KCWC-TV
Encyclopedia
Wyoming PBS is the Public Broadcasting Service
(PBS) member network
in the state of Wyoming
. It currently consists of flagship KCWC-TV, channel 4 in Riverton
(but licensed to Lander
); full-power satelites KWYP-TV, channel 8 in Laramie
and KPTW, channel 6 in Casper
; and 35 low-power translator stations across the state.
The network is owned by Central Wyoming College
, a community college
in Riverton, with studios located on the Central Wyoming College campus.
/public television station, doing so in 1951, three years before any television station was on the air in the state. However, due to numerous delays, it would be several years before the idea even got beyond the planning stages. In the meantime, KRMA-TV in Denver brought PBS programming to much of the state on cable
. Other parts of Wyoming were served by KTNE-TV in Alliance, Nebraska
, part of the Nebraska ETV Network
; and KUED
and KBYU-TV
in Salt Lake City. KRMA (now known as Rocky Mountain PBS
) and KUED still operate several translators in Wyoming, as much of the state is considered part of the Denver and Salt Lake City markets.
Central Wyoming College applied for the channel 4 license in Riverton in the late 1970s and had to fight a commercial station in nearby Casper to keep the channel designated as non-commercial. After securing the largest single federal grant for a public television station at the time, KCWC-TV finally went on the air on May 10, 1983. This made Wyoming the next-to-last state to get a public television station on the air within its borders; CWC filed just days before Montana State University
filed for KUSM
in Bozeman, Montana
; which went on the air over a year after KCWC.
Initially, KCWC's coverage was limited to the area around Riverton. Over the years, however, it built translator after translator across the state, bringing its signal to 85% of Wyoming. This wasn't as problematic as it may seem; this expansion effort was done largely in conjunction with the state's cable systems. Cable is all but essential for acceptable television in much of Wyoming. Sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s, it adopted the on-air name of Wyoming Public Television to reflect its statewide reach.
KWYP-TV signed on in 2004 to replace two translators that had served Laramie and Cheyenne
since the late 1980s.
KPTW signed on in March 2007 http://americanbandscan.blogspot.com/2007/03/new-low-band-vhf-tv-station.html.
On New Year's Day
2008, the state network rebranded as Wyoming PBS to celebrate its 25th anniversary on the air.
Notes:
Additionally, KCWC is carried on the Casper Dish Network
feed. For reasons that remain unknown, KWYP is not available on the Cheyenne Dish Network feed.
A full list of translators carrying programming can be obtained at the station's website here
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
(PBS) member network
State network
A State Network in the United States broadcasting industry is a term which refers to a miniature television network serving an entire state or multiple states...
in the state of Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
. It currently consists of flagship KCWC-TV, channel 4 in Riverton
Riverton, Wyoming
Riverton is a city in Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. It is both the largest city in the county and the largest within the historical boundaries of the Wind River Indian Reservation. The city's population was 9,310 at the 2000 census...
(but licensed to Lander
Lander, Wyoming
Lander is a city in, and the county seat of, Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. Named for transcontinental explorer Frederick W. Lander, Lander is located in central Wyoming, along the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River. A tourism center with several dude ranches nearby, Lander is located just...
); full-power satelites KWYP-TV, channel 8 in Laramie
Laramie, Wyoming
Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 30,816 at the . Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287....
and KPTW, channel 6 in Casper
Casper, Wyoming
Casper is the county seat of Natrona County, Wyoming, United States.. Casper is the second-largest city in Wyoming , according to the 2010 census, with a population of 55,316...
; and 35 low-power translator stations across the state.
The network is owned by Central Wyoming College
Central Wyoming College
Central Wyoming College is a comprehensive American community college located in Riverton, Wyoming. The college includes off-campus sites in Wyoming at Jackson, Lander, Thermopolis , Dubois and the Wind River Indian Reservation. It also provides internet classes. The institution offers 2-year...
, a community college
Community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...
in Riverton, with studios located on the Central Wyoming College campus.
History
Wyoming had been among the first states to begin the groundwork for a non-commercial educationalNon-commercial educational
The term non-commercial educational applies to a radio station or TV station that does not accept on air advertisements , as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission . NCE stations do not pay broadcast license fees for their non-profit uses of the radio spectrum...
/public television station, doing so in 1951, three years before any television station was on the air in the state. However, due to numerous delays, it would be several years before the idea even got beyond the planning stages. In the meantime, KRMA-TV in Denver brought PBS programming to much of the state on cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
. Other parts of Wyoming were served by KTNE-TV in Alliance, Nebraska
Alliance, Nebraska
-External links:* * *...
, part of the Nebraska ETV Network
Nebraska Educational Telecommunications
Nebraska Educational Telecommunications is a state network of non-commercial educational public broadcasting radio and television stations in Nebraska and is based in Lincoln. It is operated by the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission...
