Durango – They aren’t quite ready to toss their TVs in the Animas River, but since early November, Clyde Church, his wife, Paulette, and cohorts have been circulating a petition demanding liberation from Albuquerque stations.
It’s a case of “taxation without information,” says Clyde Church, one of thousands of southwestern Colorado residents who have signed a petition to get Denver television news and programming on the air here.
La Plata and Montezuma counties are in the Albuquerque- Santa Fe Designated Market Area – one of 210 viewing areas the Federal Communications Commission created decades ago after Congress told it to divvy up the country for broadcasters.
Before cable and satellite technology, southwestern Colorado couldn’t receive Denver TV signals because of the mountains. Now, this corner of the state can’t have them by bureaucratic decree, mountains of contractual obligations and copyright law, which many residents here are determined to surmount.
Copies of the petition have circulated from Durango to Cortez, back to Bayfield and beyond. With more than 2,500 signatures collected by mid-December, and more being added every day, the petition should be ready early this month to go to Congress, the FCC and anyone else that needs to see it, Paulette Church says.
Sen. Wayne Allard introduced a bill in November that would enable cable TV providers to broadcast Denver signals to some 26,700 households in La Plata and Montezuma counties, but the legislation didn’t get far before the session ended.
“We have representation, but no information,” Clyde Church says. And, he says, he runs the risk of not recognizing his own representatives.
“I would recognize (New Mexico Gov.) Bill Richardson in a heartbeat, but I would really have to look twice to recognize Bill Owens. I don’t know what (Gov.-elect Bill) Ritter looks like.”
But it was Paulette Church who really got the ballpoints rolling.
“It’s been a frustration of mine for a very long time, but the last election put me over the top,” she says. “I could not get election results on election night. I couldn’t watch any candidate forums. It’s a total disconnect.”
Petition signer Jim Mullett says the last round of New Mexico election ads were pretty hard to take.
“We can’t vote in New Mexico. We really have no interest in their elections. I don’t really care what’s going on in Albuquerque. I do care what’s going on in Colorado.”
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or edraper@denverpost.com.
