KLRN

KLRN

San Antonio, Texas
Slogan	The Learning Place
Channels	Digital: 9 (VHF)
Affiliations	PBS
Owner	Alamo Public Telecommunications Council
First air date	September 10, 1962
Call letters' meaning	LeaRN
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 9 (VHF, 1962-2009) Digital: 8 (VHF)
Former affiliations	NET (1962-1970)
Transmitter power	13.6 kW
Height	286 m
Facility ID	749
Transmitter coordinates	29°19′38″N 98°21′17″W
Website	www.klrn.org

KLRN is a public television station in San Antonio, Texas, broadcasting locally on VHF channel 9 as a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station. It is operated by the Alamo Public Telecommunications Council (formerly the Southwest Texas Public Broadcasting Council). Studios are located on Broadway Street in downtown San Antonio, with the transmitter located on Foster Road in the eastern part of the city.

The station also serves as the default PBS member station for the Laredo market, which does not have a PBS station of its own.

It began broadcasting on September 10, 1962; owned by the Southwest Texas Public Broadcasting Council. Unusually for stations of that time, it was licensed to serve two markets—San Antonio and Austin. This was in part because Austin had been allocated UHF channel 18 for noncommercial use, and UHF was not considered viable at the time. The transmitter was located roughly halfway between San Antonio and Austin on land just north of New Braunfels, a major San Antonio suburb. The main studio was located at the Jesse H. Jones Communications Center in Austin, on rented space at the University of Texas. San Antonio operations were based at a satellite studio at Cambridge Elementary School until 1968, when it moved to rented space at the Institute of Texas Cultures on the HemisFair grounds.

In 1979, KLRU was brought online in Austin as a satellite of KLRN. In 1984, the Southwest Texas Public Broadcasting Council severed the electronic umbilical cord between its two stations and activated a new KLRN tower in San Antonio. It also formed separate governing boards for the two stations. In 1987, the two stations finally went their separate ways when the Southwest Texas Public Broadcasting Council split itself into two community organizations, with KLRN coming under the Alamo Public Telecommunications Council. In 1994, it moved to its current studios, a renovated Buick dealership.

Digital television

The digital signal of KLRN is multiplexed:

Digital channels

Channel	Name	Programming
9.1 / 8.1	KLRN-HD	Regular KLRN programming in HD (digital channel 108 / analog channel 10 on Time Warner Cable in San Antonio)
9.2 / 8.2	KLRN World	PBS World programming aired during alternate day parts(channel 92 on Time Warner Digital Cable)
9.3 / 8.3	Vme	Spanish Language Public Television (channels 93 and 759 on Time Warner Digital Cable)
9.4 / 8.4	Create	Lifestyle programming that includes cooking, painting, sewing, travel and more (channel 94 on Time Warner Digital Cable)

Notable programming

Some of the notable programs produced (in the Austin studio) by KLRN over the years included Carrascolendas and Villa Alegre, both 1970s children's programs about Hispanic culture. KLRN also produced Austin City Limits until 1984, when KLRU split off from KLRN.

Trivia

Corpus Christi's KEDT, while always under different ownership than KLRN, carried much of KLRN's schedule the first few years of its life, after beginning in October 1972. Because of this arrangement, KLRN was also seen by cable TV customers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, some 250 miles from San Antonio.

External links

• KLRN home page
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KLRN
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KLRN-TV