View source for KETC

{{Short description|TV station in St. Louis}}
{{for|the Australian television network|Nine Network}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2018}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox television station
| callsign = KETC
| city =
| logo = Nine PBS Logo.png
| logo_size = 250px
| branding = Nine PBS
| digital = 23 ([[UHF]])
| virtual = 9
| affiliations = {{ubl|'''9.1:''' [[PBS]]|''for others, see {{section link||Subchannels}}''}}
| owner = St. Louis Regional Public Media, Inc.
| licensee =
| location = [[St. Louis, Missouri]]
| country = United States
| airdate = {{start date and age|1954|9|20|p=y}}
| last_airdate =
| callsign_meaning = St. Louis Educational Television Commission (former name for St. Louis Regional Public Media)
| sister_stations =
| former_callsigns =
| former_channel_numbers = {{ubl|'''Analog:''' 9 ([[VHF]], 1954–2009)|'''Digital:''' 39 (UHF, 2002–2018)}}
| former_affiliations = [[National Educational Television|NET]] (1954–1970)
| erp = 300 [[kW]]
| haat = {{convert|331|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}
| facility_id = 62182
| coordinates = {{coord|38|28|56|N|90|23|53|W|type:landmark_scale:2000|display=inline, title}}
| licensing_authority = [[FCC]]
| website = {{url|https://www.ninepbs.org/}}
}}
'''KETC''' (channel 9) is a [[PBS]] member [[television station]] in [[St. Louis, Missouri]], United States, owned by St. Louis Regional Public Media. The station's studios are located at the Dana Brown Communications Center on Olive Street in St. Louis' Grand Center neighborhood, and its transmitter is located in south [[St. Louis County, Missouri|St. Louis County]].
==History==
[[Image:Ketc.jpg|225px|thumb|left|KETC building.]]
The station first signed on the air on September 20, 1954.<ref>{{Cite news|date=September 20, 1954|title=Educational TV Programs Start Tonight On KETC|page=1A|work=[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87479732/educational-tv-programs-start-tonight/|access-date=October 21, 2021}}</ref> It was the first community-licensed [[educational television]] station in the United States. The station's first general manager was [[Charles Guggenheim]], who hired the technical staff and first group of producer/director/writers, five in all. While waiting for the broadcasting tower to be completed, a number of programs were recorded using [[kinescope]] recording technology (the same as used for ''[[The Honeymooners]]''). Once on the air, there were a number of award-winning programs produced by Mayo Simon, Bill Hartzell, Ran Lincoln and Guggenheim. They included the first live broadcast of the St. Louis City Council. Another featured the ''[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]'' nature columnist Leonard Hall of Possum Trot Farm. Among the taped program series was a pioneering science program intended for sixth graders to see in their classrooms, ''Science in Sight'', produced by Martin L. Schneider. Film making was encouraged, and with Len Hall's collaboration a documentary film about the rare beauty of the relatively unprotected [[Current River (Missouri)|Current River]] was produced. It was later used by the [[National Audubon Society]] in the successful effort to make Current River the first [[National Scenic River]] under the protection of the [[National Park Service]].
Soon after the station went live, its emphasis on current affairs and local politics, fostered by Guggenheim, rattled the political leaders. Following a public controversy, covered by the ''Post-Dispatch'', and under the influence of the well-connected local [[public relations]] firm Fleishman and Hillard (now [[FleishmanHillard]]), Guggenheim was replaced by Martin Quigley, who had no experience in broadcasting. A few months later, Shelby Storck was hired. An experienced broadcaster recommended by Guggenheim, he emceed the station's first evening of broadcasting.
KETC originally broadcast from temporary studios in McMillan Hall on the campus of [[Washington University in St. Louis]], with transmitting facilities atop the former Boatmen's Bank Building (now the Marquette Building) in downtown St. Louis. In 1955, it moved to the Julius and Freda Baer Memorial Building, also on the Washington University campus.<ref>{{Cite news|date=May 29, 1955|title=Studio Dedication|page=5G|work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87479892/studio-dedication/|access-date=October 21, 2021}}</ref> It was the first facility specifically built for an educational television station. It activated its current tower in south [[St. Louis County, Missouri|St. Louis County]] in 1970, allowing it to begin [[color television|color]] broadcasts a year later. In 1998, the station moved its studios from the Washington University campus to the Dana Brown Communications Center in the Grand Center district.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Pennington|first=Gail|date=January 4, 1998|title=New digs for Channel 9|pages=D1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87479836/channel-9/ D8]|work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87479815/new-digs-for-channel-9/|access-date=October 21, 2021}}</ref>
During the [[2004 United States presidential election|2004 elections]], KETC partnered with area [[NBC]] affiliate [[KSDK]] (channel 5) to provide St. Louisans with comprehensive and up-to-date local and national election results. This partnership was first utilized to simulcast a [[Governor of Missouri|gubernatorial]] debate between [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] candidate Missouri Secretary of State [[Matt Blunt]] and [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] candidate State Auditor [[Claire McCaskill]]. On election night (November 2), KSDK aired NBC's prime time election coverage with [[Tom Brokaw]] and [[Tim Russert]] as well as segments of local results. KETC, meanwhile, ran three hours of local election results hosted by KSDK anchors [[Mike Bush]] and [[Karen Foss]]. Viewers could also watch election results online on the websites of both stations.
