Before there was public broadcasting in Colorado, there was educational television in Denver and before that... More about this later.

We are Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting.

The place you find exceptional television.

Your haven of programs found nowhere else.

We've been bringing compelling television into your homes, schools and businesses for more than 50 years.

We were born from a single television station with a simple mission to use television to educate, inform, and entertain.

From the very beginning, we aspired to become a community resource, a place to learn, experience and understand the ever changing world.

We are Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting, your public television.

Built and sustained by the communities we serve.

And folks like you.

Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting started out as the state's first educational TV station.

Television was the new thing after World War Two, but it didn't arrive in Denver until the early 50s.

The first Denver TV stations were commercial affiliates of the four television networks, channel seven Denver, but additional TV channels had been set aside in each region for educational use.

Several Denver groups were aware of this, but it was Doctor Kenneth Oberholtzer, the visionary superintendent of the city's public schools, who recognized the teaching potential of television beamed into classroom and home.

So the Denver Public School District applied for and was granted a license to build Colorado's first noncommercial television station, KRMA TV.

The letter stood for K nowledge for the Rocky Mountain Area, & Six was the channel assigned.

Being licensed to a public school system, got the community, businesses and parents involved from the very start.

Before the station was even on the air, many area PTA members went door to door collecting donations.

Even Denver schoolchildren got involved with paper and scrap drives, raising funds to help operate the new TV station.

Emily Griffith Opportunity School, the city's adult vocational school, was the station's first home until a new facility was built on the school's parking lot.

Construction of the new TV studio started about the same time as the expansion of the Opportunity School in the summer of 1955, and when the station's new TV tower was placed to top Lookout Mountain, it became the highest broadcast structure in the nation.

An audience survey was sent to 25,000 metro households before the station signed on, asking for suggestions on the types of programs they wanted for their new educational TV station.

The top three favorites were children's stories, health and first aid tips, and programs about hobbies.

Denver viewers got a preview of their new educational channel a week before its debut, during a half hour program on commercial station Channel Four.

KOA TV.

You Are watching TV, channel six Denver.

Educational Television in Denver blinked to life on Monday night, January 30th, 1956.

Karma TV was Denver's fifth television station and the nation's 18th educational TV outlet.

The very first program was a children's show called Thimble Theater, featuring Denver teacher Earle Room and his puppet friends.

At first, the station broadcast only two hours each evening from 645 to 845, Monday through Friday.

This odd start time was intended not to erupt families at dinner.

In less than a year, the schedule had expanded to 12 hours weekly.

All programs were either live from the studio or on film.

For the first year, programs were broadcast from what was to become the auto repair and body shop of the Emily Griffith Opportunity School.

The first local productions were short 15 minute children's, instructional and informational programs.

Man's America was a history series about the Plains Indians produced by Doctor Ruth Underhill from the University of Denver.

Haú kolá.That's my Sioux Indian greeting, which means hail, friends.

And this time it's very appropriate because I really am going to talk about Sioux, along with the other wandering buffalo hunting Indians of the Plains.

Poco a Poco was a surprisingly popular Spanish language series intended for elementary students and viewed by many others as well.

A year after signing on, the station moved literally overnight into its new home on the corner of 13th and Glenarm Place.

Channel Six was one of the few educational TV stations in the country to have its own modern broadcasting facility.

And it wasn't long before the station was creating programs which were shared with other educational TV stations nationwide.

Channel Six joined the Russians and the Space Race in 1957, when Earle Room and his friends held the station's first live remote from the roof of the new building.

The station expanded its broadcast to early weekday afternoons in 1958, with instructional programs like the Becker School of the air.

This series, intended for homebound elementary students, featured a mix of foreign language, math, science, music, literature, and geography classes.

From the outset, the station had a dual programing mission licensed to a school district.

It was to provide instructional television to the classrooms.

Funded partially by the community, it was to offer informational and cultural programing for the general public.

It met this challenge by broadcasting a mix of both types of programing.

