KAET

KAET, virtual and VHF digital channel 8, is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The station is owned by Arizona State University. KAET's studios are located at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication on the campus of ASU Downtown Phoenix, and its transmitter is located on South Mountain on the south side of Phoenix. Its signal is relayed across Arizona on a network of 13 translator stations.

KAET
Phoenix, Arizona
United States
ChannelsDigital: 8 (VHF)
Virtual: 8 (PSIP)
BrandingArizona PBS
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerArizona State University
(Arizona Board of Regents for Arizona State University)
KBAQ
History
First air date
January 30, 1961 (1961-01-30)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 8 (VHF, 1961–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 29 (UHF, 2001–2009)
NET (1961–1970)
Call sign meaning
Arizona Educational Television[1]
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID2728
ERP40 kW
HAAT548 m (1,798 ft)
Transmitter coordinates33°19′59.2″N 112°3′51.2″W
Translator(s)See below
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Websitewww.azpbs.org

History

In late 1959, as it was preparing to build new facilities for itself,[2] Phoenix commercial television station KVAR offered to sell its old transmitter on South Mountain, valued at $150,000, to ASU for $30,000. The offer jumpstarted plans to build an educational television station in Phoenix and prompted the Arizona Board of Regents to authorize expenditures for the transmitter and additional equipment in January 1960.[3]

On November 8, 1960, the Federal Communications Commission granted the construction permit to ASU.[4] Having found that the call letters KASU were already in use at Arkansas State University, the call letters KAET were selected, for "Arizona Educational Television".[1] The station began broadcasting January 30, 1961, with a series of telecourses as well as programming from National Educational Television; the station's first local production was a Spanish 101 course.[5] By 1966, KAET broadcast 50 hours a week of programs.[6] It converted to color, first with network shows, with a grant for a color broadcast chain in 1967;[7] the station's lobbying for color conversion was aided when the staff delivered a color television set to university president G. Homer Durham.[5] In 1973, KAET moved from its original home in the Engineering Center to another location on the Tempe campus, the newly built Stauffer Hall communications building.[1]

Statewide expansion began in 1980 when translators on Mount Francis and Mingus Mountain, followed the next year by another on Mount Elden,[8] The decade also saw the establishment of Horizon, the station's flagship public affairs show, in 1981; the world's first broadcast of open heart surgery in 1983;[9] and the station's wall-to-wall telecast of the Evan Mecham impeachment hearings in 1988.[1]

The KAET studios at the Cronkite School building on ASU's downtown Phoenix campus

In June 1999, KAET was issued a permit to construct digital television facilities on UHF channel 29. KAET-DT went on the air in April 2001 and was licensed on June 12, 2001, becoming the fifth licensed digital television station in the state.

During the late-2000s recession, fundraising efforts at KAET fell behind projections, resulting in two major rounds of layoffs. The first round came in late October 2008, when the station, having missed its fundraising targets by hundreds of thousands of dollars, had to lay off six workers.[10][11] The second round of layoffs came in April 2009, when 13 workers were laid off.[12] The financial crisis also delayed KAET's move from its longtime home on the Tempe campus to its new headquarters in downtown Phoenix;[11] the move was completed at the end of 2009.[1]

Known for years as "Channel 8", the station began using "Arizona PBS" as a secondary brand in 2005. In 2006, KAET relaunched as "Eight, Arizona PBS" (stylized as "ei8ht" in logos); this brand was dropped in 2015 in favor of simply "Arizona PBS".

Previously under the supervision of the ASU public affairs office, though with a close association with the Cronkite School, operational control of the station was transferred to Cronkite itself in 2014.[13] KAET airs Cronkite News programming produced by journalism students, and Cronkite also houses the western bureau of the PBS NewsHour, which opened in 2019.[14]

Programming

KAET produces several of its programs in-house, such as its current events program Arizona Horizon, its Hispanic-focused current events counterpart Horizonte, and its Arizona Collection documentaries about the people, places and history of the state. The Emmy Award-winning Over Arizona, produced in 1995 with KCTS Seattle, is an aerial adventure over Arizona's diverse landscapes and was the first high-definition television program produced by an Arizona broadcast entity.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming
8.1720p16:9AZ PBSMain KAET programming / PBS
8.2480iLifeArizona PBS Life
8.3WorldWorld
8.4AZ KIDSPBS Kids
8.5KBAQAudio simulcast of KBAQ

Analog-to-digital conversion

KAET's digital signal has been on the air since 2001, originally operating on UHF channel 29, and presently carries four subchannels under the Arizona PBS Digital Broadcasting brand. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on April 29, 2009. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 29 to VHF channel 8.[15]

Translators

KAET's signal is relayed on the following translator stations:

References
  1. Griffiths, Lawn (January 30, 2011). "50 years of Eight: Valley's public television station still innovating". East Valley Tribune. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  2. "ASU Wants Channel 8 For Educational Use". The Arizona Republic. July 31, 1960. p. 8. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  3. Meibert, Virgil (January 28, 1960). "Regents Okay Plans For Educational TV On Channel 8". The Arizona Republic. p. 18. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  4. FCC History Cards for KAET
  5. "The Early Years of Arizona PBS". Arizona PBS. December 18, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  6. "Educational TV Expands Programs". Arizona Days and Ways. September 11, 1966. p. 17. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  7. "ASU's KAET To Go to Color". The Arizona Republic. February 9, 1967. p. 21. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  8. Velotta, Rick (April 3, 1981). "TIA Hopeful TV Translator System Will Be Ready April 20". Arizona Daily Sun. p. 1. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  9. Sefton, Dru (November 5, 2012). "KAET: 30 years from The Operation to The Latest Procedure". Current. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  10. Sneed, Adam (23 October 2008). "Channel 8 feels effects of bad economic times". The State Press. Arizona State University Student Media. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  11. Fenske, Sarah (24 November 2008). "Channel Eight, Arizona's Biggest PBS Station, Needs Money to Relocate — but Have Viewers Already Moved On?". Phoenix New Times. Village Voice Media. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  12. Stern, Ray (15 April 2009). "PBS Channel 8 (KAET-TV) Slashes 13 Jobs in Latest Media Layoff". Phoenix New Times. Village Voice Media. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  13. Newman, Logan (July 17, 2014). "Cronkite, PBS restructure to fully merge". State Press. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
  14. Schon, Noelle (March 20, 2019). "PBS NewsHour to open its western bureau at ASU's Cronkite school". State Press. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  15. "CDBS Print". FCC. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
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