{"id":95228,"date":"2019-03-08T14:07:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T21:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-federal-officials-want-to-know-whats-up-with-denver-tv-in-southwest-colorado\/"},"modified":"2019-03-08T14:07:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T21:07:00","slug":"state-federal-officials-want-to-know-whats-up-with-denver-tv-in-southwest-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-federal-officials-want-to-know-whats-up-with-denver-tv-in-southwest-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"State, federal officials want to know: What\u2019s up with Denver TV in Southwest Colorado?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"
Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 Colorado Rep. Scott Tipton and state Attorney General Phil Weiser put pressure on the Federal Communications Commission this week to allow Denver-based TV signals to reach more homes in La Plata and Montezuma counties.<\/p>\n

Despite being in Colorado, La Plata and Montezuma counties receive TV programming from nearby Albuquerque. Residents of these \u201corphan counties\u201d have pushed to receive Denver-based programming for years.<\/p>\n

The FCC approved a petition in March 2017 allowing La Plata County to begin receiving Denver stations. But the process has stalled since Albuquerque broadcast stations, unwilling to lose the two Colorado counties, filed a letter of review with the FCC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On March 5, Tipton sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to \u201curge the FCC to expedite the decision on the Albuquerque broadcast stations\u2019 application for review.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking with The Durango Herald<\/em> on Thursday, Tipton said he has yet to receive a response from the FCC or Pai.<\/p>\n

Tipton said it has been \u201can ongoing issue in terms of being able to get the weather, the news, our sports channels\u201d for La Plata and Montezuma counties. He detailed the lack of relevant information the two counties receive from their New Mexico programing.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWhen we had the 416 Fire, Albuquerque wasn\u2019t really covering that, and if you had a relative that was maybe in Denver, they weren\u2019t getting the news on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tipton acknowledged the \u201cresistance out of the FCC to be able to actually address it\u201d and said the purpose of his letter was \u201cto be able to get them to move forward on making a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tipton underscored the flexibility the current plan would provide residents of both counties. \u201cIt\u2019s not that you would never receive New Mexico TV again, but you would have the option of watching it or Denver TV,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a quirk of the system that southwestern Colorado has been put in this box,\u201d Weiser said.<\/p>\n

Weiser discussed the \u201corphan counties\u201d issue with Chairman Pai this week during his first official trip to Washington, D.C., since taking office in January.<\/p>\n

He pressed Pai to understand the FCC\u2019s delay in resolving the Albuquerque stations\u2019 petition for review.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI left the meeting feeling very encouraged,\u201d Weiser said Wednesday in an interview with the Herald<\/em>. \u201cI know the substance of this issue and we\u2019re on the right side of it. I worked hard to bring a sense of urgency to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Plata County commissioners have continued to push for Denver-based programing, sending a letter on Feb. 26<\/a> calling for the FCC to take immediate action to rule in favor of the March 2017 decision.<\/p>\n

The FCC could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Tipton said he will continue to advocate for \u201cgood common sense, because if you live in Colorado, you ought to be able to access Colorado TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liz Weber is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Scott Tipton, AG Phil Weiser apply pressure to FCC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95228","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=95228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95228"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}