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Wikipedia

KVCR-DT

KVCR-DT (channel 24) is a PBS member television station in San Bernardino, California, United States. It is owned by the San Bernardino Community College District alongside NPR member KVCR (91.9 FM). The two stations share studios at the San Bernardino Valley College campus on North Mt. Vernon Avenue in San Bernardino; KVCR-DT's transmitter is located atop Box Springs Mountain.

KVCR-DT
CitySan Bernardino, California
Channels
BrandingKVCR PBS
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerSan Bernardino Community College District
KVCR
History
First air date
September 11, 1962 (61 years ago) (1962-09-11)
Former call signs
KVCR-TV (1962–2009)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 24 (UHF, 1962–2009)
  • Digital: 26 (UHF, 2004–2019)
NET (1962–1970)
Call sign meaning
Valley College Radio
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID58795
ERP25.8 kW
HAAT540 m (1,772 ft)
Transmitter coordinates33°57′57.4″N 117°17′9.1″W / 33.965944°N 117.285861°W / 33.965944; -117.285861
Translator(s)KJHP-LD 22 Morongo Valley (Palm Springs)
Links
Public license information
  • Public file
  • LMS
Websitewww.kvcr.org

KVCR is Southern California's oldest operating public television station, beginning broadcasts in September 1962. As public stations signed on in the Los Angeles area, KVCR continued to provide local programming for the Inland Empire as well as telecourses from San Bernardino Valley College and instructional content for schools. The station had a limited broadcast range until it moved its transmitter to Box Springs Mountain in 1983.

In the 2000s, KVCR replaced KOCE as the public television station broadcast into the Coachella Valley, including Palm Springs; it continues to operate a translator and provide a dedicated subchannel, KVCR PBS Desert Cities, for this area. KVCR is also the founding station for the First Nations Experience network, which was started in 2010 with a gift from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. State government support in the early 2020s forestalled a cost-cutting plan which would have seen the KVCR stations switch from public media to student-run outlets. KVCR produces local programming for the Inland Empire.

History edit

Early years edit

In 1959, the board of trustees of San Bernardino Valley College gave approval for an exploratory study on activating ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 24, which had been allocated for educational television use by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1952 but was never assigned; recent changes in state law had allowed the community college to set up and finance its own TV station.[2] The college applied for a construction permit on August 12, 1960,[3] even though trustees were at first lukewarm about the concept. One trustee wanted to merely apply for the permit to keep the college's hold on the channel.[4] The FCC granted the permit on July 6, 1961,[3] but trustees initially rejected funds to build the station in a 3–2 vote. The chairman of the board of trustees, in casting the deciding vote, stated, "I personally believe it is not our function to take education beyond the campus, here."[5]

Less than a month after that vote, with high community interest in the project, trustees changed their minds and unanimously voted to build out KVCR-TV, which would be the first educational television station in the state to be run by a junior college.[6] It was seen as more cost-effective to broadcast on campus than to wire campus buildings for a closed-circuit system.[7] Construction of the facility was complete by June 12, 1962, when the first test pattern was sent out,[8] but the first program was not broadcast until September 11. That night, after 15 minutes, the station went off the air because a capacitor failed in the transmitter.[9] KVCR-TV was the only educational station to broadcast in Southern California at the time of its creation. In addition to educational programs for schools and college telecourses, the station also presented educational programs from National Educational Television, forerunner to PBS.[10]

The station grew quickly. Originally broadcasting 10 to 15 hours a week, it doubled its output to 30 hours in 1963.[10][11] By 1965, KVCR-TV was broadcasting daytime instructional television for 23 school districts in San Bernardino County, including on translators to rebroadcast its signal.[12] KVCR-TV also served as an extension of the broadcasting program at Valley College. The station was entirely student-operated and by 1967 aired 10 to 15 hours a week of local programs, including a weekly public affairs program as well as a daily newscast during the school year.[13] Even though National Educational Television began feeding programs on network lines to stations in 1967, KVCR-TV continued to receive all its NET and PBS programming through KCET in Los Angeles until it was directly connected to the network in June 1972.[14]

With a small signal originating from the Valley College campus, the station's coverage was limited for most of the first 20 years of its history. In 1973, a translator was activated near the campus of the University of California, Riverside; this expanded KVCR-TV coverage to Riverside, which was blocked from the main San Bernardino signal by terrain. The university also had television production capabilities and could produce programs for air on the station.[15] A volunteer support group for KVCR radio and television, Friends of KVCR, was formed in 1973;[16] the next year, the station received a federal grant that allowed it to upgrade to all-color broadcasting.[17] The transmitter had been previously modified to allow the station to pass through network programs in color, a fact station officials were not aware of until they were called by a viewer who complimented them on their color signal.[9][when?]

Regional growth edit

 
KVCR-TV moved its transmitter to Box Springs Mountain in 1983, greatly increasing its coverage area.

In 1980, KVCR-TV began planning for a major power increase and transmitter site relocation. This would replace the original facility, which used a transmitter 10 years older than KVCR-TV itself, with a site on higher terrain. Several sites, including Sunset Ridge (used by KHOF-TV), were analyzed,[18] but planning soon focused on Box Springs Mountain near the University of California, Riverside campus.[19] After receiving a $650,000 federal grant in December 1981[20] and awarding contracts for construction work in September 1982,[21] the new facility came into use on December 5, 1983, adding an expected 1 million viewers to the station's coverage area.[22] With the new coverage area, KVCR also began increasing its on- and off-air fundraising activities, hiring its first development director and campaigning for donations on the air.[23] By 1997, when general manager Thomas Little retired after 20 years running KVCR radio and television, the stations had more than 12,700 paid members.[24]

