It began in April, 1977, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an "education license" to the Fresno County Board of Education to operate KMTF Channel 18 from Fresno. It's signal -- from a transmitter 28 miles east of Fresno on Bear Mountain -- reached all of Kings, Madera, Fresno and Tulare counties.

Ten years later, in November of 1987, the station separated from Fresno County schools and became a non-profit California corporation able to sustain itself financially and operate as a "community licensee".

With the addition of the Channel 65 transmitter in Kern County three years later, Valley Public Television’s signal reached from Kern County's Tehachapi Mountains to Atwater in Merced County. That same year, the station's board of directors changed KMTF's call letters to KVPT (Valley Public Television) as a reflection of its expanded service area.

Valley Public Television is one of 14 California stations that are members of PBS. PBS is one of the national membership organizations for this country's independent public television stations and operates a satellite interconnection system for the distribution of programs to its members.

Public television is a major and independent element of our free press system and is dedicated to providing programming of the highest quality, remaining free from editorial control by program funders or the federal government.