KVIE

Channel 6 was allocated for educational use in Sacramento in 1952 after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted its four-year freeze on new TV station applications in 1952.[3] The next year, the first interest was expressed in the educational channel by a consortium of school officials in 15 Northern California counties.[4][5] In 1955, it merged with a similar group in the Stockton area, the Delta-Sierra Educational Television Corporation.[6][7] The combined group, Central California Educational Television (CCET), had board members from Ceres in the south to Chico in the north and represented a total of 20 counties.[8][9]

In early 1958, a fund drive was held to secure the finances needed to put the station in service.[10] John C. Crabbe, one of KVIE's founders, traveled the region and gave 92 speeches in 90 days.[11] This drive raised $205,000, enough to qualify for matching funds.[12] In April, KOVR extended an offer to the station, which was accepted, to use facilities it had acquired when it purchased the assets of UHF station KCCC-TV the year prior on Garden Highway; KOVR would also carry demonstration programs to present educational television to the area until the station launched.[13]

The FCC granted CCET a construction permit on July 30, 1958.[14] The consortium invited proposals for call signs,[15] selecting KVIE (for "Valley Information and Education" as well as the Roman numeral for 6 and education).[1] The pilot programs on KOVR ended in December 1958 in preparation for the launch of channel 6.[16]

KVIE began broadcasting on February 23, 1959, with evening educational programming.[17] The first educational programs for schools were broadcast at the end of March.[18] In 1964, KIXE-TV began broadcasting to the North State; KVIE programs were received by microwave at Chico State College, local programs and identifications were added, and the result was transmitted to the region.[19][20] Founding manager and director John C. Crabbe resigned in 1968 at the request of the board of directors over budgetary issues;[21] this was later rescinded, and he resigned the next year instead. While bickering with the consortium of schools using its instructional programming and financial issues confronted KVIE at this time, 1970 also saw the station move its transmitter to Walnut Grove, giving its broadcasts parity with the market's three VHF commercial stations.[22] Previously, limited power and the orientation of many Sacramento-area TV antennas away from KVIE's transmitter near Placerville and toward Walnut Grove hindered reception.[23]

KVIE steadily increased its local programming. Most of its early efforts centered around activities at the state capitol. The station televised the full 14-hour death penalty hearing for Caryl Chessman and also aired governors' press conferences and legislative hearings.[11]

The 1970s were turbulent times for station leadership. Art Paul succeeded Crabbe in 1970, and while he was successful at managing KVIE's finances—an issue in Crabbe's last years—station board members desired to increase local programming, and there were objections to several decisions and use of station funds.[24]^: 12:04[25] The board of directors recommended not rehiring Paul when his contract expired.[26] Instructional programs also went by the wayside in 1978 as a result of Proposition 13; schools could no longer afford the programs.[27]

Under John Hershberger, general manager from 1979 to 1994, KVIE renewed its emphasis on local program production, which had been a sore point under Paul.[28] KVIE supporter organization Friends of Six, in a unique attempt to help raise funds for the station, opened At Six, a restaurant in the Sierra 2 performing arts center;[29] the cafe lasted a year, beset by management turnover and poor advertising, and its closure left the station out $35,000 in money it gave for setup costs.[30]

The Garden Highway building, which had been constructed by KCCC-TV in stages in the early 1950s, was no longer adequate for KVIE by 1984, when studies were conducted to identify a site for a new station facility.[11] KVIE had to lease other office space, and during the winter, portable toilets were necessary because the plumbing did not always work.[31] Fundraising efforts began in 1985; at the same time, it was announced that KVIE would move to a new tower being erected by KTXL (channel 40) in Walnut Grove.[31] Ground was broken on the present Natomas studios in 1988,[32] and the station moved in in January 1990.[33] In Hershberger's final years, the station made three controversial rounds of layoffs, totaling 31 positions, in response to a soft economy, but KVIE's finances improved despite the recession.[34]

After three years during which KVIE was led by former CBS News executive Van Gordon Sauter, who launched several new TV programs including California Heartland and Central Valley Chronicles,[35][36] David Hosley's nine-year tenure as general manager was dominated by the construction of digital transmission facilities and the upgrading of the physical plant.[37] Early in his tenure, in July 1999, KVIE managed the highest prime time rating of any public television station in the United States, surpassing KQED in San Francisco, which had attracted the most viewers for seven consecutive years.[38]

David Lowe became KVIE's general manager in 2008; at the nadir of the Great Recession, membership fell to 40,000 but had increased to 50,000 by 2018. That year, the station and Lowe received a "Pillar of Public Service" award from America's Public Television Stations for testing datacasting of earthquake early warning alerts to businesses and public agencies.[39]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

KVIE shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 53, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to VHF channel 9, using virtual channel 6.[45]