In the 1980s and 1990s, KVCR produced an array of public affairs series covering the Inland Empire region. These included On Call, Dialogues, Impacto, and Ebony Issues.[25] In 1986, the station debuted the weekly I Remember Television, which presented programs from the first decade of American television history with historical context[26] but later broadened to cover the 1950s and 1960s. The program remained in production for 22 years.[27] Local dining program Table for Two, hosted by food critic Allan Borgen, aired from 1990 to 2007.[28][29]

Digitalization and budget woes edit

After Little's retirement, Lew Warren became the station's general manager. Motivated by complaints from viewers, he had KVCR-TV switch from being a secondary PBS station in the Program Differentiation Plan—airing 25 percent of the network's output after a minimum eight-day delay—to a primary station. This meant that the full PBS lineup aired on KVCR-TV for the first time in its history. It also was a major expense. In 1997, the station paid PBS approximately $224,000; those payments were set to increase to $544,000 in 1998. However, KCET protested that KVCR should be required to pay the full per-household-covered rate for programs, not a discounted rate like PBS often permitted secondary stations in large markets to pay.[30] The PBS directors agreed with KCET and increased the total bill to about $800,000 a year.[31]

While that was under way, KVCR experienced two major transmitter faults in late 2002. A heat wave in the Inland Empire caused a tube in the transmitter to blow on August 31, 2002;[32] the station was off air until September 18.[33] The transmitter then failed again in a rainstorm in early November;[34] it was out for 23 days until a temporary transmitter could be installed and put in service on November 30.[35] The station missed broadcasting PBS programs during this time as well as 20 college telecourses.[36] The temporary equipment was used until a new antenna and digital-capable transmitter were installed in June 2004.[37] KVCR continued to broadcast digitally on channel 26 after the digital television transition on June 12, 2009.[38]

KVCR-TV's carriage of all PBS programming ended in 2003 in response to state-mandated budget cuts. The community college was forced to cut $10 million of its $70 million budget; returning to the Program Differentiation Plan saved the station $600,000.[39] Whereas viewers had once complained that KVCR did not have every PBS show, now they were complaining that it heavily duplicated KCET.[40] One new addition came in November 2003 when KVCR-TV began carrying a newscast produced by the Inland California Television Network (ICTN), a venture of Cal State San Bernardino, the city, and the Los Angeles News Group.[41] ICTN continued to air on the station until it shut down in February 2005.[42]

Another major task for KVCR in the 2000s was relocating the station out of the only home it had ever known, North Hall on the Valley College campus. North Hall had been slated for demolition for some time.[43] The relocation had originally been conceived to help allow the station to meet the FCC-mandated technological upgrade to digital broadcasting and specified a site at the former Norton Air Force Base.[44] However, the station faced an unusually large construction cost; because the facility would primarily be for educational use, it would be subject to Field Act requirements.[45] Ultimately, the KVCR stations stayed on the Valley College campus and moved to a new Media & Communications Building in 2011.[46]

Expansion to the Desert Cities edit

In September 2003, PSTV Partners, which operated a television translator on channel 55 (cable 16) serving the Palm Springs area, decided to begin broadcasting KVCR instead of KOCE-TV on its translator because its owner, Jonathan Sussman, felt the Orange County station was not sufficiently responsive to the interests of the Coachella Valley and fretted about a possible sale of KOCE. Sussman also owned Raven Productions, a local program producer, and began contributing several Coachella Valley-oriented programs to KVCR's lineup.[47] In 2005, the station moved to channel 9 over-the-air and on cable after Sussman hired lawyers to argue that the noncommercial channel needed a lower position on cable.[48] At that time, it was the only public station with a broadcast transmitter in the area.[49] KVCR renewed its lease for five-year terms in 2008 and 2013.[50]

In 2016, PSTV Partners transferred the license of K09XW-D to KCETLink, the parent organization of KCET.[50] KVCR rebuilt KJHP-LD, a separate translator, in 2020 to continue to provide service in Palm Springs.[51]

First Nations Experience edit

In 2010, KVCR received a $6 million donation from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to start a television channel airing programming about Native American communities in the United States, with a goal to distribute it nationally.[52] The service, First Nations Experience (FNX), began broadcasting as a subchannel on September 25, 2011.[53] The San Manuel Band donated another $6 million to KVCR in 2015 to support expanding FNX.[54]

Incentive auction and possible disaffiliation from PBS edit

The KVCR stations, typically reliant on contributions from the community college district for much of their operating funding, began to see cutbacks in the 2010s. In 2012, the district cut its support from $1.7 million to $900,000 and advised the stations to plan on receiving no funding for the 2013–2014 fiscal year, and rumors swirled that the radio and television stations could become managed by public broadcasters in Los Angeles.[55] The board then gave the stations an extra year of public support.[56]

In 2017, KVCR sold its UHF-band television spectrum for $157 million in the 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction and moved to very high frequency (VHF) channel 5. The cash infusion represented 150 percent of the entire budget of the community college district.[57][58] It was the 11th-largest incentive auction payment to any station nationwide and the largest for a station in the Los Angeles area.[59] The KVCR stations themselves ultimately received $44 million plus $9 million for its endowment, while $80 million was invested by the district and $20 million was earmarked for its pension fund.[60]

In anticipation of the cash infusion from the auction, 2017 also brought a major rebrand of the KVCR stations as the "Empire Network" along with eight new local shows. The changes were made to provide increased differentiation from the Los Angeles-area PBS stations, provide content for the underserved Inland Empire, and reduce KVCR's reliance on programming from PBS. However, in 2018, multiple shows were canceled as part of a downscaling of the program changes; 35 employees were dismissed as a result.[61][62] The discontinuation of programming was cited by observers as part of an inconsistent station strategy; the KVCR stations had gone through five general managers between 2012 and 2018, including two hirings in 2017 alone.[61][63]

