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KVPT
KVPT (channel 18) is a PBS member television station in Fresno, California, United States, owned by Valley Public Television, Inc. Its studios are located on Van Ness Avenue and Calaveras Street in downtown Fresno, and its transmitter is located on Bear Mountain, near Meadow Lakes, California. It is also broadcast in Bakersfield on translator K18HD-D.
The drive to build a public television station in Fresno had lasted nearly 25 years before channel 18 signed on as KMTF in April 1977. After several false starts, an application led by the Fresno County school board and overseen by the school systems of Kings, Madera, Tulare, and Fresno counties—the station's original namesake—put the station on the air, overcoming delays relating to fundraising and an objection by a Mexican American group. In 1987, ownership of the station was spun off by the school board into a community non-profit organization, today known as Valley Public Television. KMTF changed its call sign to KVPT in 1990; that year, it also moved into its present studios, donated by commercial station KSEE. In 1992, it began broadcasting into Bakersfield. The station had one general manager for its first 26 years of operation, but in the 2010s and early 2020s, KVPT has experienced increased management turnover.
Efforts to start a public TV station on Fresno's educational channel 18 stretched nearly 25 years from the time the station began broadcasting in 1977.
In December 1952, a meeting was held by the Fresno Area Council on Educational Television to discuss possible use of ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 18. A 1953 meeting recommended the creation of a nonprofit corporation to serve as the licensee and apply for construction. No action had been taken by 1955, when the existence of the channel became an issue in the battle over intermixture of VHF and UHF allocations in the city; KJEO-TV recommended the educational reservation be switched from channel 18 to a very high frequency (VHF) channel, while KBID on channel 53 sought to move to the lower channels of 18 or 30.
Educational television plans for Fresno lay fallow until a 1958 attempt by the local chapter of the American Association of University Women, which led to the 1959 formation of the San Joaquin Valley Community Television Association. This group, unlike the prior effort, supported the idea of switching the educational reservation in Fresno to channel 12 if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved KFRE-TV from channel 12 to channel 30.
In 1963, the San Joaquin Valley Community Television Association announced possible plans for a fundraising drive to support the construction of a station. The next year, it began planning to raise $200,000 in order to qualify for federal matching grants that would finance construction of channel 18. These efforts gained some steam in late 1964 and early 1965: Fresno State College was authorized to collaborate with the group, allowing it to use the college's TV facilities in lieu of constructing its own studio, and in January 1965, applications were filed with the FCC for a construction permit and with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) for federal money. However, this proposal stalled out because of an inability to raise the necessary cash in the community. School systems outside of Fresno County were indifferent to the educational television project, and business leaders made pledges contingent on starting construction. Federal money was then diverted from educational broadcasting to social priorities and the Vietnam War. A February 13, 1966, headline on the front page of The Fresno Bee read, "ETV Campaign In Valley Appears Lost Cause".
The next effort to activate channel 18 came from Fresno State College. In June 1967, the board of trustees of the California State University system, which governed the college, authorized plans for an educational TV station on the campus; the college then asked the FCC to let it assume the existing channel 18 application from the San Joaquin Valley Community Television Association. However, its plans remained plans because of cutbacks to state funding. In 1971, the associated Fresno State College Foundation rejected a proposal to turn KAIL (channel 53) into an educational station, unsure if it was empowered to run such a venture.
The Fresno County Department of Education began a study in late 1972 over the feasibility of expanding its closed-circuit instructional television system. However, the study found that money could be better used by setting up a broadcast station. Ernest Poore, the superintendent of the county school system, then told a meeting of educators in late August that he would recommend the department of education move forward with channel 18 planning. A proposed program schedule featured 66 hours of programming a week, mostly from PBS and local productions. As the application was filed in December 1973, however, concerns were raised about how much control educational groups would have over the station as well as the station's plans to hire minorities.
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KVPT
KVPT (channel 18) is a PBS member television station in Fresno, California, United States, owned by Valley Public Television, Inc. Its studios are located on Van Ness Avenue and Calaveras Street in downtown Fresno, and its transmitter is located on Bear Mountain, near Meadow Lakes, California. It is also broadcast in Bakersfield on translator K18HD-D.
The drive to build a public television station in Fresno had lasted nearly 25 years before channel 18 signed on as KMTF in April 1977. After several false starts, an application led by the Fresno County school board and overseen by the school systems of Kings, Madera, Tulare, and Fresno counties—the station's original namesake—put the station on the air, overcoming delays relating to fundraising and an objection by a Mexican American group. In 1987, ownership of the station was spun off by the school board into a community non-profit organization, today known as Valley Public Television. KMTF changed its call sign to KVPT in 1990; that year, it also moved into its present studios, donated by commercial station KSEE. In 1992, it began broadcasting into Bakersfield. The station had one general manager for its first 26 years of operation, but in the 2010s and early 2020s, KVPT has experienced increased management turnover.
Efforts to start a public TV station on Fresno's educational channel 18 stretched nearly 25 years from the time the station began broadcasting in 1977.
In December 1952, a meeting was held by the Fresno Area Council on Educational Television to discuss possible use of ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 18. A 1953 meeting recommended the creation of a nonprofit corporation to serve as the licensee and apply for construction. No action had been taken by 1955, when the existence of the channel became an issue in the battle over intermixture of VHF and UHF allocations in the city; KJEO-TV recommended the educational reservation be switched from channel 18 to a very high frequency (VHF) channel, while KBID on channel 53 sought to move to the lower channels of 18 or 30.
Educational television plans for Fresno lay fallow until a 1958 attempt by the local chapter of the American Association of University Women, which led to the 1959 formation of the San Joaquin Valley Community Television Association. This group, unlike the prior effort, supported the idea of switching the educational reservation in Fresno to channel 12 if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved KFRE-TV from channel 12 to channel 30.
In 1963, the San Joaquin Valley Community Television Association announced possible plans for a fundraising drive to support the construction of a station. The next year, it began planning to raise $200,000 in order to qualify for federal matching grants that would finance construction of channel 18. These efforts gained some steam in late 1964 and early 1965: Fresno State College was authorized to collaborate with the group, allowing it to use the college's TV facilities in lieu of constructing its own studio, and in January 1965, applications were filed with the FCC for a construction permit and with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) for federal money. However, this proposal stalled out because of an inability to raise the necessary cash in the community. School systems outside of Fresno County were indifferent to the educational television project, and business leaders made pledges contingent on starting construction. Federal money was then diverted from educational broadcasting to social priorities and the Vietnam War. A February 13, 1966, headline on the front page of The Fresno Bee read, "ETV Campaign In Valley Appears Lost Cause".
The next effort to activate channel 18 came from Fresno State College. In June 1967, the board of trustees of the California State University system, which governed the college, authorized plans for an educational TV station on the campus; the college then asked the FCC to let it assume the existing channel 18 application from the San Joaquin Valley Community Television Association. However, its plans remained plans because of cutbacks to state funding. In 1971, the associated Fresno State College Foundation rejected a proposal to turn KAIL (channel 53) into an educational station, unsure if it was empowered to run such a venture.
The Fresno County Department of Education began a study in late 1972 over the feasibility of expanding its closed-circuit instructional television system. However, the study found that money could be better used by setting up a broadcast station. Ernest Poore, the superintendent of the county school system, then told a meeting of educators in late August that he would recommend the department of education move forward with channel 18 planning. A proposed program schedule featured 66 hours of programming a week, mostly from PBS and local productions. As the application was filed in December 1973, however, concerns were raised about how much control educational groups would have over the station as well as the station's plans to hire minorities.