KCPT


KCPT, branded Kansas City PBS or KC PBS, is a PBS member television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. It is owned by Public Television 19, Inc., alongside adult album alternative radio station KTBG and online magazine Flatland. KCPT and KTBG share studios on East 31st Street in the Union Hill section of Kansas City, Missouri. KCPT's transmitter is located near 23rd Street and Stark Avenue in the Blue Valley neighborhood. The station provides coverage to the Kansas City and St. Joseph areas.
KCPT went on air as KCSD-TV, the television station of the Kansas City School District, on March 29, 1961. The school district used the station to broadcast instructional programming to its schools and also aired evening programming from National Educational Television, predecessor to PBS. When members of the city school board began to disagree on which function of the station was more important amid a financial crunch, the case was made for the school district to spin out KCSD-TV to a community-owned non-profit organization. This officially took place at the start of 1972, at which time the station changed call signs to KCPT. In part by acquiring assets of the defunct KCIT-TV at bankruptcy auction, channel 19 improved its signal and began color telecasting. In addition, KCPT began producing local programming for the first time.
KCPT moved in 1978 from studios near the transmitter site to the former KCMO-TV building in Union Hill in 1978. In the 1990s, KCPT debuted Kansas City Week in Review, an ongoing public affairs series, and was among the first public TV stations to begin broadcasting a digital signal. When analog telecasting ceased in 2009, KCPT began offering additional subchannels of programming.
Since 2013, KCPT has expanded into related public media businesses by purchasing a radio station and moving it into the Kansas City area as KTBG, starting Flatland, and setting up a local newsroom.

History

Founded by schools

channel 19 was allocated to Kansas City for educational television use in 1952, and in 1958, the Kansas City School District began investigating the possibility of building such a station. The Electron Corporation of Dallas offered free use of a low-power transmission system it wanted to try. In October 1959, the school board authorized the filing of an application with the Federal Communications Commission for the channel, and in March 1960, the school board sought bids for equipment.
The construction permit was awarded on March 24, 1960, but the school system was still noncommittal about proceeding with the station, even though the 11th floor of the library and administration building was being refitted as a television studio. Delays in finishing the studio in turn delayed the launch of the station.
KCSD-TV began broadcasting on March 29, 1961, using the studios in the administration building and an antenna on Kansas City City Hall. The first program was a presentation to faculty, including a tour of the studios. On April 4, the first programs for schools were broadcast and every television set in the schools had to be converted to receive UHF stations. In September, the board of education authorized KCSD-TV to join National Educational Television, allowing it to present adult education programming at night beginning in February 1962. As with the schools, the public would need to convert TV sets to receive KCSD-TV, the only UHF station in Kansas City at the time.
Though the Kansas City School District invited other nearby school systems in western Missouri and far eastern Kansas to use KCSD-TV programming, some systems in outlying areas were not covered. Additionally, as a result of increasing interest in the adult education programming, in 1963, KCSD-TV applied for and received a federal grant to increase its transmission power, which took effect for the late 1964 television season. Efforts were made toward regional planning to give school districts in the expanded coverage area a voice in KCSD-TV's educational programming.

From educational to public television

The growth of adult programming on KCSD-TV had increased the station's year-round payroll from two employees in 1963 to 13 in 1969. However, by 1969, the school board faced a financial crisis that ultimately led it to lay off more than 250 people. This exacerbated existing conflict within the school board as to the purpose of KCSD-TV. Board president Homer C. Wadsworth proposed the establishment of a community advisory board for the station in 1966, in order to enhance the effectiveness of its evening programming for adults; however, the idea met with opposition from several board members.
As a result of the financial issues in the school district, superintendent James A. Hazlett recommended that the station cut $125,000 from its $275,000 budget by ceasing local production of educational programs for schools, instead purchasing series produced elsewhere. Two board members instead preferred cuts to the evening programming, one saying that the station's programs for adults were an unnecessary expense in a year when the board had to increase school lunch prices. Others, including Wadsworth and former University of Missouri–Kansas City chancellor Carleton Scofield, noted that federal funding for public television was increasing and called any cuts to that portion unwise.
In July 1970, the school board voted to fully fund instructional television and provide half funding for public television for the 1970–1971 school year, after which it would quit supporting KCSD-TV. A new public non-profit corporation backed by Scofield and Wadsworth was being formed to pick up the remainder and eventually become the licensee. The group struggled to attract public interest to its efforts at first. A press conference to announce locally the fall lineup of PBS, which was replacing NET as the national network for public television stations, met with poor attendance from the news media.

