KMTP-TV

KMTP-TV (channel 32) is an independent non-commercial educational television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Owned by the Minority Television Project, the station maintains studios on Woodside Way in San Mateo. Its transmitter, shared with KCNS, KTNC-TV and KEMO-TV, is located atop Sutro Tower in San Francisco.[1]

KMTP airs a large amount of multilingual, ethnic programming. The station produces and broadcasts a daily news show, 5 Day News, and also broadcasts programming from Deutsche Welle TV, NASA TV, and K-pop. KMTP is one of the few non-PBS-affiliated public television stations in the United States, and one of two such stations in the San Francisco Bay Area (the other being KPJK in San Mateo).

History

On March 9, 1954, the station began commercially as KSAN-TV on UHF channel 32;[2]

Controversy

In 2004, the FCC levied a $10,000 fine against KMTP for showing paid commercials on a station with an educational license.[15] While it is commonplace for PBS and similar stations to show underwriters' messages that resemble commercials, it is illegal for educationally licensed stations, like KMTP, to show advertisements that do not meet the standards for underwriting announcements.[16][17] KMTP appealed the decision in 2005, but the fine was upheld, prompting KMTP to file a lawsuit against the FCC in U.S. District Court the following year.[18]

In suing the FCC, KMTP felt it was unfairly penalized by the FCC's rules concerning underwriting that did not take into account foreign language broadcasting and the variations in pronunciations and meanings. KMTP carried out research to find out what the public interpreted a commercial to be. Using a numerical grading system, certain aspects of a video clip were found by the public to "feel" like a commercial or not like a commercial. These findings were presented to the FCC, as it did not depend on particular words or phrases which can be misinterpreted when foreign languages are used. The FCC rejected KMTP's attempt to clarify the underwriting rules, leaving KMTP with no choice but to take the matter to court.

On April 12, 2012, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on two of the issues raised by KMTP's suit. The panel ruled that non-commercial stations can air advertisements for both candidates and political position statements. The 1981 federal law was found to be violating free speech. This was a partial victory for KMTP, as it did not address the basic issue of how commercials differ from the sponsorships on which most public stations depend for financial support.[19] The case was reheard by the 9th Circuit en banc, which in 2013 overruled the panel, declaring that the 1981 law was constitutional (NPR and PBS filed in support of the FCC);[20] the Supreme Court declined to hear the case in the following year, ensuring that non-commercial stations cannot air political advertisements.[21]

callsign	KMTP-TV
city	San Francisco, California
branding	KMTP
digital	32 (UHF), shared with KCNS, KTNC-TV and KEMO-TV
virtual	32
affiliations	32.1: Non-commercial Independent
airdate	August 31, 1991
location	San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose, California
country	United States
callsign meaning	Minority Television Project
former channel numbers	Analog: 32 (UHF, 1991–2009) Digital: 33 (UHF, until 2018) 28 (UHF, 2018–2020)
owner	Minority Television Project
erp	1,000 kW
haat	511.7 m
facility id	43095
coordinates	37.75528°N, -122.45278°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	https://www.kmtp.tv/

History

Controversy

Subchannels

External links

References