Despite the incentive auction windfall, KVCR continued to run annual deficits; by late 2020, trustees projected that the KVCR stations would soon need to dip into the principal of the stations' endowment to cover operating expenses. Trustees authorized a plan that October that would likely have ultimately led to the stations becoming student-run outlets and disaffiliating from NPR and PBS.[64] The interim chancellor of the KVCR stations, José F. Torres, recommended to the trustees in April 2021 that the stations be folded into Valley College's Institute of Media Arts.[65] Community backlash to this proposal was significant enough that trustees contacted Inland Empire representatives in the California state legislature, leading to the passage that July of AB 132, an appropriations bill that allocated $4 million for the continuing operation of the KVCR stations.[66] In 2022, the state of California allocated $15 million in funding that secured the stations' future as public media outlets and also led to the establishment of a student training lab within KVCR.[67]

In December 2022, after the end of her two-year term in the California State Senate and a failed bid for a seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, senator Connie Leyva became the new executive director of KVCR radio and television.[68]

Funding edit

For the year ending June 30, 2022, KVCR-DT had operating revenue of $2.6 million, including $830,000 in viewer contributions. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provided $617,000 in grant monies, while the San Bernardino Community College District provided $495,000 in non-cash institutional support.[69] The station had 6,159 members.[70]

Local programming edit

KVCR's local programs are oriented to the Inland Empire and Desert Cities areas. The station airs a television simulcast of Inland Edition, the flagship public affairs program of KVCR radio, and the annual Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival. As the originating station for FNX, KVCR also produces the channel's weekly news program, FNX Now, and other specialty programs and documentaries.[71]

Technical information edit

Subchannels edit

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KVCR-DT[72]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
24.1 720p 16:9 KVCR-HD Main KVCR-DT programming / PBS
24.2 480i KVCRFNX First Nations Experience
24.3 KVCR-DC KVCR Desert Cities
24.4 KVCRCRE Create

