Kentucky Educational Television

The Kentucky Educational Television network is Kentucky's statewide public television network. It delivers the PBS national schedule plus a wide range of local programming, adult education and college credit courses. The network, headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, is operated by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television. It is the largest PBS network in the nation, operating all of the PBS affiliates licensed to Kentucky except WKYU-TV in Bowling Green

Related Topics:
Kentucky - PBS - Lexington, Kentucky - WKYU-TV - Bowling Green

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KET was the brainchild of O. Leonard Press, a public relations employee at the University of Kentucky. In the mid-1950s, he taped a popular anthropology course, and the response was enough for him and two of his colleagues to consider founding an educational television station at UK. When they couldn't get the money, they decided to try for a statewide educational television network.

Related Topics:
Public relations - University of Kentucky

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The idea gained little momentum until 1959, when Press addressed the local Rotary Club in the state capital, Frankfort, and a story about it appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal. After landing support from UK officials, what was supposed to be a short meeting with Governor Bert T. Combs turned into a proposal to start the network. The Kentucky Authority for Educational Television was created in 1962, with Press as executive director (a position he held until 1991). However, the project made little progress until 1965, when a donation from Ashland Oil founder Paul Blazer allowed the authority to acquire its first 13 transmitters. KET finally took to the air in September 1968.

Related Topics:
1959 - Rotary Club - Frankfort - ''Louisville Courier-Journal'' - Governor - Bert T. Combs - 1962 - 1991 - 1965 - Ashland Oil - September - 1968

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KET is best known for its video courses in basic skills and workplace education. It also began expanding its programming well before the digital television era, when its acquisition of Louisville PBS station WKPC-TV allowed it to start a second service on the Louisville station it already owned.

Related Topics:
Digital television - Louisville

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