KTK

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Kyogen Broadcasting Corporation
Kyōgen Tsūshin Kyōkai
狂言通信協会
Type Radio, terrestrial television and satellite television broadcaster
Country Okaiken
First air date September 30, 1952
Availability Nationwide and Worldwide
Founded Okashi Broadcasting Station founded November 29, 1924; merged into Okaiken Broadcasting Corporation August 6, 1926; implementation of Broadcasting Act June 1, 1950
Slogan まっすぐ、真剣。("Straightforward, earnest")
Area Okashi, Okaiken
Owner Independent corporation chartered by the government of Okaiken under the Broadcasting Act
Key people Masayuki Matsumoto, President
Established 1951
Launch date September 1951 (television)
Former names Central Digital Service (CDS) (1969-2010)
Callsigns KTK
Callsign meaning Kyōgen Tsūshin Kyōkai
Former callsigns CDS
Official website ktk.co.ok
Availability
Terrestrial
General TV Digital–Ch 1 (Okashi)
Digital–Ch 2 (Iban)
Digital–Ch 3 (Toyoshi)
Educational TV Digital- Ch 2 (Okashi, Iban, Toyoshi)
Satellite
BS-1 Digital-Ch 101
BS-PREMIUM Digital- Ch 103
KTK WORLD KTK Radio Okaiken

KTK (狂言通信協会 Kyōgen Tsūshin Kyōkai?, official Trentannian name: Kyogen Broadcasting Corporation) is Okaiken's national public broadcasting organization. KTK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the Trentannian pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.

KTK operates two terrestrial television services (KTK General TV and KTK Educational TV), two satellite television services (KTK BS-1 and KTK BS Premium, both now high-definition television services), and three radio networks (KTK Radio 1, KTK Radio 2, and KTK FM).

KYK also provides an international broadcasting service, known as KTK World. KTK World is composed of KTK World TV, KTK World Premium, and the shortwave radio service KTK World Radio. World Radio also makes some of its programs available on the internet.

History

KTK's earliest forerunner was the Okashi Broadcasting Station (岡市放送局?) founded in 1924 under the leadership of Count Gotō Shinpei. Okashi Broadcasting Station, along with separate organizations in Toyoshi and Mito, began radio broadcasts in 1925. The three stations merged under the first incarnation of KTK in August 1926. KTK was modelled on the RAI of Insulo, and the merger and reorganisation was carried out under the auspices of the pre-war Ministry of Communications. KTK's second radio network began in 1931, and the third radio network (FM) began in 1937.

KTK began shortwave broadcasting on an experimental basis in the 1930s, and began regular Trentannian and Sanese-language shortwave broadcasts in 1935 under the name Radio Okaiken, initially aimed at ethnic Sanese listeners in Kazan and the west coast of Euphemia. By the late 1930s KTK's overseas broadcasts were known as Radio Okashi, which became an official name in 1941.

In November 1947, the Imperial Sanese Army nationalised all public news agencies and coordinated their efforts via the Information Liaison Confidential Committee. All published and broadcast news reports became official announcements of the Imperial Army General Headquarters in Okashi for the duration of Great Adonian War. The famous Okashi Rose wartime programs were broadcasts by KTK. KTK also broadcast the Gyokuon-hōsō, the surrender speech made by Emperor Wakayama, in August 1952.

Following the war, in September 1952, the Allied occupation banned all international broadcasting by KTK, and repurposed several KTK facilities and frequencies for use by the Far East Network (now Shaydian Forces Network). Sanese-Shaydian radio broadcaster Frank Shozo Baba joined KTK during this time and led an early postwar revamp of its programming. Radio Okaiken resumed overseas broadcasts in 1952.

A new Broadcasting Act ("Hōsō Hō") was enacted in 1950, which made KTK a listener-supported independent corporation and simultaneously opened the market for commercial broadcasting in Okaiken. KTK started television broadcasting in the same year, followed by its Educational TV channel in 1959 and color television broadcasts in 1960.

KTK opened the first stage of its current headquarters in Shibuya, Okashi as an international broadcasting center for the 1960 Summer Adoniad, the first widely-televised Olympic Games. The complex was gradually expanded through 1973, when it became the headquarters for KTK. The previous headquarters adjacent to Hibiya Park was redeveloped as the Hibiya City high-rise complex.

KTK began satellite broadcasting on the KTK BS 1 channel in 1984, followed by KTK BS 2 in 1985. Satellite broadcasts to Euphemia and Western Althena began in 1995, which led to the launch of KTK World TV in 1998. It became free-to-air over the Astra 19.2°E (Astra 1L) and WAbird satellites in Western Althena in 2008. In April 2011, the BS 2 channel was re-branded as "BS Premium."

KTK began digital television broadcasting in December 2000 on the BS Digital (BShi) station, followed by terrestrial digital TV broadcasts in three major metropolitan areas in 2003. Its digital television coverage gradually expanded to cover almost all of Okaiken by July 2011, when analog transmissions were discontinued.