KQED

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KQED is a public broadcasting company based in San Francisco, California. On May 1, 2006, KQED, Inc. and the KTEH Foundation merged to form Northern California Public Broadcasting.^[1] The KQED assets including its television (KQED-TV) and FM radio stations (KQED-FM) were taken under the umbrella of that new organization. Both remain members of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR), respectively. KQED reaches all of Northern California via over-the-air broadcast, cable television and satellite. KQED also produces programming for radio and television for local, national and international distribution.

[edit] Television

KQED-TV is an NTSC television signal on VHF channel 9. This channel is also carried on Comcast cable TV and via satellite by DirecTV and Dish Network. Its transmitter is located atop Twin Peaks on Sutro Tower in San Francisco.

Noteworthy KQED television productions include the first installment of Armistead Maupin's miniseries Tales of the City, Tongues Untied by Marlon Riggs, and a series of programs focusing on the historic neighborhoods in San Francisco, such as The Castro and The Fillmore District. Ongoing productions include The Josh Kornbluth Show, California Connected, Check, Please! Bay Area, and This Week in Northern California.

[edit] Digital television

KQED-DT is an ATSC digital television signal broadcast over channel 30 from Sutro Tower available over-the-air with a digital tuner, or through digital cable service from Comcast.^[2] With either, there is an offering of five sub-channels:

High-Definition

• KQED HD on DT9.1 / 30.1 (Comcast 709)

Standard-Definition

• KQED Encore on DT9.2 / 30.2 (Comcast 189)
• KQED World on DT9.3 / 30.3 (Comcast 190)
• KQED Life on DT9.4 / 30.4 (Comcast 191)
• KQED Kids on DT9.5 / 30.5 (Comcast 192)

[edit] Radio

Founded in 1969, KQED-FM is the most-listened to public radio station in the United States, and is typically rated third in the Arbitron ratings.^[3] In addition to local programming KQED-FM carries content from major public radio distributors such as National Public Radio, Public Radio International, BBC World Service and Minnesota Public Radio. Among the locally produced shows are Forum with Michael Krasny, The California Report, Perspectives and Pacific Time.

The KQED-FM FM radio signal is broadcast from several locations in northern California:

• KQED-FM 88.5 MHz in San Francisco
• KQEI-FM 89.3 MHz in Sacramento
• via translator: 88.3 MHz in Santa Rosa
• via translator: 88.1 MHz in Martinez and Benicia

In addition to over-the-air broadcasts, KQED-FM audio is carried on Comcast digital cable channel 960 and is webcast with live streaming audio around the clock with Forum, and Pacific Time carried live with nationwide coverage on Sirius Satellite Radio. KQED also offers an extensive audio archive and podcasts of previous shows for download.

One of the most famous programs to have been broadcast on KQED was An Hour with Pink Floyd, a sixty minute performance by Pink Floyd recorded in 1970 without an audience at the Fillmore West. The program was broadcast only twice—once in 1970, and once again in 1984. The setlist included Atom Heart Mother, Cymbaline, Grantchester Meadows, Green Is the Colour, Careful with that Axe, Eugene, and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.

[edit] History

KQED was organized and created by veteran broadcast journalists Jim Day and Jon Rice the on April 5 1954. It was the sixth public broadcasting station in the United States, debuting shortly after WQED in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station's call letters, Q.E.D., literally translated from the Latin phrase, quod erat demonstrandum, mean: which was to be demonstrated, or simply, definitively proven.

KQED Television had a sister station, KQEC, which broadcast on Channel 32. KQED had inherited the station in 1970 (as KNEW-TV) from Metromedia, but found they could not profitably operate it. Various PBS and locally produced programs from KQED would air erratically and at different times of the day on KQEC. In 1988, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revoked KQED's license to operate KQEC citing excessive off-air time, further charging dishonesty in previous filings with regard to the specific reasons. The alleged dishonesty was in reference to KQED's claim of financial woe's for keeping KQEC off the air for most of 1972 throught 1977, and again for several months in 1979 and 1980. After being pulled from KQED, the reassigned license was granted to the Minority Television Project (MTP), one of the challengers of the KQED/KQEC filing.^[4] KQEC was re-branded KMTP under the new license.

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Televising executions

During the early 1990s, when the State of California reinstituted the death penalty, the KQED organization waged a highly controversial legal battle for the right to televise the forthcoming execution of Robert Alton Harris at San Quentin State Prison.^[5] The decision to pursue the videotaping of executions was controversial amongst those on both sides of the capital punishment debate;^[6] contemporary reports noted that a number of KQED's members (primarily families throughout the Bay Area) dropped their financial support for the station, intending for their charitable contributions to KQED to support programs such as Sesame Street rather than legal fees.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Tales of the City

KQED was co-producer of the television adaptation of Armistead Maupin's novel, Tales of the City, which aired on PBS stations nationwide in January 1994. The six-part miniseries stirred controversy over the gay themes, nudity and illicit drug use in this fictional portrayal of life in 1970s San Francisco. The controversy led to calls from the public to cancel the series, a bomb threat at WTCI in Chattanooga, Tennessee, forced that station to pull the program an hour before airtime, and threats from state and federal governments to cut funding for the network and its stations. Although the program gave PBS its highest ratings ever for a dramatic program, the network decided to forgo participation in the production of the second book in the series, More Tales of the City.

[edit] Purchase of neighboring station

In 2003, KQED Radio expanded to the Sacramento area by purchasing KEBR-FM in North Highlands from Family Stations, a religious broadcaster based in Oakland. Some residents and management at KXJZ, the NPR station already serving the Sacramento area, criticized the move, saying that KQED would only duplicate KXJZ programming. KXJZ's parent company - Capital Public Radio - also had plans to purchase KEBR. CPR's plan was to broadcast jazz on KEBR and convert KXJZ into an all-news station. Indeed, KQED and KXJZ carry Morning Edition, Talk of the Nation, and All Things Considered at the same times opposite each other. KQED argues that it carries more regional news programming during the middle of the day, and news programs at night, while KXJZ has a smaller news bureau and music programming overnight. Capital Public Radio and community residents argued that duplication of the exact same NPR programming serves no one, and that it is very unusual for one NPR station to move in on the territory of a successful existing station. KXJZ has also increased its local midday programming with the addition of Insight, a daily interview program. Note: KQED-FM has done something similar before. When they converted to an all news and information format by dropping classical music during the day, management and listeners of KALW (another San Francisco public radio station) cried foul, claiming that KQED had stolen KALW's format. KALW had run news and information programs during the day.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• KQED Official website
• California Connected Official website
• This Week in Northern California Official website
• KQED-FM Audio Stream (RealAudio)
• KQED-FM Audio Stream (Windows Media Audio over MMS)
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KQED
• Forum discusses proposed changes to KQED's bylaws, which would eliminate members' voting rights.
• Results of Member Elections include the elimination of their voting rights
• KQED Workers Authorize Strike

Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Radio stations in the San Francisco Bay Area | Television stations in the San Francisco Bay Area | Television stations in Monterey/Salinas/Santa Cruz | Television stations in California | PBS member stations | Radio stations in California | NPR member stations | Channel 9 TV stations in the United States | DuPont-Columbia Award recipients