KCTS-TV

File:KCTS studios.JPG

File:Cascade PBS, 361 Broadway, Seattle - Off Staircase.png

File:Dennis Kelso Interviewed by KCTS.jpg, during the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.]]

KCTS was founded by the University of Washington (UW), the station's original licensee. It was a sister station to KUOW-FM, which UW put on the air in 1951. It was originally to have gone on the air under the callsign KUOW-TV, but it instead assumed the callsign KCTS, meaning Community Television Service, to avoid singling out a member of its initial sponsoring group. Sponsors at the time included UW, Seattle Public Schools, King County Public Schools, Seattle University, Seattle Pacific College, and the Seattle Public Library.{{cite news |title=Progress Report |work=The Seattle Times |date=May 21, 1954 |page=21}} A studio for KCTS was set up on the UW campus at 15th Avenue NE and NE Campus Parkway, with equipment donated by KING-TV owner Dorothy Bullitt.{{cite news |title=TV Technique |work=The Seattle Times |date=October 7, 1954 |page=24}}

The station aired its first test pattern on November 18, 1954; a fire at its studio the following day caused extensive damage to its equipment, but suppliers expedited shipments of replacement equipment such that they all arrived within a week after the fire, avoiding a potential delay to its planned regular programming.{{cite news |title=$10,000 Fire In New TV Studio Curbs Operations |work=The Seattle Times |date=November 19, 1954 |page=1}}{{cite news |title=And So the Show Goes On |work=The Seattle Times |date=December 6, 1954 |page=21}} KCTS began broadcasting at 7 p.m. on December 7, first airing a five-minute program preview hosted by UW professor and program director Milo Ryan before switching to an abridged performance of Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah by the Seattle Pacific College Choir.{{cite news |title=Preview |work=The Seattle Times |date=December 7, 1954 |page=32}} Initially, it aired only two preview programs weekly; however, regular programming did not commence until nearly a month later on January 5, 1955, with the inaugural program featuring Governor Arthur B. Langlie as principal speaker.{{cite news |date=November 17, 1954 |title=KCTS Gets Ready For Test Pattern |work=The Seattle Times |page=29}}{{cite news |date=November 30, 1954 |title=Twisting Dials |work=The Seattle Times |page=26}} It had three telecast periods throughout the afternoon and evening during weekdays.{{cite news |title=Channel 9: TV Entering The Classroom |work=The Seattle Times |date=December 12, 1954 |department=Pictorial |page=22}}{{cite news |title=New Station Aided |work=The Seattle Times |date=January 6, 1955 |page=16}}

During the 1950s and 1960s, KCTS primarily supplied classroom instructional programs used in Washington State's K–12 schools, plus National Educational Television (NET) programs. Outside of schoolrooms, KCTS's audience among the general public was somewhat limited, and most programming was in black-and-white until the mid-1970s (although the station did install color capability in 1967). In 1970, NET was absorbed into the newly created Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which commenced broadcasting on October 5. As a PBS member station, KCTS began offering a vastly enhanced scope of programming for the general public, including British programming.

Thanks to a major fundraising drive during the mid-1980s, KCTS moved to new studio space on the Seattle Center campus in October 1986 and would remain there until 2024. In 1987, UW spun off KCTS, and the station became a community licensee, thus separating it from KUOW-FM.{{Cite web|url=http://depts.washington.edu/sthp/files/original/6c8c6ba3ae7a18f8927f6ba821867408.htm|title=Birth of a Television Station: KCTS|website=depts.washington.edu}}

