About KCPT: Our Mission

VISION

A great city deserves a great public television station... one that is capable of delivering community-building television programs and services as the voice and the platform for its community.

MISSION

Kansas City Public Television educates and enriches our community with quality
programming and services that entertain, challenge minds and contribute to a life of learning.

We accomplish this by:
  • Serving as a platform to address community issues.
  • Producing and delivering quality local programming.
  • Delivering national and international programming.
  • Establishing partnerships, collaborations and strategic alliances to better serve our community.
  • Increasing awareness and value of KCPT to ensure long-term financial support.
  • Providing innovative educational programming and services.
  • Improving our delivery methods with current and rapidly changing technologies.

Staff & Facility

KCPT is a non-profit corporation that owns the license to operate both analog and digital Channel 19. A volunteer board of directors helps guide the station's initiatives and activities. A 15-person community advisory board reviews the station's programming goals and services, and offers guidance to the staff in effectively meeting the specialized educational and cultural needs of the Kansas City metropolitan area. KCPT's offices and production facilities are housed at 125 East Thirty-First Street, Kansas City, Missouri. Its broadcast signal originates from a tower at 2100 Stark, Kansas City, Missouri.

Audience

An average of 450,000 homes watch KCPT weekly. KCPT serves 913,280 TV households in the Kansas City market within a 60-mile broadcast radius. KCPT Kids broadcasts more than 60 hours of educational, non-commercial, non-violent programs each week.

Station History

On March 29, 1961, Channel 19 signed on the air as KCSD—an instructional television station owned and operated by the Kansas City Missouri School District.

Ten years later, when the district chose to relinquish its broadcast license, a small group of civic leaders established a nonprofit agency to create a public television station for Kansas City and its surrounding areas in Kansas and Missouri. The group received ownership of the broadcast license in January 1972, creating a community-licensed public television station operating under the call letters KCPT.

KCPT began transmitting national programs offered by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in 1970.

KCPT Presidents

Zoel Parenteau
1970-1971

Carlton Schofield
1971-1972

Chuck Curran
1972-1973

Bob Fuzy
1973-1992

Bill Reed
1992-2005

Victor A. Hogstrom
2005-2008