KWCM-TV (channel 10) and KSMN (channel 20) are

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 ...

s licensed respectively to

Appleton Appleton may refer to: People and fictional characters * Appleton (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters * Appleton family, an American political, religious and mercantile family * Appleton P. Clark Jr. (1865–1955), Am ...

and

Worthington, Minnesota Worthington is a city in and the county seat of Nobles County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,947 at the time of the 2020 census. History The city's site was first settled in the 1870s as Okabena Station on a line of the Ch ...

, United States, owned by the West Central Minnesota Educational TV Corp. The stations maintain studios on Pioneer Drive in Granite Falls. KWCM-TV's transmitter is located near Appleton, while KSMN's tower is near

Chandler, Minnesota Chandler is a town in Murray County, Minnesota, Murray County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 279 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Main Highways in the area include: * Minnesota State Highway 91, MN-91 * Murray Coun ...

. KSMN operates as a full-time

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

of KWCM-TV; its existence is only acknowledged in

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID, channel ID or bumper (broadcasting), bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand na ...

s. Aside from the transmitter, KSMN does not maintain any physical presence locally in Worthington. The two stations are collectively branded as Pioneer PBS. Their combined signal can also be received in parts of

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

and

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

. Several other

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

carry the signal into other communities.

History

KWCM went on the air for the first time on February 7, 1966. In the early years, it repeated the signal of KTCA-TV in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...

. It adopted the Pioneer Public Television name in 1982, and added KSMN in 1997. The station is available on the

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

and

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

feeds for the Twin Cities and

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 117th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into northern Lincoln County. The population was 192 ...

markets Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

. Appleton is part of the Twin Cities market, while Worthington is in the Sioux Falls market. This gives Pioneer a potential audience of 4.8 million people in Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. As of November 3, 2019, the station became Pioneer PBS due to PBS' overhaul.

Pioneer-produced shows

Some locally produced shows include ''Postcards'', ''Prairie Sportsman'', ''Funtime Polka'', ''Your Legislators'', ''Country Spires'' and programs produced with the

University of Minnesota Morris The University of Minnesota Morris (UMN–Morris) is a public liberal arts college in Morris, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and was founded in 1960 as a public, co-educational, residential liberal a ...

, ''Prairie Yard and Garden'', ''Academic Challenge'', ''Echoes of Cry of the Marsh'' and ''Minnesota Rivers and Fields''. Some of these shows have also been shown on the

Minnesota Channel The Minnesota Channel is an American free-to-air television channel originating at Twin Cities Public Television. It features programming related to Minnesota (and some related to Wisconsin and North Dakota), plus coverage of the Minnesota Legisla ...

, a statewide network originated at KTCI-TV in the Twin Cities which carries local programs on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Technical information

Subchannels

The stations' signals are

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

KWCM-TV and KSMN shut down their analog transmitters on June 12, 2009. KWCM-TV's digital signal relocated to VHF channel 10 from

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 31, while KSMN's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 15.

Translators

A network of digital translators in western Minnesota translates KWCM.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kwcm-Tv 1966 establishments in Minnesota PBS member stations Television channels and stations established in 1966 Television stations in Minnesota