Kentucky Educational Television - History

History

KET was the brainchild of O. Leonard Press, a member of the University of Kentucky faculty and a pioneer in educational broadcasting. Before coming to UK, he had developed the weekly broadcast from the National Press Club, which has aired for over half a century. In the mid-1950s, he taped a popular anthropology course, and the response was enough for him and two of his colleagues to consider founding an educational television station at UK. When they couldn't get the money, they decided to try for a statewide educational television network along the lines of Alabama Educational Television. At the time, the only educational station in the state was WFPK-TV (now WKPC-TV) in Louisville, on the air since 1958.

The idea gained little momentum until 1959, when Press addressed the local Rotary Club in the state capital, Frankfort, and a story about it appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal. After landing support from UK officials, what was supposed to be a short meeting with Governor Bert T. Combs turned into a proposal to start the state network. The Kentucky Authority for Educational Television was created in 1962, with Press as executive director (a position he held until 1991). However, the project made little progress until 1965, when a donation from Ashland Oil founder Paul G. Blazer allowed the authority to acquire its first 13 transmitters. KET finally took to the air on September 23, 1968. More than a quarter-century later, its acquisition of WKPC allowed it to start a second service on the Louisville station it already owned.