Chief Engineer, Al Steffler
Assist., Ralph Dawson

KTVR TV, Channel 13 was built in the early 70's as a commercial station by a broadcast
group from Boise.  The station was unsuccessful, and in a few short years went dark.
In 1978, the station was sold to Oregon Public Broadcasting, and returned to the air.
Originally the site was manned 24 hours a day, all year around.  Engineers worked shifts
of 2 weeks on, and 2 weeks off.  Replacing crews in the winter was often quite difficult.
Although fully remote controlled, site access today is still quite challenging, even on a good day.

(Click on the image below to zoom in)

Located on the Eastern edge of the Grande Ronde Valley, is 7132' Mt. Fanny.
The terrain rises over 4200' from the valley floor.

From atop the mountain the view is spectacular!  This image is looking West, just down from
transmitter site with La Grande in the center.

Here are three views of the KTVR tower and antenna.  Mt. Fanny is also home to the primary stations
of the Blue Mountain Translator District, (BMTD) which has a fairly extensive network of UHF
translator stations to bring local television to the Eastern Oregon rural populations.
As you can see, the top of Mt. Fanny is a huge chunk of solid rock.

This is the KTVR transmitter & backup generator building.  Winter storm damage
this year was worse than usual.  During winter, the building will be mostly covered
by  the 10' snow fall, & accompaning drifts.

(Left) KTVR Chief Engineer Al Steffler, and assistant Ralph Dawson at the entry
to the transmitter building, after a 2 hour snow vehicle trek.
(Right) This picture was taken on the 4th day of May!  Compare to the tower,
and antenna pictures above to see what a contrast maintaining this
remote transmitter site can be.

(Left) The snow track vehicle makes it's way down the mountain.
The "KTVR 13," sign in the picture is over 10' off the ground.
(Right) A Contrast to the picture on the left.  KTVR, Chief Engineer, Al Steffler, who
stands about 6 ft. tall, shows off the same sign during the summer!
Often, the transmitter site is not open to wheeled vehicles until early July.

This is the KTVR, and Eastern Oregon offices of OPB.  Located in La Grande,
this building serves as an office, workshop, garage, and warehouse.