The instructional programs were aired primarily during the day and the general audience programing in the evenings.

A significant cultural moment occurred in 1959, when a live concert by the Denver Symphony Orchestra was broadcast from the Channel S ix studio.

Educational TV was catching on in the 60s.

Many Denver households tuned in to Channel Six weekly.

The station had expanded its broadcast day, and a gift from the Ford Education Foundation changed the way the station operated forever.

In 1960, Channel Six and many other ATV stations were given their first videotape recording machine.

This new technology enabled the station to repeat live broadcasts and to produce better quality programs for national distribution.

One note worthy production was The Ragtime ERA, a music series hosted by Colorado musician and historian Max Morath .

I'm going to slow that down and exaggerate the accents.

It was the first videotaped series to be distributed by National Educational Television, and it was cited by variety magazine as an example of the kind of show that educational TV folks strive for and rarely achieve.

It aired on 48 ETV stations nationally, and New York City's commercial station Channel Nine.

The huge success of ragtime led to contracts for other national programs like the Cowboys West, an accurate portrayal of cowboy life during the big cattle drives of the late 1800s, and a follow up music series, also hosted by Max Morath, called turn of the century.

The late 50s and early 60s were a very creative period for the station.

The station was producing live instructional programs for the classroom, informational and cultural shows for evening viewers, and several national series.

We had the right people at the right place at the right time to do great television, said production director Jim Case.

Give for the growth of Channel Six.

Send your contribution to the Council for ETV Channel Six Denver.

After several fundraising mail campaigns, the station held its first televised pledge night in February of 1962.

This was the real beginning of viewer supported television in Denver, and viewer members have remained the mainstay of station funding to this day.

Also about this time, Channel Six and the other 20 plus ETV stations became a part of National Educational Television, a program distribution center and a predecessor of PBS.

Welcome to the French Chef Julia Child.

One of the first series received from NET was a cooking program called The French Chef, hosted by an entertaining woman named Julia Child.

Ever mindful of its mandate to educate, Channel Six became the first television station to offer accredited high school courses when it began producing and airing a summer school series in 1963.

Because of expanding broadcast hours and additional productions, a second studio, studio B, was added in the basement.

This enabled the station to do additional back to back live productions, as many as 11 in 1 day, a ccording to Scotty Cullen, the chief engineer at the time, in 1964, KRMA produced the first national educational television series for international distribution, The Glory Trail.

The series was dubbed into several languages for foreign distribution a year later.

Volunteers had been involved with the station in various capacities since its inception.

In 1964, they were formed into an official volunteer group, and KRMA became one of the first ETV stations to rely upon volunteers year round to help with fundraising, station promotions and community awareness.

Over the years, the volunteers helped the station with hundreds of community events, and they continue to do so today KRMA expanded its mission beyond public schools in 1964, when it began offering on air, accredited college courses produced with the University of Colorado.

For its 10th anniversary, Channel Six went on air Sunday, a day it was normally not on.

Offerings included musical, discussion, theatrical, public affairs, and children's programs.

The station also renewed its pledge to be a significant informational and educational force in the community.

it serves.

The Channel Six volunteers, together with many local businesses and organizations, held the first televised auction in June 1966.

Among the items offered during this three day event was a live buffalo dubbed Miss KRMA 1966.

During its early years, portions of the auction were simulcast by Denver commercial TV stations, and many of their on air personalities served as auctioneers.

The televised auction soon became the station's largest community event and a significant source of income.

It is still produced annually by hundreds of dedicated volunteers with donated merchandise and services from across the state.

Color came to Channel Six at least partially in 1967, when the station received the first of several color cameras and transmission equipment.

This enabled bidders in the second on air auction to view artwork in color for the first time.

Jeans junction, a children's series hosted by area educator Jean Dolph, debuted on KRMA in the mid 60s and continued successfully for 14 years.

PBS was created in 1967 when Congress passed the Public Broadcasting Act.