KCTS is seen throughout southwestern British Columbia on local cable systems, as well as across Canada on the Bell Satellite TV and Shaw Direct satellite providers, as well as on many other Canadian cable TV systems.{{cn|date=February 2024}} By 1996, a third of KCTS's audience resided in British Columbia;{{cite news |last=Taylor |first=Chuck |date=November 17, 1996 |title=KCTS confronts its future |page=M1 |work=The Seattle Times}} after it was removed from its channel number (9) on basic cable systems in the province, donations declined by $1.2 million.{{cite news |last=McCullough |first=Michael |date=December 6, 2002 |title=Bank failure won't stop shows for KCTS |page=C5 |work=The Vancouver Sun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vancouver-sun-bank-failure-wont-sto/142123641/ |via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=February 25, 2024}} KCTS continues to receive financial support from its Canadian audience, which was processed through the Pacific Coast Public Television Association until its dissolution in 2017.{{cite web |date=November 21, 2019 |title=Cascade Public Media and Subsidiaries: Consolidated Financial Statements For the Year Ended June 30, 2019 |page=23 |url=https://www.kcts9.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/FY%202019%20Audited%20Financials.pdf |publisher=Cascade Public Media |accessdate=February 25, 2024}}

KCTS switched to a digital transmission signal from its Capitol Hill tower in March 1999, becoming the third television station in the Seattle area to make the transition. The station had been an early adopter of high-definition television programming and used its new digital signal to simulcast several programs.{{cite news |last=Levesque |first=John |date=March 22, 1999 |title=KCTS's new digital transmitter helps put city on cutting edge |page=D4 |work=Seattle Post-Intelligencer}} In January 2016, as part of a broader strategy to redefine itself as a content provider for various platforms other than television, the name of the licensee, KCTS Television became Cascade Public Media; its properties included KCTS-TV, Crosscut, a non-profit daily news site, and Spark Public. Cascade Public Media currently consists of KCTS, Crosscut and Piranha Partners.

In July 2022, Cascade Public Media purchased Childhaven's longtime facility in First Hill for $23 million and announced that it would move its operations there by the end of 2023; the organization stated on its website that the city of Seattle declined to renew the 40-year ground lease for the Seattle Center facility. It retained architectural firm JPC Architects, general contractor Abbott Construction, and project manager OAC Services as part of a capital campaign to purchase and renovate the property.{{cite news |last1=Stiles |first1=Marc |date=July 6, 2022 |title=Crosscut, KCTS buy Childhaven's longtime Broadway property |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/07/06/cascade-public-media-buys-childhaven-site.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231228180113/https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/07/06/cascade-public-media-buys-childhaven-site.html |archive-date=2023-12-28 |access-date=July 8, 2022 |work=Puget Sound Business Journal}}{{cite news |last1=Miller |first1=Brian |title=In $23M sale, Childhaven sells First Hill HQ to parent of KCTS and Crosscut |url=https://www.djc.com/news/re/12149751.html |access-date=July 8, 2022 |work=Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce |date=July 7, 2022}}

In October 2023, KCTS announced that it and Crosscut would merge under the new unified brand of Cascade PBS.{{cite web |title=A New Era: Cascade PBS |url=https://www.kcts9.org/CascadePBS |publisher=KCTS |date=October 18, 2023 |accessdate=February 25, 2024}} It also announced plans for a new streaming app, expanding on a service that launched in 2020, that would be used by other PBS member stations.{{cite news |last=Wyllie |first=Julian |date=December 21, 2023 |title=Cascade Public Media app aims to deliver long-awaited upgrades to PBS streaming experience |url=https://current.org/2023/12/cascade-public-media-app-aims-to-deliver-long-awaited-upgrades-to-pbs-streaming-experience/ |work=Current |accessdate=February 25, 2024}} KCTS and Crosscut moved into the First Hill facility in January 2024, with both subsequently adopting the Cascade PBS name on March 1.{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=M. David III |title=Crosscut, KCTS 9 come together as Cascade PBS |url=https://crosscut.com/briefs/2024/03/crosscut-kcts-9-come-together-cascade-pbs |access-date=April 19, 2024 |work=Crosscut.com |date=March 1, 2024 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=Cascade PBS snips ribbon on new First Hill HQ |url=https://www.djc.com/news/bu/12162708.html |access-date=April 19, 2024 |work=Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce |date=March 15, 2024 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |last1=Stiles |first1=Marc |title=New name, new Seattle home for KCTS 9 TV and Crosscut |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2024/03/18/name-change-home-kcts-crosscut-seattle-first-hill.html |access-date=April 19, 2024 |work=Puget Sound Business Journal |date=March 18, 2024 |url-access=subscription}}