References edit

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KVCR-DT". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "Investigation Approved: College May Try For TV Channel". The San Bernardino County Sun. January 17, 1959. pp. B-1, B-5. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b "History Cards for KVCR-DT". Federal Communications Commission. from the original on 2022-12-06. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
  4. ^ "Valley College To Apply for TV License". The San Bernardino County Sun. June 17, 1961. p. B-1. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Bruton, Al (August 12, 1961). "Valley College Board Rejects TV Station: Chairman Casts Deciding Vote As Trustees Split". The San Bernardino County Sun. pp. 1-B, 5-B. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Valley College plans educational TV channel". Redlands Daily Facts. September 6, 1961. p. 5. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Valley College Will Use Closed, Open Circuit ETV". The Colton Courier. November 6, 1961. p. 2. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "SBVC TV station opens with Channel 24". Redlands Daily Facts. June 13, 1962. p. 6. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b Shimabukuro, Betty (September 8, 1987). "Silver linings: KVCR-TV to celebrate 25 years of broadcasting". The San Bernardino County Sun. pp. D1, D2. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ a b "Channel 24 Inaugural: Valley College's UHF-TV Goes on Air at 7 p.m." The San Bernardino County Sun. September 11, 1962. p. 15. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Greene, Addie (July 30, 1963). "No Sell, But Channel 24 Still Grows". The Los Angeles Times. p. IV:11. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Follis Heads Educational TV Inland Group". The Sun-Telegram. May 2, 1965. p. C-2. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ Yetzer, Carl (September 9, 1967). "KVCR-TV Is Discriminating Viewer's 'Alternative'". Sun-Telegram. pp. B-1, B-5. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
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  20. ^ "College district received grant for TV transmitter". The San Bernardino County Sun. December 3, 1981. p. B-7. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Anderson, Barbara (September 24, 1982). "College board OKs bids on TV facilities". The San Bernardino County Sun. p. B-5. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "Channel 24 begins serving huge area". The San Bernardino County Sun. December 6, 1983. p. B-7. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ Margulies, Lee (November 17, 1983). "Inside TV: PBS Station Boosting Power". The Los Angeles Times. p. VI:12. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Szymkowski, Beth (July 2, 1997). "KVCR-TV, radio chief will retire". The San Bernardino County Sun. pp. B1, B3. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ Fairley Raney, Rebecca (September 21, 1993). "Inland area TV station gets $295,000 grant". The San Bernardino County Sun. p. B1. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "KVCR series features early television". The San Bernardino County Sun. January 7, 1986. p. B-9. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ Carter, Ryan (February 14, 2011). "San Bernardino public TV broadcaster dies". The Sun.
  28. ^ Faustina, Sean Monique (January 14, 1998). "Party of Four: Search for fine dining is 'Two' delicious". The Press-Enterprise. p. E1.
  29. ^ Ascenzi, Joseph (July 2, 2007). "TV food critic jumps to radio". The Business Press. p. 14.
  30. ^ Ascenzi, Joseph (October 26, 1998). "New manager makes KVCR ready for prime time". The Business Press. p. 6.
  31. ^ Ascenzi, Joseph (November 2, 1998). "KVCR to pay for programs in prime time". The Business Press. p. 46.
  32. ^ Nelson, Joe (September 6, 2002). "KVCR-TV dials in transmitter - PBS station has been out of service since tube overheated, blew Aug. 31". Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
  33. ^ Muckenfuss, Mark (September 19, 2002). "Finally back on the air, KVCR hopes to get back to business". The Press-Enterprise.
  34. ^ Muckenfuss, Mark (November 14, 2002). "KVCR-TV looks for solutions: OFF THE AIR: A temporary transmitter should bring the station back soon, says its manager". The Press-Enterprise. p. D12.
  35. ^ Frasher, Steven (December 23, 2002). "KVCR rolls with static from broadcast outages". The Business Press. p. 3.
  36. ^ Hermann, David (September 9, 2002). "KVCR-TV aims to be back on air soon". The Los Angeles Times. p. Inland Valley Voice A3. Retrieved June 20, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  37. ^ de Atley, Richard K. (May 29, 2004). "KVCR gets full power // TV STATION: Only a few glitches remain before Inland viewers can tune in to an improved signal". The Press-Enterprise. p. C10.
  38. ^ (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. May 23, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  39. ^ Ascenzi, Joseph (March 3, 2003). "Budget woes cause static, painful cuts for KVCR-TV". The Business Press. p. 2.
  40. ^ Muckenfuss, Mark (June 26, 2003). "KVCR pares back PBS programming: TV: Financial issues and viewership lead the San Bernardino station to make the changes". The Press-Enterprise. p. C10.
  41. ^ Muckenfuss, Mark (October 10, 2003). "Inland news will air on TV // BROADCAST: The half-hour show will be shown on KVCR starting Nov. 3". The Press-Enterprise. p. B3.
  42. ^ de Atley, Richard K. (February 26, 2005). "Local TV network shuts down". The Press-Enterprise. p. D3.
  43. ^ Bender, Matt (May 16, 2002). "KVCR-TV focuses on starting digital broadcasting". The Sun.
  44. ^ Ascenzi, Joseph (March 6, 2000). "Lew Warren: After 25 years at KVCR-TV, he's taking public television into digital age and a new facility". The Business Press. p. 14.
  45. ^ Casey, June (January 2000). "Cost of Digital Conversion at KVCR-TV Carries Staggering $32 Million Price Tag". Inland Empire Business Journal. p. 3. ProQuest 205485383.
  46. ^ Pfeiffer Trunnell, Debbie (May 31, 2011). "KVCR has a new home at SBVC". The Sun. ProQuest 869384343.
  47. ^ Colburn, Jonathan D. (September 6, 2003). "Orange County PBS affiliate replaced by KVCR-San Bernardino". The Desert Sun. pp. E1, E2. Retrieved June 21, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  48. ^ Pierceall, Kimberly (September 24, 2005). "KVCR-TV making a move to a new channel". The Press-Enterprise. p. B1.
  49. ^ "KVCR making a channel change". The Desert Sun. September 24, 2005. p. E1. Retrieved June 21, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  50. ^ a b "Application for Transfer of Control of a Corporate Licensee or Permittee, or for Assignment of License or Permit of TV or FM Translator Station or Low Power Television Station BALDTV-20160330ATZ". Consolidated Database System. Federal Communications Commission. March 30, 2016.
  51. ^ "Transmitter Maintenance". KVCR. August 14, 2020.
  52. ^ Olson, David (June 17, 2010). "American Indians to get own TV channel". The Press-Enterprise. p. A8.
  53. ^ "FNX Native Television Channel Launches - The first American Indian TV channel in the United States went on the air in Southern California September 25 with the launch of FNX: First Nations Experience Television". Indian Country Today. September 28, 2011.
  54. ^ Hagen, Ryan (January 27, 2015). "Native television - First Nations Experience gets $6M to expand - San Manuel Band continues to support indigenous people's public TV network". Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
  55. ^ Muckenfuss, Mark (January 13, 2013). "KVCR faces a shaky financial future". The Press-Enterprise. p. A1.
  56. ^ Muckenfuss, Mark (April 4, 2013). "In era fraught with budget cuts, KVCR receives financial reprieve". The Press-Enterprise. p. A1.
  57. ^ Yarbrough, Beau (February 28, 2017). "San Bernardino Community College district - KVCR frequency change nets $157 million". p. 1.
  58. ^ Simpson, April (February 27, 2017). "Licensee of California's KVCR receives $157m in spectrum auction". Current. from the original on February 1, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  59. ^ "Incentive Auction: Reverse Auction Winning Bids". Auction Data. Federal Communications Commission. from the original on 2023-06-18. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
  60. ^ Iyer, Jennifer (April 28, 2018). "San Bernardino - College district OKs distribution of $57M after selling off its television bandwidth". The Sun. p. 3.
  61. ^ a b Goldsmith, Jill (August 11, 2017). "California's KVCR fast-tracks expansion of local production slate". Current. from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  62. ^ Goldsmith, Jill (December 21, 2018). "California's KVCR lays off 35 staffers as it scales back local production strategy". Current. from the original on February 14, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  63. ^ Nelson, Joe (October 21, 2017). "KVCR names Keith Birkfeld interim general manager". The Sun. from the original on August 13, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  64. ^ Whitehead, Brian (October 11, 2020). "KVCR - Contracts with PBS, NPR still intact for now". The Press-Enterprise.
  65. ^ Hagen, Ryan (April 8, 2021). "KVCR status is up in the air - Board in charge of region's only public station will vote today on possible programming changes". The Press-Enterprise. p. 1.
  66. ^ "KVCR to continue broadcasting with investment from State of California". Colton Courier. July 22, 2021. p. A3.
  67. ^ Whitehead, Brian (August 12, 2022). "$15 million in state budget secures KVCR's future as Inland Empire news outlet". The Sun. from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  68. ^ Whitehead, Brian (October 12, 2022). "California state Sen. Connie Leyva named as new KVCR executive director". The Sun. from the original on October 24, 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  69. ^ EideBailly (2022). "Consolidated Financial Statements, June 30, 2022: KVCR TV and FM (A Public Telecommunications Entity Operated by the San Bernardino Community Collect [sic] District)".
  70. ^ "Annual Financial Report 2022" (PDF). KVCR. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
  71. ^ "Local Content and Service Report 2022". KVCR. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
  72. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for KVCR". RabbitEars. from the original on 2018-07-24. Retrieved 2020-02-09.

