Southern Oregon Public Television
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KSYS: Medford, Oregon, U.S. KFTS: Klamath Falls, Oregon, U.S. United States |
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| Branding | SOPTV |
| Slogan | Connecting Our Community |
| Channels |
Digital: KSYS: 8 (VHF) KFTS: 33 (UHF) Virtual: KSYS: 8 () KFTS: 22 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | x.1 PBS x.2 PBS World x.3 Create |
| Translators | (see article) |
| Affiliations | PBS |
| Owner | Southern Oregon Public Television, Inc. |
| First air date |
KSYS: January 17, 1977 KFTS: January 1989 |
| Call letters' meaning |
KSYS: S Y Skiyou Mountains KFTS: Klamath Falls Television |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: KSYS: 8 (VHF, 1977–2009) KFTS: 22 (UHF, 1989–2009) Digital: KSYS: 42 (UHF, until 2009) |
| Transmitter power |
KSYS: 16.9 kW KFTS: 9.6 kW |
| Height |
KSYS: 818 m (2,684 ft) KFTS: 649 m (2,129 ft) |
| Facility ID |
KSYS: 61350 KFTS: 61335 |
| Transmitter coordinates |
KSYS: 42°41′31.7″N 123°13′49.3″W / 42.692139°N 123.230361°W KFTS: 42°5′50″N 121°37′59″W / 42.09722°N 121.63306°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
/ KFTS Profile / KFTS CDBS |
| Website | www.soptv.org |
Southern Oregon Public Television is the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member Public television for most of southwest region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It operates KSYS, channel 8 in Medford and full-time satellite KFTS, channel 22 in Klamath Falls. Studios are located on South Fir Street in downtown Medford.
In 1965, Oregon Educational Broadcasting, forerunner of Oregon Public Broadcasting, persuaded the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reassign channel 8 from Brookings to Medford. OEB intended to make channel 8 the third station in its television network, which at that time included flagship KOAC-TV in Corvallis and KOAP-TV (now KOPB-TV) in Portland. Southern Oregon was the only region of the state without public television. However, OEB backed out after a protracted battle with several commercial applicants. The license eventually went to Liberty Television, owners of KEZI in Eugene.
However, Liberty was reluctant to start building a station on channel 8, as Medford/Klamath Falls was just barely large enough to support three full network affiliates. The owners of the two commercial stations in the area—Bill Smullin of KTVM (now KOBI) and Ray Johnson of KMED-TV (now KTVL) -- helped a new nonprofit corporation, Southern Oregon Educational Company, buy the channel 8 construction permit from Liberty. They also pledged payments of $50,000 once the station signed on. Getting the funds to buy necessary equipment proved more difficult than expected, presumably because the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare balked at donating to a nonprofit that was backed by two commercial broadcasters.
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