Idaho Public Television


Idaho Public Television is a Public Broadcasting Service member network serving the U.S. state of Idaho. Consisting of five television stations, it is operated and funded by the Idaho State Board of Education, an agency of the Idaho state government that holds the licenses to all PBS member stations in the state. The network is headquartered in Boise, with satellite studios at the University of Idaho in Moscow and Idaho State University in Pocatello.
Funding for Idaho Public Television comes from three major sources. 65% of funding comes from private contributions and an annual grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 31% is provided by the State of Idaho. 4% is provided by the Federal Government.

History

The network's first station, KUID-TV, signed on from the UI campus in September 1965. KBGL-TV signed on in July 1971 from ISU in Pocatello, followed that December by KAID-TV in Boise, licensed to Boise State University. After a decade, KBGL changed its call letters to KISU-TV in 1981. The three stations shared many programs, but were largely operated independently at first. However, in 1981, two KUID-produced documentaries—one about logging practices, another about lead exposure—caused such an outcry that the state legislature yanked nearly all funding for public television. Citing budget restrictions in early 1981, the state legislature cut 90% of the state funding for public television, and the stations relied on federal funding and private donations. A year later, the legislature ordered the merger of the three stations into a single network. The licenses for all three stations were transferred to the state board of education. Two other stations in Coeur d'Alene and Twin Falls were added in 1992.
In 2001, Idaho PTV began broadcasting its HD channel, KAID HD, using the default PBS HD schedule. Once the digital switchover had occurred in July 2009 and after a two-year acclimation process, the main HD channel became the home of the regular IdahoPTV schedule in August 2011, and the second standard definition channel was converted from the regular IdahoPTV schedule into a "Plus" subchannel, featuring an alternate schedule of programming.

Stations

Combined, the five stations and their extensive translator network reach almost all of Idaho, as well as parts of Washington, Montana, and Oregon. The north Idaho stations of Coeur d'Alene and Moscow are in the Pacific Time Zone, while the south Idaho stations of Boise, Twin Falls, and Pocatello are in the Mountain Time Zone.
StationCity of license1Channels
'		First air dateCall letters'
meaning		ERP
'		HAAT
'		Facility IDTransmitter coordinatesPublic license information
KAID
Boise21
4 		Ada County, IDaho
725 kW62442
KCDTCoeur d'Alene18
26 		Coeur
D'Alene
Television		54.7 kW
50 kW 		62424
KIPTTwin Falls22
13 		2Idaho
Public
Television		77.98 kW62427
KISU-TV3Pocatello17
10 		Idaho
State
University		189 kW62430
KUID-TVMoscow12 4
12 		University of IDaho78 kW62382

Notes:

Digital subchannels

The digital signals of IdahoPTV's stations are multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
xx.11080iIDPTVHDMain PBS programming
xx.2480iPLUSIdahoPTV PLUS
xx.3480iLEARNLearn
Create
xx.4480iWORLDWorld
xx.5480iKidsPBS Kids

Plus, originally launched in high definition, carried same-day repeats of HD content packaged and distributed by PBS. In 2011 Plus switched to standard definition to differentiate its content from the primary channel, as well as to establish a place for higher-rated programs in standard definition.
Plus is a "best of" channel with nightly themes. Sunday's theme is history programming while Mondays is local content and exploration. Tuesdays' theme is science, Wednesdays, drama; Thursdays, British comedies; Fridays, natural history; and Saturdays, performance.
By investing $250,000 for new encoders and a multiplexer, Idaho Public Television plans to switch Plus back to high definition in July 2017. The new equipment will allow running two HD channels and three SD widescreen channels, one of which will be PBS Kids.

Analog-to-digital conversion

IdahoPTV's stations shut down their analog signals on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital channel allocations post-transition are as follows:
Idaho Public Television has a network of digital low power translators across Idaho:
KCDT – Coeur D' Alene, Idaho
KAID – Boise, Idaho
KIPT – Twin Falls, Idaho
KISU-TV – Pocatello, Idaho
KUID-TV – Moscow, Idaho