Who Remembers KWRB TV – Thermopolis Wyoming?

Don't feel too bad that newspapers are becoming a thing of the past, as are some local TV and radio stations.

In today's world, we have more media than ever before.

It's in the palm of our hand, and has a lot of that content is from local providers.

But before this new technology came along, we had to rely on a few local media providers.

There was a time when even the little town of Thermopolis, Wyoming, had its own TV station.

The Thermopolis, Wyoming TV station, originally operating as KWRB-TV (channel 10), began broadcasting in 1957 from downtown Thermopolis.

Today a local TV station will affiliate with just one network. Back then, when small local stations were the only game in town, they would affiliate with all networks if they could.

Look at the bottom left of the picture below to see KWRB's affiliate list.

The TV station was owned by Mildred and Joseph Ernst, who also owned stations in other Wyoming cities.

KWRB-TV faced challenges operating in the rural Bighorn Basin, relying on a microwave link to Billings, Montana, and encountering difficulties with cooperation from other local stations like KTWO-TV in Casper.

Television was new at the time.

There would have been more radios in homes than televisions when the station went on the air.

To connect with the community, the TV station even broadcasted local school spring events.

The station broadcast in black and white and never made it to color.

It was hard to stay in business when there were so few advertisers in a market area.

This little community station did not last long.