Doctor Who first aired on KTEH on the 13th of April, 1981. While we were the third station to air Doctor Who in the San Francisco Bay Area, we became best known for it. At that time we only aired the Tom Baker episodes, but did so five days a week. In the Spring of 1982 we started our Saturday night full story presentations, which tested the mettle of many a young child being allowed to stay up for it – especially those six or seven part stories…
In 1983, having been teased by the beginning of Robot and the end of Logopolis that there were other Doctors out there, our second Doctor aired for the first time with Peter Davison (the series’ Fifth incarnation) on the Saturday night marathons. In fact, we had to start then as the BBC was trying to get the twentieth anniversary special to air nearly simultaneously around the world, and we’d be ready to premiere the Five Doctors – an eagerly awaited glimpse of every Doctor up to that time.
Many Horizons, Many Worlds
From there, new packages of Doctor Who seemed to flood on to the airwaves – though maybe not as fast as we fans wanted. The first Jon Pertwee (Doctor #3) package – a selection of what stories were fully available in colour at that time – made their debut in the Summer of 1984, with the second package (all the rest of his stories) showing up nearly a year later – along with the first Doctor Who spin-off K-9 and Company. Colin Baker materialized in his multi-coloured glory at the end of the Summer of 1986, with the first Doctor – William Hartnell – debuting the first ever Doctor Who story just a little over a week before the series’ twenty-third anniversary later that year.
In March of 1987, Patrick Troughton (the second Doctor) made his first appearance, and sadly the first episode of his final story (the War Games) aired just a couple days after his passing at a convention in Florida. The final (at least at that time) Doctor – Sylvester McCoy – graced our airwaves for the first time in November 1988, just a couple days after the series’ silver anniversary.
KTEH’s uninterrupted run of Doctor Who broadcasts came to an end at the end of January 2003. At that time, we had broadcast the equivalent of 7703 episodes – more than ten times the amount produced by the BBC at that time. KTEH was also proud to have conducted thirteen interviews with Doctor Who actors, writers and producers – including some who are no longer with us.
New Adventures
In April of 2007, almost exactly twenty-six years after KTEH had first aired Doctor Who, we were excited to present the new Doctor Who series with Christopher Eccleston – followed exactly a year later by his replacement David Tennant. By building up awareness, we hope to build up support to keep this unstoppable series on our airwaves once more. And to continue to bring you new episodes as they become available to us, along with special events and competitions such as the "How Who are You?" videos.
Thank you for watching, and for participating in Doctor Who on your public television station – KTEH, brilliantly British!
Cheers!
Ken Patterson KTEH Broadcast Scheduling Manager, and long time Doctor Who fan
