KEDT
Encyclopedia
KEDT is a full-service Public television station in Corpus Christi, Texas
, broadcasting locally in digital
on UHF channel 23 as a Public Broadcasting Service
(PBS) member station. Founded in 1972, the station is owned by South Texas Public Broadcasting System.
, to bring the benefits of public television to south Texas. Butt, part of the family that founded the H-E-B
supermarket chain, joined with Don Weber, another local businessman with similar vision, and the two approached the Corpus Christi business community with a proposal to start a local PBS television station. Others became interested, and soon formed a Board of Directors.
The station had humble beginnings. Its original equipment was a donation from KVVV-TV
of Galveston
, an independent station that had ceased operations in 1969. The original transmitter location was on a site donated by a local rancher. The original broadcast facilities were in an abandoned school building in town, and the original programming was provided by San Antonio
PBS station KLRN
via telephone cables. Overcoming all of the challenges, KEDT signed on the air on October 16, 1972. The station moved into its current facilities the following year.
KEDT was well-received in the community, and with a strong energy-based local economy and the philanthropy that accompanies strong economies, the station prospered. In 1980, South Texas Public Broadcasting System, the station's owner, applied for a low-power repeater station for Victoria
that would have expanded KEDT's reach in South Texas. In addition, KEDT began to produce its own programming, supplementing PBS fare.
The good times were not to last, as a community that is heavily dependent on one industry is subject to its fortunes and misfortunes. Corpus Christi was no exception, and the prosperity that enriched KEDT in the late 1970s and early 1980s quickly disappeared with the hard times in the energy industry in the mid- to late-1980s. Corporate and personal donations to the station all but vanished, and the locally-produced programming, while critically acclaimed and in wide demand, did not generate enough revenue to meet the station's needs. Plans for a television station in Victoria were scrapped in late 1984. By the end of the 1980s, KEDT was deeply in debt.
Sound financial management helped the station to recover in the 1990s, including debt restructuring, aggressive cost-cutting, and revenue enhancement. KEDT outsourced many of its non-essential functions and began changing its programming to further serve the needs of the community. One such change was the addition of distance learning in conjunction with local educational establishments.
The advent of the new century brought new opportunities and challenges to KEDT. Digital television (DTV) has brought new financial burdens to the station, but at the same time is bringing new benefits. As of 2003, the station was still using some of its original equipment and transmitter from 1972, so DTV presented an opportunity to modernize. In addition, DTV has allowed the station to air even more programming to serve the community, giving more opportunity to generate needed revenue.
ming until 5:00 AM, followed by additional children's programming. The weekends also consist mostly of network fare.
KEDT produced several original programs for broadcast nationally on PBS. Of note is Lone Star, an eight-part series on the history of Texas, produced in honor of the Texas Sesquicentennial in 1986. It was hosted by Larry Hagman
and continues to be requested by Texas schools for use in supplementing their Texas history courses. Another notable production was John Henry Faulk: The Man Who Beat the Blacklist, hosted by Bill Moyers
and Studs Terkel
. The documentary detailed the effects of McCarthyism
on John Henry Faulk
, a Texas radio broadcaster, and on the nation as a whole. Justice for My People: The Dr. Hector P. Garcia Story focused on Dr. Hector P. Garcia
, a Mexican-born medical doctor from Corpus Christi, who was cherished by many thousands with whom he had contact. Other local programs included Liz Carpenter and the Good Old Boys and USS Lexington
: Always Ready!, the latter a documentary about the World War II
aircraft carrier
that compiled the longest service record in the history of the United States Navy
.
MH 53 Sea Dragon
helicopter
crashed into KEDT's tower, killing three sailors, damaging the top 75 feet of the 1000-foot tower, including the beacon light and the antenna, and knocking the station off the air. KEDT resumed broadcasting the next day from auxiliary facilities at reduced power.
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
, broadcasting locally in digital
ATSC
ATSC standards are a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks....
on UHF channel 23 as a Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
(PBS) member station. Founded in 1972, the station is owned by South Texas Public Broadcasting System.
History
KEDT began as a vision by a local businessman, Charles ButtCharles Butt
Charles Butt is an American grocer who took over his family's San Antonio-based H-E-B supermarket chain in 1971. The privately held company now has more than 300 stores and $12 billion in sales, according to Forbes magazine.-Biography:...
, to bring the benefits of public television to south Texas. Butt, part of the family that founded the H-E-B
H-E-B
HEB Grocery Company, LP is a privately held San Antonio, Texas-based supermarket chain with more than 315 stores throughout Texas and northern Mexico. The company also operates Central Market, an upscale organic and fine foods retailer.H-E-B ranked No...
supermarket chain, joined with Don Weber, another local businessman with similar vision, and the two approached the Corpus Christi business community with a proposal to start a local PBS television station. Others became interested, and soon formed a Board of Directors.
The station had humble beginnings. Its original equipment was a donation from KVVV-TV
KVVV-TV
KVVV-TV channel 16 was an Independent television station for the Houston area. KVVV was officially licensed to Galveston, Texas, but physically located at 1400 Lundy Lane in Friendswood, at FM 528, 4 miles north of Alvin....
of Galveston
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
, an independent station that had ceased operations in 1969. The original transmitter location was on a site donated by a local rancher. The original broadcast facilities were in an abandoned school building in town, and the original programming was provided by San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
PBS station KLRN
KLRN
KLRN is a public television station in San Antonio, Texas, broadcasting locally on VHF channel 9 as a Public Broadcasting Service member station...
via telephone cables. Overcoming all of the challenges, KEDT signed on the air on October 16, 1972. The station moved into its current facilities the following year.
