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| Channels | |
| Branding | Nine PBS |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner | St. Louis Regional Public Media, Inc. |
| History | |
First air date | September 20, 1954 (1954-09-20) |
Former channel numbers |
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| NET (1954–1970) | |
Call sign meaning | St. Louis Educational Television Commission (former name for St. Louis Regional Public Media) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 62182 |
| ERP | 300kW |
| HAAT | 331 m (1,086 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°28′56″N90°23′53″W / 38.48222°N 90.39806°W /38.48222; -90.39806 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KETC (channel 9) is aPBS membertelevision station inSt. 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 southSt. Louis County.
The station first signed on the air on September 20, 1954.[2] It was the first community-licensededucational television station in the United States. The station's first general manager wasCharles 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 usingkinescope recording technology (the same as used forThe 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 theSt. 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 unprotectedCurrent River was produced. It was later used by theNational Audubon Society in the successful effort to make Current River the firstNational Scenic River under the protection of theNational 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 thePost-Dispatch, and under the influence of the well-connected localpublic relations firm Fleishman and Hillard (nowFleishmanHillard), 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 ofWashington 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.[3] It was the first facility specifically built for an educational television station. It activated its current tower in southSt. Louis County in 1970, allowing it to begincolor 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.[4]
During the2004 elections, KETC partnered with areaNBC affiliateKSDK (channel 5) to provide St. Louisans with comprehensive and up-to-date local and national election results. This partnership was first utilized to simulcast agubernatorial debate betweenRepublican candidate Missouri Secretary of StateMatt Blunt andDemocratic candidate State AuditorClaire McCaskill. On election night (November 2), KSDK aired NBC's prime time election coverage withTom Brokaw andTim Russert as well as segments of local results. KETC, meanwhile, ran three hours of local election results hosted by KSDK anchorsMike Bush andKaren 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 partnersKYKY (98.1 FM) andKEZK-FM (102.5 FM), atelethon forHurricane Katrina relief was simulcast that raised more than $5 million. The telethon featured an appearance byAffton nativeJohn Goodman, who now callsNew Orleans home and whose family went missing for a time during the storm's peak.Kennett, MO nativeSheryl Crow and her then fiancéLance 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 thecable network's weekly pop culture seriesThe Soup at the KETC studios to accommodate hostJoel McHale's filming ofThe Informant! in the St. Louis area.[5] 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 theSt. Louis Beacon, an online-only, non-profit news publication, to form the Public Insight Network, acitizen journalism initiative created in conjunction withAmerican Public Media. On January 10, 2021, the station rebranded as Nine PBS, adopting the current PBS corporate logo.[6]
KETC is known among viewers in St. Louis for preempting PBS programs to air library program content or less controversialpledge drive programs[citation needed], such asWQED-produceddoo-wop specials, using the defaultnetwork 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 whereSt. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Eric Mink wrote an editorial[when?] complaining about the station's scheduling of a pledge driveice skating show instead of a PBS documentary on theSeptember 11 attacks; KETC announced the next day that it would instead air the 9/11 documentary as nationally scheduled.[citation needed]
Some of the programs produced by KETC for national distribution include selected episodes ofInside/Out andToday in Chess, produced in cooperation with theSaint Louis Chess Club. The station also producedThe Letter People, an instructional program about reading, which was seen on many PBS and educational television stations in the mid-1970s, as well asA Time for Champions, an hour-long documentary chronicling theSaint Louis Universitysoccer dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s; andHomeland, a miniseries examining the topic of immigration in the United States. Local programming is highlighted by magazine seriesLiving St. Louis, early-childhood focusedTeaching in Room 9, and current affairs showDonnybrook, a weekly panel discussion featuring area media personalities airing on Thursday nights.
The station's digital signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KETC-HD | PBS |
| 9.2 | 720p | KIDS | PBS Kids | |
| 9.3 | 480i | WORLD | World Channel | |
| 9.4 | CREATE | Create |
KETC shut down its analog signal, overVHF channel 9, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transitionUHF channel 39, usingvirtual channel 9.[8]
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofMissouri | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Missouri | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
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| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofIllinois | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Illinois | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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