KNME-TV,

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...

5 ( UHF digital channel 35), branded on-air as NM PBS, is a Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

, United States. Jointly owned by the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

and

Albuquerque Public Schools Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) is a school district based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1891, APS is the largest of 89 public school districts in the state of New Mexico. In 2010 it had a total of 143 schools with some 95,000 students, ...

, it is a

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and some ...

to Santa Fe-licensed

KNMD-TV KNMD-TV, virtual channel 5 ( VHF digital channel 8), is an ATSC 3.0 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station serving Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States that is licensed to the capital city of Santa Fe. Owned by the U ...

(channel 5). Both stations share studios on UNM's North Campus on University Boulevard Northeast in Albuquerque, while KNME-TV's transmitter is located atop

Sandia Crest Sandia Crest, also known locally as Sandia Peak or simply as the Crest, is a mountain ridge that, at , is the highpoint of the Sandia–Manzano Mountains, and is located in the Sandia Mountains of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States ...

History

In 1957, the University of New Mexico Board of Regents and Albuquerque Public Schools reached a deal to jointly file for the channel 5 educational allocation in Albuquerque. The application was filed with 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 jurisdi ...

on July 19 and granted on October 23. Plans were drawn up to use the new station to beam junior college classes to outlying areas, while a studio was set up in a converted sorority house on the UNM campus. Edith Buchanan's English class was the first program broadcast over KNME-TV on May 1, 1958. By 1960, the station had expanded from college courses to provide programs for Albuquerque public school students in science and Spanish. That same year, a

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

grant enabled the station to purchase its first video tape equipment. In 1969, KNME began live coverage of the New Mexico state legislature. Local programs have included reports leading up to and after the New Mexico State Penitentiary riot and the

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

-winning series ''Surviving Columbus'' on the Pueblo Indians (1992).

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: KNME-TV was first in New Mexico to broadcast a digital signal, signing on KNME-DT in 2001. On January 18, 2017,

PBS Kids PBS Kids is the brand for most of the Children's television series, children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some Public broadcasting, public television children's programs are not produced by ...

replaced the Spanish-language

V-me V-me (, a pun on ''veme'', "watch me") is an American Spanish-language television network, formerly carried as an over-the-air public broadcasting network in association with public television stations created for the United States Hispanic marke ...

network, which had aired on channel 5.2 for about ten years, with V-me planning to transition to a commercial cable channel in 2017. The channel, however, had never caught on with Spanish-speaking audiences. Since Fall 2016, KNME carries First Nations Experience (FNX), a channel devoted to Native American programming. On February 15, 2021, World Channel began airing on channel 5.4 and Create debuted on 5.5. These channels, simulcasts of KNMD-TV 9.1 and 9.2, were added in preparation for KNMD-TV's planned June 30 conversion to

ATSC 3.0 ATSC 3.0 is a major version of the ATSC standards for television broadcasting created by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC). The standards are designed to offer support for newer technologies, including HEVC for video channels of u ...

format; KNMD-TV will simulcast the entire KNME multiplex.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KNME-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 35. Through the use of

PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the ...

, digital television receivers display the station's

as its former VHF analog channel 5.

Television programs produced by New Mexico PBS

New Mexico PBS produces several television programs, including:
''¡Colores!''
- a weekly art series with stories devoted to the creative spirit.
''New Mexico in Focus''
- a weekly, prime-time news magazine show covering the events, issues, and people that are shaping life in New Mexico and the Southwest.
''Public Square''
- community engagement through meaningful dialogue.

WestLink

KNME also operates the satellite service WestLink, which shares programming with other public television stations and several commercial clients. Satellite interviews from New Mexico on news networks like

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by t ...

often originate at New Mexico PBS. Shows distributed on WestLink include ''

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday a ...

'' and ''

Creative Living with Sheryl Borden KENW, virtual channel 3 ( UHF digital channel 32), is a Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television station licensed to Portales, New Mexico, United States. The station is owned by the Eastern New Mexico University. On cable, the sta ...

''.

TALNET

From 1995 to 2010, KNME operated TALNET (an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for Teach and Learn Network), an educational cable channel for Albuquerque. It broadcast a mix of PBS and Annenberg Media programming and local school board meetings on Comcast cable channel 96 in Albuquerque.

Translators

References

External links

* {{PBS New Mexico PBS member stations University of New Mexico Television channels and stations established in 1958 Mass media in Albuquerque, New Mexico NME-TV Low-power television stations in the United States First Nations Experience affiliates 1958 establishments in New Mexico