KEEF-TV

KEEF-TV, channel 68, was a short-lived public television station in Los Angeles, California. It operated briefly in 1987, but was shut down after only a few months of operation and its non-commercial educational broadcast construction permit ultimately revoked.

KEEF-TV
Los Angeles, California
ChannelsAnalog: 68 (UHF)
Programming
AffiliationsDefunct
Ownership
OwnerBlack Television Workshop
History
First air date
May 1987 (1987-05)
Last air date
August 8, 1987 (1987-08-08)
Former call signs
KDDE (1987)
Non-commercial independent

History

Prior use of channel 68 in Los Angeles
Main article: KVST-TV

Channel 68 was used originally by the Viewer Sponsored Television Foundation as KVST-TV, which broadcast from May 5, 1974 through December 23, 1975. It was a station with a strong community focus and aired alternative programming, much of it leftist in nature. However, it constantly struggled for viewer support and suffered through tumultuous internal politics, leading to its closure.

As KEEF-TV

On February 24, 1983, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized the Black Television Workshop to construct a non-commercial TV station on channel 68 in the Los Angeles area.[1] The station, which was oriented to black and Hispanic viewers, went on the air in May 1987[2] as KDDE.[3] The station promised a lineup of programs by and for minority viewers—particularly Black viewers—including films from the Caribbean and Africa and British fare from Channel 4.[4] The station changed its call letters to KEEF-TV on June 15.[3]

Problems were very quick to come along. After Mary V. Woodfork, one of the station's board members, made a series of claims against Black Television Workshop head Booker T. Wade's conduct, the FCC ordered the station off the air on August 8, because it broadcast with a different power and antenna height from a different location from that authorized, while it investigated—an unusual move for the commission.[5] The battle tied up the television station, a series of creditors, and a company that had paid for the KEEF-TV transmitter so it could use it to send data.[2]

In 1989, a deal was reached to sell the station as a distress sale to Hispanic Christian Communications Network, which proposed a Spanish-language Christian station;[5] the commission dismissed the proposal the next year because a federal appeals court had ruled that policy unconstitutional.[6] In 1991, after the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the policy,[7] the FCC determined that the station had not been actually built and thus would not have been eligible anyway.[8] The construction permit was ultimately revoked by the FCC on November 19, 1992.[9] A final review was denied by the commission in 1994.[10]

Channel 68 was last used in Southern California by KRCA-DT, a digital simulcast of KRCA (channel 62) in Riverside, California. As of the end of the 2009 digital television transition, channel 68 was outside the authorized band for television broadcasting in the United States; KRCA now transmits on channel 35. Plans for the digital transition did not include a digital replacement channel for the former channel 68 allocation in Los Angeles.

References
  1. Harris, Kathryn (February 25, 1983). "Black TV Unit Approved to Use Channel 68". Los Angeles Times. pp. 1, 2. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  2. "CP controversy turns messy in L.A." (PDF). Broadcasting. December 28, 1987. pp. 52–54. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
  3. "Call Sign History". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
  4. Miller, Barbara (April 11, 1987). "Public TV Station to Air Minority Programming". Los Angeles Times. p. 4. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  5. Mahler, Richard (November 27, 1989). "FCC Holds Fate of L.A.'s Only Black TV Outlet". Los Angeles Times. pp. F1, F10. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  6. "FCC dismissed request for distress sale of KEEF-TV Los Angeles..." (PDF). Broadcasting. April 23, 1990. p. 89. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  7. "FCC upholds KQEC reassignment, considers KEEF-TV distress sale" (PDF). Broadcasting. January 21, 1991. pp. 44, 66. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  8. "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. August 19, 1991. p. 54. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  9. "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. December 14, 1992. p. 78. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  10. Federal Communications Commission (August 26, 1994). "THE WADE GROUP DENIED REVIEW OF ORDER REVOKING THE CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OF KEEF-TV, LOS ANGELES, CA (MM DOCKET NO. 88-420)". FCC. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
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