The successful KETC/KSDK partnership was used again in September 2005 when, along with radio partners [[KYKY]] (98.1 FM) and [[KEZK-FM]] (102.5 FM), a [[telethon]] for [[Hurricane Katrina]] relief was simulcast that raised more than $5 million. The telethon featured an appearance by [[Affton]] native [[John Goodman]], who now calls [[New Orleans]] home and whose family went missing for a time during the storm's peak. [[Kennett, Missouri|Kennett, MO]] native [[Sheryl Crow]] and her then fiancé [[Lance Armstrong]] urged viewers to call when they were interviewed by phone from the region.
In May 2008, [[E!]] contracted with KETC to film two episodes of the [[cable network]]'s weekly pop culture series ''[[The Soup]]'' at the KETC studios to accommodate host [[Joel McHale]]'s filming of ''[[The Informant!]]'' in the St. Louis area.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/the_soup/b136364_make_up_smell_coiffure.html|title = SATC's Kim Cattrall Gets a Big Love Reality Check|date = July 28, 2009}}</ref> After being known for most of its history as "KETC 9," the station rebranded itself as "The Nine Network" in 2010. On October 13, 2010, the station partnered with the ''[[St. Louis Beacon]]'', an online-only, non-profit news publication, to form the Public Insight Network, a [[citizen journalism]] initiative created in conjunction with [[American Public Media]]. On January 10, 2021, the station rebranded as Nine PBS, adopting the current PBS corporate logo.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.ninepbs.org/blogs/press-room/introducing-a-new-look-and-name-for-nine-pbs/|title=Introducing a New Look and Name for Nine PBS|date=January 10, 2021|publisher=Nine PBS|access-date=January 12, 2021}}</ref>
==Programming==
KETC is known among viewers in St. Louis for preempting PBS programs to air library program content or less controversial [[pledge drive]] programs{{Citation needed|date=December 2015}}, such as [[WQED (TV)|WQED]]-produced [[doo-wop]] specials, using the default [[PBS Satellite Service|network feed]] in late night to premiere those PBS programs instead, though St. Louis has traditionally had stations, commercial and non-commercial, preempt programming from their networks due to content. KETC has given some leeway as far as some preemptions, such as a case where ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' columnist Eric Mink wrote an editorial{{When|date=April 2024}} complaining about the station's scheduling of a pledge drive [[figure skating|ice skating]] show instead of a PBS documentary on the [[September 11 attacks]]; KETC announced the next day that it would instead air the 9/11 documentary as nationally scheduled.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}
Some of the programs produced by KETC for national distribution include selected episodes of ''[[Inside/Out (American TV series)|Inside/Out]]''. The station also produced ''[[The Letter People]]'', an instructional program about reading, which was seen on many PBS and educational television stations in the mid-1970s, as well as ''[[A Time for Champions]]'', an hour-long documentary chronicling the [[Saint Louis University]] [[Saint Louis Billikens men's soccer|soccer]] dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s; and ''Homeland'', a miniseries examining the topic of immigration in the United States.
==Technical information==
===Subchannels===
The station's digital signal is [[Multiplex (TV)|multiplexed]]:
{| class="wikitable"
|+Subchannels of KETC<ref>[http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=KETC#station RabbitEars TV Query for KETC]</ref>
! [[Digital subchannel#United States|Channel]]
! [[Display resolution|Res.]]
! [[Aspect ratio (image)|Aspect]]
! Short name
! Programming
|-
! scope = "row" | 9.1
| [[1080i]] || rowspan="4"|[[16:9]] || KETC-HD || Main KETC programming / [[PBS]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 9.2
| [[720p]] || KIDS || [[PBS Kids|Nine Kids]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 9.3
| rowspan="2"|[[480i]] || WORLD || [[World Channel|Nine World]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 9.4
| CREATE || [[Create (TV network)|Nine Create]]
|}
===Analog-to-digital conversion===
KETC shut down its analog signal, over [[VHF]] channel 9, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States [[Digital television transition in the United States|transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts]] under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition [[UHF]] channel 39,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |title=DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds |access-date=March 24, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |archive-date=August 29, 2013 }}</ref> using [[virtual channel]] 9.
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{Official website|https://www.ninepbs.org/|KETC official website}}
*[http://rbsc.slpl.org/MA_KETC_TV.pdf KETC-TV Collection Finding Aid] at the [https://www.slpl.org/ St. Louis Public Library]
{{St Louis TV}}
{{PBS Missouri}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ketc}}
[[Category:1954 establishments in Missouri]]
[[Category:PBS member stations]]
[[Category:Television channels and stations established in 1954]]
[[Category:Television stations in St. Louis]]