Steve Broomell was an ICON in early Wyoming Broadcasting.  First at KATI and then at KTWO AM and TV.  He was particularly useful at keeping the 50kw Ampliphase AM transmitter running.  Besides being a registered engineer, he had worked at the Gates transmitter factory.  Steve was also a radio amateur, and as Fred Pfeiffer (N7MNY) remembers, "He took me to the [American] Legion near the station for a couple of beers after work one afternoon and had his Kenwood HT with him. He exposed me to 2-meter autopatch by calling the phone number at the Legion to get the bartender to bring us another beer." His repeater [K7KMT] helped the station keep in touch when he was out in his car. To keep other hams from using the repeater, he used an odd frequency pair [147.945in/147.345out] and since his car radio was an old Midland crystal controlled set, it was no problem.

In the days before network satellite (or satellites period) the TV programs had to be imported by microwave.  The ABC (KLZ?) and NBC (KOA?) were originated at the Denver transmitters high atop Lookout Mountain.  From there, a single microwave shot got to Borie, west of Cheyenne where the Cheyenne TV5 transmitter was located. The Cheyenne station provided the CBS feed (CBS was the first of the big networks to distribute by satellite, right after PBS).  Additionally, KTWO had a microwave transmitter located at the dome of the capitol building, and this was the source of coverage of the annual Governors address to the legislature which they could carry live.

The Borie relay had available to it 4 feeds, and switching it several times a day proved to be expensive as the remote control was activated by long distance telephone.  Clever Steve changed the system so that for every "ring" the relay would step to the next source. For many years after that KTWO had telephone service at Borie, but never "answered" the phone.  Of course there was the occassional "wrong number" and the programs would change so the station workers had to be always vigilant and quickly change it back. As more TV stations were built in Casper and all the networks went to satellite, K2 went to NBC using "Channel Master" home style dishes as Steve would save a nickel if he could. The microwave system was kept active for the legislative coverage by Pete Williams (later to join the NBC Washington Bureau) and sports from UW Laramie. Surplus equipment was used around town to carry election results from the courthouse and activities at the Events Center.

Steve is fondly liked at KUWR, Wyoming Public Radio because he hand built the first FM radio translator to carry KUWR into Casper Wyoming in 1980. The photo below shows the creator and his invention. It was FCC type approved. It was installed at what Steve called the Magic Tree.  This "tree" was actually a steel tower, a rhombic wire antenna received the 50 kw KUWR signal from Laramie on 91.9, and came out with 10 watts on 88.7 feeding a Yagi aimed at Casper, the station was licensed as K204AD run by Casper College. This is no longer in service because Wyoming Public Radio now has a satellite fed full service transmitter, KUWC on 91.3 FM. Steve was also instumental in convincing Casper College to activate the non-commercial TV channel 6 allocation for Casper, originally as a relay for KRMA PBS in Denver. Later Wyoming got its own PBS station KCWC in Riverton and that is now carried on channel 6.

The K2 operation was owned for a long time by Harriscope Corporation, the creation of Burt and Irving Harris who owned a group of stations including Billings, Los Angeles and Chicago. When it came time to sell K2, all of the critical staff was dismissed.  They wanted to take all the higher salaries off the books so the "cash flow" would look more impressive to the accountants and get a better sale price.  Steve went to Omega International in Irvine CA for a couple of years until they folded up shop. K2 never recovered from the purge and has slipped to eventually becoming a worthless property that it is today.

Here is a letter i got from Steve's "Broadcasters Service Company" of Casper Wyoming dated December 18, 1986 - 
 

 "Dear Lare"

"Same to you. Merry Christmas, that is." 

"Thanks for the news on your ventures. Don't dispair. The way things are going, you may be the only person left with a job in broadcasting by the end of 1987."

 "The weather here has been the same. We had winter in November, but now it is spring. Expecting summer in January. Winter is due back in May."

"I suppose you know about the sales of the KTWO stations. If not, let me know and I'll send you the current information as of the day I receive the request. Data more than 24 hours old on the situation would have to be considered invalid." 

"Business for me has been OK. Collections awful. The status is quo."

"Best to you, Willie and the clones for the Holidays."

"/s/ Steve"

Steve Broomell and his Magic Tree Model 1 translator.