Wyoming PBS

Wyoming PBS is the statewide public broadcaster, part of PBS, for the U.S. state of Wyoming. Wyoming PBS is owned and operated by Central Wyoming College and originates from its campus in Riverton. Three high-power transmitters—KCWC-DT (channel 4) in Lander, KWYP-DT (channel 8) in Laramie, and KPTW (channel 6) in Casper—and 40 low-power translator stations broadcast the signal across the state.

Wyoming was the second-to-last state to receive a public television station, as state legislators on multiple occasions refused to fund proposed statewide educational networks. Central Wyoming College, which already had a radio and television instruction program, moved forward with building its own station. It received a construction permit in December 1981 and began broadcasting programming from KCWC-TV on May 27, 1983. Over the succeeding decades, KCWC-TV's signal slowly expanded to broadcast translators and cable systems in the rest of Wyoming, though at times more ambitious expansion plans were curtailed by budget cuts.

Wyoming PBS is funded by viewer contributions as well as federal, state, and college support. It produces local programming pertaining to Wyoming public affairs, culture, and nature.

Educational television proposals pre-1981
For decades, efforts had been made to establish an educational television system in Wyoming, but they failed as legislators never granted funding for the project.

Only one actual educational reserved channel was allotted to Wyoming, channel 8 at Laramie. As early as 1951, the University of Wyoming was interested in filing to use the channel, but it had to wait for Wyoming's biennial legislature to convene in 1953 to give it permission. However, Wyoming legislators refused permission because the costs to establish the proposed full-power TV station at Laramie compared unfavorably to those in starting commercial station KFBC-TV at Cheyenne, whose controlling owner was one of the university's trustees, stifling any hope for a legislative appropriation. In 1961, Casper's school board applied for the use of channel 6, a commercial channel that was unused. Later that year, governor Jack Gage expressed interest in using the lone educational channel allotted to the state, channel 8 at Laramie, at a time when commercial interests in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, sought to have the channel moved there for their use. State officials protested the possible substitution of channel 11 at Laramie because station spacing restrictions precluded that channel from being used to serve Cheyenne.

By 1965, commercial station KTWO-TV in Casper was airing the only educational programs on Wyoming television, and the Community Television cable system imported KRMA-TV from Denver, but efforts were under way to bring the state its own educational station. In late 1964, the Casper school board filed a second application for channel 6, Soon, the locus of activity shifted to a committee formed by governor Clifford Hansen, which authorized a study and applied for channels 6 in Casper and 8 in Laramie in December 1965. Hansen's successor, Stan Hathaway, signed a law in February 1967 establishing an educational television commission, but legislators that year rejected a funding proposal. The head of the commission gave a 1971 target date for initiating broadcasts, contingent on approval of the governor and the 1969 Wyoming Legislature. However, legislators did not fund the system at that time, in part because the Wyoming portion of federal matching funds under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 was too large. Ten years later, in 1979, another gubernatorial commission made a request to the Wyoming Legislature to appropriate funds to start a public broadcasting station for Wyoming, which would be based in Casper and rebroadcast to the rest of the state. Neither the 1979 nor 1981 Legislatures took steps to establish public television in the state. In the meantime, KRMA and KUED from Salt Lake City were available in different parts of Wyoming.

Construction of KCWC-TV
Central Wyoming College (CWC) was formed at Riverton in 1968, and its initial curriculum included radio and television instruction, one of two such programs in the state. Students broadcast local community programming seen on cable in Riverton. In November 1980, CWC held a conference on "Telecommunications for Wyoming". Jerry Garber, who headed the college's broadcasting program, convinced the college to apply for television channel 4 in Lander as part of a seven-transmitter system and statewide microwave transmission network. When the 1981 Legislature refused to fund a public TV station, CWC went ahead with its plans. An obstacle soon emerged when KCWY-TV (channel 14), a new commercial station in Casper, applied for channel 4 in Lander as a satellite station. Even when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) informed the college that channel 5 could be added there, CWC refused the offer because it feared a channel change would affect its planning for federal grant money. Likewise, KCWY feared that if it had to switch to channel 5, it might face competition for the newly available channel.

