Channel 9 Beaming Into Orbit

6-16-78
By Don Wycliff-Seattle Times
Sometime between 3:30 and 4 p.m. today, two women will press buttons during a ceremony at the University of Washington and launch KCTS-TV (Channel 9) into the space age. The Public Broadcasting System station will begin receiving program transmissions from Washington D.C., by satellite, rather than over the long distance telephone wires it currently uses.The button-pushing — by Dorothy Bullitt, who donated the equipment to put Channel 9 on the air in 1963, and Mrs. Henry B. Owen, former president of the Seattle School Board — will really be only symbolic. The actual changeover is a bit more complicated than the touch of a button. Channel 9 actually will be using both satellite and phone line transmissions for a few months.Richard J. Meyer, the general manager of the station, is positively elated over the switch to satellite.”Friday symbolizes the new Channel 9,” he declared during an interview.Meyer and others connected with the station already have been monitoring some satellite – transmitted programs in preparation for the change.”The picture is so clear,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe it.”Aside from the clear picture, there are other advantages to satellite transmission. KCTS will be able to receive up to four transmissions at once. Thus, while one program may go directly on the air, the staff can preview three others, possibly taping them for showing later.And satellite transmission ultimately will cost less. PBS borrowed $40 million — the approximate cost of 10 years rental of phone lines — to install the satellite receivers for its 200-plus stations. In 10 years, with the loan paid off at virtually the same rate as the annual rental of AT&T lines, the system will own the receivers.The most visible symbol of the change already has been on display since December in a parking lot at the UW, not far from the Channel 9 studios.It’s a huge parabolic “dish,” 33 feet in diameter, with an antenna in the middle. The whole affair is mounted on stilts and surrounded by a tall wooden fence.The dish is aimed south, at the point high in the sky over the equator where Western Union’s WESTAR satellite glides in orbit.The ceremony dedicating the dish will start at 3:30 p.m. Besides the official button-pushers are Mayor, Mayor Charles Royer, Sen. Henry Jackson, several other dignitaries are scheduled to be on hand.You’ll be able to watch all of them from the comfort of your home — in live, vivid, unearthly color.