KBTC Public Television

KBTC Public Television is the PBS station in Tacoma, Washington, licensed to Bates Technical College. It serves Western Washington with PBS programming, the public affairs series Northwest Now, and education and community programs.

KBTC Public Television (KBTC PBS) is the PBS member station for Tacoma and Western Washington. It broadcasts on KBTC-TV, channel 28, from Tacoma and on its full-power satellite KCKA, channel 15, in Centralia, with translators including one in central Seattle, and it is carried on Comcast cable across the region. It is one of two PBS member stations serving the Seattle-Tacoma market. Its mission is to engage viewers, communities, and supporters by delivering media experiences that educate, inspire, and entertain.

KBTC is licensed to Bates Technical College, a public technical college in Tacoma, and its studios are on the college's Central/Mohler campus. The station signed on September 25, 1961, as KTPS, owned by Tacoma Public Schools, and took the KBTC call letters in 1992 after its license passed to Bates Technical College. Alongside its main PBS channel it carries NHK World and FNX (First Nations Experience) on digital subchannels.

Local production centers on Northwest Now, a weekly public affairs program, now in its 17th season, that covers the issues, events, and people shaping Western Washington. In 2026 Northwest Now won first place for Hard News Feature in the Society of Professional Journalists Region 10 Excellence in Journalism competition, and KBTC received a NETA Public Media Award in the Education category for Ability Awareness. The station also runs education and community impact work for children, parents, and educators.

KBTC's staff works across programming and creative services, engineering and technology, development, marketing and digital assets, finance, and education and community impact. KBTC positions are Bates Technical College jobs and are posted on the college's hiring system.

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Websitehttps://www.kbtc.org/

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