External links edit

  • Facility details for Facility ID 130845 (KJHP-LD) in the FCC Licensing and Management System

kvcr, channel, member, television, station, bernardino, california, united, states, owned, bernardino, community, college, district, alongside, member, kvcr, stations, share, studios, bernardino, valley, college, campus, north, vernon, avenue, bernardino, tran. KVCR DT channel 24 is a PBS member television station in San Bernardino California United States It is owned by the San Bernardino Community College District alongside NPR member KVCR 91 9 FM The two stations share studios at the San Bernardino Valley College campus on North Mt Vernon Avenue in San Bernardino KVCR DT s transmitter is located atop Box Springs Mountain KVCR DTSan Bernardino Riverside Palm Springs CaliforniaUnited StatesCitySan Bernardino CaliforniaChannelsDigital 5 VHF Virtual 24BrandingKVCR PBSProgrammingAffiliations24 1 PBSfor others see SubchannelsOwnershipOwnerSan Bernardino Community College DistrictSister stationsKVCRHistoryFirst air dateSeptember 11 1962 61 years ago 1962 09 11 Former call signsKVCR TV 1962 2009 Former channel number s Analog 24 UHF 1962 2009 Digital 26 UHF 2004 2019 Former affiliationsNET 1962 1970 Call sign meaningValley College RadioTechnical information 1 Licensing authorityFCCFacility ID58795ERP25 8 kWHAAT540 m 1 772 ft Transmitter coordinates33 57 57 4 N 117 17 9 1 W 33 965944 N 117 285861 W 33 965944 117 285861Translator s KJHP LD 22 Morongo Valley Palm Springs LinksPublic license informationPublic fileLMSWebsitewww wbr kvcr wbr orgKVCR is Southern California s oldest operating public television station beginning broadcasts in September 1962 As public stations signed on in the Los Angeles area KVCR continued to provide local programming for the Inland Empire as well as telecourses from San Bernardino Valley College and instructional content for schools The station had a limited broadcast range until it moved its transmitter to Box Springs Mountain in 1983 In the 2000s KVCR replaced KOCE as the public television station broadcast into the Coachella Valley including Palm Springs it continues to operate a translator and provide a dedicated subchannel KVCR PBS Desert Cities for this area KVCR is also the founding station for the First Nations Experience network which was started in 2010 with a gift from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians State government support in the early 2020s forestalled a cost cutting plan which would have seen the KVCR stations switch from public media to student run outlets KVCR produces local programming for the Inland Empire Contents 1 History 1 1 Early years 1 2 Regional growth 1 3 Digitalization and budget woes 1 4 Expansion to the Desert Cities 1 5 First Nations Experience 1 6 Incentive auction and possible disaffiliation from PBS 2 Funding 3 Local programming 4 Technical information 4 1 Subchannels 5 References 6 External linksHistory editEarly years edit In 1959 the board of trustees of San Bernardino Valley College gave approval for an exploratory study on activating ultra high frequency UHF channel 24 which had been allocated for educational television use by the Federal Communications Commission FCC in 1952 but was never assigned recent changes in state law had allowed the community college to set up and finance its own TV station 2 The college applied for a construction permit on August 12 1960 3 even though trustees were at first lukewarm about the concept One trustee wanted to merely apply for the permit to keep the college s hold on the channel 4 The FCC granted the permit on July 6 1961 3 but trustees initially rejected funds to build the station in a 3 2 vote The chairman of the board of trustees in casting the deciding vote stated I personally believe it is not our function to take education beyond the campus here 5 Less than a month after that vote with high community interest in the project trustees changed their minds and unanimously voted to build out KVCR TV which would be the first educational television station in the state to be run by a junior college 6 It was seen as more cost effective to broadcast on campus than to wire campus buildings for a closed circuit system 7 Construction of the facility was complete by June 12 1962 when the first test pattern was sent out 8 but the first program was not broadcast until September 11 That night after 15 minutes the station went off the air because a capacitor failed in the transmitter 9 KVCR TV was the only educational station to broadcast in Southern California at the time of its creation In addition to educational programs for schools and college telecourses the station also presented educational programs from National Educational Television forerunner to PBS 10 The station grew quickly Originally broadcasting 10 to 15 hours a week it doubled its output to 30 hours in 1963 10 11 By 1965 KVCR TV was broadcasting daytime instructional television for 23 school districts in San Bernardino County including on translators to rebroadcast its signal 12 KVCR TV also served as an extension of the broadcasting program at Valley College The station was entirely student operated and by 1967 aired 10 to 15 hours a week of local programs including a weekly public affairs program as well as a daily newscast during the school year 13 Even though National Educational Television began feeding programs on network lines to stations in 1967 KVCR TV continued to receive all its NET and PBS programming through KCET in Los Angeles until it was directly connected to the network in June 1972 14 With a small signal originating from the Valley College campus the station s coverage was limited for most of the first 20 years of its history In 1973 a translator was activated near the campus of the University of California Riverside this expanded KVCR TV coverage to Riverside which was blocked from the main San Bernardino signal by terrain The university also had television production capabilities and could produce programs for air on the station 15 A volunteer support group for KVCR radio and television Friends of KVCR was formed in 1973 16 the next year the station received a federal grant that allowed it to upgrade to all color broadcasting 17 The transmitter had been previously modified to allow the station to pass through network programs in color a fact station officials were not aware of until they were called by a viewer who complimented them on their color signal 9 when Regional growth edit nbsp KVCR TV moved its transmitter to Box Springs Mountain in 1983 greatly increasing its coverage area In 1980 KVCR TV began planning for a major power increase and transmitter site relocation This would replace the original facility which used a transmitter 10 years older than KVCR TV itself with a site on higher terrain Several sites