KRWG-TV

KRWG-TV (channel 22) is a PBS member television station in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. The station is owned by the Regents of New Mexico State University. KRWG-TV's studios are located at Milton Hall on the NMSU campus in Las Cruces, and its transmitter is located atop Tortugas Mountain in central Doña Ana County (east of the Las Cruces city limits). KRWG-TV's signal is relayed on low-power translator stations across southern New Mexico.

KRWG-TV
Channels
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerRegents of New Mexico State University
KRWG (FM)
History
First air date
June 29, 1973 (1973-06-29)
Former channel number(s)
Analog: 22 (UHF, 1973–2009)
Call sign meaning
Ralph Willis Goddard, former dean of the NMSU engineering school, as with KRWG radio[1]
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID55516
ERP200 kW
HAAT205 m (673 ft)
Transmitter coordinates32°17′33.3″N 106°41′53″W
Translator(s)See below
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.krwg.org

KRWG-TV began broadcasting in 1973 as an adjunct to KRWG radio and as a public broadcaster serving southern New Mexico. It also complements the NMSU journalism program; students produce a newscast that airs three times a week during the school year, and its other local programming also focuses on regional issues.

History

As early as 1964, the same year that KRWG (90.7 FM) began broadcasting,[1] New Mexico State University (NMSU) considered establishing a public television station using the channel 12 allotment at Hatch.[3] Channel 12 had been put there two years prior when the University of New Mexico was considering establishing a statewide educational network.[4] However, NMSU soon found Hatch to be an unviable allocation for serving Las Cruces; the transmitter would have to be north of Las Cruces, to protect KELP-TV in El Paso, Texas; this was the opposite direction. Channel 22 in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band was then assigned to Las Cruces.[5] NMSU applied for a station on November 2, 1970, and received a construction permit on April 4, 1972.[6] The United States Office of Education provided a $467,513 grant to support the construction of the new station.[7] The federal grant primarily went to the facility. By that time, NMSU was programming an hour and a half a day on the local cable system in Las Cruces, an exapnsion of the university closed-circuit TV system which had been in place since 1965.[8] In addition, equipment was donated by KOB-TV in Albuquerque and the ABC network.[9]

While construction on the transmitter facility was completed by December 1972, a shortage of engineers and delays in equipment installation kept the station from debuting for several months.[10] KRWG-TV began broadcasting on June 29, 1973; the first weekend on air featured a local talent marathon to dedicate the new station.[11] It was the first UHF station on the air between Tucson, Arizona, and Lubbock, Texas,[5] and it was the closest public television station to El Paso until KCOS began in 1978; the cable system in El Paso continued to carry KRWG-TV but dropped KNME-TV from Albuquerque when KCOS debuted.[12]

Funding

In 2022, KRWG-TV generated $3.3 million in revenue. The station received $1.07 million in revenue from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as well as $976,000 in grants from the state and more than $824,000 in equipment restricted grants. Memberships represented $235,847 in income.[13]

Local programming

Harvey Jacobs, head of the NMSU Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, envisioned KRWG-TV as a source of New Mexico-centric news and information for Las Cruces.[8] To that end, the station began with a bilingual, student-produced local newscast, originally titled Panavista.[14] For 20 years, the station aired Qué Pasa with Dolores, a bilingual weekly and previously biweekly talk show hosted by Dolores Lenko.[15][16]

Most of KRWG-TV's local programming continues to concern southern New Mexico issues. During the fall and spring semesters, students produce News22, which airs three times a week and covers regional issues.[17][18] When the newscast was threatened by budget cuts in 1997, students and professors expressed a willingness to donate time and money to keep the program on the air.[19]

Once a week, the station airs Noticias22, a Spanish-language newscast.[17] Throughout the year, the weekly magazine Newsmakers airs in-depth features.[18]

Alumni of the NMSU journalism program that worked on News22 while students at the university include Gadi Schwartz, correspondent for NBC News.[17]

