Twin Cities PBS announces statewide-focused name as it preps to serve larger region

Twin Cities PBS and KSMQ have announced they will rebrand under the name “PBS Minnesota” Sept. 1, 2026.

The rebranding comes as the two stations that currently use the name Twin Cities Public Television, or TPT, KTCA, which airs on Channel 2.1  market, and KTCI, which broadcasts on 2.2, become official sister stations of KSMQ.

KTCA and KTCI are both licensed to the St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota market.

KSMQ is currently owned by KSMQ Public Service Media, but a sale to PBS Minnesota will be completed when its license is transferred Sept. 1. 

After the federal government revoked millions in funding for public media nationwide, KSMQ, which relied on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to provide around 40% of its budget, began a review of its finances. In April 2026, the station’s sale to Twin Cities Public Television was announced.

TPT has already been operating the station. 

The new name reflects the broader service area the three stations will now serve, including the municipalities of Austin, Minnesota and Rochester, Minnesota, as well as seven counties in the southern part of the state. KSMQ also reaches parts of Iowa.

Along with the new name, PBS Minnesota will also feature a new logo. 

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It retains the familiar PBS “everyman” icon, but does not use the bespoke PBS Sans typeface like some other PBS member stations and the national organization do.

Instead, the word “Minnesota” is set in a lighter version of Seasons Sans, the sans serif typeface the station currently uses on its website and other assets. It is paired with Seasons Serif, a coordinating serif option, although the newly-released logo does not incorporate the serif version so it is unclear if that will continue to be used.

The announcement of the new name also includes a “Your Home for Trusted Content” tagline set in both Seasons fonts.

The update represents a shift from the organization’s previous branding, which combined the PBS icon and a custom “TPT” mark alongside the words “Twin Cities PBS.”

This approach had the disadvantage of making it feel like there were three distinct logos combined into a single design. The logos also didn’t share many visual similarities, which further enhanced the multiple-logo effect.

Moving away from the “TPT” icon, which included a blue chevron-like shape atop it, also removes the outdated reference to its old name, “Twin Cities Public Television” (even under that name, the “C” for “cities” was omitted. 

The current website, at tpt.org, has been updated to include an announcement of the name change, with the new logo lockup used on top of the station’s existing palette, which includes blues, greens and teals — often through glowing gradients. It is not clear if these design elements will remain.