including Sunset Ridge used by KHOF TV were analyzed 18 but planning soon focused on Box Springs Mountain near the University of California Riverside campus 19 After receiving a 650 000 federal grant in December 1981 20 and awarding contracts for construction work in September 1982 21 the new facility came into use on December 5 1983 adding an expected 1 million viewers to the station s coverage area 22 With the new coverage area KVCR also began increasing its on and off air fundraising activities hiring its first development director and campaigning for donations on the air 23 By 1997 when general manager Thomas Little retired after 20 years running KVCR radio and television the stations had more than 12 700 paid members 24 In the 1980s and 1990s KVCR produced an array of public affairs series covering the Inland Empire region These included On Call Dialogues Impacto and Ebony Issues 25 In 1986 the station debuted the weekly I Remember Television which presented programs from the first decade of American television history with historical context 26 but later broadened to cover the 1950s and 1960s The program remained in production for 22 years 27 Local dining program Table for Two hosted by food critic Allan Borgen aired from 1990 to 2007 28 29 Digitalization and budget woes edit After Little s retirement Lew Warren became the station s general manager Motivated by complaints from viewers he had KVCR TV switch from being a secondary PBS station in the Program Differentiation Plan airing 25 percent of the network s output after a minimum eight day delay to a primary station This meant that the full PBS lineup aired on KVCR TV for the first time in its history It also was a major expense In 1997 the station paid PBS approximately 224 000 those payments were set to increase to 544 000 in 1998 However KCET protested that KVCR should be required to pay the full per household covered rate for programs not a discounted rate like PBS often permitted secondary stations in large markets to pay 30 The PBS directors agreed with KCET and increased the total bill to about 800 000 a year 31 While that was under way KVCR experienced two major transmitter faults in late 2002 A heat wave in the Inland Empire caused a tube in the transmitter to blow on August 31 2002 32 the station was off air until September 18 33 The transmitter then failed again in a rainstorm in early November 34 it was out for 23 days until a temporary transmitter could be installed and put in service on November 30 35 The station missed broadcasting PBS programs during this time as well as 20 college telecourses 36 The temporary equipment was used until a new antenna and digital capable transmitter were installed in June 2004 37 KVCR continued to broadcast digitally on channel 26 after the digital television transition on June 12 2009 38 KVCR TV s carriage of all PBS programming ended in 2003 in response to state mandated budget cuts The community college was forced to cut 10 million of its 70 million budget returning to the Program Differentiation Plan saved the station 600 000 39 Whereas viewers had once complained that KVCR did not have every PBS show now they were complaining that it heavily duplicated KCET 40 One new addition came in November 2003 when KVCR TV began carrying a newscast produced by the Inland California Television Network ICTN a venture of Cal State San Bernardino the city and the Los Angeles News Group 41 ICTN continued to air on the station until it shut down in February 2005 42 Another major task for KVCR in the 2000s was relocating the station out of the only home it had ever known North Hall on the Valley College campus North Hall had been slated for demolition for some time 43 The relocation had originally been conceived to help allow the station to meet the FCC mandated technological upgrade to digital broadcasting and specified a site at the former Norton Air Force Base 44 However the station faced an unusually large construction cost because the facility would primarily be for educational use it would be subject to Field Act requirements 45 Ultimately the KVCR stations stayed on the Valley College campus and moved to a new Media amp Communications Building in 2011 46 Expansion to the Desert Cities edit In September 2003 PSTV Partners which operated a television translator on channel 55 cable 16 serving the Palm Springs area decided to begin broadcasting KVCR instead of KOCE TV on its translator because its owner Jonathan Sussman felt the Orange County station was not sufficiently responsive to the interests of the Coachella Valley and fretted about a possible sale of KOCE Sussman also owned Raven Productions a local program producer and began contributing several Coachella Valley oriented programs to KVCR s lineup 47 In 2005 the station moved to channel 9 over the air and on cable after Sussman hired lawyers to argue that the noncommercial channel needed a lower position on cable 48 At that time it was the only public station with a broadcast transmitter in the area 49 KVCR renewed its lease for five year terms in 2008 and 2013 50 In 2016 PSTV Partners transferred the license of K09XW D to KCETLink the parent organization of KCET 50 KVCR rebuilt KJHP LD a separate translator in 2020 to continue to provide service in Palm Springs 51 First Nations Experience edit Main article First Nations Experience In 2010 KVCR received a 6 million donation from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to start a television channel airing programming about Native American communities in the United States with a goal to distribute it nationally 52 The service First Nations Experience FNX began broadcasting as a subchannel on September 25 2011 53 The San Manuel Band donated another 6 million to KVCR in 2015 to support expanding FNX 54 Incentive auction and possible disaffiliation from PBS edit The KVCR stations typically reliant on contributions from the community college district for much of their operating funding began to see cutbacks in the 2010s In 2012 the district cut its support from 1 7 million to 900 000 and advised the stations to plan on receiving no funding for the 2013 2014 fiscal year and rumors swirled that the radio and television stations could become managed by public broadcasters in Los Angeles 55 The board then gave the stations an extra year of public support 56 In 2017 KVCR sold its UHF band television spectrum for 157 million in the 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction and moved to very high frequency VHF channel 5 The cash infusion represented 150 percent of the entire budget of the community college district 57 58 It was the 11th largest incentive auction payment to any station nationwide and the largest for a station in the Los Angeles area 59 The KVCR stations themselves ultimately received 44 million