When KCTS 9 first went on the air in 1954 it was broadcasting from the University of Washington campus and

primarily supplied classroom instructional programs used in Washington State's K12 schools, plus National Educational Television programs (KCTS, 2012). Up until 1970, when National Educational Television was absorbed by the Public Broadcasting Service, KCTS 9s contact with the general public was limited (KCTS, 2012). After the merge, KCTS 9 began to expand its programming, reaching out to the community it state-of-the-art Technicolor. It was this merge that signaled the beginning of KCTS 9 Public Television as we know it today. It was also the start of the stations development into one of the largest PBS stations in the country. By the early 1980s, it was apparent that the University of Washington campus studios were no longer sufficient to house the local public television station; so in 1986 KCTS moved to its current location in Seattle Center (KCTS, 2012). By the time Bill Nye the Science Guy went into production at the KCTS 9 studios in early 1993 (Wikipedia, 2012), the station had grown to be one of the largest PBS stations in the country in terms of viewership and operations budget (KCTS, 1994). But despite five successful seasons of one of the most profitable PBS shows in history (KCTS, 2001), KCTS 9 fell victim to a series of bad leadership, financial mismanagement, and production deficits that left the station $7 million in the red according, to their 2005 annual report. It has been almost seven years since that report was released. In that seven years, the station has gone through two phases of organization wide restructuring, several changes in senior management and leadership, an FCC mandated digital conversion, the birth of online streaming, the loss of The Lawrence Welk Show, a marketing rebrand, and the creation of Downton Abbey. At the end of Fiscal Year 2012 (June 30th, 2012), KCTS 9 was $1.8 million in the black over projections, and at the beginning of what has been referred to around the station

as our renaissance. When we discuss our role and our responsibilities, we now talk about our three pillars of content: on air, in the community, and online. It is through these three mediums that KCTS 9 is rebuilding our place in the community and quickly becoming Seattles great unrealized opportunity (Morris, 2012). When asked about what makes KCTS 9 different from cable and network stations, Daphne Adair, the Executive Director of Marketing and Communications, said that at PBS we balance between education and entertainment, where commercial stations seem to be grooming children for the consumer pipeline (2012). Some of the on air content PBS is most well known for is our childrens programing like Sesame Street and Curious George. Unlike commercial childrens stations like Disney, Nickelodeon, or even Discovery Kids (Adair, 2012), PBS shows are developed with K-12 educators to follow the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) educational program or to encompass the building blocks for social and problem solving skills (PBS Teachers, 2012). That is not to say that cable television show do not involve educators at all, but instead of having the educators come in simple as consultants, PBS has educators involved in every step of the development process for childrens programing (Adair, 2012). It is because of this high level of involvement that PBS Kids programming has been proven to increase the reading scores of preschool aged children by an average of 7.5 letters (Education Development Center, 2009). In addition to helping to support early childhood development, KCTS 9 carries our blend of education and entertainment forward to our adult audience as well. Unlike standard local news that has to decide at noon what their breaking news will be on the 5 oclock broadcast (Morris, 2012), as a local PBS station KCTS 9 has the opportunity to research and really explore all sides of an issue. It the last year the station has released 4 original

documentaries ranging for prescription drug abuse in Washington State, to the undamming of the Elwha River on Washingtons Olympic Peninsula. As the stations Executive Producer of Public Affairs Ethan Morris (2012) put it: [when a cable news station] covers a car accident, they are always looking at the sensationalized aspect of it. 12 people are dead! Traffic is backed up for miles! Lets go live to the scene! and then the next day in the news room, no one would say, well, lets look more into this. Was there a problem with the breaks, it there something about the manufacturing of the car? No! It [is] always on to the next thing... but when KCTS works on an issue, we have the luxury of time since we dont do a daily newscast and we time, the producers here, to say, what are we going to do? How can we be more thoughtful? How can we be more in depth? We have time to actually produce a program, and we can find an hour in our schedule when we can really vet an issue and present it to the public... so they have a chance to see that these issues are complex. So our viewers get more than just a 90 second spot, they get a chance to really be informed.

