Dear Action Line: Any news why we’ve lost Denver TV again? Both the Fox (KDVR 31) and ABC (KMGH 17) affiliates are gone from DirecTV offerings. So sad. It seems like so many people worked so hard for so many years to get Denver TV to the hinterlands of Southwest Colorado, and now, once again, the powers that be have apparently found another way to mess us up. – Despairing Denver Devotee
Dear Devotee: Those who’ve been around these parts a while know what a drawn-out and exasperating issue this has been for it seems like a millennium or more. Our political decisions are made in Denver, and we love the Denver Broncos, yet we have to watch Albuquerque news and all too often the Dallas Cowboys (when their game conflicts with Denver’s).
The underlying problem is that La Plata and Montezuma counties are in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe Television Market Area, as set by the Federal Communications Commission. You’ll more often hear the term DMA – Designated Market Area – which is used by Nielsen for TV ratings.
A decade ago it was not inaccurate to say, joking or not, “It’ll take an act of Congress to get this fixed.” And in 2014, thanks to a local push and help from U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, an act of Congress allowed both counties to petition for access to Denver TV. The FCC approved a petition from La Plata in 2017.
Then we needed a deadly pandemic for DirecTV and DISH Network to actually add Denver news to its La Plata offerings. In 2020, when it seemed paramount, possibly a matter of life and death, for us to know what Colorado health officials were doing, the providers came through and began offering a couple of Denver TV stations. Note that it took a combined effort from three congressmen and the state’s attorney general to get this done.
So this setup lasted four glorious years before DirecTV pulled the plug. Action Line contacted DirecTV, and, after coaching a spokesman up to speed with the situation, got an answer. It has to do with a technical matter, a switch from SD (standard definition) to HD (high definition) broadcast signals:
“The issue, then, with the two Denver stations is the transition from SD local broadcast stations to HD,” said Thomas Tyrer, a spokesman for DirecTV. “We have been phasing out all SD local broadcast stations, offering free upgrades so people can get the HD versions. In this case, the two Denver stations that had been available in SD ended with the local SD shutdown in March, and the HD versions are not available into Durango because it lies outside of the available spotbeam (transmission) capacity.”
To put it in layman’s terms that even Action Line might understand, with HD you get a lot more pixels in your feed. But no pixels at all that have Denver TV, thus leaving us hungry.
So now Nielsen is happy, Albuquerque is happy, and Durango folks are again “orphans,” as counties outside their state’s DMA are affectionately dubbed.
For those upset about this, Action Line recommends contacting Colorado’s U.S. Sens. Bennet (local office number is 259-1710) and John Hickenlooper (local office 970-880-7236). And you can try contacting DirecTV. And you can try U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (local office 970-317-6130), although with her ongoing congressional district switch she might be busy packing boxes and such.
Or, if you don’t want to do that, you can wait and hope for another pandemic.
Last week, Action Line wrote about a smiley face painted on a rock high above the Animas River on a steep hillside along Smelter Mountain. Action Line wrote that it appears to be on state land, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife concurred.
“It has been there for at least a decade or more, but it may have been ‘refreshed’ recently,” said John Livingston, public information officer for CPW’s southwest region. (He responded to Action Line’s query before the story appeared, but after deadline.)
“Certainly we don’t encourage anyone disturbing natural areas in this way. State Wildlife Areas such as Bodo were originally purchased with sportspersons’ dollars for the benefit of wildlife habitat and wildlife-related recreation, with most activities focused on hunting and fishing. That seems to be lost on a lot of folks these days.
“While we’d love to get inside the mind of wildlife, we can’t say whether or not this smiley face on the rock is benefiting their lives at all,” he said, tongue in cheek. “If I was a hawk looking for a perch, though, I’d probably look to another spot so I don’t have some face staring at me all day.”
Email questions and suggestions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Last week’s photo with the doctored (read: low budget) smiley face didn’t print very well; sorry about that.
