Kentucky Educational Television
Kentucky Educational Television is a statewide television network serving the U.S. commonwealth of Kentucky as a member of PBS. It is operated by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Kentucky state government, which provides more than half of its annual funding. KET is the dominant public broadcaster in the commonwealth, with transmitters covering the vast majority of the state as well as parts of adjacent states; the only other PBS member in Kentucky is WKYU-TV in Bowling Green. KET is the largest PBS state network in the United States; the broadcast signals of its sixteen stations cover almost all of the state, as well as parts of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The network's offices, network center, and primary studio facilities are located at the O. Leonard Press Telecommunications Center on Cooper Drive in Lexington; KET also has production centers at the American Life Building on West Main Street in Louisville and at the Kentucky State Capitol Annex in Frankfort.
The plan for a statewide educational broadcaster was first conceived in 1959 by O. Leonard Press, who served as the founding director for the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television when it was established in 1962 and remained with KET for three decades. Broadcasting began on September 23, 1968, and the network grew into a force in educational, cultural, and public affairs broadcasting in the state. Some of its educational programs, such as distance learning and adult education, attracted national interest. In 1997, KET took over WKPC-TV, which had formerly been a separate public television station in Louisville; in the years that followed, KET became the first digital broadcaster in Kentucky. In addition to offering national programming from PBS and other distributors, KET produces programs on Kentucky public affairs and culture as well as educational content. One of its four channels is the Kentucky Channel, which covers the Kentucky General Assembly. Beyond state government support, it receives funding from supporting viewers and, until 2025, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
History
Creation of the network
Interest in educational television in Kentucky existed but was later compared to some other states. In 1953, an educational figure in Louisville told Bill Ladd of The Courier Journal, "I just hope that Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee don't get so far ahead of us that we can't ever catch up. I hope that Kentucky doesn't start off 48th in educational television." While Jefferson County, home to Louisville, began the process to build what became WFPK-TV on channel 15 in 1957, and the station signed on the next year, the impetus for what became KET came on July 22, 1959, when O. Leonard Press, the director of the radio department at the University of Kentucky —owner of educational radio station WBKY, on air since 1940—proposed a statewide educational television network that would include studios at the university, interconnection with other universities, and a transmitter system to deliver educational programs to schools. This service was conceived along the lines of Alabama Educational Television, which had started in 1955 as the first statewide educational network. Press touted a system incorporating WFPK-TV as well as complete coverage of the Commonwealth with the capacity to "stamp out illiteracy" and ensure universal teaching of basic school subjects. He also pushed for the entire network to be built at once to ensure that rural areas, which most needed such a service, were just as well-served as Kentucky's population centers.The network took an important step forward when the Federal Communications Commission agreed to designate 10 new UHF television channels in the state for non-commercial educational use in August 1961; the original design did not include the transmitters at Elizabethtown or Owenton, though it did provide for programs to originate from Lexington, Louisville, or Murray. The plan gained the support of governor Bert T. Combs, and the 1962 Kentucky General Assembly passed a trio of bills to set up the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, enable the State Board of Education to lease facilities, and allow the state to issue revenue bonds to finance construction. It was hoped to begin KET broadcasts by December 1963, but difficulties mounted, including the refusal of the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction to sign a contract to furnish programs until schools enrolled in its service. In October 1963, the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television applied for the first construction permits to build the network after clarifying grant rules that initially seemed to make the state government ineligible for funding from the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
However, a two-year setback was experienced in 1964 when the General Assembly—which budgets on a biennial basis—refused to fund construction of the transmitters. Other state needs were prioritized: in education, these included issues in Jefferson County, low teacher pay, and transportation problems. Planning activities continued during the period. The Elizabethtown transmitter had been added to the proposed network by 1965, when a feature article in the Sunday Herald-Leader noted that Kentucky's plan for transmitter construction had been adopted by other states, notably Georgia. Schools, meanwhile, continued to depend on sources such as MPATI and commercial stations in bordering states, such as WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia. However, MPATI increased its fees, and WSAZ-TV dropped the mathematics program it was carrying due to scheduling difficulties, affecting 2,700 students in eastern Kentucky. Schools in south-central Kentucky continued to utilize educational programs from WDCN-TV in Nashville, Tennessee; Glasgow had been among the charter users of WDCN educational programming when it began in 1962, and Bowling Green followed suit in 1964.
The 1966 General Assembly budget provided the necessary funds to start work on building KET by including a appropriation. Another impetus was given by the Stuart Blazer Foundation, set up by Ashland Oil founder Paul G. Blazer in memory of his deceased son. The foundation began buying and deeding transmitter sites to the state, beginning with the Somerset site in April 1966. Federal matching funds were applied for and received from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Appalachian Regional Commission, while the FCC granted the 12 construction permits later in the year. After awarding WCVN-TV in Covington in late September, the commission awarded the remaining construction permits in November, the largest single award of permits to one applicant in its history. Ground was broken on the Lexington production center in June 1967, followed by bids for the equipment needed at the studios and transmitters.
By May 1968, work on the Lexington and Somerset transmitters had been completed, and KET had announced its initial array of 19 in-school programs, mostly for elementary school students. However, site problems snarled work in Covington. Ashland Oil had provided property in the Taylor Mill area, though the city of Covington also provided sites. However, Taylor Mill met with citizen protest despite being approved by the city council, while sites in Covington would interfere with a new instrument landing system for the Greater Cincinnati Airport. As a result, KET opted to return to Taylor Mill, in spite of opposition whipped up by a local housewife who fretted the facility would be a hazard to aviation and generate interference to reception of other TV stations.
