KSPS-TV
PBS TV station in Spokane, Washington, USA
KSPS-TV (channel 7), branded as KSPS PBS, is a community-licensed PBS member television station in Spokane, Washington, United States. The station's studios are located on the campus of Joel E. Ferris High School on South Regal Street in the Southgate neighborhood of Spokane, and its transmitter is located on Krell Hill southeast of Spokane. A network of translators and carriage on cable television systems extends the station's reach into western Montana, northern Idaho, central Washington, and the Canadian province of Alberta.
KSPS-TV began broadcasting on April 24, 1967, as a service of its namesake, Spokane Public Schools. It aired locally produced daytime educational programs and evening programming from National Educational Television, forerunner to PBS. KSPS was the first educational station available to viewers in Alberta—Canadian viewers have historically represented about half of the station's contributions and revenue—and western Montana, which did not yet have an in-state service. Educational programming shifted off channel 7 in 1981, when the station cut local programming in response to budget cuts. In 1987, the station began production of Sit and Be Fit, an exercise series that went on to national distribution in its 35-year run.
Over time, the station grew more distant from the school board, and in 2013 KSPS was separated from Spokane Public Schools and spun off to Friends of KSPS, its fundraising arm. The station produces local public affairs, health and arts programming for the Spokane area.
History
Early years
Though channel 7 had been assigned for use by an educational TV station in Spokane, Washington, it was still unused by 1960, when Spokane Public Schools superintendent W. C. Sorenson reported that it was still available for the district to use and a committee was gathering information.
“KSPS-TV” enters the record as pBS TV station in Spokane, Washington, USA. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what KSPS-TV, station and Spokane can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“KSPS-TV” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, KSPS-TV, station and Spokane provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14713750. Authority coordinates are 47.576, -117.300. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1967, 1981, 1987 and 2013.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “KSPS-TV”, its source revision and the description used here.
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Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “KSPS-TV” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.