KETC

For the Australian television network, seeNine Network.

KETC

St. Louis, Missouri United States
Channels	Digital:23 (UHF) Virtual:9
Branding	Nine PBS
Programming
Affiliations	9.1:PBS for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	St. Louis Regional Public Media, Inc.
History
First air date	September 20, 1954(1954-09-20)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:9 (VHF,1954–2009) Digital:39 (UHF, 2002–2018)
Former affiliations	NET(1954–1970)
Call signmeaning	St. Louis Educational Television Commission (former name for St. Louis Regional Public Media)
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	62182
ERP	300kW
HAAT	331 m (1,086 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	38°28′56″N90°23′53″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.ninepbs.org

KETC(channel 9) is aPBSmembertelevision stationinSt. Louis, Missouri,United States, owned by St. Louis Regional Public Media. The station's studios are located at the Dana Brown Communications Center on Olive Street in St. Louis' Grand Center neighborhood, and its transmitter is located in SouthSt. Louis County.

History

KETC building.

The station first signed on the air on September 20, 1954.It was the first community-licensededucational televisionstation in the United States. The station's first general manager wasCharles Guggenheim,who hired the technical staff and first group of producer/director/writers, five in all. While waiting for the broadcasting tower to be completed, a number of programs were recorded usingkinescoperecording technology (the same as used forThe Honeymooners). Once on the air, there were a number of award-winning programs produced by Mayo Simon, Bill Hartzell, Ran Lincoln and Guggenheim. They included the first live broadcast of the St. Louis City Council. Another featured theSt. Louis Post-Dispatchnature columnist Leonard Hall of Possum Trot Farm. Among the taped program series was a pioneering science program intended for sixth graders to see in their classrooms,Science in Sight,produced by Martin L. Schneider. Film making was encouraged, and with Len Hall's collaboration a documentary film about the rare beauty of the relatively unprotectedCurrent Riverwas produced. It was later used by theNational Audubon Societyin the successful effort to make Current River the firstNational Scenic Riverunder the protection of theNational Park Service.

Soon after the station went live, its emphasis on current affairs and local politics, fostered by Guggenheim, rattled the political leaders. Following a public controversy, covered by thePost-Dispatch,and under the influence of the well-connected localpublic relationsfirm Fleishman and Hillard (nowFleishmanHillard), Guggenheim was replaced by Martin Quigley, who had no experience in broadcasting. A few months later, Shelby Storck was hired. An experienced broadcaster recommended by Guggenheim, he emceed the station's first evening of broadcasting.

KETC originally broadcast from temporary studios in McMillan Hall on the campus ofWashington University in St. Louis,with transmitting facilities atop the former Boatmen's Bank Building (now the Marquette Building) in downtown St. Louis. In 1955, it moved to the Julius and Freda Baer Memorial Building, also on the Washington University campus.It was the first facility specifically built for an educational television station. It activated its current tower in South County in 1970, allowing it to begincolorbroadcasts a year later. In 1998, the station moved its studios from the Washington University campus to the Dana Brown Communications Center in the Grand Center district.

During the2004 elections,KETC partnered with areaNBCaffiliateKSDK(channel 5) to provide St. Louisans with comprehensive and up-to-date local and national election results. This partnership was first utilized to simulcast agubernatorialdebate betweenRepublicancandidate Missouri Secretary of StateMatt BluntandDemocraticcandidate State AuditorClaire McCaskill.On election night (November 2), KSDK aired NBC's prime time election coverage withTom BrokawandTim Russertas well as segments of local results. KETC, meanwhile, ran three hours of local election results hosted by KSDK anchorsMike BushandKaren Foss.Viewers could also watch election results online on the websites of both stations.

The successful KETC/KSDK partnership was used again in September 2005 when, along with radio partnersKYKY(98.1 FM) andKEZK-FM(102.5 FM), atelethonforHurricane Katrinarelief was simulcast that raised more than $5 million. The telethon featured an appearance byAfftonnativeJohn Goodman,who now callsNew Orleanshome and whose family went missing for a time during the storm's peak.KennettnativeSheryl Crowand her then fiancéLance Armstrongurged viewers to call when they were interviewed by phone from the region.

In May 2008,E!contracted with KETC to film two episodes of thecable network's weekly pop culture seriesThe Soupat the KETC studios to accommodate hostJoel McHale's filming ofThe Informant!in the St. Louis area.After being known for most of its history as "KETC 9," the station rebranded itself as "The Nine Network" in 2010. On October 13, 2010, the station partnered with theSt. Louis Beacon,an online-only, non-profit news publication, to form the Public Insight Network, acitizen journalisminitiative created in conjunction withAmerican Public Media.On January 10, 2021, the station rebranded as Nine PBS, adopting the current PBS corporate logo.

Programming

KETC is known among viewers in St. Louis for preempting PBS programs to air library program content or less controversialpledge driveprograms,such asWQED-produceddoo-wopspecials, using the defaultnetwork feedin late night to premiere those PBS programs instead, though St. Louis has traditionally had stations, commercial and non-commercial, preempt programming from their networks due to content. KETC has given some leeway as far as some preemptions, such as a case whereSt. Louis Post-Dispatchcolumnist Eric Mink wrote an editorialcomplaining about the station's scheduling of a pledge driveice skatingshow instead of a PBS documentary on theSeptember 11 attacks;KETC announced the next day that it would instead air the 9/11 documentary as nationally scheduled.

Some of the programs produced by KETC for national distribution include selected episodes ofInside/Out.The station also producedThe Letter People,an instructional program about reading, which was seen on many PBS and educational television stations in the mid-1970s, as well asA Time for Champions,an hour-long documentary chronicling theSaint Louis Universitysoccerdynasty of the 1960s and 1970s; andHomeland,a miniseries examining the topic of immigration in the United States.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of KETC

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
9.1	1080i	16:9	KETC-HD	Main KETC programming /PBS
9.2	720p		KIDS	Nine Kids
9.3	480i		WORLD	Nine World
9.4			CREATE	Nine Create

Analog-to-digital conversion

KETC shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 9, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transitionUHFchannel 39,usingvirtual channel9.

External links

• KETC official website
• KETC-TV Collection Finding Aidat theSt. Louis Public Library