Nebraska Public Media
Nebraska Public Media, formerly Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET), is a state network of public radio and television stations in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is operated by the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission (NETC). The television stations are all members of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), while the radio stations are members of National Public Radio (NPR).
"KYNE" redirects here. For other uses, see Kyne (disambiguation).
- statewide Nebraska
- United States
- statewide Nebraska
- United States
KUON: The University of Nebraska
Others: Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission
November 1, 1954 (television)
October 10, 1989 (radio)
1965 (Statewide network launch)
NET
Television:
NET (1954–1970)
all stations, except University of Nebraska as Lincoln affiliate:
2nd letter: see table below
Nebraska
The network is headquartered in the Terry M. Carpenter & Jack G. McBride Nebraska Public Media Center which is located at 1800 North 33rd Street on the East campus of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, and has a satellite studio in Omaha.
History[edit]
Television[edit]
Nebraska was one of the first states in the nation to begin the groundwork for educational broadcasting. The University of Nebraska successfully applied to have channel 18 in Lincoln allocated for educational use in 1951.
Meanwhile, broadcasting pioneer John Fetzer purchased Lincoln's two commercial TV stations, KOLN-TV (channel 12) in August 1953 and KFOR-TV (channel 10) in February 1954. In order to avoid running afoul of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership regulations and to create a commercial broadcast monopoly for himself in the Lincoln market,[1] Fetzer moved KOLN from its sign-on channel 12 to KFOR's channel 10 and offered to donate the channel 12 license to UNL.[2] Since this would allow UNL to use more signal at less cost, the school quickly jumped at this proposal. KUON-TV went on the air on November 1, 1954, from KOLN-TV's studios, where the stations had to take turns using studio space; when KOLN was live, KUON had to broadcast a film, and vice versa.[2] The station joined the nascent National Educational Television network (which had begun operations in May) upon its sign-on. It was operated in trust for UNL until 1956, when the FCC granted the channel 12 license to the school's Board of Regents. In 1957, KUON moved to its own studios in the Temple Building on the UNL campus.[2] In 1960, the Nebraska Council for Educational Television was created by six school districts in Nebraska. By 1961, five VHF and three UHF channels were allocated for educational use in Nebraska—the largest set ever approved for educational use in a single state. In 1963, the state legislature, per a committee's recommendation, approved plans for a statewide educational television network under the control of the Nebraska Educational Television Commission. A deal was quickly reached in which Lincoln's KUON-TV would remain under UNL's ownership, but serve as the new state network's flagship.
In 1965, KLNE-TV in Lexington became the first station in the new state network, followed a month later (October 1965) by KYNE-TV at channel 26 in Omaha.[3] The state network grew quickly; six stations signed on from 1966 to 1968 to complete the state network. It began a full seven-day schedule in 1969. The Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Center opened in 1972; it is named for Carpenter, a state senator who introduced legislation in 1969 to fund the center, and McBride, NET's founding general manager and leader for 43 years.[2] (The KLNE-TV and KLNE-FM transmission tower (40°23′05″N 99°27′32″W / 40.3848101°N 99.4588698°W) is on the site of the World War II prisoner-of-war camp, Camp Atlanta, near Holdrege, Nebraska.) National Educational Television would be absorbed into the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in October 1970, and KUON-TV joined the new network.
In 1974, Nebraska ETV adopted a new logo – a red stylized abstract "N" formed from two trapezoids. A year later, NBC unveiled the same logo that Nebraska ETV was using, but for the blue coloring of the right trapezoid in the NBC logo. The commission sued NBC for trademark infringement in February 1976, a suit which generated national attention. In an out-of-court settlement, Nebraska ETV agreed to allow NBC to keep its logo. In return, NBC donated a color mobile unit and other equipment totaling over $800,000. It also paid the commission an additional $55,000 for the costs of rolling out a new logo and eliminating the old logo from all advertising; Nebraska ETV's new logo was unveiled in late 1976.[4][5]
A CPB study, Study of School Use of Television and Video, found Reading Rainbow (a co-production of NET and Buffalo, New York's WNED-TV until 2006) to be the most used and viewed children's television program in America during the 1990–1991 school year.
Since 1974, NET has operated a studio in Omaha, on the campus of the University of Nebraska–Omaha. It is primarily used when KYNE breaks off from the state network to broadcast programming of specific interest to the Omaha market.
In January 2005, Nebraska ETV and Nebraska Public Radio were united under a single name, Nebraska Educational Telecommunications.
Digital television[edit]
Subchannels[edit]
The signals of Nebraska Public Media's television stations are multiplexed:
Although Nebraska Public Media provides PBS programming, it also produces original programs, such as: