KPBS Public Media is San Diego's NPR and PBS station, licensed to San Diego State University and based on its campus, serving San Diego and Imperial counties with KPBS television, KPBS-FM 89.5 and KPBS.org news, arts and educational programming.
KPBS Public Media is the public media organization for the San Diego region, serving San Diego and Imperial counties as both the local NPR and PBS station. It operates KPBS television on channel 15, a PBS member station with additional World, Create and PBS Kids channels; KPBS-FM at 89.5, an NPR member station, heard in the Imperial Valley on 97.7 FM from Calexico; and KPBS.org and its apps, the station's digital news service. KPBS was founded in 1960, as KEBS, on the campus of what was then San Diego State College, and its television station signed on in 1967.
KPBS is a department of San Diego State University, and its broadcast facilities are housed on the SDSU campus in the Conrad Prebys Media Complex at Copley Center. The television and FM licenses are held by the Board of Trustees of the California State University for SDSU, and the KPBS General Manager reports to the university president. The SDSU Research Foundation, an auxiliary organization of the CSU, provides financial accounting and administrative support. The KPBS news operation maintains editorial independence from station management, the university, underwriters and donors, and follows the Public Media Code of Integrity and the NPR Ethics Guidelines.
KPBS describes its radio newsroom as the largest full service radio news team serving San Diego and Imperial counties, with local newscasts through the day and its own programs KPBS Morning Edition and KPBS Midday Edition on radio and KPBS Evening Edition, a nightly half-hour newscast, on television. It carries national programs from NPR, PBS and other producers, works with local content partners including inewsource and 10 News San Diego, and is part of the California Newsroom collaboration of public radio newsrooms. KPBS.org averages more than 600,000 visitors a month. In the community, KPBS runs Community Conversations, One Book, One San Diego, GI Film Festival San Diego and KPBS Kids.
KPBS staff positions are hired through the SDSU Research Foundation, with some senior roles posted through San Diego State University, and part-time student positions are open to enrolled SDSU students through Aztec Career Services and Handshake. The station hires across news and editing, events and communications, membership and fundraising, broadcast engineering and information technology, finance and administration. Full-time positions of 30 hours a week or more carry medical, dental and vision coverage, vacation and sick leave, 13 paid holidays, an employer contributed 403(b) retirement plan and SDSU campus privileges.
