{"id":62093,"date":"2018-11-16T17:40:53","date_gmt":"2018-11-17T00:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/can-attorney-general-elect-help-bring-denver-tv-to-durango\/"},"modified":"2018-11-17T00:40:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-17T00:40:53","slug":"can-attorney-general-elect-help-bring-denver-tv-to-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/can-attorney-general-elect-help-bring-denver-tv-to-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Can attorney general-elect help bring Denver TV to Durango?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango
Durango residents have asked for Colorado television programming for at least two decades. Phil Weiser, who was elected last week as the next Colorado attorney general, said he would join La Plata County officials in their effort to bring Denver programming to Durango.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Phil Weiser, attorney general-elect for Colorado, said he will join La Plata County in its fight to allow DISH and DirecTV to add four major Denver television stations to the programming offerings in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\"Weiser\"
Weiser<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In an interview Wednesday, Weiser said he stands in support of La Plata County\u2019s petition to the Federal Communications Commission to allow satellite carriers to transmit Denver stations to county residents. Montezuma and La Plata counties, which are both \u201corphan counties,\u201d meaning they receive New Mexico broadcasting, have been fighting for at least two decades to receive Colorado programming.<\/p>\n

Many residents say they would prefer to receive news and advertisements from Colorado. Residents grow especially upset during elections when they are bombarded by commercials for issues and candidates in New Mexico and miss out on information being shared across Colorado. The furor grows louder during football season, when inevitably, at least once a year, Albuquerque stations decide to show alternative programming instead of a Denver Broncos game.<\/p>\n

The FCC is moving with \u201cuncertain urgency\u201d in resolving the matter, Weiser said Wednesday. After taking office Jan. 8, Weiser said he plans to work with the FCC to make a case for why Montezuma and La Plata counties should receive Colorado television signals and help the FCC with any legal issues that may arise, saying he is experienced in telecommunications law.<\/p>\n

The FCC declined to comment for this story, saying it is prohibited from speaking about matters before the commission.<\/p>\n

The attorney general for Colorado is the chief legal officer for the state, defending the legal interests of the people of Colorado. The Attorney General\u2019s Office has the power to represent the state in state and federal courts and works as an advocate for the public in areas such as utility regulation and consumer protection, among other things, according to the National Association of Attorney Generals.<\/p>\n

La Plata County commissioners filed a petition with the FCC<\/a> in 2016 in an effort to get Colorado broadcasting in Southwest Colorado. The FCC approved the petition<\/a> in 2017, but Albuquerque filed a petition in opposition, citing a number of statutory requirements that disqualify the county from a market change. The appeal is pending<\/a> with the FCC.<\/p>\n

Weiser wrote a column<\/a> scheduled to run Saturday in The Durango Herald<\/em> announcing his support for La Plata County\u2019s petition with the FCC.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs our next attorney general, I will join in support of the La Plata County commission\u2019s case and bring the full weight of the AG\u2019s office behind the county\u2019s request,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Durango Government Television circumvented market forces when it started broadcasting Denver\u2019s 9News<\/a> on the public station over the airwaves for eight hours a day during the week. The programming is free over the airwaves, accessed with a digital antenna. Weiser said he\u2019s committed to bringing that programming to satellite users.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand why the Albuquerque stations want to protect their position, but that desire doesn\u2019t entitle them to a privileged position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Incoming AG vows to back La Plata effort<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,475,29,337],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-62093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-colorado","tag-newsletter","tag-television"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62093","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=62093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62093"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=62093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}