plus 9 million for its endowment while 80 million was invested by the district and 20 million was earmarked for its pension fund 60 In anticipation of the cash infusion from the auction 2017 also brought a major rebrand of the KVCR stations as the Empire Network along with eight new local shows The changes were made to provide increased differentiation from the Los Angeles area PBS stations provide content for the underserved Inland Empire and reduce KVCR s reliance on programming from PBS However in 2018 multiple shows were canceled as part of a downscaling of the program changes 35 employees were dismissed as a result 61 62 The discontinuation of programming was cited by observers as part of an inconsistent station strategy the KVCR stations had gone through five general managers between 2012 and 2018 including two hirings in 2017 alone 61 63 Despite the incentive auction windfall KVCR continued to run annual deficits by late 2020 trustees projected that the KVCR stations would soon need to dip into the principal of the stations endowment to cover operating expenses Trustees authorized a plan that October that would likely have ultimately led to the stations becoming student run outlets and disaffiliating from NPR and PBS 64 The interim chancellor of the KVCR stations Jose F Torres recommended to the trustees in April 2021 that the stations be folded into Valley College s Institute of Media Arts 65 Community backlash to this proposal was significant enough that trustees contacted Inland Empire representatives in the California state legislature leading to the passage that July of AB 132 an appropriations bill that allocated 4 million for the continuing operation of the KVCR stations 66 In 2022 the state of California allocated 15 million in funding that secured the stations future as public media outlets and also led to the establishment of a student training lab within KVCR 67 In December 2022 after the end of her two year term in the California State Senate and a failed bid for a seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors senator Connie Leyva became the new executive director of KVCR radio and television 68 Funding editFor the year ending June 30 2022 KVCR DT had operating revenue of 2 6 million including 830 000 in viewer contributions The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provided 617 000 in grant monies while the San Bernardino Community College District provided 495 000 in non cash institutional support 69 The station had 6 159 members 70 Local programming editKVCR s local programs are oriented to the Inland Empire and Desert Cities areas The station airs a television simulcast of Inland Edition the flagship public affairs program of KVCR radio and the annual Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival As the originating station for FNX KVCR also produces the channel s weekly news program FNX Now and other specialty programs and documentaries 71 Technical information editSubchannels edit The station s signal is multiplexed Subchannels of KVCR DT 72 Channel Res Aspect Short name Programming24 1 720p 16 9 KVCR HD Main KVCR DT programming PBS24 2 480i KVCRFNX First Nations Experience24 3 KVCR DC KVCR Desert Cities24 4 KVCRCRE CreateReferences edit Facility Technical Data for KVCR DT Licensing and Management System Federal Communications Commission Investigation Approved College May Try For TV Channel The San Bernardino County Sun January 17 1959 pp B 1 B 5 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com a b History Cards for KVCR DT Federal Communications Commission Archived from the original on 2022 12 06 Retrieved 2023 06 20 Valley College To Apply for TV License The San Bernardino County Sun June 17 1961 p B 1 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Bruton Al August 12 1961 Valley College Board Rejects TV Station Chairman Casts Deciding Vote As Trustees Split The San Bernardino County Sun pp 1 B 5 B Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Valley College plans educational TV channel Redlands Daily Facts September 6 1961 p 5 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Valley College Will Use Closed Open Circuit ETV The Colton Courier November 6 1961 p 2 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com SBVC TV station opens with Channel 24 Redlands Daily Facts June 13 1962 p 6 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com a b Shimabukuro Betty September 8 1987 Silver linings KVCR TV to celebrate 25 years of broadcasting The San Bernardino County Sun pp D1 D2 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com a b Channel 24 Inaugural Valley College s UHF TV Goes on Air at 7 p m The San Bernardino County Sun September 11 1962 p 15 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Greene Addie July 30 1963 No Sell But Channel 24 Still Grows The Los Angeles Times p IV 11 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Follis Heads Educational TV Inland Group The Sun Telegram May 2 1965 p C 2 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Yetzer Carl September 9 1967 KVCR TV Is Discriminating Viewer s Alternative Sun Telegram pp B 1 B 5 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com SBVC TV Now Linked With PBS The San Bernardino County Sun June 29 1972 p B 5 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Translator station Valley College TV linked to UCR Redlands Daily Facts November 3 1973 p 6 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Valley Board members delay action on accepting pay Redlands Daily Facts December 8 1973 p 3 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com KVCR TV celebrates its 15th year of broadcasting Sun Telegram September 11 1977 pp D 1 D 2 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Yetzer Carl May 18 1980 KVCR seeking lots more watts The San Bernardino County Sun p B 4 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Cothren Lyn August 6 1980 KVCR is trying Public TV in future Hi Desert Star p 12 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com College district received grant for TV transmitter The San Bernardino County Sun December 3 1981 p B 7 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Anderson Barbara September 24 1982 College board OKs bids on TV facilities The San Bernardino County Sun p B 5 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Channel 24 begins serving huge area The San Bernardino County Sun December 6 1983 p B 7 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Margulies Lee November 17 1983 Inside TV PBS Station Boosting Power The Los Angeles Times p VI 12 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Szymkowski Beth July 2 1997 KVCR TV radio chief will retire The San Bernardino County Sun pp B1 B3 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Fairley Raney Rebecca September 