; and KUED
KUED
KUED is full-service Public Broadcasting Service public television located in Salt Lake City, Utah, broadcasting locally in digital-only on UHF channel 42. It is one of two PBS member stations serving the Salt Lake City, Utah metropolitan area...
and KBYU-TV
KBYU-TV
KBYU-TV is a Public Broadcasting Service member public television station serving the U.S. state of Utah. The station broadcasts locally in digital-only on UHF channel 44, which redirects to its former analog channel 11 via PSIP. It is rebroadcast statewide through a network of translators...
in Salt Lake City. KRMA (now known as Rocky Mountain PBS
Rocky Mountain PBS
The Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Network, known on-air as Rocky Mountain PBS, is the Public Broadcasting Service member non-commercial educational Public television station in Colorado. It reaches one million viewers in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico...
) and KUED still operate several translators in Wyoming, as much of the state is considered part of the Denver and Salt Lake City markets.
Montana State University - Bozeman
Montana State University – Bozeman is a public university located in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's land-grant university and primary campus in the Montana State University System, which is part of the Montana University System...
filed for KUSM
KUSM
Montana PBS is the Public Broadcasting Service member Public television state network for Montana. It is a joint venture between Montana State University and the University of Montana-Missoula...
in Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The 2010 census put Bozeman's population at 37,280 making it the fourth largest city in the state. It is the principal city of the Bozeman micropolitan area, which consists...
; which went on the air over a year after KCWC.
Initially, KCWC's coverage was limited to the area around Riverton. Over the years, however, it built translator after translator across the state, bringing its signal to 85% of Wyoming. This wasn't as problematic as it may seem; this expansion effort was done largely in conjunction with the state's cable systems. Cable is all but essential for acceptable television in much of Wyoming. Sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s, it adopted the on-air name of Wyoming Public Television to reflect its statewide reach.
KWYP-TV signed on in 2004 to replace two translators that had served Laramie and Cheyenne
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
since the late 1980s.
KPTW signed on in March 2007 http://americanbandscan.blogspot.com/2007/03/new-low-band-vhf-tv-station.html.
On New Year's Day
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
2008, the state network rebranded as Wyoming PBS to celebrate its 25th anniversary on the air.
Stations
| Station | City of license City of license A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.... (other cities served) |
Channels Channel (broadcasting) In broadcasting, a channel is a range of frequencies assigned by a government for the operation of a particular radio station, television station or television channel. In common usage, the term also may be used to refer to the station operating on a particular frequency.-See also:*Broadcast... TV Virtual channel In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels.... / DT Digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals... |
First air date | Call letters’ meaning Call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations... |
ERP Effective radiated power In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains... |
HAAT Height above average terrain Height above average terrain is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is actually much more important than effective radiated power in determining the range of broadcasts... |
Facility ID Facility ID The facility ID number or FIN is a unique positive integer assigned by the United States Federal Communications Commission to each domestic and international broadcast station in its Common Database System . Licensees are required to provide the relevant station's FIN when filing reports and... |
Transmitter Coordinates |
| KCWC-DT | Lander Lander, Wyoming Lander is a city in, and the county seat of, Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. Named for transcontinental explorer Frederick W. Lander, Lander is located in central Wyoming, along the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River. A tourism center with several dude ranches nearby, Lander is located just... (Riverton Riverton, Wyoming Riverton is a city in Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. It is both the largest city in the county and the largest within the historical boundaries of the Wind River Indian Reservation. The city's population was 9,310 at the 2000 census... ) |
4 (PSIP Program and System Information Protocol The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch... ) 8 (VHF Very high frequency Very high frequency is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted High frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Ultra high frequency... ) |
May 10, 1983 | Central Wyoming College |
60 kW | 432 m | 10036 | 42°34′57.5"N 108°42′35.7"W |
| KWYP-DT1 | Laramie Laramie, Wyoming Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 30,816 at the . Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287.... (Cheyenne Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the... ) |
8 (PSIP) 8 (VHF) |
November 2004 | WYoming Public Television |
13 kW | 308 m | 10032 | 41°17′16.7"N 105°26′44.5"W |
| KPTW1 | Casper Casper, Wyoming Casper is the county seat of Natrona County, Wyoming, United States.. Casper is the second-largest city in Wyoming , according to the 2010 census, with a population of 55,316... |
6 (PSIP) 8 (VHF) |
March 2007 | Public Television Wyoming |
2.3 kW | 568 m | 82575 | 42°44′25.7"N 106°21′36.7"W |
Notes:
- 1. Because they were granted original construction permitConstruction permitA construction permit or building permit is a permit required in most jurisdictions for new construction, or adding on to pre-existing structures, and in some cases for major renovations. Generally, the new construction must be inspected during construction and after completion to ensure compliance...
s after the FCCFederal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
finalized the DTVDigital televisionDigital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
allotment plan on April 21, 1997 http://www.transmitter.com/FCC97115/chanplan.html, these stations did not receive companion channels for digital television stationTelevision stationA television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
s. Instead, on June 12, 2009, which was the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, KWYP-TV and KPTW were to be required to turn off their analog signalAnalog signalAn analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the time varying feature of the signal is a representation of some other time varying quantity, i.e., analogous to another time varying signal. It differs from a digital signal in terms of small fluctuations in the signal which are...
s and turn on their digital signalDigital signalA digital signal is a physical signal that is a representation of a sequence of discrete values , for example of an arbitrary bit stream, or of a digitized analog signal...
s (called a "flash-cutFlash-cutA flash-cut, also called flash-cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period.Some telephone area codes were split immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive dialing period. An example is telephone area code 213, which was split into 213 and 714 all at...
