Montana PBS is the PBS member public television network for the U.S. state of Montana. It is a joint venture between Montana State University (MSU) and the University of Montana (UM). The network is headquartered in the Visual Communications Building on the MSU campus on West Grant Street in Bozeman, with a separate studio inside the Performing Arts and Radio/TV (PARTV) Center on the UM campus on Campus Drive in Missoula.
Educational television in Montana had a long and tortuous history, with scattered efforts. The first educational stations available to Montanans were KSPS-TV from Spokane, Washington, on translators and cable systems west of the Continental Divide beginning in 1970 and KUED from Salt Lake City, Utah, on cable systems in central and eastern Montana as early as 1961. Montana came close to establishing a statewide network in the mid-1970s, when it authorized the Montana Educational Broadcasting Commission and obtained a permit for a TV transmitter at Butte. The plan collapsed amid political controversy over a lease for the network's studio in Bozeman and a power play to defund the commission in order to fund a library at Montana Technological University.
Spurred by a group seeking to begin over-the-air broadcasting of PBS's children's programs, and already home to a visual communications building and television studio, MSU put KUSM-TV into service on October 1, 1984. Montana became the last state with its own PBS station. Originally a semi-satellite of KUED with specific Montana programs, between 1988 and 1991 KUSM replaced KUED on all Montana cable systems. The University of Montana joined the system in October 1996 with the launch of KUFM-TV in Missoula. Today, the Montana PBS network comprises eight full-power stations and a large network of translators that rebroadcast its signal throughout the state.
Montana PBS has two general managers—one for KUSM-TV and one for KUFM-TV—and programming originates from both universities. Local series include the music program 11th and Grant, an MSU production from Bozeman, and Backroads of Montana, a UM production. Operations are funded by donations through Friends of Montana PBS, support from the universities, and contract production.
Educational television in Montana: Preamble Early activity around educational or public television in Montana was sporadic and disconnected. Beginning in 1957, the College of Great Falls produced programming seen over commercial stations KRTV and KFBB-TV in Great Falls. In February 1962, educational television came to Missoula when Montana State University in Missoula—now the University of Montana (UM)—began providing closed-circuit courses in Spanish to Missoula junior high school students. Schools in Kalispell and Miles City also were serviced by educational television programming. In 1964, Montana State College in Bozeman—now Montana State University (MSU)—began originating lectures in zoology received by hospitals at Great Falls and Billings, by microwave link. It had an outside broadcasting van for telecasts from remote sites.
Beginning in 1962 with Great Falls, cable television systems began providing KUED from Salt Lake City to subscribers. By 1969, 25 percent of Montana households had access to KUED. The first educational television transmitter in Montana opened in 1970, when Flathead Valley Community College built a translator to bring the programming of KSPS-TV in Spokane, Washington, to Kalispell. In 1971, four Montana stations—KFBB-TV in Great Falls, KXGN-TV in Glendive, KOOK-TV in Billings, and KGVO-TV in Missoula—agreed to add the educational show Sesame Street to their schedules.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reserved six television channels in Montana for educational use. In 1960, Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Harriet Miller convened a committee on educational television. That year, then–Montana State University was gifted a television antenna by the owner of Kalispell radio station KOFI, but it had no plans to build a station on Missoula's reserved channel 11. The committee's report, released in 1962, endorsed an educational television transmitter network to cover 80 percent of the population. The proposal foresaw a three-stage plan, starting with transmitters at Missoula and at Bozeman, home to Montana State College—now Montana State University (MSU)—plus a microwave between the two cities. A second wave would encompass transmitters at Helena, Billings, Butte, and Great Falls, and a third wave at Kalispell, Miles City, and Havre, plus a Helena studio.
However, Montana lagged every other state in planning for educational television. In 1967, a member of MSU's film and television department told a gathering of school administrators that the state sorely needed a unified plan but could avoid the pitfalls of other states. An article on the front page of the Great Falls Tribune declared, "Lacking executive and legislative interest and support in the past, the future of Montana ETV would appear bleak." The culprit, according to Miller and Fred L. Gerber of MSU, was a lack of interest in state funding to unlock federal matching grants to fund the service. The 1969 Montana legislature allowed schools to pool funds to purchase instructional programming, but there was dissent over whether to conduct pilots of educational programming in classrooms or move right into usage.
