The KCPT transmitter tower is also NGS benchmark KE1389 KANSAS CITY TV STA KCPT MAST. See: (
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The mast is located in the center of a rise in an industrial area east of Kansas City Missouri. It is fenced off, and best viewed from the 23rd St Parkway.
KCPT began its life under the call signs KCSD, as a station owned by Kansas City MO School District. KCSD affiliated with the PBS network in 1970, when that network launched in 1970. In 2017m i has a wider mission as Kansas Public Television, bringing quality PBS officers to viewers in Kansas and Missouri.
From the KCPT website: (
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"At Kansas City PBS, a rich legacy of service has laid the foundation for a limitless future with our community. Our content platforms — television, radio, digital and education — exist to serve the diversity of our region. We advance conversations through community engagement and social media. We explore complicated issues with thoughtful reporting. We share the stories of people, places, and progress in our community. After all, public is our middle name.
VISION
A great city deserves a great public television station… one that is capable of delivering community-building television programs and services as the voice and the platform for its community.
MISSION
Kansas City Public Television educates and enriches our community with quality
programming and services that entertain, challenge minds and contribute to a life of learning.
We accomplish this by:
* Serving as a platform to address community issues.
* Producing and delivering quality local programming.
* Delivering national and international programming.
* Establishing partnerships, collaborations and strategic alliances to better serve our community.
* Increasing awareness and value of KCPT to ensure long-term financial support.
* Providing innovative educational programming and services.
* Improving our delivery methods with current and rapidly changing technologies."
And from Wikipedia: (
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"KCPT, virtual channel 19 (UHF digital channel 18), is a PBS member television station serving Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas, United States. The station is owned by Public Television 19, Inc.. KCPT maintains studio facilities (which are shared with sister adult album alternative radio station KTBG (90.9 FM)) located on East 31st Street in Kansas City, Missouri's Union Hill section (adjacent to the transmitter tower of CBS affiliate KCTV (channel 5)), and its transmitter is located near 23rd Street and Stark Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri's Blue Valley section.
On cable, the station is available on Charter Communications and SureWest channel 11, Comcast channel 4 and AT&T U-verse channel 19.
History
The station first signed on the air on March 29, 1961 as KCSD. It was founded by the Kansas City School District, and originally operated as a member station of National Educational Television; it later became a charter member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) when it launched on October 6, 1970. The school district put the station's license up for sale in 1971.
A group of civic leaders formed a nonprofit broadcasting entity called Public Television 19, Inc., and bought the license. The station changed its callsign to KCPT in January 1972. That fall, it began broadcasting PBS programs in color for the first time. In 1973, the station held its first televised auction.
In 1984, KCPT relocated its operations to facilities in the Union Hill neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, located south of downtown Kansas City, which had originally served as the broadcast facility of KCTV (channel 5) from 1955 to 1983; that station's trademark transmission tower still rises above the building. In 2002, KCPT won a National Emmy Award for Best Documentary for Be Good, Smile Pretty, a film which documents Tracy Droz Tragos' journey to find the father she lost in Vietnam.
In 2008, KCPT began broadcasting its programming in high definition. In December 2013, KCPT gained a sister radio station when Public Television 19, Inc. finalized its purchase of KTBG (90.9 FM) in Warrensburg from the University of Central Missouri for $1.1 million, plus $550,000 in "in kind" services; the transmitter for the station would also be moved 20 miles west to adequately cover most of the Kansas City area.
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[2]
19.1 720p 16:9 KCPT-1 Main KCPT programming / PBS
19.2 480i KCPT-2 PBS Encore
19.3 4:3 KCPT-3 Create
19.4 480i 16:9 KCPT-4 PBS Kids
In addition to its main channel, KCPT operates digital subchannels: KCPT2 on digital channel 19.2 offers programming from the PBS Encore service, KCPT Create on digital channel 19.3 features how-to and other instructional programming from the Create network; both subchannels launched in 2008. KCPT4 on digital channel 19.4 offers programming from PBS Kids and launched in January 2017.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KCPT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 19, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 18. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 19.
Programming
In addition to carrying PBS programs and programs syndicated for public television distribution, KCPT produces local programs such as Kansas City Week in Review, Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations, the political affairs program Ruckus, Check, Please! Kansas City and The Local Show."