Many ETV stations became PBS stations by subscribing to this programing service, which eventually replaced NET.

It's such a good feeling to know you're alive.

In 1968, a soft spoken man from a fancifu neighborhood appeared on Channel Six for the first time.

A year later, children across the metro area started learning their letters and numbers from a large yellow bird.

when Sesame Street arrived on Channel Six.

Denver got its own yellow bird When Mrs.

Bird, purportedly Big Bird's mother, was created by station volunteers for station promotions and community events.

Over the years, the station has aired programs on a multitude of topics and included some tough ones.

In the late 60s, Denver and its public schools were in the middle of a planned desegregation by bussing.

This was a controversial issue, and the Channel Six cameras were at the school board meeting live for the viewers benefit.

Other programs have been created to help the disabled, to explain ballot issues, and to help viewers understand new medical procedures.

One award winning program gave viewers a look inside the lives of the mentally ill.

Colorado is one of a few states that permit cameras in the courtroom.

First Degree Murder Trial was a four hour, award winning program that documented a crime from perpetration to conviction.

In the early 70s, it was the volunteers and the generosity of the community who once again improved the station.

A successful volunteer door to door Six Booster Button campaign raised enough money for the station to begin regular Saturday morning broadcasts of children's programs.

For the first time, The station was broadcasting daily with more than 50 hours of weekly programing.

John Muir climbed the mountains of California in work shoes and an old suit.

Also about this time, Channel Six produced The Naturalist, an award winning historical PBS series that featured four of the nation's early conservationists.

In 1971, an English drama series, Masterpiece Theater, debuted on Channel Six, and Sunday evenings changed in many Denver households.

Several new local programs appeared in the late 70s.

One, the State of Colorado, hosted by Don Kinney, premiered in January 1978 and became one of the station's longest weekly productions until it ended in 2004.

Im James Spires and here's the Super Six School News update.

A new children's program, Super Six School News, premiered in 1980.

This school year series of 2.5 minute newscasts was at first produced by Denver Public School sixth graders, aided by channel six volunteers.

This series, now called Super School News and featuring schools from across the state, has become the longest continuous series airing on channel six.

CBS TV host Harry Smith made his television debut on Channel Six the same year.

He and local newscaster Reynelda M use co-hosted Smith and Muse, a studio based program with a live audience that explored subjects from the serious to the lighthearted and the bizarre.

1980 Olympic gold medalist Robin Cousins joins members of the Colorado Ice Skating Club, another world class champions, for Showtime on Ice.

Showtime on ice, a figure skating spectacular, was one of the first big multicamera remotes for the station in the 80s.

It was offered nationally to other PBS stations as a fundraising special.

Channel Six celebrated its 25th anniversary by inviting the public to a street party and studio open house in the summer of 1981.

In 1983, the station aired a live performance of the Denver Symphony Orchestra from Boettcher Concert Hall.

This eight camera remote was awarded a regional Emmy and gave many viewers their first look at Denver's new concert hall.

Channel Six became a super PBS station in 1987, quite by accident.

It was the PBS affiliate chosen by a national satellite TV service, and for several years KRMA had an international reach, often receiving pledges from places as far away as Alaska, California, and Panama.

After 31 years, and for a variety of reasons, the Denver Public School Board decided to give up its treasured television station, and a new era began for Channel Six.

On May 1st, 1987, the broadcast license of KRMA TV was transferred to the council, and KRMA TV officially became a community licensed public television station.

Along with the transfer came all the station's equipment and five years free use of the building.

Without the financial support of the Denver Public Schools.

A search for new sources of funding and a new home became a priority in the fall of 1990.

Ken Burns The Civil War broke all previous Channel Six audience records, with more than a third of all Denver households watching The live summer membership drive that year was moved from the station overnight because the Denver Grand Prix, happening at the same time, circled the station.

In 1991, Don Johnson, then general manager of Channel Six, located a new home for the station.

