Rocky Mountain PBS

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from KRMA)

Template:Short description

Page Module:Message box/ambox.css has no content.

Template:DMCA

Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.

Rocky Mountain PBS
TypeNon-commercial educational broadcast television network
BrandingRocky Mountain PBS
Country
United States
First air date
Script error: No such module "Date time".
Broadcast area
statewide Colorado
OwnerRocky Mountain Public Media, Inc.
see § Stations
KUVO
AffiliationTemplate:Pluralize from textPage Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
NET (1956–1970)
Official website
www.rmpbs.org

Rocky Mountain PBS (RMPBS) is a network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. state of Colorado. Headquartered in Denver, it is operated by Rocky Mountain Public Media, Inc., a non-profit organization which holds the licenses for most of the PBS member stations licensed in the state, with the exception of KBDI-TV (channel 12) in Broomfield, which serves as the Denver market's secondary (or "beta") PBS station through the network's Program Differentiation Plan. The network comprises four full-power stations—flagship station KRMA-TV (channel 6) in Denver and satellites KTSC (channel 8) in Pueblo (also serving Colorado Springs), KRMJ (channel 18) in Grand Junction and KRMU (channel 20) in Durango. The broadcast signals of the four full-power stations and 60 translators cover almost all of the state, as well as parts of Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and New Mexico.

The network's offices and network operations center are located at the Buell Public Media Center on Arapahoe Street in Denver's Five Points section. KRMJ and KTSC maintain their own respective studio facilities: KRMJ is based at the Kephart Fine Arts Building on the campus of Colorado Mesa University on Bunting Avenue in Grand Junction, while KTSC operates from the Buell Communications Center on the campus of Colorado State University–Pueblo on Bonforte Boulevard in downtown Pueblo. Rocky Mountain Public Media also operates a public radio station, NPR and jazz outlet KUVO (89.3 FM) in Denver, which joined the organization in a merger announced in January 2013.

History

The network's flagship station, KRMA-TV (channel 6) in Denver, first signed on the air on January 30, 1956, as an educational television station owned by the Denver Public Schools, with University of Denver instructor Jim Case serving as its program director. It is the oldest public television station in the Rocky Mountains. Its original studio facility was located in a converted body shop at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School in downtown Denver. The station was originally a member of National 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 every cable television system 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 of ABC affiliate KUSA-TV (channel 9, now an NBC affiliate); 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 the Western Slope, KRMA applied for and was awarded a construction permit by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate a station on UHF channel 18 in Grand Junction in 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" (RMPBS), 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) in Steamboat Springs. KMAS had served as the Telemundo station 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) and KSBS-LP (channel 10). However, its status was placed in doubt when NBC Universal purchased KDEN-TV (channel 25) and converted it into a Telemundo owned-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 to KRMZ, reflecting its identity as a Rocky Mountain PBS station.

On January 16, 2013, it was announced that the non-profit investigative journalism organization I-News Network and public radio station KUVO (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 formatted The Drop.

In January 2026, Rocky Mountain Public Media filed to sell KRMZ for $200,000 to Atlanta-based Syncom Media Group, which owns four low-power TV stations in Denver.[2] The FCC granted the assignment on March 9, 2026, reducing the network to four full-power stations.[3]

Programming

Rocky Mountain PBS produces several local programs, such as the weekly Colorado State of Mind, Arts District and the seasonal Colorado 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 as La Raza de Colorado, Jewel of the Rockies, The Arkansas River: From Leadville to Lamar and Urban Rez have earned multiple Emmy Awards over 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 and underwriting. KRMU is a full-time satellite of KRMJ. KRMZ was a full-time satellite of KRMA until its sale in 2026. 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.[4][5]

Stations

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) 		Script error: No such module "Date time". Knowledge for the Rocky Mountain Area NET (1956–1970) 115 kW 331 m (1,086 ft) 14040 Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. Template:FCC-TV-Station-profile
Template:FCC-LMS-Facility
KTSC1 Pueblo
(Colorado Springs) 		8
8 (VHF) 		Script error: No such module "Date time".1 Television for Southern Colorado 22.4 kW 720 m (2,362 ft) 69170 Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. Template:FCC-TV-Station-profile
Template:FCC-LMS-Facility
KRMJ Grand Junction 18
18 (UHF) 		Script error: No such module "Date time". KRMA Grand Junction 17.7 kW 409 m (1,342 ft) 14042 Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. Template:FCC-TV-Station-profile
Template:FCC-LMS-Facility
KRMU Durango
(Farmington, NM) 		20
20 (UHF) 		Script error: No such module "Date time". KRMA Durango 12.6 kW 130 m (427 ft) 84224 Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. Template:FCC-TV-Station-profile
Template:FCC-LMS-Facility

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.

Subchannels

The signals of Rocky Mountain PBS' stations are multiplexed:

Rocky Mountain PBS subchannels[6]
Channel Res. Short name Programming
xx.1 1080i xxxx-DT PBS
xx.2 480i Kids PBS Kids
xx.3 Create Create
xx.4 World World

Analog-to-digital conversion

During 2009, in the lead-up to the analog-to-digital television transition that 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:[7]

  • KRMA-TV ended programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 18, using virtual channel 6. As part of the SAFER Act,[8] KRMA kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National 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.

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

In addition to its four full-service television stations, Rocky Mountain PBS operates one of the largest translator networks in the country, serving portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska and Utah. KRMA feeds two translators in Boulder and Fort 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

References

Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.

  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ostrow, Joanne (January 15, 2013). "RMPBS, KUVO and I-News merge, redefining Colorado public media". Denver Post. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."#288371 Assignment". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. January 28, 2026.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Report No. PN-2-260311-01: Broadcast Actions" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. March 11, 2026. p. 4.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Request for Main Studio Waiver - KRMU". Federal Communications Commission. July 8, 2005. Retrieved May 1, 2007.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Request for Main Studio Waiver - KMAS". Federal Communications Commission. November 21, 2006. Retrieved May 1, 2007.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Stations for Owner - Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."UPDATED List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. June 12, 2009. Retrieved June 4, 2012.

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Template:Colorado Springs/Pueblo TV Template:Grand Junction/Montrose TV Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found.

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Authority control/config' not found.

Retrieved from "https://cosmopedia.co/index.php?title=Rocky_Mountain_PBS&oldid=563484"