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KRWG-TV[20]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
22.1 1080i16:9KRWG-HDMain KRWG-TV programming / PBS
22.2 480i4:3KRWG-SDWorld
22.3 KRWG-KDPBS Kids

The PBS Kids subchannel was added in March 2017.[21]

Translators

Not long after starting, KRWG-TV began extending its reach in southern New Mexico with the addition of translators. In 1976, it filled one of the larger remaining gaps in New Mexico when it opened a translator to serve Alamogordo.[22] Silver City was added in 1978.[23]

The Antelope Wells and Jacks Peak translators were authorized by the FCC in 2023 on a waiver in order to use money budgeted by the New Mexico state government. The transmitters provide public television service to Antelope Wells as well as datacasting capacity used by local educational and law enforcement agencies. The Jacks Peak transmitter was necessary to provide a signal to the Antelope Wells transmitter.[24]

Analog-to-digital conversion

KRWG-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 22, on June 10, 2009 (two days before most full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate on June 12).[25] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 23, using virtual channel 22.[26]

References
  1. "New Mexico State Opens Station KRWG Today". Albuquerque Journal. October 3, 1964. p. 20. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Facility Technical Data for KRWG-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. "Bid Requested For TV Station". The Santa Fe New Mexican. May 8, 1964. p. 8. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Hatch TV Planned". The Santa Fe New Mexican. Associated Press. July 29, 1962. p. 11. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "NMSU TV Station Celebrates First Anniversary". El Paso Times. June 28, 1974. p. 19. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "FCC History Cards for KRWG-TV". Federal Communications Commission.
  7. "USOE help to 21". Broadcasting. May 29, 1972. p. 47. ProQuest 1016880992.
  8. "Federal Funds Granted: NMSU's TV Station to Go on Air Jan. 1". Albuquerque Journal. April 23, 1972. p. G-1. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Public television to reach Deming". The Deming Headlight. June 7, 1973. p. 6. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Alvarez, Gilbert (June 24, 1973). "It Was A Long Nine Years: KRWG-TV On Air Friday". Las Cruces Sun-News. pp. 7, 9. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Marathon Celebrates NMSU TV Start". Las Cruces Sun-News. June 8, 1973. p. 3. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Cable television viewers have to wait for KCOS". El Paso Herald-Post. August 22, 1978. p. A-6. Retrieved June 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "KRWG-TV Annual Financial Report 2022" (PDF). KRWG-TV. 2022.
  14. Steinberg, Sandy (February 24, 1974). "With 'Student Power' In Full Force: KRWG-TV—An Impossible Dream Come True". Las Cruces Sun-News. p. 12-E. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Gundersen, Edna (February 15, 1985). "¿Que Pasa? Sometimes Dolores wonders, especially if guests freeze up". El Paso Times. p. 1-D. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. Logan, Paul (July 26, 2001). "Host of Cruces TV Talk Show Dies". Albuquerque Journal. p. D3.
  17. Legarreta, Matthew (June 18, 2019). "NMSU's 'News22' provides critical hands-on experience for career success". New Mexico State University College of Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on January 29, 2023. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
  18. "Local Content and Service Report" (PDF). KRWG Public Media. 2022.
  19. "NMSU students vow to save TV show". The Albuquerque Tribune. May 6, 1997. p. A3. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. "TV Query for KRWG". RabbitEars. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
  21. "KRWG-TV to launch multiplatform PBS children's services". Las Cruces Sun-News. March 28, 2017. Archived from the original on February 6, 2023. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  22. "Public TV broadcasts beginning". Alamogordo Daily News. October 31, 1976. p. 13. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. "TV Translator To Be Built". El Paso Times. April 3, 1978. p. 8B. Retrieved June 11, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. Kreisman, Barbara A. (January 31, 2023). "Re: KRWG, Las Cruces, New Mexico - Translator applications for Jacks Peak and Antelope Wells". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  25. "Analog Service Termination Notification". Consolidated Database System. Federal Communications Commission. March 17, 2009. Archived from the original on June 12, 2023. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  26. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. May 23, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
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