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The story
Early radio broadcasts
The KBS began as Gyeongseong Broadcasting Station (경성방송국; 京城放送局) with call sign JODK, established by the Governor-General of Korea on 16 February 1927. It became the Chōsen Broadcasting Corporation (Japanese: 朝鮮放送協會, Hepburn: Chōsen Hōsō Kyōkai) in 1932. After Korea was liberated from Japanese rule at the end of World War II, this station started using the call sign HLKA in 1947 after the US-occupied Korea was granted the ITU prefix HL. After a national broadcast, the station was renamed Seoul Central Broadcasting Station in 1948.
1950s–1960s – Television
Television broadcasts in South Korea began on 12 May 1956 on HLKZ-TV. After financial difficulties, it was acquired by KBS in 1961.
1970s – Expansion
KBS changed its focus from being a state-controlled media and adopted the concept of being a public-oriented broadcaster on 3 March 1973. Construction of KBS headquarters in Yeouido started in 1976. In 1979 KBS radio began broadcasting on the FM band with the launch of KBS Stereo (now KBS 1FM). Colour television began that year.
1980s – Advertising
KBS began broadcasting advertising in 1980, differing from the norm of public broadcasters, after the forced merger of several private broadcasters into KBS by the military government of Chun Doo-hwan. It also bought 65% of the shares of the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation and the Kyunghyang Shinmun.
During the rule of Chun Doo-hwan, a new law in 1980 forced public broadcasters to merge with KBS. These broadcasters had shown news stories against Chun, leading him to stifle their criticism. These included:
Tongyang Broadcasting Corporation (TBC)
Dong-A Broadcasting System (DBS)
Seohae Broadcasting Corporation (SBC)
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Jeonil Broadcasting Corporation (VOC)
Hanguk-FM (BBC)
Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) was also affected. MBC was, at first, a federation of 20 loosely affiliated member stations across South Korea. Although they shared programming, each station was privately owned (similar to the UK ITV network before the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990). After the consolidation, however, affiliates were forced to give up a majority of shares to MBC Seoul. MBC Seoul, in turn, was forced to give up 65% of its shares to KBS. In 2009, president Lee Myung-bak said that the law was unconstitutional, and in 2011 TBC and DBS were revived as JTBC and Channel A, respectively.
1990s – Spinoff of EBS
In 1981, KBS launched KBS 3TV and Educational FM and on 27 December 1990, both were officially separated from KBS to form the Educational Broadcasting System (EBS).
After a revision of the television licensing fee system in 1994, 1TV and Radio1 stopped broadcasting commercials altogether.
2000s
KBS 2FM from 1980 until 2002 was prohibited to air commercial advertisements. In 2002 ads resumed airing.
2010s
After first broadcasting HD programmes in 2001, KBS completely switched to digital broadcasting in 2012.
On 16 January 2012, a dispute broke out between KBS and the Korea Cable TV Association (KCTA) over carriage fees. KCTA sought to reduce fees from major national networks for carrying their feeds through subscription providers. KBS had demanded 280 won per subscriber, while the TV providers offered only 100 won per subscription. Negotiations reached a standstill, and so the providers decided to stop carrying KBS2. KBS2 experienced major decline in their ratings, affecting shows such as Brain at the time. Following the blackout, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) ordered the TV providers to resume distributing the channel or face a hefty fine. They initially refused, but on 17 January, they agreed to resume the channel's carriage.
In 2011, Sohn Hak-kyu, the chairman of the Democratic Party, accused KBS of wiretapping the party's closed-door meeting on TV subscription charges.
Journalists working for KBS (along with MBC, SBS and YTN) protested against journalism practices that favored the Lee Myung-bak government in 2012. The union for KBS released a video clip "Reset KBS News 9" (리셋 KBS 뉴스9) on the internet that discussed the Prime Minister's Office Civilian Surveillance Incident and the controversial money-spending on renovating President Lee's alleged birth house on 13 March 2012.
On 3 March 2013, computer shutdowns hit South Korean television stations including KBS. The South Korean government asserted a North Korean link in the March cyberattacks, denied by Pyongyang.
In 2013, KBS World Radio commemorated its 60th anniversary, and KBS World TV celebrated 10 years of its foundation.
In 2014, KBS World 24 was launched, mainly for Koreans abroad.
In 2015, KBS was honoured to have its archives of the KBS Special Live Broadcast, Finding Dispersed Families, inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. This makes KBS only the world's second broadcaster to have a broadcast programme on the prestigious list.
The KBS network delivered the exclusive Special Live Broadcast, Finding Dispersed Families, via its primary channel, KBS1. KBS News was the program's producer. The program premiered on 10:15 pm KST on 30 June 1983. After more than 6 months, the special live programme ended at 4 am on 14 November 1983. This marks a total duration of 453 hours and 45 minutes of live broadcast over 138 days, aired nationwide on KBS1. The KBS's archives of Special Live Broadcast, Finding Dispersed Families include; 463 videotapes of the original recordings, and many associated materials, generated in the course of the broadcast, such as the posters carrying the participating dispersed family members' capsule stories, cue sheets, programming schedules, radio recording materials, and related photographs. A total of 20,522 such assorted materials are preserved in the archives. The program was the biggest public affairs program ever produced by KBS and was the first to tackle the issue of families separated because of the long Korean War (1950–1953), which garnered even international coverage.
In 2017, KBS launched the world's first terrestrial UHD broadcasting service.
In June 2018, KBS led the operation of the IBC (International Broadcasting Centre) inside the KINTEX (Korea International Exhibition Center), located in Goyang, as Host Broadcaster for the April 2018 inter-Korean summit. During the summit, KBS successfully delivered all the moments associated with the historic summit for more than 3,000 local and overseas media representatives, gathered at the IBC. Throughout the day of the summit, KBS delivered live coverage through its continuous special news bulletins. Its prime-time news programmes, KBS News 9 and KBS Newsline provided audiences with highlights and implications of the historic summit through comprehensive reports. Also, KBS World TV delivered Live Coverage of April 2018 Inter-Korean summit with English subtitles for its audiences across 117 countries worldwide.
In May 2019, as the public service broadcaster in South Korea, KBS undertook a major reform in its Disaster Broadcast System in order to provide emergency services in times of emergency. To be headed by President and CEO of KBS, the renewed system allowed the use of maximum resources of the organization under emergency circumstances. Under the reform, KBS focused on: swift and efficient emergency broadcast and coverage; delivering essential information in innovative ways with the ultimate aim to minimise losses and damage; and strengthening its digital platforms to better serve wide-ranging audience groups. In particular, KBS signed contracts with sign language interpreters in an effort to enhance broadcast services for audiences with disabilities. In addition, KBS is committed to improve its English subtitle services for people from overseas.
From Wikipedia’s article on Korean Broadcasting System, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4