"). KPTW however, did change channels to 8 instead of 6.
Additionally, KCWC is carried on the Casper Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
feed. For reasons that remain unknown, KWYP is not available on the Cheyenne Dish Network feed.
Repeaters
Wyoming PBS operates a network of low-power translator stations across the state of Wyoming--one of the largest translator networks in the PBS system.- BasinBasin, WyomingBasin is a town in, and the county seat of, Big Horn County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 1,239 at the 2000 census. The community is located near the center of the Bighorn Basin with the Big Horn River east of the town...
— K41KM-D - Big PineyBig Piney, WyomingBig Piney is a town in Sublette County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 408 at the 2000 census.-History:Big Piney is the oldest settlement in Sublette County. It was founded in 1879, when rancher Daniel B...
— K24DA - BuffaloBuffalo, WyomingBuffalo is a city in Johnson County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 3,900 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Johnson County...
— K19GX-D - CasperCasper, WyomingCasper is the county seat of Natrona County, Wyoming, United States.. Casper is the second-largest city in Wyoming , according to the 2010 census, with a population of 55,316...
— K47MW-D - ClarkClark, WyomingClark, Wyoming is a small rural community approximately 30 miles north of Cody, WY on Hwy 120, in Park County, Wyoming. Clark is unincorporated, and has no specific central "town site" per se, or town services...
— K07QA - Clarks Fork — K02LH
- CodyCody, WyomingCody is a city in Park County, Wyoming, United States. It is named after William Frederick Cody, primarily known as Buffalo Bill, from William Cody's part in the creation of the original town. The population was 9,520 at the 2010 census...
— K49AI - DuboisDubois, WyomingDubois is a town in Fremont County, Wyoming. The population was 962 at the 2000 census, although it nearly doubles in the summer with many part-time residents.-Geography:...
— K25AU - EvanstonEvanston, WyomingEvanston is a city in Uinta County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 12,359 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Uinta County.-Geography:Evanston is located at...
— K23DS, K54EH - Freedom — K31DC
- GilletteGillette, WyomingGillette is a city in and the county seat of Campbell County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 29,087 in 2010. Gillette is a city centrally located in an area involved with the development of vast quantities of American coal, oil, and coal bed methane gas...
— K28CH - GreybullGreybull, WyomingGreybull is a town in Big Horn County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 1,815 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Greybull is located at ....
— K50JC - Lyman/Mountain View — K47MD-D
- JacksonJackson, WyomingJackson is a town located in the Jackson Hole valley of Teton County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 8,647 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Teton County....
— K50BL - North Fork — K07RS
- PinedalePinedale, WyomingPinedale is a town in and the county seat of Sublette County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 1,412 at the 2000 census. Pinedale is an important hunting outfitting town and a gateway to the Wind River Mountains. It is also a major gateway to the Jackson Hole area in Wyoming. Pinedale is...
— K14IL - RawlinsRawlins, WyomingRawlins is a city in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 8,538 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Carbon County...
— K51IZ-D - Rock SpringsRock Springs, WyomingRock Springs is a city in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 18,708 at the 2000 census. Rock Springs is the principal city of the Rock Springs micropolitan statistical area, which has a population of 37,975....
— K28DU-D - SaratogaSaratoga, WyomingSaratoga is a town in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 1,736 at the 2000 census.Saratoga is the home of the Steinley Cup microbrew competition, usually held in August at Veterans Island Park, a playground and picnic facility located on a small island in the North Platte...
— K09OC - SheridanSheridan, WyomingSheridan is a city in Sheridan County, Wyoming, United States. The 2010 census put the population at 17,444 and a Micropolitan Statistical Area of 29,116...
— K15HK-D - ShoshoniShoshoni, WyomingShoshoni is a town in Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 635 at the 2000 census. The town is named for the Shoshone tribe of Native Americans, most of whom live on the nearby Wind River Indian Reservation...
— K42ER - South Fork — K11GG
- Sunlight Basin — K11QL
- Teton VillageTeton Village, WyomingTeton Village is a census-designated place in Teton County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 175 at the 2000 census. The village surrounds the base of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort...
— K19FG, K25ID
A full list of translators carrying programming can be obtained at the station's website here