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KBDI-TV
KBDI-TV (channel 12), known as PBS12, is a PBS member television station licensed to Broomfield, Colorado, United States, serving the Denver area. The station is owned by Colorado Public Television, Inc. KBDI-TV's studios are located at Welton and 29th Streets in the Five Points neighborhood northeast of downtown Denver; its main transmitter is located atop Mestaa'ėhehe Mountain (just west of Evergreen, in Clear Creek County), and it is rebroadcast by translators throughout the Front Range and eastern Colorado. KBDI-TV serves as Colorado's secondary public television station to Rocky Mountain PBS with an emphasis on local and independent programming.
Channel 12 was originally assigned to Boulder, where the University of Colorado investigated but never moved to build a station on it. In 1977, the Front Range Educational Media Corporation filed to build the station in the nearby city of Broomfield. While the Federal Communications Commission approved the application, a series of reports in The Denver Post revealed that John Schwartz, the primary backer of the applicant, had engaged in impermissible salary kickbacks when he ran a fledgling public radio station in Pittsburgh. Denver's existing public TV station, KRMA-TV, launched an ultimately unsuccessful legal battle to stop KBDI-TV from being built, calling into question Schwartz's character and competition for programming and fundraising dollars.
An FCC rule change on station construction allowed KBDI-TV to go on air on February 22, 1980. It was rushed to air with little programming, amateurish production values, and myriad technical issues, among them a transmitter site that impaired coverage of Boulder. Over the decade, the station gained its identity as a public television station willing to screen independent, alternative shows—sometimes from controversial points of view—in contrast to the more mainstream KRMA. Notable local programs of the 1980s included Homemovies, which featured independent filmmakers and home videos, and FM-TV (later Teletunes), a music video series that lasted through the late 1990s. In 1988, KBDI-TV moved its studios from a cramped warehouse in Broomfield to Denver, where they have remained at several sites ever since.
In the 1990s, KBDI's willingness to air programming by and for Colorado's gay community earned it a loyal viewer and donor base, as well as criticism. Over the course of the 2000s, the station rebranded as Colorado Public Television, adopting its present PBS12 moniker in 2020. Supported by more than 9,000 members as of 2022, KBDI produces a variety of local programming. Most prominent are the station's long-running weekly public affairs series, Colorado Inside Out, and election coverage including the production of candidate debates.
Channel 12 was originally allocated to Boulder in 1952 as a non-commercial educational reserved channel. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the University of Colorado (CU), located in Boulder, investigated building a station to use the channel. Even though it had no plans for it by 1959, the university opted to set aside money in order to file an application and thus keep the channel available for future use. That year, CU instead used 2+1⁄2 hours of airtime a week on KRMA-TV (channel 6). The university planned channel 12 as the second phase of an introduction of educational TV, to be preceded by closed-circuit operation on the campus.
As Colorado considered various plans for a statewide educational television system, channel 12 remained in the university's plans. The CU Board of Regents unveiled a plan in 1962 to construct a station on channel 12 by 1964–65; the proposed station would be connected with KRMA-TV and channel 8 in Pueblo. A 1964 proposal for statewide educational TV envisioned channel 12 as a joint venture of CU, Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and Colorado State College (now the University of Northern Colorado) in Greeley. However, it was never activated, in part because of interference concerns with research facilities in Boulder such as those at CU and the National Bureau of Standards.
The Front Range Educational Media Corporation (FREMCO) applied to the Federal Communications Commission on March 17, 1977, to build Boulder's channel 12 as a station in nearby Broomfield. Broomfield was cited by Pat Burrows, the organization's treasurer, as a central site. The president of Front Range was John Schwartz, who had previously been general manager of WYEP-FM in Pittsburgh. The group proposed a heavy schedule of local programming, along with PBS shows; independently acquired programs; and what Schwartz called "experimental TV". On July 29, the FCC granted FREMCO a construction permit.
On August 28, 1977, Clark Secrest of The Denver Post published a front-page story calling into question Schwartz's job performance as general manager of WYEP-FM. It disclosed his involvement in salary kickbacks—the donation of the salary back to station operations—which were impermissible under Corporation for Public Broadcasting rules and revealed financial issues at the then-fledgling Pittsburgh radio outlet. Schwartz had no formal background in television. In the wake of The Post's reporting, Schwartz offered his resignation, which the board rejected.
