KETC, virtual channel 9 (UHF digital channel 23), is a PBS member television station licensed to St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The station is owned by St. Louis Regional Public Media. KETC'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. History The station first signed on the air on September 20, 1954. It was the first community-licensed educational television station in the United States. The station's first general manager was Charles Guggenheim, who hired the technical staff and first group of producer/director/writers, five in all. While waiting for the broadcasting tower to be completed, a number of programs were recorded using kinescope recording technology (the same as used for The Honeymooners). Once on the air, there were a number of award-winning programs produced by Mayo Simon, Bill Hartzell, Ran Lincoln and Guggenheim. They included the first live broadcast of the St. Louis City Council. Another featured the St. Louis Post-Dispatch nature columnist Leonard Hall of Possum Trot Farm. Among the taped program series was a pioneering science program intended for sixth graders to see in their classrooms, Science in Sight, produced by Martin L. Schneider. Film making was encouraged, and with Len Hall's collaboration a documentary film about the rare beauty of the relatively unprotected Current River was produced. It was later used by the National Audubon Society in the successful effort to make Current River the first National Scenic River under the protection of the National Park Service. 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