KEDT was well-received in the community, and with a strong energy-based local economy and the philanthropy that accompanies strong economies, the station prospered. In 1980, South Texas Public Broadcasting System, the station's owner, applied for a low-power repeater station for Victoria
Victoria, Texas
Victoria is a city in and the seat of Victoria County, Texas, United States. The population was 60,603 at the 2000 census. The three counties of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 111,163 at the 2000 census,...
that would have expanded KEDT's reach in South Texas. In addition, KEDT began to produce its own programming, supplementing PBS fare.
The good times were not to last, as a community that is heavily dependent on one industry is subject to its fortunes and misfortunes. Corpus Christi was no exception, and the prosperity that enriched KEDT in the late 1970s and early 1980s quickly disappeared with the hard times in the energy industry in the mid- to late-1980s. Corporate and personal donations to the station all but vanished, and the locally-produced programming, while critically acclaimed and in wide demand, did not generate enough revenue to meet the station's needs. Plans for a television station in Victoria were scrapped in late 1984. By the end of the 1980s, KEDT was deeply in debt.
Sound financial management helped the station to recover in the 1990s, including debt restructuring, aggressive cost-cutting, and revenue enhancement. KEDT outsourced many of its non-essential functions and began changing its programming to further serve the needs of the community. One such change was the addition of distance learning in conjunction with local educational establishments.
The advent of the new century brought new opportunities and challenges to KEDT. Digital television (DTV) has brought new financial burdens to the station, but at the same time is bringing new benefits. As of 2003, the station was still using some of its original equipment and transmitter from 1972, so DTV presented an opportunity to modernize. In addition, DTV has allowed the station to air even more programming to serve the community, giving more opportunity to generate needed revenue.
Digital television
KEDT-DT was granted an original construction permit on August 20, 2001, to transmit on UHF channel 23. As with many other DTV facilities, KEDT-DT has not been able to build the facilities as quickly as planned, and the station has had to request several extensions of the construction permit. On April 30, 2003, the station was granted Special Temporary Authority (STA) to broadcast at reduced power to conserve financial resources. The STA has been extended several times, and the station has requested to make its temporary operations permanent, as its DTV signal coverage matches its analog signal coverage, and compares favorably with the DTV signal coverage of a local commercial television station that has already maximized its DTV signal.Programming
KEDT carries programming typical of PBS member stations. On weekdays from 7:00 AM - 9:30 AM, KEDT airs children's programming, followed by educational programming suitable for use in schools from 9:30 AM - 3:00 PM. Another block of children's programming fills the late afternoon hours from 3:00 PM - 5:30 PM, followed by adult PBS programming through the evening. During the overnight hours, KEDT airs classes from Del Mar College two nights a week from 1:00 AM - 5:30 AM, and for the rest of the week, airs more television programTelevision program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
ming until 5:00 AM, followed by additional children's programming. The weekends also consist mostly of network fare.
KEDT produced several original programs for broadcast nationally on PBS. Of note is Lone Star, an eight-part series on the history of Texas, produced in honor of the Texas Sesquicentennial in 1986. It was hosted by Larry Hagman
Larry Hagman
Larry Martin Hagman is an American film and television actor, producer and director known for playing J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early life and career:Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas...
and continues to be requested by Texas schools for use in supplementing their Texas history courses. Another notable production was John Henry Faulk: The Man Who Beat the Blacklist, hosted by Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...
and Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
. The documentary detailed the effects of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
on John Henry Faulk
John Henry Faulk
John Henry Faulk from Austin, Texas was a storyteller and radio show host. His successful lawsuit against blacklisters of the entertainment industry helped to bring an end to the Hollywood blacklist.-Early life:...
, a Texas radio broadcaster, and on the nation as a whole. Justice for My People: The Dr. Hector P. Garcia Story focused on Dr. Hector P. Garcia
Hector P. Garcia
Hector Perez Garcia was a Mexican-American physician, surgeon, World War II veteran, civil rights advocate, and founder of the American G.I. Forum. As a result of the national prominence he earned through his work on behalf of Hispanic Americans, he was instrumental in the appointment of Mexican...
, a Mexican-born medical doctor from Corpus Christi, who was cherished by many thousands with whom he had contact. Other local programs included Liz Carpenter and the Good Old Boys and USS Lexington
USS Lexington (CV-16)
USS Lexington , known as "The Blue Ghost", is one of 24 s built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship, the fifth US Navy ship to bear the name, is named in honor of the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington...
: Always Ready!, the latter a documentary about the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
that compiled the longest service record in the history of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
.
Challenge!
The second most watched show on KEDT is the locally-produced quiz bowl program Challenge!, where teams from local high schools compete in an academic quiz show hosted by Eric Boyd. 24 high schools begin in the competition in a single elimination tournament until there is only one team remaining. There is also an "All Star" Challenge! game, in which no more than one player from each team is selected to compete in a special one hour Challenge! game. Challenge! is funded by a number of local businesses and universities, and the top two teams and all competitors in the All-Star game receive scholarship money. The show has completed its sixth season and has announced a seventh.Helicopter crash
On January 16, 2008, a US NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
MH 53 Sea Dragon
CH-53E Super Stallion
The Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion is the largest and heaviest helicopter in the United States military. It was developed from the CH-53 Sea Stallion, mainly by adding a third engine, a seventh blade to the main rotor and canting the tail rotor 20 degrees. Sailors commonly refer to the Super...
helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
crashed into KEDT's tower, killing three sailors, damaging the top 75 feet of the 1000-foot tower, including the beacon light and the antenna, and knocking the station off the air. KEDT resumed broadcasting the next day from auxiliary facilities at reduced power.