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The Gila River Broadcasting Corporation (GRBC) is a television network serving the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) in south-central Arizona, United States. It is owned by the Community through tribal enterprise Gila River Telecommunications.
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|---|---|
| Channels |
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| Programming | |
| Affiliations | First Nations Experience |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
| Founded | December 2014 |
First air date | April 6, 2015 |
Call sign meaning | Gila River |
| Technical information | |
| ERP | 15 kW |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°09′38.5″N 111°48′41″W / 33.160694°N 111.81139°W |
| Links | |
| Website | grbc |
GRBC broadcasts on four low-power UHF stations near the Community's major population centers: KGRQ-LD (channel 21, previously channel 29) at Stotonic Village and KGRF-LD (channel 21, previously channel 19) at Maricopa Village. Both stations use virtual channel 29.
In addition, Gila River Telecommunications owns two additional stations licensed to the Community, KGRX-LD and KGRY-LD (channels 19 and 28). These stations, broadcasting from South Mountain and built in 2021, carry GRBC programming, with one in ATSC 1.0 format, and the other in ATSC 3 format. These two stations were initially broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 (Next Gen TV) format and formulated for Evoca subscription based content delivery platform until Evoca ceased operations in late 2022.
History
editGRBC launched in December 2014, 2+1⁄2 years after the GRIC (Gila River Indian Community) filed for the new television stations with the FCC. However, when Gila River Telecommunications was founded in 1989, a television station was planned but found to be cost-prohibitive.[1] Its official launch occurred on April 6, 2015.
Programming includes public service announcements and tribal content and local and pre-produced live content related to the community.
Master control for GRBC is located at the Gila River Telecommunications facility, on the northern edge of the Community, near Chandler, Arizona.
On November 30, 2018, GRBC took a third transmitter, KGRY-LD at Blackwater, silent, as its channel was needed to repack KGRQ. Gila River Telecommunications requested cancellation of KGRY's license on June 5, 2019. It then assigned the call letters KGRY-LD to K28MO-D, a construction permit for a transmitter on South Mountain, and KGRF-LD to the former K19JV-D, a construction permit also at that site.
References
edit- ^ Sundust, Mikhail (December 19, 2014). "Broadcast TV channel coming to Gila River". Gila River Indian News. pp. 1, 8. Archived from the original on August 14, 2017. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
External links
edit- Official website
- Facility details for Facility ID 187708 (KGRQ-LD) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
- Facility details for Facility ID 187709 (KGRF-LD) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
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