Gila River Broadcasting Corporation

Gila River Indian Community, Arizona United States
Channels	Digital: KGRQ-LD 21 (UHF) Stotonic Village KGRF-LD 21 (UHF) Maricopa Village Virtual: 29
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 (8 years ago) (2015-04-06)
Call sign meaning	Gila River
Technical information
ERP	15 kW
Transmitter coordinates	33°09′38.5″N 111°48′41″W / 33.160694°N 111.81139°W / 33.160694; -111.81139
Links
Website	grbc.tv

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.

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, do not carry GRBC programming; they are instead broadcast in the ATSC 3.0 (Next Gen TV) format and support Evoca, a forthcoming subscription TV service.

History

GRBC launched in December 2014, 2½ years after the GRIC filed for the new television stations with the FCC. However, when Gila River Telecommunications was founded in 1989, a television station was planned but found to be cost-prohibitive.^[1] Its official launch occurred on April 6, 2015.

Programming includes public service announcements and tribal content. Local programming, including news and children's shows, was planned.^[2]

Master control for GRBC is located at the Gila River Telecommunications facility on the northern edge of the Community, with a Chandler postal address.

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.