had overstated its non-federal financial support by $11.5 million over the two-year period.


Funding

In the Utah Education and Telehealth Network operating structure, KUEN television and UETN's services to schools are combined. In fiscal year 2023, the Utah Education Network had revenue of $36 million, mostly from state appropriations and Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants, and expenses of $40.5 million.


Programming

UEN-TV's schedule consists primarily of college-credit telecourses and instructional and educational programs for a variety of audiences. Local productions include ''Art Connection'', ''SciTech Now'', and ''PDTV''.


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

KUEN shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 9, 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 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 36.


Translators

KUEN is rebroadcast on the following translators:


See also

*
Public broadcasting Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...
*
Distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...


References


External links


UEN-TV websiteUtah Education Network websiteUtah Instructional Television
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuen 1986 establishments in Utah Educational and instructional television channels First Nations Experience affiliates Mass media in Salt Lake City Television channels and stations established in 1986 UEN Weber State University