Durango wants to secede from the Albuquerque DMA

[Samantha 2878]

Durango, Colorado, residents have apparently had enough of Albuquerque television.

 

Citing an inability to get news about their state, a hard time getting Broncos games and "if it bleeds, it leads" journalism from New Mexico's television stations, a movement has sprouted to try and move Durango into the Denver market. Yesterday FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Senator Mark Udall met in Durango to discuss the situation. Roadblocks mostly consist of the New Mexico stations, who would stand to lose advertising revenue, and Nielsen. One Durango resident said this:

 

“I know everything about what goes on in New Mexico. I don’t know anything about what goes on in Colorado,” she said. “I know everything about the governor of New Mexico. I don’t know anything about the governor of Colorado. When it comes to elections, I don’t even know who to vote for. You’d think the politicians would want us to know who they are so we can vote for them.”

 

The general consensus seemed to be that legislation would be necessary to resolve the issue.

 

It should be noted here that KRQE has a full-power satellite in Durango (KREZ, which it bought from KREX in Grand Junction in 1995). Other stations in Durango:

• KRTN, a fringe-market full-power associated with an Albuquerque LPTV that broadcasts Me-TV;
  
• KRMU, a transmitter of Rocky Mountain PBS;
  
• Two low-power stations owned by Randall and Adrienne Weiss (dba EICB-TV East LLC);
  
• A translator of KOB;
  
• A translator of KOAT;
  
• A translator of KASA (possibly two).
  

[TheRob 920]

As someone who once interviewed for a job at an Albuquerque TV station, I don't blame them. There is no secession in television markets, though. There is only addition.

[David Heller 1]

Can't blame them, I know they want to see their broncos play, but my guess is that the New Mexico TV stations just doesn't care about the broncos, and give those Durango, Colorado residents what they want

[GoldenShine9 1509]

How would Durango fit in the Grand Junction market? Also those Albuquerque satellites would need to be sold or shut down...

[tyrannical bastard 3541]

Denver is probably the most far-reaching market in the country...serving almost 3/4 of Colorado surrounding the other markets, while serving remote counties of Wyoming, dwarfing the markets in that state as well.

[David Heller 1]

How would Durango fit in the Grand Junction market? Also those Albuquerque satellites would need to be sold or shut down...

I don't think it will, I do not think The Montrose-Delta-Grand Junction DMA would want Durango as part of it, I think Denver will make a lot more sense than Grand Junction

[NewsMaster 226]

 

I don't think it will, I do not think The Montrose-Delta-Grand Junction DMA would want Durango as part of it, I think Denver will make a lot more sense than Grand Junction

 

I don't agree at all. If you look on a map, Grand Junction and Colorado Springs are both closer than Denver. Heck, Denver is even further than Albuquerque.

 

Not sure what Jessica Rosenworcel meant when she said her parents living in Vermont are frustrated with receiving New York news. I guess they live in Bennington County (part of the Albany DMA) or they're referring to WPTZ or the former WRGB rebroadcasts on WVNY.

[C Block 1510]

 

I don't agree at all. If you look on a map, Grand Junction and Colorado Springs are both closer than Denver. Heck, Denver is even further than Albuquerque.

 

Just because two small-sized markets are geographically closer doesn't necessarily mean that their news product would be more relevant than the larger one. You're forgetting that Denver is not only the capital, but the Front Range is also home to almost 80% of Colorado's population. As the quoted residents above pointed out, people in Durango would have a lot more interest in the politics of Colorado than those of New Mexico, especially with the growing rural/urban political divide. Also, if you've ever watched the news output from Grand Junction or Colorado Springs, a fair amount of their coverage that isn't community filler comes from Denver too, for exactly the same reasons why Durango doesn't want to be part of an even less relevant market. Politically, we're a very centralized state.

 

I'm surprised they don't already freely get the Denver stations. I used to always think that KUSA and KWGN were available pretty much statewide, but I guess their repeater networks and cable carriage don't reach that far south.

[NewsMaster 226]

 

Just because two small-sized markets are geographically closer doesn't necessarily mean that their news product would be more relevant than the larger one. You're forgetting that Denver is not only the capital, but the Front Range is also home to almost 80% of Colorado's population. As the quoted residents above pointed out, people in Durango would have a lot more interest in the politics of Colorado than those of New Mexico, especially with the growing rural/urban political divide. Also, if you've ever watched the news output from Grand Junction or Colorado Springs, a fair amount of their coverage that isn't community filler comes from Denver too, for exactly the same reasons why Durango doesn't want to be part of an even less relevant market. Politically, we're a very centralized state.

 

I'm surprised they don't already freely get the Denver stations. I used to always think that KUSA and KWGN were available pretty much statewide, but I guess their repeater networks and cable carriage don't reach that far south.

 

Yeah, I don't really know what Durango wants. It makes no sense to me.

[David Heller 1]

Yeah, I don't really know what Durango wants. It makes no sense to me.

My guess us that A. There far more interested in the politics in Colorado than in New Mexico. and B. They want to see broncos games, not interested in the other teams that are playing.

