WASHINGTON — KCET, the Los Angeles public television station that cancelled PBS programming last winter, is being watched closely by public broadcasting executives here as it charts a new course – as an independent public TV station that is also a regional production center.

KCET achieved surprising success with its spring post-PBS schedule of international news from the BBC and NHK, re-runs of cooking shows and a limited number of locally-produced programs: After initially losing half of its audience last winter, by May it was attracting more viewers than PBS station KOCE, which was running “Nova,” “Masterpiece,” and the rest of the PBS schedule.

But now, the station is creating a business and programming model unlike anything else in public television. KCET is becoming a major production center – without PBS. In two announcements last week, the station announced an ambitious series of regular and special locally-produced programs:

On Tuesday, KCET announced a $50 million partnership to produce local non-fiction programs with Eyetronics Media, a studio known primarily for its work in special effects. Five new local series will be in production by the end of 2011, according to a KCET announcement.

“The new shows will celebrate the vibrancy of Southern California’s people, places, and culture, as well as its history,” reads the KCET statement. “The initial slate includes programs that explore everything from the glitz of Hollywood entertainment and multi-cultural eateries to groundbreaking academic research and technological innovation.”

Then the next day, KCET announced Live @ the Ford, a series of arts performances from L.A.’s Ford Amphitheatre. The planned programs will feature the Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company, the fourth Annual J.U.i.C.E Hip Hop Dance Festival, the Angel City Jazz Festival, and Korean groups Last for One and Haegum Plus, according to the station’s announcement.

This follows last month’s announcement of another new half-hour arts series, “ARC,” that will cover four regular subjects – arts and cultural history, contemporary artists, arts and education, and arts and politics.

“We still need to raise more money to really go for it, but I think sometime in the fall you’ll see ‘ARC’ coming alive,” said Juan Devis, KCET’s director of production and program development, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. (Disclosure: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism is slated to be one of the producing partners for the new series.)

Other new, local programs already announced include:
– “L.A. Tonight with Roy Firestone,” a local interview program,
– “Global Watch,” a weekly foreign affairs broadcast, and
– “The Time to Care,” aimed at older audiences

Taken together with KCET’s continuing local programming, such as “California Connection,” the station will emerge as a major public TV production center. And that is not going unnoticed here in Washington.