{{Infobox television station

| callsign = KYVE

| above = Semi-satellite of KCTS-TV

| city =

| logo =

| logo_size = 220px

| branding =

| digital = 21 (UHF)

| virtual = 47

| affiliations = {{ubl|47.1: PBS|for others, see {{Section link||Subchannels}}}}

| translators = see {{section link||KYVE translators}}

| location = Yakima, Washington

| founded =

| airdate = {{start date and age|1962|11|01|p=y}}

| last_airdate =

| callsign_meaning = Yakima Valley Educational

| sister_stations =

| former_callsigns = KYVE-TV (1962–1985)

| former_channel_numbers = Analog: 47 (UHF, 1962–2009)

| former_affiliations = NET (1962–1970)

| erp = 50 kW

| haat = {{convert|280|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}

| facility_id = 33752

| coordinates = {{Coord|46|31|57.5|N|120|30|37.2|W|type:landmark_scale:2000}}

| licensing_authority = FCC

| website = {{URL|www.kcts9.org/about/kyve47}}

}}

In 1994, KCTS merged with KYVE, which has served central Washington since November 1, 1962. However, this was not the first time that the two stations had partnered together; during the early 1960s KYVE's engineers switched to and from KCTS's signal until the station's owners, the Yakima Board of Education, got enough funding for the station to be self-supporting. The station became a community licensee in 1984, but found the going difficult until its merger with KCTS. KYVE did produce a few local programs, including the KYVE Apple Bowl with host Tony Leita, a high school quiz competition; Northwest Outdoors with Wally Pease, an outdoors program; and Country Roads with Gwyn Gilmore, a showcase of country music videos.

During the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, some programs included a combined "KCTS/KYVE" visual bug in the lower-right corner of the screen, indicating they were simulcast to both markets. However, since the early 2000s, KYVE has largely been a straight simulcast of KCTS, so the screen bug was dropped. Combined, the two stations serve 2.4 million people, accounting for almost two-thirds of Washington state's population.

Its former studios were located at Braeburn Hall at Yakima Valley Community College. But since the start of the millennium, local origination was severely reduced, and eventually, Braeburn Hall was torn down. KYVE later moved to a small office on 2nd Street (at the bottom of the Larson Building). This office is now home to the ticket office and administration for the Yakima Valley Pippins baseball team, and aside from the Ahtanum Ridge transmitter and the legal hourly station ID, KYVE no longer has any presence in Yakima.

KCTS is perhaps best known for producing/distributing the popular PBS Kids show Bill Nye the Science Guy, as well as other programs such as Students by Nature (not a PBS-distributed program), The Miracle Planet, cooking shows by Nick Stellino, Chefs A' Field, and the annual televised high school academic competition KYVE Apple Bowl.

