KBDI-TV

KBDI-TV

Broomfield/Denver, Colorado
Branding	Colorado Public Television
Slogan	World View, Community Voice
Channels	Digital: 13 (VHF)
Subchannels	(see article)
Translators	(see article)
Affiliations	PBS
Owner	Colorado Public Television, Inc.
First air date	February 22, 1980
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 12 (VHF, 1980-2009)
Transmitter power	33.6 kW
Height	738 m
Facility ID	22685
Transmitter coordinates	39°40′55″N 105°29′51″W / 39.68194°N 105.4975°W / 39.68194; -105.4975
Website	cpt12.org

KBDI-TV, known as Colorado Public Television or CPT12, is a PBS member television station in Denver, Colorado. The station is licensed to Broomfield, with studios in the Five Points neighborhood just northeast of downtown Denver. It broadcasts a digital signal on channel 13, which remaps to channel 12 (the former analog channel) via PSIP. Its transmitting antenna is located at 3508 m (11,509 ft) on Squaw Mountain,^[1] just west of Evergreen in Clear Creek County, which makes it the highest full-power television transmitting antenna in the United States.^{[citation needed]} The station also operates low-powered translators in Boulder and Colorado Springs, and has gained cable viewership on the Western Slope. KBDI reaches over 80% of Colorado's population.^[2] KBDI does not yet broadcast in high definition.

Translators

• K11QJ Boulder
• K14JZ-D Peetz
• K31IQ-D Sterling
• K31KM-D Colorado Springs
• K49EX-D Anton

Digital television

Channel	Name	Programming
12.1	KBDI-DT	Main KBDI programming / PBS
12.2	KBDI+	PBS Encore
12.3	KBDI-WV	MHz Worldview

History

KBDI was founded by small group of founders whose organisation, the Front Range Educational Media Corporation (FREMCO), applied for the Channel 12 license. Later the same year, the FCC granted the license to FREMCO and in February 1977, Channel 12 went on the air, initially broadcasting from a garage and using a juice can as a transmitting antenna. KBDI was one of two reserved, "non-commercial, educational" VHF frequencies that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated to the metro Denver area (KRMA-TV channel 6 was the other). The channel 12 slot was originally intended only for University of Colorado at Boulder, but was assigned to Broomfield-based FREMCO when the FCC’s plans for a Boulder-only station fell through.

In 1989, KBDI moved its offices and studios to Denver, and again in 1994 to its current Denver location in the Five Points neighborhood at the new Five Points Media Center, which KBDI shares with two other community media organizations.^[who?] KBDI purchased the media center outright in 2006.

In the late 1990s, with the station expanding statewide through its network of low-powered repeaters and cable systems, KBDI phased out its usage of call letters for its branding and started identifying themselves as "Colorado Public Television", with KBDI still used for legal station identification, per FCC regulations.

Topographic Issues in a Mountainous Region

The station's transmitter is located 16 miles due west of the western edge of the Denver metro area (as measured from State Highway C470 near Morrison). Several peaks of significant height exist between the antenna and the metro area, most notably Mount Morrison (7881 ft), Green Mountain (6856 ft), and Lookout Mountain (7581 ft). These peaks interrupt the clear line of sight from the antenna and create a coverage "shadow" for a significant part of the west metro suburbs, particularly Lakewood and Golden. The switch to VHF channel 13 in June 2009 did not address the coverage shadow, because the antenna location will remain the same. The 40% boost in power will improve digital signal strength to current viewers and it will extend the reach of the station's signal to more distant locations that have line-of-sight access to Squaw Mountain.

Staff

• President & CEO: Willard D. "Wick" Rowland, Jr.
• Chief Operating Officer: Kim Johnson
• Director of Membership: Shari Bernson
• Director of Programming: Brad Haug
• Director of Production: Dominic Dezzutti
• Director of Marketing & Communications: Pamela Osborne
• Major Gifts Officer: Tamara Durstine

References

1. ^ FCC TV Station Database
2. ^ About Us (Official site)

External links

• Official site
• KBDI-TV on Facebook
• ColoPublicTV on Twitter
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KBDI-TV
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K11QJ
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K14JZ-D
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K31IQ-D
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K31KM-D
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K49EX-D
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KBDI-TV