KPTS, channel 8, is 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 serving the Wichita, Kansas

Wichita, Kansas

Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

 area. It is operated by the Kansas Public Telecommunications Service, a non-profit non-commercial educational

Non-commercial educational

The term non-commercial educational applies to a radio station or TV station that does not accept on air advertisements , as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission . NCE stations do not pay broadcast license fees for their non-profit uses of the radio spectrum...

 organization. KPTS's city of license is Hutchinson, Kansas

Hutchinson, Kansas

Hutchinson is the largest city in and the county seat of Reno County, Kansas, United States, northwest of Wichita, on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887, thus its nickname of "Salt City", but locals call it "Hutch"...

. The station broadcasts on channel 8 in standard definition and on digital cable channel 2008 in high definition

High-definition television

High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

 on Cox Communications

Cox Communications

Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...

 in the Wichita area.

KPTS-DT

KPTS-DT broadcasts on digital channel 8.

Channel	Video	Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...	Programming
8.1	720p 720p 720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...	16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...	Main KPTS programming / PBS
8.2	480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...	4:3	KPTS Explore
8.3	480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...	4:3	Create

KPTS-DT2, which rebroadcasts KPTS' locally-produced and PBS network programming, broadcasts on digital channel 671; while KPTS-DT3, which broadcasts programming from the Create network, broadcasts on digital channel 670 on Cox Communications.

Analog-to-digital conversion

The station signed on its digital signal on channel 8 at 10 a.m. February 16, 2008. On January 5, 2009, KPTS turned off its analog signal; a month later on February 18, 2009, KPTS abandoned its pre-transition digital channel assignment of channel 29, and moved its digital channel assignment to its former VHF analog channel 8.

History

In June 1965, the Garvey Foundation purchased a transmitter site in Hutchinson, with the intent to start an educational station. Shortly thereafter on July 21, 1965, the Sunflower Educational Television Corporation was chartered to start a public television station for the Wichita market. A year later, the SETC's board of trustees filed for a construction permit with the Federal Communications Commission

Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

for a non-commercial educational license on VHF channel 8.

KPTS officially signed on the air for the first time on January 5, 1970. In 1978, Sunflower Educational Television Corporation became the Kansas Public Telecommunications Service, Inc.; in 1980, the station moved to its current studios at 320 West 21st Street North.

External links

• Station website