KCTS was among a number of PBS member stations to air the controversial "Sugartime!" episode of Postcards from Buster, a spinoff of Arthur about a cartoon rabbit named Buster Baxter, who travels the country with his father and interacts with children from different cultures and in different family structures.{{cite news | last = McFarland | first = Melanie | title = KCTS/9 Will Air 'Postcards From Buster' Showing Lesbian Parents | work = Seattle P.I. | date = February 2, 2005 | url = https://www.seattlepi.com/ae/tv/article/KCTS-9-will-air-Postcards-from-Buster-showing-1165594.php | access-date = November 11, 2022}} The episode had been removed from PBS Kids Go!'s national broadcast schedule after PBS received a critical letter from then-newly-appointed Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who was upset that Buster was visiting a Vermont family headed by two women.{{cite news | last = Salamon | first = Julie | title = Culture Wars Pull Buster Into the Fray | work = The New York Times | date = January 27, 2005 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/arts/culture-wars-pull-buster-into-the-fray.html | access-date = June 15, 2022}}{{cite news | last = Salamon | first = Julie | title = A Child Learns a Harsh Lesson in Politics | work = The New York Times | date = February 5, 2005 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/05/arts/television/a-child-learns-a-harsh-lesson-in-politics.html | access-date = June 15, 2022}}{{cite news | last = Moore | first = Frazier | title = Fallout Continues Over Lesbian-Inclusive 'Postcards From Buster' Episode | work = Advocate | date = February 11, 2005 | url = https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/entertainment-news/2005/02/11/fallout-continues-over-lesbian-inclusive | access-date = June 18, 2022}}{{cite news | last = Stasi | first = Linda | title = No Bunny Needs to Worry About Lesbian 'Postcards' | work = New York Post | date = March 21, 2005 | url = https://nypost.com/2005/03/21/no-bunny-needs-to-worry-about-lesbian-postcards/ | access-date = November 11, 2022}}{{cite news | last = Smith | first = Lynn | title = By Nixing Show, PBS Spotlights Gay Family | work = Los Angeles Times | date = March 14, 2005 | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-mar-14-et-buster14-story.html | access-date = June 15, 2022}}{{cite news | last = Ryan | first = Maureen | title = 'Boy, That's a Lot of Moms' | work = Chicago Tribune | date = February 3, 2005 | url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2005-02-03-0502030041-story.html | access-date = June 14, 2022}}{{cite news | last = Moore | first = Frazier | title = What's the Big Deal About 'Buster'? | work = Today | date = February 9, 2005 | url = https://www.today.com/popculture/what-s-big-deal-about-buster-wbna6941861 | access-date = June 16, 2022}}{{cite news | last = Gaylord | first = Peggy R. | title = Buster Exposed to Two Pairs of Moms | work = Umaffirm | date = March 23, 2005 | url = http://umaffirm.org/news/2005bustersugartime.html | access-date = June 16, 2022}}{{overcite|date=June 2024}} WGBH, the Boston-based PBS affiliate and original producer of the program, subsequently made the episode available to stations that still wished to air it on an individual basis.{{cite web|last=Taylor|first=Scott|title=MPBN ready to show 'Buster'|url=http://www.sunjournal.com/node/704880|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140315023432/http://www.sunjournal.com/node/704880|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 15, 2014|work=Sun Journal|access-date=April 22, 2014}}

The stations' signals are multiplexed:

KCTS-TV 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.{{Cite web|url=http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf|title=List of Digital Full-Power Stations|archive-date=August 29, 2013}} The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 41 to VHF channel 9.

• {{FCC-LMS-Facility|35004|3=K17IL-D}} Ellensburg
• {{FCC-LMS-Facility|33751|3=K18AD-D}} East Wenatchee

• Institute for Nonprofit News (member)

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.kcts9.org/ KCTS 9]
• [http://www.kcts9.org/about/kyve47 KYVE] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612212205/http://www.kcts9.org/about/kyve47 |date=June 12, 2010 }}
• [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/links/kctstimesline18.pdf History KCTS from 1954 through 2003 (Seattle Times)]
• [https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/659 Richard J. Meyer papers], at the University of Maryland Libraries. He was a manager of KCTS from 1972 to 1982 and helped in updating equipment, securing a larger budget for the station, and increasing community representation in the show with new employees from the local community.

{{Seattle TV}}

{{Yakima TV}}

{{PBS Washington}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kcts-Tv}}

Category:1954 establishments in Washington (state)

Category:PBS member stations

Category:Peabody Award winners

Category:Television channels and stations established in 1954

CTS-TV

Category:University of Washington