21 1993 Inland area TV station gets 295 000 grant The San Bernardino County Sun p B1 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com KVCR series features early television The San Bernardino County Sun January 7 1986 p B 9 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com Carter Ryan February 14 2011 San Bernardino public TV broadcaster dies The Sun Faustina Sean Monique January 14 1998 Party of Four Search for fine dining is Two delicious The Press Enterprise p E1 Ascenzi Joseph July 2 2007 TV food critic jumps to radio The Business Press p 14 Ascenzi Joseph October 26 1998 New manager makes KVCR ready for prime time The Business Press p 6 Ascenzi Joseph November 2 1998 KVCR to pay for programs in prime time The Business Press p 46 Nelson Joe September 6 2002 KVCR TV dials in transmitter PBS station has been out of service since tube overheated blew Aug 31 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Muckenfuss Mark September 19 2002 Finally back on the air KVCR hopes to get back to business The Press Enterprise Muckenfuss Mark November 14 2002 KVCR TV looks for solutions OFF THE AIR A temporary transmitter should bring the station back soon says its manager The Press Enterprise p D12 Frasher Steven December 23 2002 KVCR rolls with static from broadcast outages The Business Press p 3 Hermann David September 9 2002 KVCR TV aims to be back on air soon The Los Angeles Times p Inland Valley Voice A3 Retrieved June 20 2023 via Newspapers com de Atley Richard K May 29 2004 KVCR gets full power TV STATION Only a few glitches remain before Inland viewers can tune in to an improved signal The Press Enterprise p C10 DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds PDF Federal Communications Commission May 23 2006 Archived from the original PDF on August 29 2013 Retrieved August 29 2021 Ascenzi Joseph March 3 2003 Budget woes cause static painful cuts for KVCR TV The Business Press p 2 Muckenfuss Mark June 26 2003 KVCR pares back PBS programming TV Financial issues and viewership lead the San Bernardino station to make the changes The Press Enterprise p C10 Muckenfuss Mark October 10 2003 Inland news will air on TV BROADCAST The half hour show will be shown on KVCR starting Nov 3 The Press Enterprise p B3 de Atley Richard K February 26 2005 Local TV network shuts down The Press Enterprise p D3 Bender Matt May 16 2002 KVCR TV focuses on starting digital broadcasting The Sun Ascenzi Joseph March 6 2000 Lew Warren After 25 years at KVCR TV he s taking public television into digital age and a new facility The Business Press p 14 Casey June January 2000 Cost of Digital Conversion at KVCR TV Carries Staggering 32 Million Price Tag Inland Empire Business Journal p 3 ProQuest 205485383 Pfeiffer Trunnell Debbie May 31 2011 KVCR has a new home at SBVC The Sun ProQuest 869384343 Colburn Jonathan D September 6 2003 Orange County PBS affiliate replaced by KVCR San Bernardino The Desert Sun pp E1 E2 Retrieved June 21 2023 via Newspapers com Pierceall Kimberly September 24 2005 KVCR TV making a move to a new channel The Press Enterprise p B1 KVCR making a channel change The Desert Sun September 24 2005 p E1 Retrieved June 21 2023 via Newspapers com a b Application for Transfer of Control of a Corporate Licensee or Permittee or for Assignment of License or Permit of TV or FM Translator Station or Low Power Television Station BALDTV 20160330ATZ Consolidated Database System Federal Communications Commission March 30 2016 Transmitter Maintenance KVCR August 14 2020 Olson David June 17 2010 American Indians to get own TV channel The Press Enterprise p A8 FNX Native Television Channel Launches The first American Indian TV channel in the United States went on the air in Southern California September 25 with the launch of FNX First Nations Experience Television Indian Country Today September 28 2011 Hagen Ryan January 27 2015 Native television First Nations Experience gets 6M to expand San Manuel Band continues to support indigenous people s public TV network Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Muckenfuss Mark January 13 2013 KVCR faces a shaky financial future The Press Enterprise p A1 Muckenfuss Mark April 4 2013 In era fraught with budget cuts KVCR receives financial reprieve The Press Enterprise p A1 Yarbrough Beau February 28 2017 San Bernardino Community College district KVCR frequency change nets 157 million p 1 Simpson April February 27 2017 Licensee of California s KVCR receives 157m in spectrum auction Current Archived from the original on February 1 2023 Retrieved June 21 2023 Incentive Auction Reverse Auction Winning Bids Auction Data Federal Communications Commission Archived from the original on 2023 06 18 Retrieved 2023 06 21 Iyer Jennifer April 28 2018 San Bernardino College district OKs distribution of 57M after selling off its television bandwidth The Sun p 3 a b Goldsmith Jill August 11 2017 California s KVCR fast tracks expansion of local production slate Current Archived from the original on April 16 2023 Retrieved June 21 2023 Goldsmith Jill December 21 2018 California s KVCR lays off 35 staffers as it scales back local production strategy Current Archived from the original on February 14 2023 Retrieved June 21 2023 Nelson Joe October 21 2017 KVCR names Keith Birkfeld interim general manager The Sun Archived from the original on August 13 2018 Retrieved August 13 2018 Whitehead Brian October 11 2020 KVCR Contracts with PBS NPR still intact for now The Press Enterprise Hagen Ryan April 8 2021 KVCR status is up in the air Board in charge of region s only public station will vote today on possible programming changes The Press Enterprise p 1 KVCR to continue broadcasting with investment from State of California Colton Courier July 22 2021 p A3 Whitehead Brian August 12 2022 15 million in state budget secures KVCR s future as Inland Empire news outlet The Sun Archived from the original on October 28 2022 Retrieved June 21 2023 Whitehead Brian October 12 2022 California state Sen Connie Leyva named as new KVCR executive director The Sun Archived from the original on October 24 2022 Retrieved June 21 2023 EideBailly 2022 Consolidated Financial Statements June 30 2022 KVCR TV and FM A Public Telecommunications Entity Operated by the San Bernardino Community Collect sic District Annual Financial Report 2022 PDF KVCR Retrieved June 20 2023 Local Content and Service Report 2022 KVCR Retrieved June 20 2023 RabbitEars TV Query for KVCR RabbitEars Archived from the original on 2018 07 24 Retrieved 2020 02 09 External links editFacility details for Facility ID 130845 KJHP LD in the FCC Licensing and Management System Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title KVCR DT amp oldid 1179091512, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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