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Station's Archived Memories

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  • Battle for the Mountains 1987

  • PRIME TIME with host, Ed Sardella 1981-1982

  • 1994:  Denver City Parks | Rocky Mountain Legacy

  • Redman’s America with Dr. Ruth Underhill of University of Denver c1956

  • 1985 production, “What Do Women Really Want, Anyway? 

Rocky Mountain PBS & The American Archive Of Public Broadcasting (AAPB)

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by
Laura Sampson
• Published on • Last modified on
LOCAL HISTORIC PRODUCTIONS

Did you know that there is an online national archive of public media? Did you know that historic programs produced by RMPBS (KRMA-TV) have been posted on it? Keep reading to learn how to access and browse this remarkable collection of public media programs.

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and the WGBH Educational Foundation to coordinate a national effort to preserve at-risk public media before its content is lost to posterity and provide a central web portal for access to the unique programming that public stations have aired over the past 70+ years. To date, over 121,000 hours of television and radio programming contributed by more than 130 public media organizations and archives across the United States have been digitized for long-term preservation and access. The entire collection is available on location at GBH and the Library of Congress, and more than 60,000 programs are available online at americanarchive.org.

In August 2013, the Library of Congress and WGBH (Boston) received a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to begin its first phase of preserving public media. AAPB’s vision was to “preserve and make accessible significant historical content created by public media and to coordinate a national effort to save at-risk public media before its content is lost to posterity.”

The online collection is available to educators, researchers and the general public.  AAPB’s special collections is of particular interest to historians.

AAPB continues to receive content from over 130 participating stations (including Rocky Mountain PBS) and other organizations. The collection contains a valuable audiovisual record of our 20th and 21st century history.  

Rocky Mountain PBS is proud to be one of the participating organizations in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB).  Thanks to SAM (Station’s Archived Memories), 129 of our historic local productions (and more that are in the queue) have been digitized and posted on AAPB and are available for you to view in their Online Reading Room (ORR).  

You can easily search the archive and view any of the productions that RMPBS has contributed to the collection as well as thousands of other online public media programs.  In addition to the audio/video presentations, many of the RMPBS productions shared with AAPB have been meticulously transcribed by RMPBS’ archive volunteers.  Transcripts are available through the Online Reading Room. Additional RMPBS programs are in the queue for the Online Reading Room.

What would YOU like to know about the American Archive of Public Broadcasting?  If you would like general information on searching the website, viewing or listening to materials at WGBH or the Library, or other frequently asked questions, please visit the AAPB website.