KRMZ
Channels
BrandingRocky Mountain PBS
Programming
Affiliations24.1: PBS
24.2: PBS Kids
24.3: Create
24.4: World
Ownership
OwnerRocky Mountain Public Media, Inc.
History
First air date
December 1987 (1987-12)
Former call signs
  • KSBS-TV (1987–2000)
  • KMAS-TV (2000–2007)
Former channel number(s)
Analog:
24 (UHF, 1987–2009)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID20373
ERP481 watts
HAAT175.2 m (575 ft)
Transmitter coordinates40°27′43″N 106°51′0″W / 40.46194°N 106.85000°W / 40.46194; -106.85000
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.rmpbs.org

KRMZ, virtual channel 24 (VHF digital channel 10), is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, United States. Owned by Rocky Mountain Public Media, Inc., it is one of the five full-service transmitters of the Rocky Mountain PBS state network, broadcasting from atop Quarry Mountain west of town. Master control and internal operations are based at Rocky Mountain PBS' headquarters in the Buell Public Media Center in downtown Denver.

KRMZ has been part of the Rocky Mountain PBS network since 2007. Prior to that, it was an independent television station based in Steamboat Springs, then a Telemundo affiliate which was seen in Denver on two low-power stations.

History

Early years

On May 5, 1986, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a construction permit to Constance J. Wodlinger for a new television station on channel 24 in Steamboat Springs. Wodlinger owned radio stations in the Kansas City market.[2] Channel 24 began broadcasting as an independent television station in the second half of December 1987, as KSBS-TV; Wodlinger was joined by several other investors in Steamboat Broadcast System, Inc., which owned the station, including president Thomas Greer.[3] Local programming on channel 24 at launch included Steamboat Breakfast Club, a daily morning show with news and features; a daily news program; and telecourses from Colorado Mountain College.[4] The station filled out its broadcast day with programs from the Satellite Program Network and music videos from Wodlinger-owned Hit Video USA.[5] Greer, who had previously produced a program called Ski TV which aired on ESPN, had plans to start similar stations in other Colorado ski cities.[5] The station sold itself to advertisers seeking to reach ski visitors, noting that it was the only television signal carried in some of the town's hotels.[6]

KSBS-TV was sold in 1991 to Frederick I. Shaffer III for $250,000.[7] Under Shaffer, KSBS-TV primarily broadcast tourist information programming and content from the Resort Sports Network.[8]

Going Telemundo

Another sale came in March 1995 to GreenTV Corporation, headed by David Drucker. Drucker's purchase marked the first connection between KSBS-TV and a Denver station, since he owned KUBD, Denver's Telemundo affiliate.[9] However, Drucker and his partner in Denver, Charlie Ergen, sold KUBD two months later to Paxson Communications Corporation.[10] Paxson immediately switched that station to the same Infomall TV infomercial programming used on its other stations.[11]

Telemundo moved from KUBD to KSBS-TV, which appeared on two translators in Denver—KMAS-LP (channel 63) and KSBS-LP (channel 18)—and also began a fight to get onto important cable systems in Denver for the first time using must-carry rules.[12] In 1997, TCI added KSBS to its Denver cable systems, replacing Galavisión.[13]

We always knew that large-scale Spanish broadcast is where we wanted to go, but the success of our Denver pilot was critical to get to the next step.

Steve Hillard, chief executive of Council Tree Communications, on buying a stake in Telemundo[14]

In 2000, KSBS-TV was purchased by Council Tree Communications of Longmont, in which one of the investors was an Alaska Native-owned corporation; the new owners changed the call letters to KMAS-TV for más, the Spanish word for "more".[15] Council Tree then deepened its involvement with Telemundo by making a $181 million investment in exchange for a 17 percent stake in the network—which still was a controlling stake because of ownership restrictions; the transaction also made KMAS-TV a network owned-and-operated station.[16] KMAS-TV then was sold along with the network to NBC in October 2001.[17]

From Telemundo to PBS

In 2006, Longmont Broadcasting sold its television station in that city, KDEN-TV (channel 25), to NBC, and Telemundo moved there from KMAS-TV and its two translators on March 6, a switch giving Telemundo signal parity with other Denver TV stations.[18] It was the third station purchase made by Telemundo in a year, after its purchase of KBLR-TV in Las Vegas and a license swap that gave Telemundo a full-power signal in Phoenix.[19]

The Steamboat Springs station was now surplus to NBC's needs, and it was taken silent. The chief engineer of KMAS-TV, a former Rocky Mountain PBS employee, suggested that the company donate the station to the public broadcaster.[20] After several visits to the site and the repair of the transmitter, the station returned to the air in August 2007 as KRMZ, the fifth full-service transmitter in the Rocky Mountain PBS network.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "Facility Technical Data for KRMZ". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ↑ "Colorado" (PDF). Television Factbook. 1987. p. A-1221. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  3. ↑ "KSBS-TV" (PDF). Television Factbook. 1990. p. A-195. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Channel 24 TV on the air". Steamboat Pilot. December 31, 1987. p. 7B. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  5. 1 2 Ross, Tom (December 10, 1987). "Channel 24 ushers in new age". Steamboat Pilot. p. 5A. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  6. ↑ "KSBS-TV-24 Steamboat Springs". Steamboat Pilot. September 1, 1988. p. 6E. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  7. ↑ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. February 3, 1992. p. 55. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  8. ↑ "The Navigator". Steamboat Pilot. September 30, 1993. p. 5D. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  9. ↑ "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. March 13, 1995. p. 63. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Channel 59 To Get New Owner: Florida Company Buying Denver Spanish-Language Station From Founders". Rocky Mountain News. May 9, 1995. p. 38A.
  11. ↑ Mehle, Michael (December 22, 1995). "'MusicLink' Links Up With Channel 12". Rocky Mountain News. p. 28D.
  12. ↑ "Memorandum Opinion & Order (DA 96-1020)". Federal Communications Commission. June 20, 1996. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  13. ↑ Cantwell, Rebecca (October 23, 1997). "TCI Pulls Plug On Galavision: Hispanics Upset That Mexico-Based Station No Longer Available". Rocky Mountain News. p. 1B.
  14. ↑ Neal, Shannon Joyce (August 27, 2000). "Council Tree sets sights on buying share of Telemundo". The Daily Sentinel. p. 1B. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  15. ↑ Caulk, Steve (April 15, 2000). "Spanish TV Station Sold". Rocky Mountain News. p. 4B.
  16. ↑ Schwab, Robert (August 15, 2000). "Council Tree network share to grow: Longmont firm plans to buy stake in Spanish-TV Telemundo". The Denver Post. p. C1.
  17. ↑ Linn, Allison (January 9, 2003). "Council Tree Deals Grow Money". Scripps-Howard News Service.
  18. ↑ "Telemundo grows broadcasting reach". Denver Business Journal. March 7, 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  19. ↑ "NBC's buying KDEN Denver for Telemundo". TVNewsCheck. January 19, 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  20. 1 2 Ross, Tom (November 9, 2007). "Public TV viewing made easy". Steamboat Pilot. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
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