KUHT

KUHT (Channel 8) is a PBS member television station serving Houston and is the first public television station in the United States. Under the banner "HoustonPBS," it is owned by the University of Houston System, and licensed to and operated by the University of Houston. It also serves as the default PBS member station for the Beaumont•Port Arthur market, which has no PBS station of its own. HoustonPBS is housed in the LeRoy and Lucile Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting—along with KUHF, Houston Public Radio—on the University of Houston campus.

History

The station commenced broadcasting on May 25, 1953 from the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building on the University of Houston campus as the first public television station in the United States, and one of the earliest stations of NET, National Educational Television, which eventually merged into PBS. Its dedication ceremonies were broadcast on June 8 of that year. The station's initial cost was an investment of $350,000 USD, and had an annual operating budget of about $110,000 USD.^[1] Originally licensed to both University of Houston ("UH") and the Houston Independent School District, UH became its sole licensee in 1959.

The station also offered the university's first televised college credit classes. Running 13 to 15 hours weekly, these telecasts accounted for 38 percent of the program schedule. Most courses aired at night so that students who worked during the day could watch them. By the mid-1960s, with about one-third of the station's programming devoted to education, more than 100,000 semester hours had been taught on KUHT.^[2]

In 1964, KUHT moved into new studios on Cullen Boulevard, which were previously occupied in order by KTRK-TV and later KNUZ-TV (now occupied by KIAH). It purchased a new transmitter that enables the station to not only broadcast beyond Harris County into its surrounding areas, but it also begins broadcasting in color. Five years later, in 1969, the Association for Community Television (ACT) is formed to fund KUHT.

PBS era

In 1970, the Public Broadcasting Service, the successor network to NET, began service, combining televised educational lectures with popular programs such as Sesame Street, NOVA, and Masterpiece Theatre that remain PBS staples to this day.

In 1982, with assistance from Capital Cities' ABC affiliate, KTRK and Metromedia's independent station, KRIV, KUHT launched on a new transmitter in Missouri City, making it one of several television and radio stations that now broadcast from that location.

On August 21, 2000, KUHT moved to its current studios at the LeRoy and Lucile Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting, where KUHT shares broadcast facilities with public radio station KUHF—both owned by the University of Houston System and operated by the University of Houston—where the complex is located.

KUHT's digital signal, KUHT-DT (VHF channel 9), launched on May 12, 2001 and has moved to VHF channel 8 (20 kW) after analogue broadcasts ceased in June 2009.

In 2009, KUHT filed with the FCC for construction permits that would enable them to build low-powered digital transmitters in Beaumont (on channel 24) and Victoria (on channel 29).^[3][4] Currently, both cities have no local PBS service, though KUHT is available on cable in these cities.

Branding

KUHT was known on-air as "Houston Public Television" for many years before adopting the "HoustonPBS" moniker in the early 21st century. From 1993 into the early 2000s, KUHT's logo also did not include the number 8, but used a logo similar to the ones used by Detroit's WTVS and Seattle's KCTS-TV. These stations are members of LARK International, a public-television production company, which owns the sunburst-on-square logo; however, they are not related to each other. KUHT's current logo is based on the sunburst portion of that logo.

Technical firsts

The station is also noted in Houston for many technical firsts at the local level. In 1981, KUHT became Houston's first closed captioned television station, and ten years later, in 1991, it became the first station in Houston to offer Descriptive Video Service (DVS), and other services for the visually impaired as well as bilingual viewers via a secondary audio program (SAP).

Digital television

Original productions

KUHT has produced the following original national productions for PBS:

• InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse
• Mary Lou's Flip Flop Shop

External links

• KUHT - HoustonPBS
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KUHT
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KUHT-TV

References

1. ^ "Cautious Progress". Time. 1954-07-19. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,857503,00.html. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
2. ^ HoustonPBS History. HoustonPBS. Retrieved 16 November 2007.
3. ^ FCC data: new channel 24 in Beaumont
4. ^ FCC data: new channel 29 in Victoria

Categories: PBS member stations | Harris County, Texas | University of Houston | University of Houston System | Channel 8 TV stations in the United States | Television channels and stations established in 1953 | Television stations in Texas