The O. Leonard Press years (1968–1992)
KET finally went on the air for the first time on September 23, 1968, at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The first broadcast started with Governor Louie B. Nunn speaking at the network's dedication ceremony; Nunn himself turned the dial to officially put the network on the air. That first day, eight transmitters opened, at Ashland, Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Lexington, Madisonville, Morehead, Owenton, Somerset, plus two dependent translators at Hopkinsville and Owensboro. Initially unable to produce its own programs, the original set of courses broadcast by KET were leased or purchased from other producers. The initial broadcast was viewed by about 1,400 schools.The Hazard, Murray and Pikeville transmitters, construction of which was delayed by weather, were not ready in time for the start of the network; Murray went into service on October 7, and the Hazard and Pikeville transmitters went on the air near the end of the year. WCVN-TV in Covington began broadcasting on September 8, 1969. Approximately 72 percent of the state's school districts were equipped to utilize KET programs at launch, a figure that grew to 85 to 90 percent within a year. After exclusively providing programs for schools, KET initiated evening broadcasting utilizing programs from National Educational Television on January 6, 1969, a delay that allowed time to train personnel and complete the studio setup. KET transitioned to become a member station of PBS in 1970 upon its creation. That same year, it debuted its first instructional series, the 17-lesson Kentucky Is My Land for use in 7th-grade history classes.
After the initial twelve-transmitter network was completed, three more stations were added between 1970 and 1980. Network reception turned out to be poor in the Louisville area, prompting the network to launch WKMJ-TV on August 31, 1970. In Paducah, unsuccessful commercial station WDXR-TV was donated to the network; it was rebuilt and returned as WKPD in 1979, and a full-power Owensboro transmitter, WKOH-TV, started operating on February 14, 1980. After the sign-on of WKOH, the network was broadcasting over a total of 15 transmitters throughout the state and on eight low-power translator stations, primarily in eastern Kentucky. By this time, however, the production of programs from studios at the state universities had ceased except for taped content, with Lexington serving as KET's only studio site. KET began to receive PBS programming via satellite on April 15, 1978.
During the 1970s, KET also matured in the area of programming and structure. Friends of KET, a non-profit volunteer organization supporting KET's fundraising, was incorporated in 1971. Three years later, Comment on Kentucky, one of KET's flagship public affairs shows, debuted. In March 1975, KET broadcast the network's first telethon, dubbed Festival '75, a 10-day-long programming schedule that temporarily converted the network to an alternative channel to commercial outlets; this was done in hopes of expanding regular programming to a seven-day basis. Three months later, KET began broadcasting seven days a week with the debut of a Saturday schedule. In 1978, KET initiated nightly coverage during the sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly. In expanding its public affairs remit, KET had to deal with political controversy, notably around its legislative coverage.
These increased public affairs and other programs did not detract from KET's educational mission. By 1977, 75 percent of Kentucky schools used KET programming, primarily in elementary classes, including 99.3 percent of the state's special needs students. The network produced a GED adult education series sold to stations in 25 states and the Department of Defense. The nationally regarded GED program in several iterations has continued to be a part of KET. In 1989, country musician Waylon Jennings earned his GED by watching tapes of the KET programs on his tour bus.
The early 1980s were a time of budget cuts for many public broadcasters, including KET. The network was in part insulated by a timing quirk: federal construction credits from the new facilities in Paducah and Owensboro accrued to KET in 1980 and 1981 and offset most of the state's budget cuts. Despite this environment, Press continued to push for ambitious expansion. KET etc. began broadcasting on Lexington's new cable system in 1981 with adult education programs as well as replays of KET programming. In order to make the service more widely available in Lexington and statewide on translators, KET applied for the then-open commercial channel 62 in the area, but after three commercial groups also sought the channel, KET withdrew its proposal in June 1982. Despite budget cuts, Press was reluctant to cede to commercializing inroads. KET did not air regular annual pledge drives, branded as Telefund, until March 1981, and underwriting announcements were modest and did not use company logos.
Later in the decade, Press proposed that KET begin satellite delivery of its in-school programming directly to schools. This system began to take shape in 1988 under the name KET Star Channels. Schools were outfitted with satellite dishes as well as keypads designed to provide two-way communication between instructors in Lexington and students throughout the state, inspired by a football play predictor game at a Lexington sports bar; KET reached an agreement with the maker, NTN Communications, to use its technology. Additionally, ground was broken on an expansion to the KET facility. The first Star Channels course, on statistics and probability, was taught in January 1989 to 24 Kentucky high schools and another 41 high schools in 16 states. The program was then rolled out statewide in the wake of the Kentucky Supreme Court finding the state's education system unconstitutional. Star Channels attracted international attention, including delegations from China and Kuwait.
In 1990, the General Assembly established the KET Fund for Independent Productions, a grant program to support the development of independent films in Kentucky.
Press announced his retirement from KET effective June 30, 1992. He would be replaced by Virginia Gaines Fox of Campbellsville, whom Press had hired to KET at the network's launch in 1968. By his retirement, Press had been honored as national public television manager of the year and had also served as chair of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters and the PBS board of directors and the vice chair of the National Association of Public Television Stations. That October, KET opened a expansion of its Lexington facility, which was dedicated as the O. Leonard Press Telecommunications Center in this honor.