• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

KCET now PBS SoCal Plus

That's interesting, since at one point, they completely disaffiliated with PBS. I think it was 2010 when they left PBS in a funding dispute, and became an independent station. They apparently returned to PBS in 2019. Now they're branding themselves as PBS.
 
Yes. It was announced in January but the rebrand took place on February 6th. KOCE remains the main PBS member station for L.A., O.C., and the Southland.
 
This has been expected for some time where secondary stations are renamed plus after the main station.

Initially this was done to market subchannels of TV stations like when NorCal PBS affiliate KQED renamed the former KTEH into KQED+/Officially KQEH after the main PBS affiliate KQED-TV. Today it's to remain relevant and get area viewers to find pre-empted shows whenever the primary station has to air breaking news like in San Francisco Fox and Paramount renamed their secondary stations after the primary station like KTVU+ the place to find some of the preempted Fox Shows and KPIX+ to find the pre empted CBS shows whenever the main ones like KTVU and CBS Bay Area has to go to breaking news from their respective networks or for local reasons.

But for how long will secondary stations will exist given that networks themselves are marketing their apps like PBS app, Paramount+ and Tubi for newer TV's.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Little?
Click to expand...
It's really fairly straightforward - many public TV stations are now branding as "PBS Wherever," and the joint KOCE/KCET operation has been "PBS SoCal" for a few years now as its umbrella brand. This just simplifies their branding so it's no longer split between "PBS SoCal" and "KCET" - the main PBS channel is PBS SoCal and the one with other local programming (still legally KCET) is PBS SoCal Plus.

Given how low the OTA viewership rate is in the market, few viewers know them as channel 50 or channel 28 these days, anyway.
 
I find terms like "Plus" to be comparable to the 70's and 80's use of "music and more..." by contemporary stations.

"More" what? More ads? More stiffs?

Those are such vague and unpromising terms that they do little to enhance the identity of a station. Maybe in this case, the idea is to distinguish between the two PBS affiliates, but I find it confusing and it does nothing for the image of either.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I find terms like "Plus" to be comparable to the 70's and 80's use of "music and more..." by contemporary stations.

"More" what? More ads? More stiffs?

Those are such vague and unpromising terms that they do little to enhance the identity of a station. Maybe in this case, the idea is to distinguish between the two PBS affiliates, but I find it confusing and it does nothing for the image of either.
Click to expand...
How else would you brand that sort of a bonus/extra service? "PBS SoCal 2" risks confusion with KCBS, which is already confusing enough with its own branding these days.

"Extra"? "More"?
 
I think KCET and KOCE (PBS SoCal and PBS SoCal+) should switch stations. KCET has more coverage area than KOCE. Also, KCET extends their reach to Bakersfield, Santa Maria, and San Luis Obispo on their cable systems and OTA instead of KOCE. In Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo they don't have a primary PBS station OTA and their cable systems pipes KQED from San Francisco.
 
TheBigA said:
At one time, KCET was primary. Then they f'd up big time and quit PBS. It's all their own fault.
Click to expand...
It's also well in the past now. The market has had plenty of time to get used to KOCE being the main PBS outlet, and it would cause too much confusion to switch back now.

One big reason for combining the branding is the PBS app and PBS Passport, which has become an increasingly important way for viewers to get PBS content in the streaming era. Both "PBS SoCal" and "Plus" appear as options for viewers in the market, and it doesn't matter to them that one is "50" and the other "28," or that one was "KCET" years ago.

I'm not sure how Passport's geofencing handles viewers in the Palm Springs or Santa Barbara/SLO markets.
 
fybush said:
I'm not sure how Passport's geofencing handles viewers in the Palm Springs or Santa Barbara/SLO markets.
Click to expand...
Doing a search for zip code 93401 (San Luis Obispo) on the PBS website yields this result (PBS SoCal):

1709402818919.png
 
Mark Roberts said:
Doing a search for zip code 93401 (San Luis Obispo) on the PBS website yields this result (PBS SoCal):

View attachment 6692
Click to expand...

That's because that market doesn't have a PBS member station of their own. They have to rely on the ones from Los Angeles via translators.
 
e-dawg said:
I think KCET and KOCE (PBS SoCal and PBS SoCal+) should switch stations. KCET has more coverage area than KOCE. Also, KCET extends their reach to Bakersfield, Santa Maria, and San Luis Obispo on their cable systems and OTA instead of KOCE. In Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo they don't have a primary PBS station OTA and their cable systems pipes KQED from San Francisco.
Click to expand...
Bakersfield cable ditched KCET in favor of KVPT out of Fresno years ago.
Bakersfield still hold a rare distinction of a city with a population over 410,000 that isn't served by it's own PBS affiliate.

KCET still operates a translator for Bakersfield but the cable companies no longer carry it in favor of KVPT and KCET's translator operates on VHF-4 so even the scarce few that are using the bunny ears aren't receiving KCET that way either.
 
I'm kind of surprised Cal Poly doesn't have a PBS. Is there no media school there?

(BTW, on another, unrelated note, I'm happy to have found this part of this messageboard, and that it seems decently active. TVNT, for those of you aware of it, has been taken offline. I wasn't aware it was shutting down, unless it was a sudden thing for everybody).
 
You gotta feel badly for Bakersfield. It has no PBS station of its own and no NPR station of its own. For radio, KPRX 89.1 Bakersfield is a full time simulcast of Fresno's NPR station, 89.3 KVPR.

And for television, both KVPT Fresno and KCET Los Angeles competed over who would get to put a satellite station in Bakersfield. They agreed to share Bakersfield between them rather than engage in a lengthy battle. But I guess KCET lost interest. In Fresno, KVPT is on Channel 18 and its translator in Bakersfield is K18HD-D.
 
Back
Top Bottom