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|
One
Team for Public Television: MontanaPBS
- by Diane Jowers |
| (Posted June
1, 2002) A cooperative effort, two stations
hosted by two universities, brought statewide public television service to Montana. KUSM at Montana State University in Bozeman began
broadcasting educational programs 18 years ago; in 1997, a digital interlink with KUFM at
the University of Montana in Missoula (which is also home to Montana Public Radio)
combined these two resources, creating today’s MontanaPBS. KUSM is the operations center, and KUFM produces
news and programming for statewide distribution. |
GMs Jack Hyppa, KUSM, and William Marcus, KUFM |
“We are proud of this inter-university collaboration that really works. It would be difficult for two independent public
television stations to survive in our large, sparsely populated state,” said KUFM-TV
General Manager William Marcus. The stations
share staff (35 full-time, 20 part-time, and students), production facilities, and pledge
activities; their single membership organization, Friends of MontanaPBS,
has 8,200 members. |
Working together, the stations provide 24/7 service that reaches 55 far-flung communities,
many of them surrounded by the mountainous wilderness that is the setting for some of the
network’s most popular programs.
One of those, Backroads of Montana, has been taking
viewers to the state’s beautiful and interesting places for 10 years and has won four
Montana Broadcasters Association Program of the Year (non-commercial) awards. Some Backroads
segments are being streamed on the American
Field Guide web site. "We are proud to be included in this group of
productions that represents the best of PBS nature photography and story- telling,"
said Marcus, who in addition to his GM duties, hosts the series. |
Making Frontier House, distributed by NETA, reveals how the PBS
wilderness adventure series, Frontier House,
was created. Silence & Solitude: Yellowstone’s Winter
Wilderness, distributed by NETA also, has been nominated for three
Northwest Regional Emmy Awards and was honored for creativity at the
International Wildlife Film Festival.
Two other MontanaPBS productions, The
Bicycle Corps: America's Black Army On Wheels, and Sun River Homestead,
have been included in the PBS national schedule. The
latter, the saga of three women homesteading in 1909 Montana, was nominated for a Regional
Emmy. |
MontanaPBS also provides varied news and public affairs programming. Reporters,
community leaders, and legislators discuss social, environmental, and educational issues
on Montana Profiles. From gardening tips to agriculture’s role in
the global economy, Montana Ag Live covers farmers’
concerns. Your
Future is in Your Hands addresses financial, health, and social issues
affecting senior citizens. The Community
Technical Assistance Program of the Montana Department of Commerce sponsors Planning Montana, discussions on
community development topics. |
MontanaPBS offers educational programming to
meet the needs of the state’s diverse population, and outreach efforts localize
programming for communities. How the West is Fun, a series for middle
schools, has won several Parent’s Choice Awards. The Master Teacher Program trains
teachers to train other teachers on best classroom uses of video and online services. A MontanaPBS-Blue Cross/Blue Shield project, Healthy Children Are Ready to Learn, is a
broadcast/online resource for parents and teachers. Workshops
on using Ready to Learn in a childcare
facility or home setting have had a positive impact on 2,000 children in the state, and
schools, including many on American Indian reservations, receive 300 books each month. |
 
Missoula master control: KUFM
Educational and other programs and services will expand with digital conversion, already
underway at MontanaPBS.
“We have initiated a long-term digital conversion and signal expansion plan that will
establish or enhance our services in five Montana communities,” said KUSM-TV General
Manager Jack Hyyppa. He and Marcus believe
that completion of the three-year project will benefit more than 300,000 Montana residents
immediately.
"This, like all of our achievements, is possible because, even though we argue about
the University of Montana-Montana State football games, we are one team for public
television,” said Marcus. |
| Visit the MontanaPBS Website. |
| |
- NETA Member Spotlight: New
Hampshire PTV (5/02)
- NETA Member Spotlight: KUAT
(4/02)
- Chuck's Coast-to-Coast postcard: WLJT (2/15)
- Chuck's Coast-to-Coast postcard: OPB (2/02)
|
|
Double-click on this image to see the MontanaPBS building in
Bozeman.
The
"Backroads" guys straddle the headwaters of the Missouri River (front to back):
Gus Chambers, producer/director; William Marcus, host; and Ray Ekness, associate producer.
Frontier House cabin
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