The FCC granted the Central Wyoming College application in December 1981, shortly after receiving a federal grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration—the largest grant for a new TV station startup—with a planned launch date of January 1983. To secure the grant, CWC president Richard St. Pierre appropriated $325,000 in funds to provide the local match; this decision ultimately caused CWC faculty to vote no confidence in St. Pierre and led to his resignation. In spite of an earlier denial, the college received permission from the United States Forest Service to locate the transmitter on Limestone Mountain. KTWO-TV donated the tower for the Lander transmitter. KCWC-TV aired its first test pattern on May 10, 1983, and began regular broadcasting on May 27. This made Wyoming the 49th state with a public television station (only Montana still lacked one).

College support was abruptly withdrawn for a time after KCWC-TV began broadcasting. Fremont County, which contains Lander and Riverton, lost an iron mine and a uranium mine—keys to its local economy—causing a collapsed housing market and depleting county revenue sources.

Statewide expansion
Over the 1980s and 1990s, KCWC-TV slowly supplanted other stations that had been imported into the state and expanded its coverage beyond the Lander area. In 1981, Casper College had started a broadcast translator for KRMA-TV from Denver on channel 6, which switched to rebroadcasting KCWC-TV in 1987. Even then, Casper's cable system continued to carry KRMA-TV and did not add KCWC to its offerings until December 1992.

In the late 1980s, CWC received a donation of one microwave system and a federal grant for further microwave links. These resulted in the station's expansion to new areas. Wyoming Public Television debuted in the Jackson Hole area in 1990 with three new translators and in Sheridan in 1991. After a 1993 effort to fund statewide expansion and build a full-power TV transmitter in southeast Wyoming, was scrapped in light of a budget deficit, Wyoming Public Television increased its statewide coverage beginning in 1994 by way of agreements with TCI and KTWO-TV, appearing on cable systems in Cheyenne, Laramie, Green River and Rock Springs.

Wyoming Public Television survived an attempt to cut all state funding in 1999, which would have reduced its budget by a third. Wyoming PBS's endowment was created in 2008 and made permanent by state legislators in 2015, providing annual interest payments to fund local production.

As early as 2003, Wyoming Public Television was broadcasting in digital to the Lander area. In November 2004, it began broadcasting analog signals over-the-air to Laramie and Cheyenne with the launch of KWYP on channel 8; KPTW in Casper followed in March 2007, replacing the existing translator. Wyoming Public Television rebranded as Wyoming PBS on January 1, 2008. It ceased all analog broadcasting by the original digital transition date of February 17, 2009, and flash-cut the Laramie and Casper transmitters to digital.

Though Wyoming PBS is the only public television station in the state, not all Wyoming satellite television viewers are offered it. This is because most of Wyoming's counties are drawn into media markets primarily contained in other states, such as Denver, Salt Lake City, and Rapid City, South Dakota. This includes the Cheyenne market. In 2009, the station supported legislation to modify rules to allow Wyoming PBS to be made available to in-state viewers in these designated marketing areas.

Funding
For fiscal year 2024, federal appropriations from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting represented $1.32 million or 33 percent of Wyoming PBS's budget, with the state supplying another 48 percent (approximately $1.92 million). In fiscal year 2023, Wyoming PBS received $4.98 million in revenue. This included a state appropriation of $1.81 million and $1.05 million in funding from Central Wyoming College.

Local programming
In fiscal year 2023, Wyoming PBS produced 27 hours of local programming including the series Wyoming Chronicle, Our Wyoming, Nature WY, and A State of Mind: Confronting Our Mental Health Crisis. It also provided livestreaming of state legislative activities.

Transmitters
Wyoming PBS is broadcast from three full-power transmitters, serving Lander and Riverton; Laramie and Cheyenne; and Casper. A network of low-power translators repeats these signals into other population centers throughout Wyoming.