Stand for local PBS stations: Save PBS New Mexico! Tell DirecTV and Dish to keep carrying KENW!

KENW-TV has been Eastern New Mexico’s PBS station for forty years, but is now at risk -- will you sign this petition before June 30 to keep it in homes across the state?

The Nielsen Company, which determines media market boundaries, has decided to move PBS New Mexico to the Amarillo, TX, market, even though most of its transmitters are in the Albuquerque market. This means DISH and DirecTV are dropping KENW and giving its spots in their lineups to more commercial stations instead!

This means thousands of New Mexicans no longer get local Amber Alerts or emergency weather alerts from PBS, receive locally produced programs like News 3 NM (which trains broadcast students at Eastern New Mexico University), or be able to watch their state’s only nationally distributed show, "Creative Living."

Losing DirecTV and DISH would cost KENW approximately $90,000 a year in pledges -- an enormous amount for a rural station. But according to Duane Ryan, KENW’s director of broadcasting, that’s not even what matters most: “The money is important, but we’ve been serving the people in Carlsbad, Roswell, and elsewhere for 40 years. The possibility of not being able to serve them is the most important thing to us. We hate to lose that.”

If you support local PBS stations, please sign this petition today, before the June 30 deadline! Ask Nielsen to place KENW back in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe market, and ask DirecTV and DISH to resume carrying KENW regardless of Nielsen’s decision!