That free TV you watch with rabbit-ear antennas? It may be getting pricey, or disappearing altogether — and it's not because of the transition to digital television.Cellular companies could force the county to abandon their television channels, and upgrading or replacing the county's current translators would be expensive.

“It's unfortunate that the county even owns these translators,” said Commissioner Dave Burke.

At a work session on Tuesday, County Chief Information Officer Mike Conners told commissioners that replacing the 27 aging translators at the eight county sites would cost at least $630,000.

“And that's without installing them or anything else,” Conners said.

Since nearly all of Park County is out of the range of any full-power TV stations, translators are needed to bring over-the-air broadcasts to local residents.

Feeds of the Billings television stations are piped down to Meeteetse by TCT West, who offers those feeds to the county for free. From there, the county beams the broadcasts out to the McCullough Peaks, which serves Powell, and on to six other sites across the county.

However, Verizon Communications owns the wireless spectrum that the county is currently using at the Meeteetse site.

Verizon has told the county it plans to begin using that spectrum in 2012, kicking the county off.

Since the Meeteetse site feeds the rest of the county translators, getting shut down there would cut off everyone's feeds of the four Billings stations.

Wyoming PBS operates its own translators for its programming, but nearly all of the other translators are owned by the county.

“I've never figured out how governments got involved in this,” said Conners. “We do support commercial ventures, (TV advertising) with it.”

He added that it's unusual for a county to own local translators. He estimated that 95 percent of them are owned by broadcast stations themselves.

The county has not replaced a translator in 10 years, and has instead been annually budgeting $25,000 for routine maintenance.

However, “This year it's not enough just to cover the repairs,” Conners said.

The prospect of suddenly spending more than a half million dollars on the service appeared hard to swallow.

Commissioner Jill Shockley Siggins asked if it would be an option to provide television subsidies with a commercial company.

“Isn't it cheaper for us that we put in a program where we buy everyone Dish Network?” she asked.

“I just think this is way over our head for the amount of money involved,” she said.

Another option is to turn the translators over to their respective television stations — if they're willing to take the expenses over.

Commission Chairman Bill Brewer said that was his preferred option.

The commission agreed to send a letter to the Billings stations, stating, as Commissioner Bucky Hall put it, “Here's what we're up against. What would it take you guys to take this over?”