KOPB-TV is a public television station serving the Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 television market. It is owned and operated by Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon Public Broadcasting is the primary television and radio public broadcasting network for most of Oregon as well as southern Washington. With its headquarters and television studios in Portland, OPB consists of five full-power television stations, dozens of VHF or UHF translators, and over...

. It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 10.

KOPB originally signed on the air as KOAP-TV, a satellite of KOAC-TV in Corvallis, Oregon

Corvallis, Oregon

Corvallis is a city located in central western Oregon, United States. It is the county seat of Benton County and the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 54,462....

. The call letters stood for KOAC Portland. KOAP was first housed at the campus of Portland State University

Portland State University

Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...

, with the transmitter being located on Council Crest

Council Crest Park

Council Crest Park is a city park in southwest Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Amenities include paved and unpaved paths, a dog off-leash area, picnic tables, public art, a vista point, and a wedding site that can be reserved. The park, operated by Portland Parks & Recreation, is open...

. KOAP was a member of NET, or National Educational Television

National Educational Television

National Educational Television was an American non-commercial educational public television network in the United States from May 16, 1954 to October 4, 1970...

, carrying its programs. On April 30, 1962 KOAP's FM sister service (KOAP-FM) signed on the air. By 1966, most local programs originated at KOAP-TV.

Originally konwn on-air as OEB, (Oregon Educational Broadcasting), changing their name in early 1972 to OEPBS (Oregon Educational & Public Broadcasting Service). The network was spun off from the state board of education in October 1981 and renamed Oregon Public Broadcasting. AT the same time, the network moved to Portland, and KOAP-FM-TV became the flagship stations. On February 15, 1989 KOAP FM-TV changed their call letters to KOPB FM-TV.

OPB was a pioneer in HDTV. As early as March 5, 1997 OPB's experimental HDTV station transmitted a random-bit data stream. On September 15, 1997 OPB Portland was assigned the experimental call letters KAXC for channel 35. Then on October 11, 1997 at 4:37 P.M. KAXC became the first TV station in Oregon and one of the first on the west coast to transmit an HDTV picture. After experimentation ended, channel 35 was vacated. On December 7, 2001 KOPB-DT began operation on channel 27.

Analog-to-digital conversion

At the analog television shutdown

DTV transition in the United States

The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...

on June 12, 2009 , KOPB-TV returned to channel 10.

External links

• Oregon Public Broadcasting: Homepage
• PBS Homepage
• KOPB Engineering site About broadcast facilities of KOPB
• KOPB Tower About broadcast facilities of KOPB