KBDI-TV

KBDI-TV

Broomfield–Denver, Colorado United States
City	Broomfield, Colorado
Channels	Digital: 13 (VHF) Virtual: 12
Branding	PBS12
Programming
Affiliations	12.1: PBS for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Colorado Public Television, Inc.
History
Founded	1977
First air date	February 22, 1980 (44 years ago) (1980-02-22)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 12 (VHF, 1980–2009)
Call sign meaning	"Beady eye"[a]
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	22685
ERP	33.6 kW
HAAT	738 m (2,421 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	39°40′55″N 105°29′51″W / 39.68196°N 105.49757°W / 39.68196; -105.49757
Translator(s)	(see article)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.pbs12.org

KBDI-TV (channel 12), known as PBS12, is a PBS member television station licensed to Broomfield, Colorado, United States, serving the Denver area. The station is owned by Colorado Public Television, Inc. KBDI-TV's studios are located at Welton and 29th Streets in the Five Points neighborhood northeast of downtown Denver; its main transmitter is located atop Mestaa'ėhehe Mountain^[b] (just west of Evergreen, in Clear Creek County), and it is rebroadcast by translators throughout the Front Range and eastern Colorado. KBDI-TV serves as Colorado's secondary public television station to Rocky Mountain PBS with an emphasis on local and independent programming.

Channel 12 was originally assigned to Boulder, where the University of Colorado investigated but never moved to build a station on it. In 1977, the Front Range Educational Media Corporation filed to build the station in the nearby city of Broomfield. While the Federal Communications Commission quietly approved the application, a series of reports in The Denver Post revealed that John Schwartz, the primary backer of the applicant, had engaged in impermissible salary kickbacks when he ran a fledgling public radio station in Pittsburgh. Denver's existing public TV station, KRMA-TV, launched an ultimately unsuccessful legal battle to stop KBDI-TV from being built, calling into question Schwartz's character and competition for programming and fundraising dollars.

An FCC rule change on station construction allowed KBDI-TV to go on air on February 22, 1980. It was rushed to air with little programming, amateurish production values, and myriad technical issues, among them a transmitter site that impaired coverage of Boulder. Over the decade, the station gained its identity as a public television station willing to screen independent, alternative shows—sometimes from controversial points of view—in contrast to the more mainstream KRMA. Notable local programs of the 1980s included Homemovies, which featured independent filmmakers and home videos, and FM-TV (later Teletunes), a music video series that lasted through the late 1990s. In 1988, KBDI-TV moved its studios from a cramped warehouse in Broomfield to Denver, where they have remained at several sites ever since.

In the 1990s, KBDI's willingness to air programming by and for Colorado's gay community earned it a loyal viewer and donor base, as well as criticism. Over the course of the 2000s, the station rebranded as Colorado Public Television, adopting its present PBS12 moniker in 2020. Supported by more than 9,000 members as of 2022, KBDI produces a variety of local programming. Most prominent are the station's long-running weekly public affairs series, Colorado Inside Out, and election coverage including the production of candidate debates.

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