KOZK is the PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 member station in Springfield, Missouri

Springfield, Missouri

Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. According to the 2010 census data, the population was 159,498, an increase of 5.2% since the 2000 census. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population 436,712, includes the counties of...

. Owned by Missouri State University

Missouri State University

Missouri State University is a public university located in Springfield, Missouri, United States and founded in 1905. It is the state's second largest university, with an official enrollment of 20,802 in fall 2011...

, it broadcasts on digital channel 21. It operates a full-time satellite, KOZJ, digital channel 26 in Joplin

Joplin, Missouri

Joplin is a city in southern Jasper County and northern Newton County in the southwestern corner of the US state of Missouri. Joplin is the largest city in Jasper County, though it is not the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 50,150...

. The two stations are known on-air as Ozarks Public Television. Together, the two stations serve the Ozarks region of southwest Missouri, southeast Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, northwest Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 and northeast Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

.

History

KOZK's history can be traced to Springfield Community Television, a non-profit group that was formed in 1974 to bring public television to the area. At the time it was standard practice for PBS to offer its programming to commercial outlets in a market without a PBS station of its own. For instance, NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 affiliate KYTV

KYTV

KYTV is a British television comedy show about a fictional television station that ran on BBC2 from 1989 to 1993, which satirised satellite television in the UK at the time.-History:...

 aired Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

at 9 a.m. during the week. After securing a license from the FCC

Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 and funding from various groups, KOZK was finally able to sign on the air in January 1975, broadcasting from a former Naval Reserve center located on the campus of Drury University

Drury University

Drury University is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Missouri.The university enrolls about 1,550 undergraduates, over 2,000 adult part-time undergraduates and around 400 graduate students in six master's programs...

. From there they would go from a station that operated five days a week with seven staffers (augmented by a lot of student volunteerism) to a 24 hour operation with 25 employees. The station borrowed transmitter space from Springfield's CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 affiliate, KOLR

KOLR

KOLR is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Ozark Plateau area of Southwestern Missouri that is licensed to Springfield. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 10 from a transmitter on Switchgrass Road north of Fordland...

.

In 1986 KOZJ signed on as KOZK's sister station in Joplin. Its business offices are located in downtown Joplin, with its broadcasting equipment located at Missouri Southern State University

Missouri Southern State University

Missouri Southern State University is a public, state university located in Joplin, Missouri. Missouri Southern State University was formerly Missouri Southern State College and is also known as Missouri Southern, MSSU, or MoSo for short. Established in 1937 as Joplin Junior College, Missouri...

. Prior to 1986, the Joplin/Pittsburg

Pittsburg, Kansas

Pittsburg is a city in Crawford County, in southeastern Kansas, United States. It is the most populous city in Crawford County and in southeastern Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 20,233.-History:...

 market had been one of the few markets in the country without a PBS station of its own.

In 1990 the station moved to the new Shewmaker Communications Center on the campus of Drury College. In 2001, the board agreed to sell the station to Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University

Missouri State University

Missouri State University is a public university located in Springfield, Missouri, United States and founded in 1905. It is the state's second largest university, with an official enrollment of 20,802 in fall 2011...

), and later that year the station's headquarters moved to Strong Hall on the MSU campus.

KOZK currently multicasts on its digital channel:

Channel	Programming
21.1	Main OPT programming / PBS HD
21.2	OPT-ED (Airs telecourses from MSU as well as miscellaneous PBS programming)
21.3	Create