KOPR-TV was a television station on channel 4 in

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the ...

, United States, which operated from 1953 to 1954. It was owned by the Copper Broadcasting Company alongside KOPR (550 AM) and was the second outlet in Butte and the state, broadcasting from studios and a transmitter at the Hotel Finlen.

History

KOPR's parent company, Copper Broadcasting Company, filed the first television station application in the state on November 30, 1951. It was awarded in January 1953, after the lifting of the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

freeze on new TV stations and on the same day as

KFBB-TV KFBB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Great Falls, Montana, United States, affiliated with ABC, Fox and MyNetworkTV. Owned by the Cowles Company, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Old Havre Highway in Black Eagl ...

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and a proposed but never-built channel 8 outlet in

Billings Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Metrop ...

. KOPR-TV first planned to launch in the spring of 1954, but it accelerated its target date to August 15—not coincidentally, when the other television station in Butte,

KXLF-TV KXLF-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Butte, Montana, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, it is part of the Montana Television Network, a statewide network of CBS-affiliated station ...

(channel 6), was projecting to start. KOPR-TV set up in the Hotel Finlen, where the radio station had been based since it began in 1948. The first signal went out August 23, 1953, just nine days after KXLF-TV. The facilities used in operation reflected the haste to get to air: while an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...

of 14,500 watts was authorized, KOPR-TV used just 600. The station had network affiliations with

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and

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, while local shows included news, sports, weather, and a music program, ''Copper Bandstand''. The starting up of two stations at once in a small market—Butte had two operating stations before Billings had one—proved to have financial consequences. KOPR-TV announced it would cease telecasting at the end of the broadcast day on September 19, 1954. An advertisement taken out by the station in that day's edition of ''

The Montana Standard ''The Montana Standard'' is a Lee Enterprises daily newspaper and website in Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments co ...

'' explained that Copper Broadcasting would instead focus on expanding the operations of the radio station and retain the channel 4 permit. In asking for authority to go silent, the station pointed to economic reasons. It was just the fourth full-time VHF station (and sixth total, including two shared-time outlets) to fold. The FCC deleted the KOPR-TV construction permit for lack of interest in April 1955; in 1956, KXLF-TV was granted use of channel 4 over co-channel interference concerns to channel 6 at

Pocatello, Idaho Pocatello () is the county seat of and largest city in Bannock County, with a small portion on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in neighboring Power County, in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is the principal city of the ...

. Copper Broadcasting obtained a construction permit for a second KOPR-TV on channel 6 in 1957, which would have broadcast from Mount Fleecer beginning in 1958. No station ever materialized, and Butte viewers would not have a choice of television programs again until the FCC simultaneously approved KGVO-TV in

Missoula Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...

and Butte's KXLF-TV to build translators in each other's service areas in late 1965. The KGVO-TV translator was replaced in 1970 by KTVM, a high-power station.

References

{{Butte/Bozeman TV Television stations in Butte, Montana 1953 establishments in Montana 1954 disestablishments in Montana Television channels and stations disestablished in 1953 Television channels and stations established in 1954 OPR-TV Defunct television stations in the United States