New owners, more power, and color

Community Service Broadcasting of Mid-America was formed in January 1971 with a board of 23 local civic and business leaders. It was chaired by Edward T. Matheny, Jr., who had served as attorney for the school board. In August 1971, the board approved the transfer of the KCSD-TV license to CSB with the stipulation that the new licensee provide five hours on weekdays for the broadcast of programs for schools, to be primarily financed by the Kansas City school district. In addition, CSB leased the school district's facilities until it could relocate the station.
One of the major issues facing CSB was KCSD-TV's signal quality. In addition to being incapable of telecasting in color, it had a weak signal. Two new UHF stations had started in Kansas City in 1969 and 1970, both broadcasting with more effective radiated power than KCSD-TV: KCIT-TV on channel 50 and KBMA-TV on channel 41. CSB had a natural opportunity to improve this situation. KCIT-TV had struggled financially in just under two years on the air and left the air for good in early July 1971. RCA, a major creditor of the failed station, had repossessed the transmitter facility, and a bankruptcy auction was scheduled in late October for 10 acres of land and a building in Blue Summit. CSB won the bidding, described as "exciting" by Harry Jones Jr. of The Kansas City Star, over Andrew "Skip" Carter—owner of the city's Black radio station, KPRS—and a surprise entrant to the auction, a local banker. CSB briefly considered applying for channel 50 as a second station, but it opted to focus on improving channel 19 first.
The FCC granted approval for the transfer of KCSD-TV's license to CSB on December 10, 1971. On December 31, the call letters were changed to KCPT, for Kansas City Public Television. In January 1972, CSB agreed to purchase the tower from RCA and new channel 19 transmitting equipment from General Electric. In mid-1972, work took place to ready the studios in Blue Summit and to prepare a new instructional television program, benefiting from CSB's superior financial resources compared to the Kansas City School District and a cooperative equipment purchase plan to aid schools without color TV sets. KCPT began broadcasting in color and with its increased power on October 16, 1972.
In 1973, the station held its first televised auction to purchase equipment for local program production. John Masterman, a former WDAF-TV newsman, joined KCPT in 1974 and began producing public affairs programs. In a 19-year tenure at channel 19, he led such local shows as Kansas City Illustrated and produced documentaries.
By 1976, CSB had changed its name to Public Television 19, Inc.

New studios

and KCMO radio announced in 1976 that they would leave their longtime home on 31st Street—now considered in the Union Hill neighborhood—to a new facility to be built in Fairway, Kansas. KCPT then agreed to purchase the 31st Street studios from KCMO. For KCPT, the former KCMO studios were a major upgrade over Blue Summit. The station would have two large studios instead of one small studio, additional storage space, and a film lab. The transaction did not include the tower on the site, which continued to be used to broadcast KCMO-TV. KCMO completed its move to Fairway at the end of 1977, with KCPT moving into 31st Street shortly after.
The Missouri Lottery's first televised drawings were conducted from the KCPT studios when the lottery began in 1986. Though a network of commercial stations led by KCTV held the rights to the telecasts, KCTV could not produce the show in its facilities in Kansas, and only KCPT had adequate space for the observers required by the lottery.
In the 1980s, KCPT attempted to build a full-power satellite station in St. Joseph on channel 22. It filed for the channel in 1983, won the construction permit, and attempted to build the proposed KMPT. However, construction of the station was contingent on the availability of the proposed transmitter site: the existing tower in St. Joseph of KQTV. That station was planning to build a new, taller tower in Kansas and let KCPT use the vacated tower space for its broadcasts. However, the FCC denied approval for the proposed new tower facility.
Joseph Fuzy, KCPT's general manager, retired in 1992 after 18 years. He advanced his retirement to save the station money during a budget crunch. He was replaced by Bill Reed. In 1996, KCPT followed KCET in Los Angeles by opening a Store of Knowledge in Kansas City's Country Club Plaza. The hope was that the venture would help replace diminishing federal funds for public broadcasting. The station took no responsibility for losses or day-to-day operations while receiving 25 percent of profits. After the later addition of a second Store of Knowledge, the venture lasted less than five years, closing nationally in June 2001.
One local series launched at KCPT in the 1990s became a station staple, and another remains on the air. Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations, a travel program, became a regular series after positive response to a special produced the previous year. The program had a 12-season run, traveling to 40 states, and won regional awards. Kansas City Week in Review was started by John Masterman in 1992 and was conceived as a counterpart to the national Washington Week in Review. It has been anchored by Nick Haines since 1997, who had joined as a Kansas statehouse panelist in 2014.