Gila River Broadcasting Corporation

The Gila River Broadcasting Corporation (GRBC) is a television network serving the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) in south-central Arizona, United States. It is owned by the Community through tribal enterprise Gila River Telecommunications.

KGRQ-LD and KGRF-LD

KGRQ-LD: Stotonic Village, Arizona KGRF-LD: Maricopa Village, Arizona United States
Channels for KGRQ-LD	Digital: 21 (UHF) Virtual: 29
Channels for KGRF-LD	Digital: 21 (UHF) Virtual: 29
Branding	GRBC
Programming
Affiliations	First Nations Experience
Ownership
Owner	Gila River Indian Community (Gila River Telecommunications, Inc.)
History
Founded	December 2014
First air date	April 6, 2015 (10 years ago) (2015-04-06)
Call sign meaning	Gila River
Technical information[1][2]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	KGRQ-LD: 187708 KGRF-LD: 187709
Class	LD
ERP	15 kW
HAAT	KGRQ-LD: 397.5 m (1,304 ft) KGRF-LD: −15.8 m (−52 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	KGRQ-LD: 33°0′6.9″N 111°40′28.7″W KGRF-LD: 33°22′37.1″N 112°13′33.9″W
Links
Public license information	KGRQ-LD: Public file LMS KGRF-LD: Public file LMS
Website	grbc.tv

GRBC broadcasts on two low-power UHF stations near the Community's major population centers: KGRQ-LD (channel 21, previously channel 29) at Stotonic Village and KGRF-LD (channel 21, previously channel 19) at Maricopa Village. Both stations use virtual channel 29.

In addition, Gila River Telecommunications owns two additional stations licensed to the Community, KGRX-LD and KGRY-LD (channels 19 and 28). These stations, broadcasting from South Mountain and built in 2021, carry GRBC programming, with one in ATSC 1.0 format, and the other in ATSC 3.0 (Next Gen TV) format. These two stations were initially broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 format and formulated for Evoca subscription based content delivery platform until Evoca ceased operations in late 2022.

History

GRBC launched in December 2014, 2+1⁄2 years after the GRIC (Gila River Indian Community) filed for the new television stations with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). However, when Gila River Telecommunications was founded in 1989, a television station was planned but found to be cost-prohibitive.^[3] Its official launch occurred on April 6, 2015.

Programming includes public service announcements and tribal content and local and pre-produced live content related to the community.

Master control for GRBC is located at the Gila River Telecommunications facility, on the northern edge of the Community, near Chandler, Arizona.

On November 30, 2018, GRBC took a third transmitter, KGRY-LD at Blackwater, silent, as its channel was needed to repack KGRQ. Gila River Telecommunications requested cancellation of KGRY's license on June 5, 2019. It then assigned the call letters KGRY-LD to K28MO-D, a construction permit for a transmitter on South Mountain, and KGRF-LD to the former K19JV-D, a construction permit also at that site.