The KUSA Channel Nine television building on Bannock Street was purchased in the real estate deal of the decade.

Because the old Channel Nine building needed extensive renovations, including the addition of a second studio, KRMA kicked off a capital campaign to raise $14.8 million for the station's new home.

Retired President Gerald Ford, a station member, was its honorary head.

Again.

As in the past, community members, corporations, businesses, and individuals contributed money, materials, and resources to make the campaign a success.

As we turn Ch.

9 over to Ch.

6, we know we're leaving it in good hands.

People from KRMA will be in here on Monday going to do some remodeling, and they should be on the air from this building by December.

After basically gutting and rebuilding the inside, the new channel six building at 1089 Bannock Street was ready on Halloween weekend, 1992, Channel Six moved into its new facility in Denver.

KRMA Channel Six began 24 hour broadcasting in 1994.

This allowed the station to air college credit, tele courses, and repeats of national programs overnight for viewers who videotaped them.

The desire to offer services to Western Colorado led to the building of KRMJ Ch.

18 in Grand Junction Great things are always happening in Colorado.

Welcome to Channel 18 Grand Junction, an important new member of the Rocky Mountain PBS family.

Spirit of Colorado, the first 16 x 9 digital TV series, debuted on both stations in January of 1999.

Later, when the station acquired the first high definition field cameras, this program became the first TV series in the state produced in HDTV.

Later the same year, Channel Six began low power digital television broadcasting on its new digital TV station, KRMA-DT Denver.

This was the first step in the conversion to digital broadcasting.

In June 2000 KTSC-TV Pueblo,CO became the third station in the Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Network.

They, like their sister station in Grand Junction, augmented the core RMPBS programs with local productions of their own.

The station began using the internet to inform and interact with its viewers in the mid 90s.

The first online auction was held in October 2002.

Shoppers placed their bids online for 217 items.

The E-Auction was a success and led to it being incorporated into annual televised auctions in the future.

With the stations in Pueblo and Grand Junction linked to Channel Six in Denver.

Via microwave, it became possible to have guests appear remotely from all three locations.

This technology soon made it possible to have remote guests appear in discussion programs like Colorado State of Mind, and to use live remote talent for fundraising events like auction and membership drives.

Log on to our website.

This real time video link also gave the stations a valuable teleconferencing capability for business groups across the state.

Teleconferencing continues to be an important source of income for the station today.

In December of 2004, Rocky Mountain PBS launched a new digital television station in Durango.

KRMU-DT Channel 20 was the first television station in the country built as digital only.

I'd like to wish Rocky Mountain PBS a happy 50th anniversary.

Channel Six commemorated its 50th anniversary in 2006, with year long on air promotions and numerous community events.

When the fifth station, KRMZ TV Steamboat Springs, joined Rocky Mountain PBS in the summer of 2007, the Public Broadcasting Network covered Colorado from KRMA to KRMZ.

With more than 50 hours devoted to children's programing weekly, RMPBS continues to offer more children's television than any other TV station in the state.

Over the years, hundreds of viewers have received their high school diplomas through the GED on TV series that aired on Channel Six.

Many others have received college credits through the tele courses that are still offered on PBS.

The station, through the PBS teacher line, provides online courses and resources that help Colorado teachers daily with a highly interactive website.

Visitors to RMPBS.ORG, can do everything from checking the broadcast schedule, bidding in online auctions, viewing video clips of local and national programs, to obtaining additional information on program topics.

For more than 50 years, Channel Six, now Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting has provided millions of viewers throughout Colorado with exceptional television.

It has educated and inspired our children, intrigued and entertained our families, and enriched our lives.

After 50 years, KRMA TV is still doing what it was established to do to be a significant informational and educational force in the community it serves.

KRMA-TV Channel Six has always been a community asset, built and maintained by thousands of volunteers, businesses, community organizations and its viewer members.

This public asset shall continue with your generous support to be your public TV station, no matter where you live in Colorado.