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6.8 MILLION REASONS WHY KCET LEFT PBS

gregg75

gregg75

I am somewhat familiar with this story, but much of this post comes from deadline.com

KCET left PBS last October and deadline reports that they will now save $6.8 million in annual
dues which they gave to PBS. Head of PBS Paula Kerger does not expect any other stations to
follow the KCET path.

Comment: That seems like a lot of money required by PBS.

from wikipedia
KCET began in 1964 with NET and was a charter member of PBS in 1970. It was the second
educational station in counrty (four days behind KUHT, Houston). The station is still commercial
free but without PBS.

Comment: If it's all about the money, why didn't they just go regular commercial? The whole
episode sounds like something from the Twilight Zone........very odd.
 
gregg75 said:
I am somewhat familiar with this story, but much of this post comes from deadline.com

KCET left PBS last October and deadline reports that they will now save $6.8 million in annual
dues which they gave to PBS. Head of PBS Paula Kerger does not expect any other stations to
follow the KCET path.

Comment: That seems like a lot of money required by PBS.

from wikipedia
KCET began in 1964 with NET and was a charter member of PBS in 1970. It was the second
educational station in counrty (four days behind KUHT, Houston). The station is still commercial
free but without PBS.

Comment: If it's all about the money, why didn't they just go regular commercial? The whole
episode sounds like something from the Twilight Zone........very odd.
Click to expand...

KCET holds a non-commercial license. They would have to go thru hoops & hurdles with the FCC & the DOJ to get the license converted to commercial. That could take years to do, if successful. On another messageboard, their ratings so far show a sharp drop in viewership since going independent. Let's see if that also translates in less pledge dollars. They're already lost that guaranteed funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting since going independent. They're gonna have to get creative with their programming & creating new revenue if they expect to stay on the air. Otherwise, they'll have to either go back to PBS to work out a new deal, or sell their station. Worst case scenario would be an evangelist organization getting a hold of this station. Daystar could possibly try to buy the station if it ever for sale. That would make KOCE happy if that happened, because they're forced to carry Daystar on a subchannel as part of a settled lawsuit over the sale of KOCE by the original owners of the station.
 
I would think L.A. could support two non-commercial stations. We have two PBS
stations in Atlanta. One is the Georgia Public Broadcasting and the other from the
Atlanta Public School system. The later seems to be similar to KCET. They have some
PBS shows but also show many of their own "findings". Most people I know watch both
about 50/50.
 
Actually, Angelinos have a choice of KCET and two PBS stations -- KOCE (the new primary PBS) and KLCS (a secondary PBS outlet owned by the LA Unified School District). Prior to KCET's discontinuance of PBS, PBS was on KCET as a primary outlet, with KOCE and KLCS as secondaries.
 
@azumanga:

Or if you live in or near the Inland Empire (San Bernardino and Riverside counties), there is another PBS outlet: KVCR (RF 26.1 VC 24.1). The only way to get it in the rest of the Los Angeles television market is to have satellite (DirecTV or Dish Network) or one of the telcos where available (i.e. Verizon FiOS TV or AT&T U-verse TV). In most of the L.A. area, KVCR cannot be received via antenna (or, if at all, with lots of pixelation, therefore unwatchable) and not all Time Warner Cable systems carry the station, unless you're in a place like Covina or elsewhere in eastern L.A. county.
 
gregg75 said:
from wikipedia
KCET began in 1964 with NET and was a charter member of PBS in 1970. It was the second
educational station in counrty (four days behind KUHT, Houston). The station is still commercial
free but without PBS.
Click to expand...

Wrong! There were several educational stations on the air before 1964.

WUHT, Houston is generally considered the first educational station. It went on the air in 1954. WKAR-TV at Michigan State University in East Lansing, also on the air in 1954, is considered the second.
 
If it were anyone else, I wouldn't nitpick like this, but for you, Matt...it's KUHT, not WUHT, in Houston. :D

As for the "second educational TV station" claim for KCET, there's a little bit of a "there" there: channel 28 in Los Angeles did light up as the second educational station in the country a few days after KUHT in 1954. It was called KTHE, and was operated by the University of Southern California. It struggled in an all-VHF market and was gone pretty quickly; I don't think KCET can really be seen as a direct descendant.
 
Scott Fybush said:
If it were anyone else, I wouldn't nitpick like this, but for you, Matt...it's KUHT, not WUHT, in Houston. :D

As for the "second educational TV station" claim for KCET, there's a little bit of a "there" there: channel 28 in Los Angeles did light up as the second educational station in the country a few days after KUHT in 1954. It was called KTHE, and was operated by the University of Southern California. It struggled in an all-VHF market and was gone pretty quickly; I don't think KCET can really be seen as a direct descendant.
Click to expand...

In the immortal words of Ed McMahon: You are correct, sir.
 
gregg75 said:
Comment: That seems like a lot of money required by PBS.
Click to expand...

To put it in context, it's about 10% of station revenues. The next question is: How much of that revenue was derived from PBS programming? That's the mathematics of running a public station.
 
What about people who lived in Santa Barbara/Santa Maria/San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, and Palm Springs market. Have the cable and satellite companies add KOCE to their PBS line-up? These three markets don't have their own PBS Stations.
 
Scott Fybush said:
If it were anyone else, I wouldn't nitpick like this, but for you, Matt...it's KUHT, not WUHT, in Houston. :D

As for the "second educational TV station" claim for KCET, there's a little bit of a "there" there: channel 28 in Los Angeles did light up as the second educational station in the country a few days after KUHT in 1954. It was called KTHE, and was operated by the University of Southern California. It struggled in an all-VHF market and was gone pretty quickly; I don't think KCET can really be seen as a direct descendant.
Click to expand...
...in addition, WHA-TV/21 Madison, licensed to the University of Wisconsin, was on the air on May 3, 1954, as Southern Wisconsin's third television station (behind then-CBS WKOW-TV/27 and NBC/ABC/DuMont WMTV/33). WHA is, thus, the oldest surviving UHF public TV station in the country...
 
e-dawg said:
What about people who lived in Santa Barbara/Santa Maria/San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, and Palm Springs market. Have the cable and satellite companies add KOCE to their PBS line-up? These three markets don't have their own PBS Stations.
Click to expand...

To finish up on Scott's comment's...Palm Springs has KVCR via cable and an OTA translator, KOCE via digital cable, and the Time Warner system carries a cable-only KCET channel that's different from the Los Angeles version.
 
gregg75 said:
WRONG MATTPARKER! Wikipedia says KUHT signed on in May of 1953 not 1954.
Click to expand...

Not quite what you said before... or rather what you said Wikipedia said before....
"KCET began in 1964 with NET and was a charter member of PBS in 1970. It was the second
educational station in counrty (four days behind KUHT, Houston). "
Click to expand...

Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information, any more than this or any other message board. But according to the station's website May, 1953 is correct. To say KCET signed on four days later just might be off a little.
 
You were right on the second point. It was around midnight and I mangled two lines
together by mistake..............where's my glasses?
 
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