KVIE
Template:Short description Template:Good article Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox television station
KVIE (channel 6) is a PBS member television station in Sacramento, California, United States. The station is owned by KVIE, Inc., a community-based non-profit organization. KVIE's studios are located on West El Camino Avenue in the Natomas district of Sacramento, and its transmitter is located in Walnut Grove, California.
After years of interest in educational television in the Sacramento area, KVIE began broadcasting in February 1959, airing evening educational programs from PBS predecessor National Educational Television and daytime instructional output for schools. Originally located in studios in Sacramento used by a previous UHF station that had become outdated and run down by the 1980s, KVIE relocated to its present studios in 1990. KVIE's local programming has focused on topics including agriculture and activity at the California state capitol.
HistoryEdit
ConstructionEdit
Channel 6 was allocated for educational use in Sacramento in 1952 after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted its four-year freeze on new TV station applications in 1952.<ref name="Sacr520414">Template:Cite news</ref> The next year, the first interest was expressed in the educational channel by a consortium of school officials in 15 Superior California counties.<ref name="Sacr530527">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Sacr540217">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1955, it joined forces with a similar group in the Stockton area, the Delta-Sierra Educational Television Corporation, after previously forming a joint study committee with the Stockton group.<ref name="Sacr541111">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Sacr550114">Template:Cite news</ref> The combined group, Central California Educational Television (CCET), had board members from Ceres in the south to Chico in the north and represented a total of 20 counties.<ref name="Sacr550127">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Sacr550316">Template:Cite news</ref> Both groups continued to also exist separately.<ref name="Sacr561121">Template:Cite news</ref>
In October 1957, CCET approved a fundraising project to raise necessary money for staffing.<ref name="Sacr571031">Template:Cite news</ref> The fund drive needed to raise money from the community to support matching funds from the Fund for Adult Education;<ref name="Sacr580201">Template:Cite news</ref> John C. Crabbe, one of KVIE's founders, traveled the region and gave 92 speeches in 90 days.Template:R This drive raised $205,000, enough to qualify for the matching funds.<ref name="Sacr580401">Template:Cite news</ref> In April, KOVR extended an offer to the station, which was accepted, to use facilities it had acquired when it purchased the assets of UHF station KCCC-TV the year prior on Garden Highway; KOVR would also carry demonstration programs to present educational television to the area until the station launched.<ref name="Sacr580522">Template:Cite news</ref>
The FCC granted CCET a construction permit on July 30, 1958.<ref name="Sacr580731">Template:Cite news</ref> The consortium invited proposals for call signs,<ref name="Sacr580815">Template:Cite news</ref> selecting KVIE (for "Valley Information and Education" as well as containing VI, the Roman numeral for 6).<ref name="Sacr580821">Template:Cite news</ref> The pilot programs on KOVR ended in December 1958 in preparation for the launch of channel 6.<ref name="Sacr581213">Template:Cite news</ref>
Early yearsEdit
KVIE began broadcasting on February 23, 1959, with evening educational programming.<ref name="Sacr590223">Template:Cite news</ref> The first educational programs for schools were broadcast at the end of March.<ref name="Sacr590401">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1964, KIXE-TV began broadcasting to the Northstate; KVIE programs were received by microwave at Chico State College, local programs and identifications were added, and the result was transmitted to the region.<ref name="Chic640718">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Chic641017">Template:Cite news</ref> Founding manager and director John C. Crabbe resigned in 1968 at the request of the board of directors over budgetary issues;<ref name="Sacr680803">Template:Cite news</ref> this was later rescinded, and he resigned the next year instead. While bickering with the consortium of schools using its instructional programming and financial issues confronted KVIE at this time, 1970 also saw the station move its transmitter to Walnut Grove, giving its broadcasts parity with the market's three VHF commercial stations.<ref name="Sacr700329">Template:Cite news</ref> Previously, limited power and the orientation of many Sacramento-area TV antennas away from KVIE's transmitter near Placerville and toward Walnut Grove hindered reception.<ref name="Sacr700921">Template:Cite news</ref>
KVIE steadily increased its local programming. Most of its early efforts centered around activities at the state capitol. The station televised the full 14-hour death penalty hearing for Caryl Chessman, a man who was convicted for a series of crimes in the late 1940s, and also aired governors' press conferences and legislative hearings at a time when longform coverage of such events was rare on television.<ref name="Sacr840222">Template:Cite news</ref>
