Kansas City PBS is the community-owned public media organization behind KCPT (channel 19), the music station 90.9 The Bridge and the nonprofit newsroom Flatland, serving the Kansas City region from studios in Union Hill.
Kansas City PBS is the public media organization for the Kansas City region. It is owned by Public Television 19, Inc., a community nonprofit, and operates KCPT, the area's PBS member television station on channel 19, along with the adult album alternative radio station KTBG, known as 90.9 The Bridge, and Flatland, a nonprofit digital newsroom. Its stated mission is to serve the community as an essential source for independent journalism, multimedia storytelling, music discovery and education resources.
KCPT signed on in 1961 as KCSD-TV, the station of the Kansas City School District, and became a community-owned nonprofit under the KCPT call sign in 1972. Its over-the-air service now carries KCPBS on 19.1 plus the KCPBS2, KCPBS Create and KCPBS Kids subchannels, covering the Kansas City and St. Joseph areas, and its local productions include the weekly public affairs series Kansas City Week in Review.
Public Television 19 acquired KTBG in 2013 and moved it into the Kansas City market as 90.9 The Bridge, the region's NPR Music station, which plays indie and alternative music, highlights local artists and records live in-studio sessions. Flatland was founded the same year with a gift from the Hale Family Foundation; it produces multimedia stories on local news, rural affairs and Kansas City history and is a founding member of the Kansas City Media Collective.
All three services share studios at 125 East 31st Street in the Union Hill neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City PBS hires across television and radio production, broadcast engineering, journalism, programming, marketing, events, fundraising and administration, and offers paid internships and a media production fellowship for students and early-career professionals.
