KACV-TV

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KACV-TV
kW
HAAT398 m (1,306 ft)
Transmitter coordinates35°22′29.7″N 101°52′57.3″W / 35.374917°N 101.882583°W / 35.374917; -101.882583
Translator(s)see § Translators
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.panhandlepbs.org

KACV-TV (channel 2), branded on-air as Panhandle PBS, is a PBS member television station in Amarillo, Texas, United States. It is owned by Amarillo College alongside student-operated radio station KACV-FM (89.9). The two outlets share studios at the Gilvin Broadcast Center on Amarillo College's Washington Street campus (near the intersection of West 24th Avenue and South Jackson Streets[2]); KACV-TV's transmitter is located west of US 87–287 in unincorporated Potter County.

History

Previous KACV-TV logo, used from 1999 to 2008.

In 1955, the Amarillo Junior College District began producing televised

educational access cable channel
on channel 2 on most Amarillo-area cable systems.

After

Texas Panhandle – which was one of the few areas of the state (and the United States, as a whole) that did not have a PBS member station of its own on a per-program basis via the Amarillo market's commercial stations, NBC affiliate KAMR-TV (channel 4), ABC affiliate KVII-TV (channel 7) or CBS affiliate KFDA-TV (channel 10). (Among them, the popular children's program Sesame Street
, which was carried locally via KVII-TV).

Viewers in the Texas Panhandle watched PBS programming via

KRMA-TV in Denver. PBS programming was also available over the air via KWET in Cheyenne, Oklahoma (a transmitter of the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority [OETA], which reaches the eastern portion of the Amarillo market), or via KENW out of Portales, New Mexico
.

The

VHF channel 2 allocation in Amarillo was contested between two groups that competed for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s approval of a construction permit to build and license to operate a new television station. Amarillo Junior College District filed the initial application on December 19, 1984.[3] The district underwent an FCC licensure tug-of-war with Family Media, Inc., another group seeking to operate a non-commercial station on channel 2. The FCC granted the Amarillo Junior College District a construction permit and license in 1986. The following year (1987), Amarillo College received a $1 million grant from the United States Department of Commerce
to purchase broadcast equipment; the college concurrently raised about $550,000 in funds from the public and local private contributions, enabling the expansion of its studio facilities.

The station first signed on the air on August 29, 1988. It was the first public television station in the Texas Panhandle, making Amarillo one of the last major media markets in Texas to get its own PBS station. Despite the station's presence, cable providers in portions of the Panhandle continue to carry PBS programming via the OETA—which, in addition to its Cheyenne transmitter, also maintains three

Oklahoma Panhandle
—instead of KACV in some areas of the eastern Texas Panhandle.

On September 3, 2013, in commemoration of the station's 25th anniversary of broadcasting, KACV changed its branding to "Panhandle PBS" (removing references to its over-the-air virtual channel).[4][5]

Programming

As a PBS member station, much of KACV-TV's programming consists of educational, children's and entertainment programming distributed by PBS to its member stations as well as content from

documentaries and general interest programming. While there is some cross-promotion between KACV-TV and KACV-FM, the two properties conduct fundraising campaigns independent of one another. The station has also produced some local programming including artZONE, and the documentaries A Conversation with Ken Burns
and Braggin' Rights: The Coors Cowboy Club Ranch Rodeo.

KACV's weekday lineup is mostly filled by children's programs from PBS and American Public Television (such as Arthur, Curious George, Wild Kratts, Odd Squad and Sesame Street) from 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Programs provided by PBS are primarily shown on most nights in prime time except for Saturdays, which instead features a mix of music, documentary and British drama content from American Public Television. Weekends feature additional children's programming in the morning (from 5 to 8:30 a.m. on Saturdays and from 5 a.m. to noon on Sundays), with the remainder of the schedule outside of prime time consisting of travel, cooking and how-to series on Saturdays, and art instruction, British sitcoms, encores of PBS prime time shows and some local programs.

From the station's sign-on until January 2009, the station's broadcast transmitter was typically

off-air
period.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed
:

Subchannels of KACV-TV[6]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
2.1 1080i
16:9
 KACV-HD Main KACV-TV programming / PBS
2.2 480i KACVSD1 PBS Kids 24/7
2.3 KACVSD2 Create

Analog-to-digital conversion

KACV began transmitting a digital television signal on

VHF channel 8 in 2002. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which Congress later pushed back to June 12, 2009, by resolution three weeks before all full-power stations were scheduled to transition). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 8, using virtual channel 2.[7]

Translators

In addition to maintaining cable carriage within this area, KACV-TV covers a large portion of the Texas Panhandle through a network of

UHF translators that distribute its programming beyond the 67.6-mile-wide (108.8 km) range corridor of its broadcast signal.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KACV-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "Amarillo College Campus Map - Washington Street Campus". Amarillo College. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  3. ^ "For the Record". Broadcasting. Broadcasting Publications, Inc. January 19, 1984. p. 132.
  4. ^ "KACV-TV is Celebrating 25 Years of Affiliation with PBS". KACV-TV (Press release). Amarillo College. September 3, 2013.
  5. ^ "PBS station changes name". Amarillo Globe-News. Morris Communications. November 3, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  6. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for KACV". RabbitEars. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  7. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  8. ^ "List of TV Translator Input Channels". Federal Communications Commission. July 23, 2021. Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved December 17, 2021.

External links

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