The 1970s were turbulent times for station leadership. Art Paul succeeded Crabbe in 1970, and while he was successful at managing KVIE's finances—an issue in Crabbe's last years—station board members desired to increase local programming, and there were objections to several decisions and use of station funds.<ref name="vf">Template:Cite AV media</ref>Template:Rp<ref name="Sacr780918">Template:Cite news</ref> The board of directors recommended not rehiring Paul when his contract expired.<ref name="Sacr780727">Template:Cite news</ref> Instructional programs also went by the wayside in 1978 as a result of Proposition 13, which capped and reduced property taxes and severely restricted new tax increases; schools could no longer afford the programs as a result of declining tax receipts.<ref name="Sacr780616">Template:Cite news</ref>
Under John Hershberger, general manager from 1979 to 1994, KVIE renewed its emphasis on local program production, which had been a sore point under Paul.<ref name="Sacr800810">Template:Cite news</ref> KVIE supporter organization Friends of Six, in a unique attempt to help raise funds for the station, opened At Six, a restaurant in the Sierra 2 performing arts center.<ref name="Sacr830619">Template:Cite news</ref> The cafe lasted a year, beset by management turnover and poor advertising, and its closure left the station out $35,000 in money it gave for setup costs.<ref name="Sacr840721">Template:Cite news</ref>
A new building and digitalizationEdit
The Garden Highway building, which had been constructed by KCCC-TV in stages in the early 1950s, was no longer adequate for KVIE after several decades of use and decay. In 1984, the station conducted studies to identify a site for a new station facility.Template:R KVIE had to lease other office space, and during the winter, portable toilets were necessary because the plumbing did not always work.Template:R Fundraising efforts began in 1985; at the same time, it was announced that KVIE would move to a new tower being erected by KTXL (channel 40) in Walnut Grove.<ref name="Sacr850529">Template:Cite news</ref> Ground was broken on the present Natomas studios in 1988,<ref name="Sacr881105">Template:Cite news</ref> and the station moved in in January 1990.<ref name="Sacr901025">Template:Cite news</ref> In Hershberger's final years, the station made three controversial rounds of layoffs, totaling 31 positions, in response to a soft economy, but KVIE's finances improved despite the recession.<ref name="Sacr940806">Template:Cite news</ref>
After three years during which KVIE was led by former CBS News executive Van Gordon Sauter, who launched several new TV programs including California Heartland and Central Valley Chronicles,<ref name="Sacr950323">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Sacr980108">Template:Cite news</ref> David Hosley's nine-year tenure as general manager was dominated by the construction of digital transmission facilities and the upgrading of the physical plant.<ref name="Sacr980219">Template:Cite news</ref> Early in his tenure, in July 1999, KVIE managed the highest prime time rating of any public television station in the United States, surpassing KQED in San Francisco, which had attracted the most viewers for seven consecutive years.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
David Lowe became KVIE's general manager in 2008; at the nadir of the Great Recession, membership fell to 40,000 but had increased to 50,000 by 2018. That year, the station and Lowe received a "Pillar of Public Service" award from America's Public Television Stations for testing datacasting of earthquake early warning alerts to businesses and public agencies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Local programmingEdit
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In addition to PBS programming, KVIE produces in-house programs for distribution locally, regionally and nationwide. Having the widest distribution is America's Heartland, a program covering agriculture issues nationally that debuted in 2005; this replaced the similarly themed California Heartland, which aired for nine seasons.<ref name="Sacr050613">Template:Cite news</ref>
As the public television station in the state capital, KVIE has also historically produced public affairs programs of statewide interest. Until its cancellation in the early 1980s, the statewide political roundtable California Week in Review originated at the station.<ref name="LosA840331">Template:Cite news</ref> From 2002 to 2007, it was one of four co-producers of the statewide newsmagazine California Connected.<ref name="LosA020424">Template:Cite news</ref> More recently, Inside California Education, aired statewide, profiles issues facing the state's education system.Template:R
KVIE's local programs include Viewfinder, a documentary series; KVIE Arts Showcase, an arts magazine; Rob on the Road, a series of regional travel profiles; and Studio Sacramento, covering public affairs issues in the region.Template:R
FundingEdit
In fiscal year 2021, KVIE raised $16.75 million in revenue, nearly half of the total coming from membership contributions. Funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting account for 11 percent of revenue.<ref name="lcsr">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Technical informationEdit
SubchannelsEdit
The station's signal is multiplexed:
| CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KVIE-HD | PBS | |
| 6.2 | KVIE2 | Reairs of PBS shows | |||
| 6.3 | 480i | KVIEWLD | World | ||
| 6.4 | KVIEKID | PBS Kids |
Analog-to-digital conversionEdit
KVIE ended regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 53, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to VHF channel 9, using virtual channel 6.<ref name="Analog to Digital">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
As part of the SAFER Act, KVIE kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.<ref name="FCC Nightlight">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>