KQEH


KQEH, virtual channel 54, branded on-air as KQED Plus, is a Public Broadcasting Service member television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by Northern California Public Broadcasting, through subsidiary KQED, Inc., alongside fellow PBS station KQED in San Francisco, its satellite KQET in Watsonville and National Public Radio member KQED-FM. The three stations share studios on Mariposa Street in San Francisco's Mission District and transmitter facilities atop Sutro Tower; until January 17, 2018, KQEH's transmitter was located atop Monument Peak. On cable, the station is available on channel 10 on most providers in the market.

History

The station first signed on the air on October 19, 1964, as KTEH. In the late 1990s, KTEH bought KCAH in Watsonville, which was founded in 1989 to serve as the PBS station for the Monterey/Salinas/Santa Cruz market. Before being acquired by KQED, KTEH maintained a Technical Volunteer program, which allowed volunteers to learn how to operate cameras, audio, shading, directing and other production and technical responsibilities, while minimizing its costs. These volunteers made up the technical crews for all of their pledge drives and auction programming, as well as other occasional live broadcasts.
In 2006, KQED and the KTEH Foundation agreed to merge to form Northern California Public Broadcasting, a name that was changed back to KQED, Inc. in 2011. As a result of the merger, KCAH changed its call letters to KQET on August 12, 2007. Subsequently, on October 1, 2007, KQET, which became a satellite of KTEH following its acquisition of the station, switched programming sources from KTEH to KQED. KQEH's programming is carried on the second digital subchannel of KQET.
In December 2010, the Board of Directors of Northern California Public Broadcasting changed the organization's name to KQED Inc. The station changed its call letters to KQEH and rebranded as "KQED Plus" on July 1, 2011, after research found that most viewers were unaware that KTEH was related to KQED; other aspects of the station's operation, including programming and staff, were not affected by this change.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
54.11080iKQED+HDMain KQEH programming / PBS
54.21080iKQED-HDSimulcast of KQED
54.3480iWORLDKQED World
54.4480iKIDSKQED Kids

Analog-to-digital conversion

KQEH shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 54, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 50, using PSIP to display KQEH's virtual channel as 54 on digital television receivers, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition. On January 17, 2018, the DTV transmitter for KQEH was turned off, and KQEH programming was shifted to virtual channels broadcast by KQED from Sutro Tower.

KQEH-DT3

KQED Life launched on August 1, 2003 on KQED 9. After the merge of KQED and KTEH into Northern California Public Broadcasting, Life moved to 54.3 from channel 9.6. On July 1, 2011, KTEH renamed to KQEH and the word, "KQED" was brought back. On December 15, 2017, KQED Life went permanently off the air and the World Channel was moved from 54.5 to 54.3 by KQEH frequencies moving to Sutro Tower.

KQEH-DT4

KQED Kids launched on August 1, 2003 on KQED 9. After the merge of KQED and KTEH into Northern California Public Broadcasting, Kids moved to 54.4 from channel 9.5. On July 1, 2011, KTEH renamed to KQEH and the word, "KQED" was brought back. On January 16, 2017, KQED Kids was replaced to the 24/7 PBS Kids Channel.

KQEH-DT5

formerly carried on 54.5 on January 16, 2017 by the launch of the PBS Kids 24/7 that replaced KQED Kids local kids station and replaced to KQED World on 54.5.

Programming

In April 1981, KTEH started showing the British science-fantasy show Doctor Who, which ran on the station until January 2003. On April 10, 2007, Doctor Who returned to the station with the airing of the program's 2005 revival. KTEH has also aired another British sci-fi show, Red Dwarf. In 1998, KTEH aired the entire eighth series of Red Dwarf in one night. In doing so, many episodes were shown on KTEH before their broadcast on British television.
KTEH also has a long history of close ties to the anime fandom. From the early 1990s on until the merger with KQED, Sunday night viewers were treated to a selection of anime found nowhere else on TV at the time. KTEH was notable as the network which saw the broadcast premiere of Neon Genesis Evangelion in America, as well as Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and Tenchi Universe TV series. These shows were later shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block. Other anime that have aired on KTEH include, but were not limited to, Bubblegum Crisis, Key the Metal Idol, subtitled versions of Dirty Pair Flash, All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Urusei Yatsura, Sakura Wars and Corrector Yui, and dubbed versions of Serial Experiments Lain, City Hunter, Please Save My Earth, Ranma ½, Sailor Moon, Full Metal Panic!, Magic Knight Rayearth, Martian Successor Nadesico, Betterman, Robotech, Mobile Suit Gundam, Cardcaptor Sakura, Astro Boy, Gatchaman, and Samurai Pizza Cats.
Karen Roberts was the person responsible for acquiring the programming for both British television series and Japanese anime.

Local productions

KTEH has produced many television programs over the years, some of which have been nationally broadcast. Its current production schedule includes:
KTEH was the production company for several other productions:

Station slogans