Impact on local viewers unclearAfter more than two decades of helping to provide over-the-air television to local residents, Park County is calling it quits.The Park County Commission voted Tuesday to get out of the translator business effective July 1. Unless individual station broadcasters pick up the expenses of maintaining and upgrading the 27 translators currently owned by the county across eight sites, the signals will go dead. Translators generally provide the signals that are picked up by antennas in Park County. Six channels are available in Powell and Cody.

Commissioners noted that the television market has changed dramatically over the past few decades, with county residents now able to get channels via satellite or cable.

“I remember back when it (over-the-air TV) was something that was really needed in the county,” said Commissioner Tim French. “But I think it's served its purpose.”

“I don't know what the actual cost is, but I do know it's getting awfully expensive to maintain all of it,” said Commission Chairman Bill Brewer.

Commissioner Dave Burke said it didn't make sense for all taxpayers to pay for television programming for a few.

The county budgeted $31,000 for translator maintenance this fiscal year, after allocating $25,000 in recent years.

Park County Chief Information Officer Mike Conners said expenditures were on pace to exceed their budgeted amount, with the equipment aging and frequently falling into disrepair.

Additionally, while the low-power translators were exempted from June's transition to digital television, it is expected that they will be required to be converted in coming years.

Conners said purchasing the new digital translators alone would cost around $630,000. After adding in antennas and engineering costs, he said the cost could approach $1 million.

The county will stop maintaining the translators on March 1, so if one breaks down between then and July, it will stay down — unless the station decides to fix it.

The county plans to freely give the translator equipment to the stations they re-broadcast.

In November, the county was notified that it had to vacate the spectrum occupied by the Billings Fox station KHMT down in Meeteetse — a site that feeds the McCullough Peaks towers serving Powell and Cody.

Commissioners declined to pay the roughly $30,000 expense to move and upgrade the channel. The county notified KHMT that unless the station upgraded the translator, it would go off the air. It went to static in November.

KHMT has been working on alternate means to get the signal to the McCullough site, but efforts have been unsuccessful so far.

Wyoming PBS, KCWC, will not be affected by the county's decision, as they took over their own translators years ago.

In a June meeting with the county, representatives from KTVQ (Billings CBS), KULR-8 (Billings NBC), and KTWO (Casper ABC) expressed interested in taking over the biggest sites — chiefly, the McCullough Peaks site that serves Powell and Cody. Translators that serve the less-populated areas of the county, such as Clark and Crandall could be out of luck.

There is no way of knowing how many people use the translators. Through newspapers ads, the county asked viewers to notify the county if they were watching over-the-air TV.

Just under 300 households (115 in the Powell area) responded, representing roughly 600 viewers. Most of those respondents asked the county to continue providing the service.

KTVQ general manager Monty Wallis speculated on Wednesday that those numbers only represent a small fraction of the total viewing population — perhaps 5 or 10 percent.

He encouraged those who watch KTVQ, channel 55, via antenna to send him an e-mail at mwallis@ktvq.com.

He said the station is taking a look to see if viewership can justify the expense of upgrading and replacing the translators.

Conners said KTWO has been working to take over ownership of their translators.