[tyrannical bastard 3541]

KREZ is probably the sole reason that Durango is tied to Albuquerque....and is still that way even though the station's sale has been pending for almost two years. KREX dumped them in 1995 since they felt it wasn't worth the investment of maintaining their 270-mile microwave link to Grand Junction versus revenue.

 

I think in this case, it would justify a DMA change. With DBS, as long as an area is in a spotbeam, and the demand justifies it, all the satellite company has to do is just beam in some different stations to their customers, and Nielsen holds this card since they define the boundaries based on counties and zip codes. The terrain and distance make this the only option for many customers out there.

[DirtyHarry 721]

 

Yeah, I don't really know what Durango wants. It makes no sense to me.

 

I'm amused that they actually have to get a Senator and FCC people involved with this. They won't investigate the IRS or Benghazi, but all the government apparatchiks jump when it comes to broadcast TV! Seriously, they do make a good point about not really getting to hear Colorado News, but the trouble is that Durango is practically on the border and the mountains separate Durango and Silverton from the rest of Colorado (at least from what I saw).

 

I bet this is one of those situations where people bitch until they get what they want, then they'll bitch because the Colorado stations don't pay any attention to them.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

My guess us that A. There far more interested in the politics in Colorado than in New Mexico. and B. They want to see broncos games, not interested in the other teams that are playing.

 

I think B is the bigger reason than A. Especially since the Broncos are good again and KRQE/KASA rarely shows them. The other reasons are filler.

 

But I don't blame them, I'd rather watch Denver news than Albuquerque news if I lived down there too. I think it's part of the ABQ market because of how close it is to the repeaters in Farmington, NM. But this DMA change request is something that's been talked about for a long time. I doubt Udall is going to do anything to fix the situation.

[djlynch 54]

Denver is probably the most far-reaching market in the country...serving almost 3/4 of Colorado surrounding the other markets, while serving remote counties of Wyoming, dwarfing the markets in that state as well.

And it tends to get picked up in a whole lot of other odd spots pretty far afield as well. I recall being in a motel in the Big Bend area of Texas a few years back that had KMGH instead of the ABC affiliates out of Midland or El Paso.

[mike91 66]

 

And it tends to get picked up in a whole lot of other odd spots pretty far afield as well. I recall being in a motel in the Big Bend area of Texas a few years back that had KMGH instead of the ABC affiliates out of Midland or El Paso.

 

I think the Denver stations are on some special satellite or something; I have been on a couple of cruises, and they had the Denver TV stations on them

[Samantha 2878]

 

I think the Denver stations are on some special satellite or something; I have been on a couple of cruises, and they had the Denver TV stations on them

 

Denver has been on C-Band for decades. It was a notable issue in the 1995 switches because at that end it was structured such that the networks each remained on their same positions while the stations moved.

[TheRob 920]

 

I think the Denver stations are on some special satellite or something; I have been on a couple of cruises, and they had the Denver TV stations on them

 

 

Denver has been on C-Band for decades. It was a notable issue in the 1995 switches because at that end it was structured such that the networks each remained on their same positions while the stations moved.

 

Yeah, we used to get Denver stations on satellite on vacations in Idaho (1980s/1990s).

 

In the Big Bend area of Texas, you can still get Albuquerque on cable, along with Midland, but not El Paso.

 

I assume Durango has high cable TV penetration. Checking their lineups, all providers carry KWGN from Denver, one carries KMGH, another carries KUSA, and all carry Rocky Mountain Public TV.

[MidwestTV 1177]

I want to know what the Albuquerque television stations think of this, that ought to be interesting.

[NEOMatrix 1295]

I'm guessing that in some ways, Alberquerque stations don't care because they get very little (if any) advertising revenue from Durango. However, they will probably care because the retransmission fees that the stations get from cablecos and Dish/DTV in Durango will be lost somewhat so that might be taken into consideration.

[tyrannical bastard 3541]

I think Denver is an important market because it's the largest market in the Mountain Time Zone (aside from Arizona and their non-observance of DST). Because of their location, they have to time-shift most of their east coast feeds an hour or two for them to air at the proper time. Pacific doesn't have this issue since they have their own network feeds. Having this extra investment to cover, along with the coverage issues of covering very remote areas surrounded by mountains makes satellites a necessity, and Denver fit the bill for being a place for stations to put their programming on satellite (especially C-Band) for viewers in this part of the country in the Mountain time zone.

 

If Phoenix and Arizona observed Daylight Saving Time, then they would be a possibility, but Denver took this honor because they didn't have the time issue and was a larger market than Phoenix at the time.

[nomadcowatbk 144]

 

Yeah, we used to get Denver stations on satellite on vacations in Idaho (1980s/1990s).

 

In the Big Bend area of Texas, you can still get Albuquerque on cable, along with Midland, but not El Paso.

 

I assume Durango has high cable TV penetration. Checking their lineups, all providers carry KWGN from Denver, one carries KMGH, another carries KUSA, and all carry Rocky Mountain Public TV.

 

what do they carry in HD?