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KETC (channel 9) is a PBS member television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, owned by St. Louis Regional Public Media. The station's studios are located at the Dana Brown Communications Center on Olive Street in St. Louis' Grand Center neighborhood, and its transmitter is located in south St. Louis County.
Soon after the station went live, its emphasis on current affairs and local politics, fostered by Guggenheim, rattled the political leaders. Following a public controversy, covered by the Post-Dispatch, and under the influence of the well-connected local public relations firm Fleishman and Hillard (now FleishmanHillard), Guggenheim was replaced by Martin Quigley, who had no experience in broadcasting. A few months later, Shelby Storck was hired. An experienced broadcaster recommended by Guggenheim, he emceed the station's first evening of broadcasting.
KETC originally broadcast from temporary studios in McMillan Hall on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, with transmitting facilities atop the former Boatmen's Bank Building (now the Marquette Building) in downtown St. Louis. In 1955, it moved to the Julius and Freda Baer Memorial Building, also on the Washington University campus. It was the first facility specifically built for an educational television station. It activated its current tower in south St. Louis County in 1970, allowing it to begin color television broadcasts a year later. In 1998, the station moved its studios from the Washington University campus to the Dana Brown Communications Center in the Grand Center district.
During the 2004 elections, KETC partnered with area NBC affiliate KSDK (channel 5) to provide St. Louisans with comprehensive and up-to-date local and national election results. This partnership was first utilized to simulcast a gubernatorial debate between Republican candidate Missouri Secretary of State Matt Blunt and Democratic candidate State Auditor Claire McCaskill. On election night (November 2), KSDK aired NBC's prime time election coverage with Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert as well as segments of local results. KETC, meanwhile, ran three hours of local election results hosted by KSDK anchors Mike Bush and Karen Foss. Viewers could also watch election results online on the websites of both stations.
The successful KETC/KSDK partnership was used again in September 2005 when, along with radio partners KYKY (98.1 FM) and KEZK-FM (102.5 FM), a telethon for Hurricane Katrina relief was simulcast that raised more than $5 million. The telethon featured an appearance by Affton native John Goodman, who now calls New Orleans home and whose family went missing for a time during the storm's peak. Kennett, MO native Sheryl Crow and her then fiancé Lance Armstrong urged viewers to call when they were interviewed by phone from the region.
In May 2008, E! contracted with KETC to film two episodes of the cable network's weekly pop culture series The Soup at the KETC studios to accommodate host Joel McHale's filming of The Informant! in the St. Louis area. After being known for most of its history as "KETC 9," the station rebranded itself as "The Nine Network" in 2010. On October 13, 2010, the station partnered with the St. Louis Beacon, an online-only, non-profit news publication, to form the Public Insight Network, a citizen journalism initiative created in conjunction with American Public Media. On January 10, 2021, the station rebranded as Nine PBS, adopting the current PBS corporate logo.
Some of the programs produced by KETC for national distribution include selected episodes of Inside/Out and Today in Chess, produced in cooperation with the Saint Louis Chess Club. The station also produced The Letter People, an instructional program about reading, which was seen on many PBS and educational television stations in the mid-1970s, as well as A Time for Champions, an hour-long documentary chronicling the Saint Louis University soccer dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s; and Homeland, a miniseries examining the topic of immigration in the United States. Local programming is highlighted by magazine series Living St. Louis, early-childhood focused Teaching in Room 9, and current affairs show Donnybrook, a weekly panel discussion featuring area media personalities airing on Thursday nights.
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