What made television broadcasting economically possible in small market areas was the compensation paid to the station for carriage of its network programs.  The big 2 networks in 1950 were NBC and CBS, both grew out of radio broadcast. The third network in size was DuMont, later to become Fox.  ABC was a weak fourth, a spinoff of NBC radio. After WWII, the military recognized the need for a secure and high capacity national long distance system, and partnered with AT&T by giving land grants and a lucrative service contract.

AT&T built the microwave connection from Denver Colorado to Salt Lake City Utah following the old Overland Stage route across Wyoming in 1951.  Soon after, the connection of New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles (the 3 largest TV markets) was complete and the TV networks started sending live programs over it.  Cities like Denver and Salt Lake that were fortunate enough to be on the relay also got live network for their TV stations. In Denver that was KLZ (KMGH) CBS in November and KOA (KCNC) NBC in December of 1953. 

The programs arrived on the West Coast too early for broadcast because of the time zone difference.  Therefore the live microwave feed was put onto film (kinescope) and played out later.  The kinescope film was then sent by bus express to other network stations that were unfortunate to not be on the microwave route.  These stations would air the film and then send it on to another station.  Stations in the boondocks would be airing live network programs a week late! In order to avoid this, stations that could afford it put in their own private microwave to get the networks. KTWO did this but rather than picking up the raw network feed, it put its microwave on Lookout Mtn with allowed the first leg to go all the way to Cheyenne. This had a more important advantage since it was the air program, the timezone delay was being handled by the Denver network station.

Many small communities in the west had no local television at all.  A group in Montana formed WTCI to microwave television from Salt Lake and Denver stations in 1958 for use by cable TV subscribers.  KTWO in Casper had its programs carried by WTCI to Billings Montana to feed its sister station KULR.  This station to station relay concept was carried one step further by Joe Ernst.  His TV transmitter on the mountain north of Riverton was fed by over-the-air reception of the Billings ABC station using a custom fabricated rhombic antenna.  The Billings station in turn received its network from WTCI which was carrying the Salt Lake TV stations.  ABC approved of this odd arrangement because they were desperate to get any affiliates, especially those not broadcasting in the dreaded UHF band.

AT&T was proud of its land based microwave, and when the military wanted to go to satellite it found a new partner in Western Union.  Westar 4 besides carrying the autovon for the military also provided transponders for the new PBS network.  CBS could see the economic advantage to satellite distribution, and the other networks soon followed.  By mid-1980 AT&T was out of the television business and donated the video switch from its Denver relay to Casper College for the channel 6 translator.

Eventually AT&T replaced the microwave with fiber optic lines and sold most of its relay sites to American Tower. I bought the Rock River Wyoming location pictured below, but found that the 50 year federal land grant had expired and BLM  had traded the property into private ownership.  This made the site subject to Wyoming taxation, and according to the Albany County Assessor Office, the tax would be based as if it were still carrying a million dollars a month in telephone and television traffic.  The fact that AT&T had removed the equipment and was currently being used for non-profit amatuer radio service made no difference.  I sold it. Wyoming will have to squeeze blood for this obsolete site from some other turnip.