Changes: Rocky Mountain PBS (KRMA)

Revision as of 00:43, 30 January 2020

KRMA, also known as Rocky Mountain PBS is a network of five PBS stations.

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", 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 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. With the merger, the corporate name was modified to Rocky Mountain Public Media. In November 2019, Rocky Mountain PBS received a new logo and changes their branding from "RMPBS" to "Rocky Mountain PBS."

Stations

Full Power Stations

Call signs	Location	CH	First Air Date
KRMA	Denver, CO	6	January 30, 1956
KTSC	Pueblo, CO	8	February 3, 1971
KRMZ	Steamboat Springs, CO	24	May 1988
KRMJ	Grand Junction, CO	18	January 1, 1997
KRMU	Durango, CO	20	December 3, 2004

Logo History

Coming soon

Gallery

TV stations in Colorado
Rocky Mountain PBS:	Other:
KRMA, Denver	KBDI, Denver
KTSC, Pueblo
KRMJ, Grand Junction
KRMU, Durango
KRMZ, Steamboat Springs

TV stations in the greater Denver area

KWGN 2 (CW)
KCDO 3 (Ind)
KCNC 4 (CBS)
K05MD-D 5 (SBN)
KRMA 6 (PBS)
KMGH 7 (ABC)
KZCO-LD 7 (ABC)
KUSA 9 (CBS)
KSBS-CD 10 (Light)
KBDI 12 (PBS)
KCEC 14 (UNI)
KBRO-LD 16 (Ind)
KTVD 20 (MNTV)
KFCT 22 (Fox)
KDEO-LD 23 (EWTN)
KRMZ 24 (PBS)
KDEN 25 (TLM)
KHDT-LD 26 (Movies)
KLPD-LD 28 (HSN)
KDVR 31 (Fox)
KQCK 33 (CTN)
K36DB-CD 36 (Outside)
KPJR 38 (TBN)
KRMT 41 (Daystar)
K45IE-D 45 (Outside)
KTFD 50 (UMas)
KETD 53 (ESTRELLA)
KPXC 59 (Ion)

TV stations inSouthern Colorado, including Colorado Springs and Pueblo
KOAA 5 (NBC) KTSC 8 (PBS) KKTV 11 (CBS) KRDO 13 (ABC) KXRM 21 (Fox) KSPK-LD 28 (AMGTV) KJCS-LD 38 (EWTN) KVSN 48 (UNI) KWHS-LD 51 (CTN) KXTU-LD 57 (CW)

TV stations in Western Colorado, including Grand Junction
KFQX 4 (Fox) KREX 5 (CBS) KJCT-LP 8 (ABC) KKCO 11 (NBC) KRMJ 18 (PBS) KGBY 20 (Cozi TV) K22JN-D 22 (Movies!) KGJT-CD 27 (MNTV)

TV stations in Albuquerque/Santa Fe, New Mexico and Durango, Colorado
KASA 2 (TLM) KOB 4 (NBC) KNME 5 (PBS) KOAT 7 (ABC) KOBR 8 (NBC) KNMD 9 (World) KCHF 11 (Ind) KRQE 13 (CBS) KLUZ 14 (UNI) KUPT-LD 16 (Movies!) KWBQ 19 (CW) KRMU 20 (PBS) KYNM-CD 21 (Antenna TV) KNAT 23 (TBN) KQDF-LP 25 (AZA) KRPV 27 (GLC) KUPT 29 (H&I) KAZQ 32 (Ind) KTVS-LD 36 (Light TV) K38IM 38 (3ABN) KRTN-LD 39 (MeTV) KTFQ 41.1 (UMas) KNMQ-LD 43 (Antenna TV) KTFA-LP 48 (HSN) KASY 50 (MNTV)

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