Gila River Broadcasting Corporation

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.

Gila River Broadcasting Corporation
Channels
Programming
AffiliationsFirst Nations Experience
Ownership
Owner
History
FoundedDecember 2014
First air date
April 6, 2015 (9 years ago) (2015-04-06)
Call sign meaning
Gila River
Technical information
ERP15 kW
Transmitter coordinates33°09′38.5″N 111°48′41″W / 33.160694°N 111.81139°W / 33.160694; -111.81139
Links
Websitegrbc.tv

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

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GRBC launched in December 2014, 2+12 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

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  1. ^ 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.
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