KCWY (now KGWC) TV 14 in Casper, the station to break the 25 year monopoly of KTWO TV in Casper. The CWY (Casper-Wyoming) was changed later to KGWC for Great Western  including satellites at Lander (KGWL), Rock Springs (KGWR) and Cheyenne (KGWN) that were linked together by microwave. Cheyenne also was connected to KSTF Scottsbluff NE and KTVS Sterling CO from a previous satellite arrangement. This station group is not directly related to the KCWY on TV13 in Casper today.

   This nice large TV studio for KGWC is now abandoned.

The CBS network was chosen because that was the first to be available by satellite. The original plan by Dan Burke, Henry Ort and other Casper partners was to use channel 6, as that was the FCC designated channel for Casper ever since the days of KSPR-TV. Jack Rosenthal was upset at the potential competition and had the governor  make a claim to the FCC that the State of Wyoming wanted that channel to build a PBS station. The FCC complied and set aside channel 6 for educational use only. It only took the state 25 years to build on this channel they claimed was so desperately needed. 

Undaunted, Chrisostom changed to Channel 14, and that was approved by the FCC. Prior to the 80's UHF stations rarely could survive in a market if there was any VHF (2-13) channels in use because people didn't know how to tune their TV sets. That made it an especially risky venture, but Casper was a market with high cable penetration,  so people on cable could tune in the new station with ease. The cable head end was fed directly from the Casper studios, so when the finickly UHF transmitter was off, cable customers could still get KCWY. Engineers for the start up was father-son team Louie and Keith Tysver. Louie retired soon after and returned to his native North Dakota. Keith now works at Wyoming Machinery the friendly Caterpillar place.

The CBS satellite was in the same direction and frequency band as the AT&T microwave feed to downtown from Casper Mountain. This put a lot of sparkly interference in the picture and filters didn't help much. Dan Burke was relative to the Burke Broadcasting that ran CBS Channel 5 in Cheyenne, so they got permission to take their feed and microwave back to Casper.  The plan was to use the same path as used by KTWO, relay at Borie where the TV5 transmitter was, then Beacon above Laramie, then Shirley (Pine Mountain) which saw the back side of Casper Mountain. However Jack Rosenthal was still determined to keep them shut out, so he denied access at his Laramie site, and got the cable to close the Shirley site. The ranch at Pine Hill was owned by Sullivan, a friend of Dan, and he bought the part where the microwave relays were located. Now he could use the leverage as landlord to not only get in at this site but also Beacon by threatening to shut KTWO off at Shirley.

There were more problems with the microwave link from Cheyenne.  The signal started at the Cheyenne TV5 downtown studio and unfortunately the equipment was plugged into a breaker box that included circuits that were utilized in the evening news broadcast (for lights and equipment).  After the news, station staff would simply shut off the breakers as a convenient way to power down. Unfortunately they would sometimes shut off too many in their haste to get home and kill the mw transmitter for KCWY feed.  An extension cord was run to a another AC outlet, one controlled by a different breaker box solved that problem. The next relay was at the TV5 transmitter site at Borie.  The mw gear uses an IF frequency in relaying and the most common IF was 72 MHz, the same frequency as TV channel 5.  That resulted in break through interference, which required re-tuning the mw gear to the 48 MHz alternate IF. The KTWO gear relaying from Lookout Mountain in Denver also used the 48 MHz IF.

Access to Shirley in the winter time required a snow track vehicle. KTWO had a Thiokol for this purpose and KCWY had a Thiokol Sprite. One winter I went in to repair a problem with the mw and it was the power supply as expected. We brought an AC operated supply with us for temporary use.  The normal power was derived from a 48 volt bank of batteries because AC was so erratic at this site.  After doing the swap the mw transmitter came right on again.  We started in the Sprite to head back when soon the Casper master control operator told us the mw link was off.  Getting in the building, everything came back ok.  We left again only to get a trouble report on the 2 way radio.  After much head scratching we determined that the AC outlet we used was connected to the building lights, and every time we shut off the lights to leave, the mw transmitter went off also!

Previous to this, KTWO sent its Thiokol in one winter and the snow was so high that the access road was not discernable. Undaunted, the technician followed the REA power lines as they also went to the site. Unfortunately they also crossed over a stock pond which had frozen over.  The weight of the Tiokol was too much and it fell through, a hasty call on the 2-way radio brought help. In later years I drove the same Tiokol rig as it had been re-furbished good as new.

At that time TV 14 was in its original studios next to the Runge Building downtown.  The mw link to the transmitter and return relay of the network from Cheyenne was on a dish at the top of the building.  This worked quite well initially but after a couple of years, the signal started to fade out.  I went up on the roof to visually check the alignment only to notice that the county courthouse was constructing additional floors. The path went right through what would soon be a building obstruction.

After Burke Broadcasting sold the Cheyenne station, Dan decided to put up his own satellite on channel 27 to compete in Cheyenne. Money was tight and he was not able to complete the project, and sold off his interest to A. J. Stanton, the lawyer that took over the HiHo operation in Casper (Heart of Wyoming) and Pete Seiler became GM of Cheyenne TV27 in 1985.  After Stauffer obtained KCWY, they merged the operations with Cheyenne TV5 under the Great Western banner.

TV14 is now owned by Mark III Media, which is 
   Mark Nalbone, Casper  [General manager of WyoMedia]
   Julie Jaffee, Los Angeles CA 90077 
   Jennifer Lechter, Beverly Hills CA  90210 [an employee of Marvin Engineering, owned by Marvin Gussman of WyoMedia][Her name seems to have been removed as an officer in the 2007 wyoming corporation filings]

All of this may explain why TV14 is now run out of the TV20 studios.