1970s Butte plan In 1971, state senator William Bertsche introduced a bill providing for an educational television system, and superintendent Dolores Colburg released a study finding that such a system would cost millions of dollars, primarily in acquiring TV sets for schools. That year, the legislature named Colburg coordinator of educational television. Colburg convened a new advisory council on the matter in 1972 and applied for federal grant money in 1973. The first facility proposed to be put in use was channel 7 at Butte, to broadcast from XL Heights. The site had been offered by Joe Sample, owner of the Montana Television Network. Interests in Helena suggested locating the transmitter on Hogback Mountain to reach Helena and Great Falls, though Helena's educational channel assignment was in the UHF band. Legislators authorized the creation of the Montana Educational Broadcasting Commission to operate the prospective educational television service. The commission projected to be on the air by January 1976 in time for the United States Bicentennial. It selected the Butte transmitter site and Montana State University, with its pre-existing facilities, as the studio. The plan was to convert a former kitchen and cold storage in MSU's Hapner Hall for use by the station, which was granted the call sign KMPT.
In February 1975, the Montana House of Representatives convened a special committee into the leasing arrangements for a building in Bozeman to serve as the educational television group's headquarters. The arrangements resulted in a payment to Herb Pace, a Bozeman businessman and member of the committee, that was questioned as self-dealing. Days later, Pace resigned from the board. More pressing was a reluctance by the legislature to approve additional money needed to put KMPT into service. The commission had sought $1 million a year; a legislative subcommittee recommended $420,000, an action that executive director Kenneth Clark called "ripp[ing] the heart out of Montana ETV". The Montana legislature seesawed between defunding the program and funding it at a reduced level. In the end, the commission received $154,000—enough money to cease operations—and wound up its affairs in May. The Associated Press attributed its death to vote-trading for other priorities:
The lease controversy resulted in criminal charges against Pace, which were dismissed. Additionally, the property owner obtained a judgment against the state for breaking its lease.
After the Montana Educational Broadcasting Commission disbanded, a non-profit group called the Corporation for Montana Public Television was formed by the commission's former president with an aim to obtaining the federal grant money the state had already received for the KMPT project. They proposed to start from Butte and carry out the plans originally prepared by the commission, rebroadcasting KUED plus minimal local programming. To qualify to have the grant transferred, the legislature needed to recognize the corporation as the commission's successor. The state failed to appropriate the necessary funds, causing the grant to be lost. The state sold the equipment it had acquired, including a channel 7 transmitter and antenna, as surplus. Montana was now left along with Wyoming as one of two states without its own public TV station. The transmitter was bought as a backup for KIRO-TV in Seattle. Channel 7 was reallocated out of Butte to become the first commercial station allocation for Bozeman in 1980. Wyoming became the 49th state with its own public TV station—and Montana the only state without one—when KCWC-TV began in 1983.
History Establishment of KUSM In 1982, Montana State University applied for a low-power TV station license in Bozeman. Because of conflicts with other applications, the university refiled on August 25, 1983, seeking the reserved channel 9. The station was proposed to be broadcast from atop the Hedges South dormitory on the MSU campus. MSU already had a new visual communications building and a commitment for technical support from the Montana Television Network. By year's end, the FCC had granted the university a construction permit for channel 9. The MSU effort coincided with organization by Montanans for Children's Television, a group formed by Nancy Flikkema with the aim of bringing PBS's children's programs to non-cable households.
With a power of 100 watts and a transmitter donated by Sample, KUSM-TV began broadcasting on October 1, 1984. It offered KUED's PBS programming—but not programs KUED bought from outside distributors—plus 15 hours a week of Montana-specific programming. Because of the inability to air all KUED programming, MSU agreed to let KUED remain on cable. The university disavowed any attempt to become a statewide network, in part because of the controversy of the 1970s. In addition to the Montana Television Network's support, Westinghouse Broadcasting donated equipment from WJZ-TV in Baltimore, and a friends group, Friends of KUSM, was created to support local fundraising. While KUED was still seen on cable, KUSM local programming was offered on the feed, such as the public affairs show Capitol Journal. KUSM was also able to purchase some programming on its own, such as the MacNeil–Lehrer NewsHour, which KUED had dropped from its schedule in 1983. The station incurred a $79,000 debt in its first two years on the air, much of which was wiped out by an anonymous donation in 1987.
KUSM received its first direct Community Service Grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1987, enabling it to become an independent PBS member in its own right. In 1988, KUSM and KUED began a three-year program to transition all remaining PBS viewership and donations for KUED in central and eastern Montana to KUSM. The transition began on July 1 of that year, when KUSM-TV began originating its daytime program feed. The next year, prime time programming began to originate from Bozeman. The transition was completed in 1991.
KUFM-TV: Into the Flathead