Arkansas Educational Television Network
 |
|
| statewide Arkansas United States |
|
|---|---|
| Branding | AETN |
| Channels | Digital: see table below |
| Subchannels | see table below |
| Affiliations | PBS |
| Owner | Arkansas Educational Television Commission |
| First air date | December 4, 1966 |
| Former affiliations | NET (1966–1970) |
| Transmitter power | see table below |
| Height | see table below |
| Facility ID | see table below |
| Transmitter coordinates | see table below |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Educational Television Network Profile Educational Television Network CDBS |
| Website | www.aetn.org |
The Arkansas Educational Television Network (or AETN) is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. state of Arkansas. It is operated by the Arkansas Educational Television Commission, an agency of the Arkansas state government which holds the licenses for all the PBS member stations licensed in the state. The broadcast signals of the six stations that are part of the public television network cover almost all of the state, as well as portions of Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana.
AETN's offices and network operations are based out of the R. Lee Reaves Center for Educational Telecommunications, located adjacent to the University of Central Arkansas in Conway; its programming is distributed via a thirteen-site microwave interconnection relay system around the state, which covers most of Arkansas, as well as parts of all surrounding states.
Approximately two-thirds of AETN's funding comes from state tax dollars to support the broadcast infrastructure and all services that are provided for educators and schools. More than 10% comes from the federal government as a partial match of what is raised locally. Almost 20% comes from voluntary contributions from individual viewers and businesses.
The Arkansas Educational Television Commission was created in 1961, following a two-year legislative study to assess the need for educational television programming in Arkansas. KETS (channel 2) in Little Rock, the flagship station of AETN, first signed on the air as the nation's 124th educational television station on December 4, 1966. In the early years, KETS was associated with National Educational Television, the forerunner of the current PBS. In the station's early years, KETS broadcast its programming black-and-white only, before upgrading to color capabilities in 1972. The station maintained limited hours of operation during its early years, with its programming focused primarily on instructional content for use in Arkansas schools.
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