{"id":60524,"date":"2018-08-21T12:27:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T18:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-colorado-television-viewers-in-for-another-year-of-new-mexico-politics-crime\/"},"modified":"2018-08-21T18:27:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T18:27:00","slug":"southwest-colorado-television-viewers-in-for-another-year-of-new-mexico-politics-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-colorado-television-viewers-in-for-another-year-of-new-mexico-politics-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Colorado television viewers in for another year of New Mexico politics, crime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"As
As election season nears and the Denver Broncos prepare for the regular season, residents in Southwest Colorado will be subjected to another year of television from the Land of Enchantment.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As election season nears and the Denver Broncos prepare for the regular season, residents in Southwest Colorado will be subjected to another year of television from the Land of Enchantment, featuring Albuquerque crime, New Mexico political campaigns and perhaps a Dallas Cowboys game instead of the home team in orange and blue.<\/p>\n

Such is life as an \u201corphan county,\u201d a term used to describe counties that receive television programing from a neighboring state. Montezuma and La Plata counties are in Colorado but receive broadcasting from New Mexico.<\/p>\n

La Plata County commissioners hoped to change its \u201corphan\u201d status by filing a petition<\/a> to the Federal Communications Commission in October 2016 that would allow satellite providers \u2013 including DirecTV and DISH Network \u2013 to partner with local television companies in Denver to broadcast in La Plata County.<\/p>\n

The FCC approved the petition in March 2017. But several Albuquerque television stations petitioned in opposition of the decision in an effort to block Denver stations from reaching La Plata County. They said four statutory requirements disqualify La Plata County from a market change, including that the county has not historically carried Denver stations, Denver lacks geographic proximity, Denver stations lack \u201cany meaningful audience\u201d in the county, and the county receives \u201cample technical coverage and local programming\u201d from Albuquerque stations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still waiting for some determination by the FCC on the objection that had been filed by the Albuquerque television stations,\u201d said La Plata County Manager Joanne Spina. \u201cIt\u2019s been held in a bay since that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelle Donaldson, vice president and general manager of KOB-TV, one of the Albuquerque stations that filed the joint-response to the FCC\u2019s decision, doesn\u2019t believe the Denver stations have an argument to broadcast to La Plata County.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom where I sit, it\u2019s incredibly unfair to have dedicated ourselves in delivery of service and coverage only to have that cut off, for what reason?\u201d Donaldson said. \u201cWhat is the compelling argument? The one argument that I haven\u2019t heard is that somebody else is doing a better job providing service to that region. That\u2019s what this business is supposed to be about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donaldson believes the Albuquerque station\u2019s history of coverage in the area has benefited residents in Montezuma and La Plata counties. The station employs a full-time reporter that lives in Farmington to provide adequate local news coverage to the southwest corner of Colorado, she said. The station has also spent a lot of money ensuring it has the technology to broadcast to the two counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be a shame to throw away years of commitment and service so that you might see a couple of extra Broncos games,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

KOB-TV, an NBC affiliate, does not carry Denver Broncos games. The station broadcasts NBC\u2019s Sunday Night Football game.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not a whole lot La Plata County can do. Spina reached out to the FCC three weeks ago and was told there was no update about the pending petition and there was no timetable for when the FCC would make a decision, she said. The FCC did not return a phone call from The Durango Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very frustrated on behalf of the citizens who are very frustrated,\u201d Spina said. \u201cOur citizens have been waiting for a long, long time. We felt very positive after we got that FCC ruling and are very disappointed that it\u2019s taking so long for there to be a resolution to the issue, particularly since the order had already been ordered by the FCC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the petition was approved by the FCC and still stands, the decision does not apply to the contractual obligations of the Denver broadcasters, said Justin Sasso, president of the Colorado Broadcaster\u2019s Association. The Denver stations\u2019 contracts stipulate that they must use Nielsen-designated markets, which the FCC uses to determine its markets. Denver broadcasters would therefore be violating terms of their network and syndication agreements by providing programming to counties outside their allocated Nielsen designations, such as La Plata and Montezuma counties, Sasso said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe solution that we\u2019ve provided to DISH and DirecTV is to carry the ample local programming provided by Colorado\u2019s many television stations (Colorado news, politics, weather, sports and more),\u201d Sasso said in a email to the Herald. \u201cWhen the satellite providers decide to pick up that local programming, the citizens of La Plata and Montezuma counties will finally have Colorado news, weather and information. It is our desire to have DISH and DirecTV work with us, but multiple requests by this association have been rejected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Huscher, a spokesman for AT&T, which owns DirectTV, said the satellite provider is waiting for a resolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FCC, La Plata County and local stations involved are continuing to discuss this potential change,\u201d Huscher said in an email to the Herald.<\/p>\n

DISH did not return phone calls requesting comment.<\/p>\n

At the La Plata County Fair earlier this month, county spokeswoman Megan Graham said several residents frustrated about the situation approached her to talk about it. A majority of the residents brought up two major issues \u2013 residents do not want to watch New Mexico political advertisements and they don\u2019t want to miss Denver Broncos games.<\/p>\n

Southwest Colorado residents and politicians have been fighting for the right to view Colorado television in Montezuma and La Plata counties for about two decades. The issue typically heats up during election cycles, when Colorado residents are bombarded by New Mexico political advertisements, Spina said. Meanwhile, local residents miss commercials from Colorado politicians, who they vote for in elections.<\/p>\n

Some residents in Montezuma and La Plata counties may never know which candidates are running from Colorado because they do not see the television ads, and that makes it difficult for candidates to engage with potential voters, Spina said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terribly unfortunate that our citizens in La Plata County don\u2019t get that political advertising that would help them be informed about what\u2019s going on in our own state,\u201d Spina said.<\/p>\n

Donaldson, with KOB-TV in Albuquerque, said she isn\u2019t aware of any communication between the Albuquerque stations and the FCC, and had no estimated timeline for when a decision would be made.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey take their own time,\u201d Donaldson said. \u201cThings that involve the FCC, they\u2019re never fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

asemadeni@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

decision on Albuquerque stations\u2019 appeal has not been made<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,13,28,29,4259,337],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-60524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-television"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60524"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=60524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}