KBDI-TV
KBDI-TV (channel 12), known as PBS12, is a PBS member television station licensed to Broomfield, Colorado, United States, serving the Denver area. The station is owned by Colorado Public Television, Inc. KBDI-TV's studios are located at Welton and 29th Streets in the Five Points neighborhood northeast of downtown Denver; its main transmitter is located atop Mestaa'ėhehe Mountain (just west of Evergreen, in Clear Creek County), and it is rebroadcast by translators throughout the Front Range and eastern Colorado. KBDI-TV serves as Colorado's secondary public television station to Rocky Mountain PBS with an emphasis on local and independent programming.
Channel 12 was originally assigned to Boulder, where the University of Colorado investigated but never moved to build a station on it. In 1977, the Front Range Educational Media Corporation filed to build the station in the nearby city of Broomfield. While the Federal Communications Commission approved the application, a series of reports in The Denver Post revealed that John Schwartz, the primary backer of the applicant, had engaged in impermissible salary kickbacks when he ran a fledgling public radio station in Pittsburgh. Denver's existing public TV station, KRMA-TV, launched an ultimately unsuccessful legal battle to stop KBDI-TV from being built, calling into question Schwartz's character and competition for programming and fundraising dollars.
An FCC rule change on station construction allowed KBDI-TV to go on air on February 22, 1980. It was rushed to air with little programming, amateurish production values, and myriad technical issues, among them a transmitter site that impaired coverage of Boulder. Over the decade, the station gained its identity as a public television station willing to screen independent, alternative shows—sometimes from controversial points of view—in contrast to the more mainstream KRMA. Notable local programs of the 1980s included Homemovies, which featured independent filmmakers and home videos, and FM-TV (later Teletunes), a music video series that lasted through the late 1990s. In 1988, KBDI-TV moved its studios from a cramped warehouse in Broomfield to Denver, where they have remained at several sites ever since.
In the 1990s, KBDI's willingness to air programming by and for Colorado's gay community earned it a loyal viewer and donor base, as well as criticism. Over the course of the 2000s, the station rebranded as Colorado Public Television, adopting its present PBS12 moniker in 2020. Supported by more than 9,000 members as of 2022, KBDI produces a variety of local programming. Most prominent are the station's long-running weekly public affairs series, Colorado Inside Out, and election coverage including the production of candidate debates.
Channel 12 was originally allocated to Boulder in 1952 as a non-commercial educational reserved channel. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the University of Colorado (CU), located in Boulder, investigated building a station to use the channel. Even though it had no plans for it by 1959, the university opted to set aside money in order to file an application and thus keep the channel available for future use. That year, CU instead used 2+1⁄2 hours of airtime a week on KRMA-TV (channel 6). The university planned channel 12 as the second phase of an introduction of educational TV, to be preceded by closed-circuit operation on the campus.
As Colorado considered various plans for a statewide educational television system, channel 12 remained in the university's plans. The CU Board of Regents unveiled a plan in 1962 to construct a station on channel 12 by 1964–65; the proposed station would be connected with KRMA-TV and channel 8 in Pueblo. A 1964 proposal for statewide educational TV envisioned channel 12 as a joint venture of CU, Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and Colorado State College (now the University of Northern Colorado) in Greeley. However, it was never activated, in part because of interference concerns with research facilities in Boulder such as those at CU and the National Bureau of Standards.
The Front Range Educational Media Corporation (FREMCO) applied to the Federal Communications Commission on March 17, 1977, to build Boulder's channel 12 as a station in nearby Broomfield. Broomfield was cited by Pat Burrows, the organization's treasurer, as a central site. The president of Front Range was John Schwartz, who had previously been general manager of WYEP-FM in Pittsburgh. The group proposed a heavy schedule of local programming, along with PBS shows; independently acquired programs; and what Schwartz called "experimental TV". On July 29, the FCC granted FREMCO a construction permit.
On August 28, 1977, Clark Secrest of The Denver Post published a front-page story calling into question Schwartz's job performance as general manager of WYEP-FM. It disclosed his involvement in salary kickbacks—the donation of the salary back to station operations—which were impermissible under Corporation for Public Broadcasting rules and revealed financial issues at the then-fledgling Pittsburgh radio outlet. Schwartz had no formal background in television. In the wake of The Post's reporting, Schwartz offered his resignation, which the board rejected.