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Rocky Mountain PBS
TypeNon-commercial educationalbroadcast televisionnetwork
BrandingRocky Mountain PBS
Country
United States
First air date
January 20, 1956(68 years ago)(1956-01-20)
Broadcast area
statewideColorado
OwnerRocky Mountain Public Media, Inc.
see§ Stations
KUVO
Affiliation(s)
NET(1956–1970)
Official website
www.rmpbs.org

Rocky Mountain PBSis a network ofPBSmembertelevision stationsserving theU.S. stateofColorado.Headquartered inDenver,it is operated by Rocky Mountain Public Media, Inc., anon-profit organizationwhich holds thelicensesfor most of the PBS member stations licensed in the state, with the exception ofKBDI-TV(channel 12) inBroomfield,which serves as the Denvermarket's secondary (or "beta" ) PBS station through the network's Program Differentiation Plan. The network comprises five full-power stations—flagship stationKRMA-TV(channel 6) in Denver andsatellitesKTSC(channel 8) inPueblo(also servingColorado Springs),KRMJ(channel 18) inGrand Junction,KRMU(channel 20) inDurangoandKRMZ(channel 24) inSteamboat Springs.The broadcast signals of the five full-power stations and 60translatorscover almost all of the state, as well as parts ofWyoming,Montana,NebraskaandNew Mexico.

The network's offices and network operations center are located at the Buell Public Media Center on Arapahoe Street in Denver'sFive Pointssection. KRMJ and KTSC maintain their own respective studio facilities: KRMJ is based atColorado Mesa Universityin Grand Junction, while KTSC operates from the campus ofColorado State University–Pueblo.Rocky Mountain Public Media also operates apublic radiostation,NPRandjazzoutletKUVO(89.3 FM) in Denver, which joined the organization in a merger announced in January 2013.

History

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The network's flagship station, KRMA-TV (channel 6) in Denver, first signed on the air on January 30, 1956, as aneducational televisionstation owned by theDenver Public Schools,withUniversity of DenverinstructorJim Caseserving as its program director. It is the oldest public television station in theRocky Mountains.Its original studio facility was located in a converted body shop at theEmily Griffith Opportunity Schoolin downtown Denver. The station was originally a member ofNational Educational Television(NET), before becoming a member of PBS when it launched on October 6, 1970.

Originally broadcasting only two hours of programming a day during the week, KRMA soon became a key PBS member, distributing PBS programming to many areas in the Rocky Mountain region that did not have educational stations of their own. From the 1960s onward, it began building translators across Colorado and surrounding states. It was also carried by nearly everycable televisionsystem in Colorado and eastern Wyoming. Denver Public Schools sold KRMA to the community group Channel Six, Inc. in 1987. In 1992, KRMA moved its operations into a studio facility on Bannock Street in Denver's Civic Center neighborhood, which formerly housed the operations ofABCaffiliateKUSA-TV(channel 9, now anNBCaffiliate); that station moved to a new facility located on Speer Boulevard before KRMA moved into the Bannock Street facility.

In response to requests from viewers on theWestern Slope,KRMA applied for and was awarded aconstruction permitby theFederal Communications Commission(FCC) to operate a station onUHFchannel 18 inGrand Junctionin August 1995. That station signed on the air on January 1, 1997, as KRMJ. Prior to that station's launch, KRMA had been available on cable in western Colorado for decades. It still operates a number of translators in the area. Soon afterward, KRMA dropped its longtime "Six" branding and relaunched as "Rocky Mountain PBS", while Channel Six, Inc. changed its name to the Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Network.

In 1999,KTSC(channel 8) in Pueblo joined the network after it was sold by the University of Southern Colorado (now CSU-Pueblo). The station had originally operated as a separate PBS station for Pueblo, Colorado Springs and southern Colorado from its sign-on on February 3, 1971. Until KRMJ's sign-on, KRMA and KTSC had been the only full PBS members in Colorado (as mentioned above, Denver's KBDI is a "beta" PBS member).

On December 3, 2004, KRMU (channel 20) in Durango signed on to serve southwestern Colorado and a small portion of northwestern New Mexico. When KRMU received its license in 2001, it was the first television station in the United States to operate a digital signal without a companion analog channel assignment.

On February 2, 2007, Rocky Mountain PBS added its fifth full-service station and its second station in western Colorado, KMAS-TV (channel 24) inSteamboat Springs.KMAS had served as theTelemundostation for the Denver market prior to joining RMPBS, and brought its programming into Denver itself by way of two low-powered repeater stations—KMAS-LP(channel 33) andKSBS-LP(channel 10). However, its status was placed in doubt whenNBC UniversalpurchasedKDEN-TV(channel 25) and converted it into a Telemundoowned-and-operated station.NBC Universal finally decided to donate the KMAS-TV license and transmitter to Rocky Mountain PBS. On September 4, 2007, the station's call letters were changed toKRMZ,reflecting its identity as a Rocky Mountain PBS station.

On January 16, 2013, it was announced that the non-profitinvestigative journalismorganization I-News Network and public radio stationKUVO(89.3 FM) had reached an agreement to merge with Rocky Mountain PBS. The merger is intended to broaden the reach of their content to new platforms and ensure formal collaboration between the outlets. The deal was expected to close in April 2013.[1]With the merger, the corporate name was modified to Rocky Mountain Public Media.

In 2020, RMPBS moved out of the Bannock Street facility and into the new Buell Studios building which also house radio stations KUVO and Urban Alternative formattedThe Drop.

Programming

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Rocky Mountain PBS produces several local programs, such as the weeklyColorado State of Mind,Arts Districtand the seasonalColorado Experience.However, the network has focused much of its production efforts on local documentaries, which often take months or years to produce. Many of these documentaries (such asLa Raza de Colorado,Jewel of the Rockies,The Arkansas River: From Leadville to LamarandUrban Rezhave earned multipleEmmy Awardsover the years.

