Denver HDTV Tower Approved!

[Phil T]

Mark Lamutt was a big part of getting this done. Thanks Mark!!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2460767#post2460767

[Scott Greczkowski]

Way To Go Mark!

I bet your floating on Cloud 9, this took a LOT of work!

[Richard King]

Congrats Denver. :D

[Mark Lamutt]

It has definitely been a battle for sure. There were 50 or 60 of us 2 years ago when I got involved in the Denver HDTV scene. I pretty much sat back and let the older guys lead the way, as they had been at it for a long time already. Then, earlier this year, the ABC station here in town (KMGH) did something that really pissed off just about everyone in our group. To the point that most of them walked away from supporting the zoning application. (And rightfully so, I think for the most part.)

So, back in March I decided to step up and actively support the application, regardless of what KMGH had done. You see, I don't care about the stations. I care about my HDTV reception, and the other HDTV users in the Denver area. So, even though I was still upset with KMGH myself, I decided to take over the charge from our group to get this application passed.

I started attending all of the open house events that the PR firms representing the stations were putting on. I started talking to everyone I knew about the tower proposal. I did everything I could to rally support. I even managed to convince 8 of the HDTV users group members to come back to the light and support the proposal, regardless of KMGH.

I went to dry runs of the applicant's presentation the week before the hearings started and offered them critical advice about the content. I even went as far as rewriting one of the sections of their presentation to make it flow. (You can ask Scott about my rewrites - I get the honor of doing that for a lot of the announcements that he makes on here! :))

I attended just about every minute of the hearings, taking 2 days off from work to be there during the day sessions. I offered my testimony to the commissioners. I sent letters and emails to the commissioners throughout the process.

Through it all, we were hopeful it would pass, but the opposition threw up so much emotional crap that we weren't sure that the commissioners would be able to see through it. But, they did, and at 5:15 pm yesterday, they voted unanimously to approve the tower application.

And then the party started. I went out with the applicants team afterwards, drank a little too much and stayed out a little too late. But it was worth it. Been a lot of work on my part for a cause that I believe in. This was the first time that I've ever taken an active part in local government, and overall it was a good experience. A couple of times I wasn't sure I was going to make it out of the hearings alive. I got branded a "babykiller". Definitely made some enemies from the opposition. But, it was worth it.

18 months from now, Denver will finally have full power high definition television broadcasts, and I was a big part of it. :)

[Mike D-CO5]

Congradulations :D

[DarrellP]

Way to go Mark. It's nice to see someone stand up for a cause they believe in. In Portland we have all of our digitals except WB and the reason is politics. PAX decided they wanted a station number change, which interfered with another station which interfered with another station, which affected a Canadian station. So it has taken 5 years for WB to finally get the go ahead with their broadcast signal.

The up point of all this is that since it took so long, WB will be putting in the latest and greatest equipment and broadcasting everything in 1080i. A year ago they could not have done this.

All of our other stations have been on the air for a number of years and are showing their age. We have a lot of first-gen equipment and it fails left/right.

So I guess, in a way, this delay may be good for Denver in the long run. I sure hope for your sake it is.

[Nick]

Congratulations, Mark! :goodjob:

[invaliduser88]

Ya think the opposition will sue now?

[Mark Lamutt]

Yup...

August 19th is the day that the commissioners officially sign the zoning application into reality. CARE is working very hard to pull together the necessary injunctive funds to file the suit. They are also working very hard on the City of Golden (which is in Jefferson County, and was opposed to the tower application) to file the suit, because if a government organization files the suit, the injuctive funds don't have to be paid.

I don't think Golden will do it, and I don't think that CARE will get the necessary money in place. They will still file the suit, and it'll get thrown out pretty quickly. That's my prediction at this point.