| |
|---|---|
| City | San Francisco, California |
| Channels | |
| Branding | KMTP |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | Non-commercialIndependent |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Minority Television Project |
| History | |
First air date | August 31, 1991 (33 years ago) (1991-08-31) |
Former channel number(s) |
|
Call sign meaning | Minority Television Project |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 43095 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 511.7 m (1,679 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 37°45′19″N122°27′10″W / 37.75528°N 122.45278°W /37.75528; -122.45278 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KMTP-TV (channel 32) is anindependentnon-commercial educationaltelevision station licensed toSan Francisco, California, United States, serving theSan Francisco Bay Area. Owned by the Minority Television Project, the station maintains studios on Woodside Way inSan Mateo. Its transmitter, shared withKCNS,KTNC-TV andKEMO-TV, is located atopSutro Tower in San Francisco.[2]
KMTP airs a large amount of multilingual, ethnic programming. The station produces and broadcasts a daily news show,5 Day News, and also broadcasts programming fromDeutsche Welle TV,NASA TV, and theClassic Arts Showcase. KMTP is one of the few non-PBS-affiliated public television stations in the United States, and one of two such stations in the San Francisco Bay Area (the other beingKPJK in San Mateo).
In 1954, the station begancommercially as KSAN-TV on UHF channel 32;[3] it was one of the first UHF TV stations in California.[4] Owned by the Patterson family, operators ofKSAN radio, the station was a small production studio and broadcast operation housed in the renovated Sutro Mansion in San Francisco and showed an amalgam ofboxing andwrestling matches, medical conferences, and old movies. The station went off the air in 1958. TheKSAN-TV call letters now reside on theNBC affiliate on channel 3 inSan Angelo, Texas.
The TV station was purchased byMetromedia in 1968, when the call sign was moved to an FM radio station and the TV station rechristened KNEW-TV, to match its co-ownedKNEW radio and to complement Metromedia's flagship station in New York, WNEW-TV (nowFoxowned-and-operated stationWNYW).[4][5] KNEW-TV ran the syndicated Metromedia talk shows and variety programming of such stars as shock-talkerJoe Pyne, and others.
This format was unsuccessful, and by 1970, channel 32 was given to leading public broadcasterKQED (channel 9) and had its call sign changed again, this time as KQEC, amember station ofPBS.[6][4] KQED held onto the station until 1988 when theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) revoked the license, ruling that it had been off the air too long to remain in the hands of the KQED ownership (KQED kept KQEC off the air for most of 1972 through 1977, and then again for several months in 1979–80), and reassigned the license to Minority Television Project, one of the challengers of the KQEC license.[7] The present-day KMTP-TV signed on on August 31, 1991, as the nation's second African-American owned public television station.[8]
In the FCC's2016–2017 Broadcast Incentive Auction #1001, KMTP-TV successfully bid to go off the air for a compensation of $87,824,258.[9][10] KMTP claimed in a March 31, 2017, press release, that it was negotiating with other broadcast stations in the Bay Area to share a channel. In FCC filings, it claimed a Channel Sharing Agreement had been signed, after completion of the auction, that would enable KMTP to continue broadcasting but on a different channel. This would be seamless for viewers as they would still tune to channel 32.[11]
In 2004, the FCC levied a $10,000 fine against KMTP for showing paid commercials on a station with an educational license.[12] While it is commonplace for PBS and similar stations to showunderwriters' messages that resemble commercials, it is illegal for educationally licensed stations, like KMTP, to show advertisements that do not meet the standards for underwriting announcements.[13][14] KMTP appealed the decision in 2005, but the fine was upheld, prompting KMTP to file a lawsuit against the FCC inU.S. District Court the following year.[15]
In suing the FCC, KMTP felt it was unfairly penalized by the FCC's rules concerning underwriting that did not take into account foreign language broadcasting and the variations in pronunciations and meanings. KMTP carried out research to find out what the public interpreted a commercial to be. Using a numerical grading system, certain aspects of a video clip were found by the public to "feel" like a commercial or not like a commercial. These findings were presented to the FCC, as it did not depend on particular words or phrases which can be misinterpreted when foreign languages are used. The FCC rejected KMTP's attempt to clarify the underwriting rules, leaving KMTP with no choice but to take the matter to court.
On April 12, 2012, a three-judge panel on theU.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on two of the issues raised by KMTP's suit. The panel ruled that non-commercial stations can air advertisements for both candidates and political position statements. The 1981 federal law was found to be violating free speech. This was a partial victory for KMTP, as it did not address the basic issue of how commercials differ from the sponsorships on which most public stations depend for financial support.[16] The case was reheard by the 9th Circuiten banc, which in 2013 overruled the panel, declaring that the 1981 law was constitutional (NPR andPBS filed in support of the FCC);[17] theSupreme Court declined to hear the case in the following year, ensuring that non-commercial stations cannot air political advertisements.[18]
| License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KCNS | 38.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KCNS | Shop LC |
| 38.2 | 480i | SkyLink | Sky Link TV | ||
| 38.3 | SBN | Sonlife | |||
| 38.5 | NTD | New Tang Dynasty Television | |||
| 38.6 | NTD Eng | NTD America | |||
| KMTP-TV | 32.1 | 4:3 | KMTP | Ethnic | |
| KTNC-TV | 42.1 | 720p | 16:9 | TCT | TCT |
| KEMO-TV | 50.1 | ShopHQ | Fubo Sports Network | ||
| 50.2 | 480i | VisionL | Visión Latina | ||
| 50.3 | GoldenT | Infomercials | |||
| 50.4 | Outlaw | Outlaw | |||
| 50.5 | 4:3 | Timeles | Infomercials | ||
| 50.6 | Aqui TV |
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