KERA-TV

KERA-TV virtual channel 13 is the Public Broadcasting Service member station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Licensed to Dallas, it broadcasts from a transmitter located in Cedar Hill. However, it also serves as the default PBS station for the Abilene, San Angelo, Tyler/Longview/Lufkin/Nacogdoches markets, as well as the Texas side of the Sherman, Texas/Ada, Oklahoma market. None of these areas have full-power PBS stations of their own. It is also available on cable in Hillsboro and Texarkana. Until 1988, KERA could be seen on cable in Amarillo, as that market had no PBS station before the launch there of KACV. The station's programming can also be seen on K44GS-D in Wichita Falls; this repeater provides PBS programming to the Texas side of the Wichita Falls/Lawton market. [1] Since 2003, it has also broadcast a digital signal on channel 14.

The station's call letters, which are said to represent a "new era in broadcasting," are shared with Dallas National Public Radio affiliate KERA-FM; both are owned by North Texas Public Broadcasting Inc. While there is cross-promotion between stations, each operates its own pledge drives.

KERA contributes original programming to the nationwide PBS system, including documentaries such as JFK: Breaking the News and the national Emmy Award-nominated Matisse and Picasso.

History

KERA-TV began its life as a broadcasting arm of the Dallas Independent School District and developed by local nonprofit Area Education Television Foundation, Inc., in cooperation with the district.^[2] DISD superintendent W. T. White announced in October 1958 that the station was expected to be on the air by the beginning of the 1959-60 school year, with programming to include instruction in the Spanish language for area elementary students.^[2] The foundation had difficulty in meeting its fund-raising goals to start broadcasting; as of May 1959, the foundation was said to be $265,000 short of its $890,000 target to cover the proposed station's first two years of broadcasting.^[3]

KERA's early operation benefited frequently from help from the commercial broadcasters in the Metroplex. The stations's original license application had received FCC permission to broadcast from the State Fair of Texas, but in 1960 the station applied to be permitted to broadcast from studios on Harry Hines Boulevard^[4] set to be vacated by local station WFAA-TV, which was building new studios at Young and Houston streets to accommodate its TV, radio and newspaper operations;^[5] the building on Harry Hines had been used by WFAA from its sign-on (as KBTV) in 1949. KERA-TV used the original WFAA-TV transmitting facility from 1960 until it moved to a tower at Cedar Hill shared with KTVT-TV.

In 1974 KERA was the first television station in the United States to broadcast episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and is often credited with introducing the program to American audiences. KERA has announced that it will be broadcasting in all the states only on Comcast, and Dish Network.

Wichita Falls

Prior to the opening of KERA's Wichita Falls translator, it had a unique arrangement to get its programming aired in one of the few areas of Texas (and the country) without its own PBS station. A group headed by longtime State Representative Ray Farabee launched KIDZ-TV on channel 24 in 1973; the station was a regular ("full-power") license but operated at a power of only 2.82 kilowatts.^[6] In those pre-cable days the goals were simple; get Sesame Street on the air in Wichita Falls. (At the time it was standard for PBS to offer programs to commercial stations in areas without their own PBS stations, but for whatever reasons none of the 3 stations in Wichita Falls-Lawton were interested.) The local group had planned to apply for and build a translator. In those days, translators were only allowed to use signals picked up off the air, and KERA's signal was marginal at best in that part of North Texas.

KIDZ-TV shared tower space with KAUZ-TV in Wichita Falls. It rebroadcast KERA-TV during all of the hours KAUZ was on the air, roughly between 6 am and midnight. This meant that some weekend specials were cut off early when the KAUZ engineers (who tended ch 24 as a public service) went home.

By the late 70s, rules changed to allow the microwave feed to be used to feed the translator class of station. KERA was thus able to build its own translator in Wichita Falls, also on channel 24, as K24AD. The translator provided a better picture, and could operate during all the hours KERA was on the air. It moved to channel 44 in 2005 and took the call sign, K44GS. In September 2009, the FCC granted the station a construction permit to convert to digital operations; the permit is valid until September 2012.

Tyler

In October, 2009, North Texas Public Broadcasting applied to the FCC for a translator license in Tyler. As it is early in the process, there is no known call letters, tower location, or operations center, although the application requests a license for Channel 25^[7].

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Digital Television

Analog-to-digital conversion

On June 12, 2009 KERA-TV shut down its analog transmitter on channel 13. KERA-TV's digital signal remains on channel 14 ^[8] PSIP is used to display KERA-TV's virtual channel as 13 on digital television receivers.

News/Station presentation

Newscast titles

• Newsroom (February 16, 1970-October 12, 1976)
• The 9 O'Clock Report (October 13, 1976-January 31, 1977)
• The 7 O'Clock Report (January 31, 1977-February 19, 1977)
• 13 Report (February 19, 1977-September 21, 1977)

Station slogans

• Turn to the Best, Turn to 13 (1984•1987)
• TV Worth Watching (1987•2000; also used by KDTN)
• Members Make the Difference (1990•2000; also used by KDTN)
• Television Unlimited / Kids Unlimited (2000•present)

See also

• KERA (FM)
• KDTN, former sister station
• KKXT (new sister radio station)

External links

• KERA-TV Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KERA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for K44GS
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KERA-TV

References

1. ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says September 14, while the Television and Cable Factbook says September 11.
2. ^ ^{a b} (No author.) "White sets plans for TV school," The Dallas Morning News, Oct. 15, 1958, page 8A.
3. ^ "Weather Vane" (news briefs column), The Dallas Morning News, May 3, 1959, page 29.
4. ^ (No author.) "Approval by FCC asked by station," The Dallas Morning News, Jan. 16, 1960, page 2.
5. ^ (No author.) "Contracts OK'd for building of WFAA studios," The Dallas Morning News, Dec. 31, 1959, page 1A.
6. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1975, page B-136
7. ^ http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=183447 FCC application for digital translator service, filed 10-2-2009. Retrieved 10-11-2009.
8. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf

• Shannon, Mike (January, 2004). Dallas-Fort Worth TV Station History. The History of Dallas•Fort Worth Radio and Television.

Categories: PBS member stations | Television stations in Texas | Television stations in the Dallas • Fort Worth Metroplex | Channel 14 digital TV stations in the United States | Channel 13 TV stations in the United States | Television channels and stations established in 1960