Foundation and early years
The Northern California Educational Television Association was formed in March 1953 to prepare an application for educational television in the far north of the state, including Butte, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity counties.[1] The association was largely inactive until 1961, after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved to assign channel 9 to Redding for commercial use. With the backing of the commercial stations in Redding and Chico (KVIP-TV and KHSL-TV), it began the process of compiling an application to use it as an educational station.[2]
Commercial interests also sought the new channel 9. The Redding-Chico Television Company was formed in April 1961 to apply for the new station,[3] It contended that a previous attempt by KVIP-TV and KHSL-TV's owners to move channel 9 to Susanville amounted to a bid to block further competition and claimed a fourth VHF channel could also be assigned,[4] though the educators believed that channel 11 could only cover Redding.[5] In the meantime, the Northern California Educational Television Association formally applied for channel 9 on June 21, 1961.[6]
The FCC rejected the channel 11 proposal in November 1961,[7] but channel 9 remained unadjudicated. When the association threatened to drop the case because it lacked money to pay lawyers in Washington, KVIP and KHSL contributed the funds, a move met with disdain by the Redding-Chico Television group.[8] The case reached comparative hearing at the FCC in January 1963,[9] but shortly after, stockholders in Redding-Chico formed Sacramento Valley Television and moved to buy KVIP-TV, dropping their channel 9 application in the process.[10]
On October 10, 1963, an FCC hearing examiner granted the construction permit, finding that the association had made an adequate showing of their financial resources.[11] The group struggled with fundraising issues and deadlines that were tighter owing to the commercial classification of the channel.[12] The station was assigned the call sign KIXE-TV, consisting of the Roman numeral IX (nine) and an E for education.[13] To get the station on the air, the association opted to cut back most of its plans for the first year and operate the new station as a satellite station of KVIE, the public television station in Sacramento, with no local programming.[14] Later, a deal was reached with Chico State College to house a temporary studio and limited local programming facilities.[15]
With the broadcast of the in-school children's program Let's Figure, KIXE-TV began on October 5, 1964.[16] Using a transmitter borrowed from channel 7 (now KRCR-TV),[17] it provided educational television to nearly 20,000 students in 22 districts in four counties.[18]
In its first year, KIXE-TV only operated during the day, and it went off the air entirely when school let out for the summer. In March 1965, it made a special evening telecast of a state senatorial debate,[19] Its next evening broadcast was a televised auction, partially simulcast by KRCR-TV and KHSL-TV and produced by the latter station, to raise funds.[20] After the auction, the station began airing regular evening programming.[21] With no video tape facilities of its own, all programming had to be produced live until the station was able to purchase units being discarded by KCET in Los Angeles. Bill Reed, the station's first general manager, hosted an interview program that he later canceled on account of its poor quality.[22]
The station moved from Chico State to facilities in Redding in 1967, first at 1304 East Street[23] and then to a converted meat locker[24] at 825 Industrial Street after a second move in 1972. This gave the station its own studio for the first time.[25] In 1971, the station obtained a new transmitter, enabling it to broadcast in color.[26]