Satellite stations KRMJ and KTSC occasionally break away from the KRMA feed to provide programming targeted for their respective communities, and each station airs separate local promotions andunderwriting.KRMU is a full-time satellite of KRMJ, while KRMZ is a full-time satellite of KRMA. Citing costs at each station, Rocky Mountain PBS applied for and received waivers of the FCC's main studio rule, which requires that each full-service station maintain a main studio within its local service area.[2][3]

Stations

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Station City of license
(Other cities served) 		Channels
VC/RF 		First air date Call letters'
meaning 		Former affiliations ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates Public license information
KRMA-TV Denver 6
33 (UHF) 		January 30, 1956(68 years ago)(1956-01-30) Knowledge for the Rocky Mountain Area NET(1956–1970) 115kW 331 m (1,086 ft) 14040 39°40′17.4″N105°13′8″W/ 39.671500°N 105.21889°W/39.671500; -105.21889(KRMA-TV) Public file
LMS
KTSC1 Pueblo
(Colorado Springs) 		8
8 (VHF) 		February 3, 1971(53 years ago)(1971-02-03)1 Television for Southern Colorado 22.4 kW 720 m (2,362 ft) 69170 38°44′43″N104°51′39″W/ 38.74528°N 104.86083°W/38.74528; -104.86083(KTSC) Public file
LMS
KRMJ Grand Junction 18
18 (UHF) 		January 1, 1997(27 years ago)(1997-01-01) KRMA Grand Junction 17.7 kW 409 m (1,342 ft) 14042 39°3′58.4″N108°44′45.7″W/ 39.066222°N 108.746028°W/39.066222; -108.746028(KRMJ) Public file
LMS
KRMU Durango
(Farmington, NM) 		20
20 (UHF) 		December 3, 2004(19 years ago)(2004-12-03) KRMA Durango 12.6 kW 130 m (427 ft) 84224 37°15′46″N107°53′58″W/ 37.26278°N 107.89944°W/37.26278; -107.89944(KRMU) Public file
LMS
KRMZ2, 3 Steamboat Springs 24
10 (VHF) 		May 1988(36 years ago)(1988-05) Disambiguation of KRMA Telemundo(until 2007) 0.481 kW 175.2 m (575 ft) 20373 40°27′43.2″N106°50′59.8″W/ 40.462000°N 106.849944°W/40.462000; -106.849944(KRMZ) Public file
LMS

Notes:

  • 1. KTSC joined RMPBS in 1999 and also covers Colorado Springs. "SC" could stand for either Southern Colorado or State College. Southern Colorado State College was CSU-Pueblo's name at the time the station signed on.
  • 2. KRMZ used the callsigns KSBS-TV from 1988 to 2000, and KMAS-TV from 2000 to 2007.
  • 3. KRMZ (then KMAS-TV) joined RMPBS in 2007.

Subchannels

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The digital signals of Rocky Mountain PBS' stations aremultiplexed:

Rocky Mountain PBS subchannels[4]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
xx.1 1080i 16:9 xxxx-DT Main RMPBS programming /PBS
xx.2 480i Kids PBS Kids
xx.3 Create Create
xx.4 World World

Analog-to-digital conversion

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During 2009, in the lead-up to theanalog-to-digital television transitionthat would ultimately occur on June 12, Rocky Mountain PBS shut down the analog transmitters of its stations on a staggered basis. Listed below are the dates each analog transmitter ceased operations as well as their post-transition channel allocations:[5]

  • KRMA-TV shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 6, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionUHFchannel 18, usingvirtual channel6. As part of theSAFER Act,[6]KRMA kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of thedigital television transitionthrough a loop ofpublic service announcementsfrom theNational Association of Broadcasters.
  • KTSC shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, on June 12, 2009. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 26 to VHF channel 8 for post-transition operations.
  • KRMJ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 18, on June 12, 2009. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 17 to channel 18 for post-transition operations.
  • KRMZ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 24, on February 17, 2009, the original date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 10, using virtual channel 24.

KRMU signed on in December 2004 as a digital-only station, although it also had endured a temporary shutdown in early 2009 in final preparation for the transition.

Translators

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In addition to its five full-service television stations, Rocky Mountain PBS operates one of the largest translator networks in the country, serving portions of Colorado, Wyoming,Kansas,Nebraska andUtah.KRMA feeds two translators inBoulderandFort Collins.KTSC feeds 10 translators in rural southern Colorado, and KRMJ feeds 13 translators serving rural western Colorado. The other translators are operated by community groups that pick up one of the three Rocky Mountain PBS regional feeds, and carry the signals onward through their systems.

All 25 translators within the RMPBS system operate as digital signals, and as such carry the primary channel and two subchannels from their respective parent transmitters.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Ostrow, Joanne (January 15, 2013)."RMPBS, KUVO and I-News merge, redefining Colorado public media".Denver Post.RetrievedJanuary 16,2013.
  2. ^"Request for Main Studio Waiver - KRMU".Federal Communications Commission.July 8, 2005.RetrievedMay 1,2007.
  3. ^"Request for Main Studio Waiver - KMAS".Federal Communications Commission.November 21, 2006.RetrievedMay 1,2007.
  4. ^"Stations for Owner - Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting".RabbitEars.Info.RetrievedFebruary 14,2017.
  5. ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds"(PDF).RetrievedMarch 24,2012.
  6. ^"UPDATED List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program"(PDF).Federal Communications Commission. June 12, 2009.RetrievedJune 4,2012.
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