Along with serving our community in the Pacific Northwest, KCTS 9 also broadcasts into over 825,000 Canadian homes through Bell TV and Shaw Cable (KCTS, 2012). When asked about what KCTS 9 represents to our Canadian donors, Daphne Adair echoed Ethan Morris sentiments, stating that we provide our viewers across the border with an independent and unbiased look into American politics through shows like PBS Newshour and Washington Week (Adair, 2012). Historically, this was the extent of our relationship with our Canadian viewers, but with our ever increasing web content we have been able to touch on local issues and put a face to our friends up north (Gomez, 2012). Traditionally, PBS audiences have been comprised of an older generation, and there are some large gaps in our demographics. A joke that you will often hear around almost any PBS station when talking about the audience is you tend to lose most of your viewers between 8 and 80. People below the age of 40 by and large do not watch television in the traditional sense anymore (Morris,2012); and with American children spending a minimum of seven hours in

contact with some form of media every day (Gomez, 2012) KCTS 9 had to start offering people content in a medium that they would use, in order to stay relevant in the community. In 2007, KCTS 9 added streaming video to its website. In 2010, it added the Cove system, increasing the amount of content available for viewers to stream (Ellingwood, 2012). By doing this, the station positioned itself to become more accessible to younger generations, who are increasingly getting their media content from online sources. In addition to developing content to support on-air programing, KCTS 9 has been working to use its website to give viewers a voice in their community. With the increasing popularity of camera phones, KCTS 9 has found a great way to get people to document their everyday lives by providing a platform for community members to post videos related to a given topic. This content style was first really utilized by the station with the release of When Seattle Invented the Future: The 1962 Worlds Fair. With the project, KCTS 9 has truly set itself apart from other PBS stations in terms of online content and capabilities. When the station debuted the documentary about one of the citys finest moments, people were captivated not only by the nostalgia of that retro era, but also by the memory of Americas optimistic vision of the future (Alben, 2012). Yet is was the supporting web content and classroom curriculum that was met with national acclaim, and won the 2012 Akcho Heritage Education Award (KCTS, 2012). The Worlds Fair project not only greatly benefited our city, but it also showed PBS stations across the country what is possible when using online content to compliment on air productions. This project also beautifully highlighted one of the fundamental principles and values that is overarching among all PBS stations; unlike commercial stations, public media generates content and thinks of ways to interact and engage the community in a way that is non promotional (Gomez, 2012). Two years ago the board of directors and the senior leadership team took on the task of

developing a five year strategic plan and rewriting our mission statement. When I first began my research for this paper, I decided to take a tip from Peter Brinckerhoff (2009) and start with this reimagined mission statement. I went to the organizations website, but I discovered that the mission statement that drives the entire organization was to be found. I emailed our Interactive Director about this and was told The last KCTS 9 website refresh coincided with the completion of a new five-year strategic plan at the end of which Interactive was led to expect rewritten Mission, Vision and Values statements to replace the outdated ones that are displayed in the conference rooms. We have, as yet, not received it (Ellingwood, 2012). After years of critical and financial success, KCTS 9 is still in the process of redefining itself and its role in the community. At this point the employees and content contributors of the station are continuing on despite the fact that a fundamental piece of the organization is missing. I dont think it a coincidence that at the same time our station is trying to navigating through the digital era that our mission statement is still in flux. In my interview with Ethan Morris, he said, If you go and ask [our Community Engagement team] about the stuff that theyve done since the beginning of the year, the list would be a mile long. But we dont advertise it in the community! Not even really around the station. We need to... be a little more forthcoming about this is what we do for the community, and this is why we are important as an organization. If KCTS were to go away tomorrow, the community would lose a lot more than Downton Abbey and a handful of documentaries. We are out [in the community] in so many ways that no one else is doing... KCTS is this great, unrealized opportunity, especially at the local level. Here we are in a studio in Seattle, with talented people and equipment to go out and really bring some meaningful TV to people.

References Alben, Alex When Seattle Invented The Future The Seattle Times March 21, 2012 Brinckerhoff, Peter Mission Based Management 2009 KCTS Television 2000 Annual Report May 30, 2001 KCTS Television 2003 Annual Report June 17, 2004 Education Development Center Summative Evaluation of the Ready to Learn Initiative 2009

KCTS 9 History page http://kcts9.org/about 2012 PBS Teachers http://www.pbs.org/teachers/stem/ 2012 Wikipedia- Bill Nye the Science Guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nye_the_Science_Guy 2012 Adair, Daphne Interview June 29, 2012 Ellingwood, Brook Personal Communication July 2, 2012

Gomez, Tony Interview July 2, 2012 Morris, Ethan Interview July 2, 2012