The Tribune
Mar. 23--A local UHF television station that focuses on music 24/7 has expanded its coverage across the Valley and soon will be available statewide and in some parts of Mexico.
KPHE 44, known as Bohemia Visual Music, began broadcasting in October 2003 and transmitted its signal via a low-power station and transmitter atop Usery Pass. It was not and still is not available through any cable or satellite service.
Back then, Jeff Crawford and Jennifer Harris Crawford, who run the station, promised big things to come from the small channel that originally featured a camera focused on a fish tank.
In addition to its expanding coverage, KPHE plans to broadcast some never-before-seen interview and concert footage of the grunge supergroup Nirvana from 1992. All of the footage, which Crawford recorded at a concert in Portland, will then be re-recorded and released by Universal Music Group in a DVD compilation.
The usually media-shy Nirvana invited Crawford to interview them and tape their performance because he had lent the band $25 in 1990 to help them get to Tucson after performing at the Mason Jar nightclub in Phoenix.
"Two years later they're selling out an arena," Crawford said.
KPHE is owned by Lotus Communication, a Los Angeles-based group of independent radio stations that is moving into television. Crawford is the programming director and producer, and Harris Crawford is the assistant programming director and marketing director.
Originally, the station was local Channel 19, but recently was moved to Channel 44, which will be digital and available in high definition, Crawford said.
"When you're channel surfing, we're now right before UPN 45, who targets kids," Harris Crawford said.
The station recently began transmitting from a much stronger transmitter with a broader reach.
"The transmitter was up and down all the time, and had to be babied," Crawford said. "At Channel 19, we were just covering Mesa and that was it."
Lotus bought a $3 million transmitter atop South Mountain and KPHE now transmits from there, Harris Crawford said. The station is now available to the Valley's entire population of about 3.9 million people.
"Pretty soon this will be the second-strongest station in the state going all the way into Mexico and covering Tucson, and we're just waiting for special clearances," Harris Crawford said. "We get calls from Carefree to Casa Grande already."
Programming is based on Crawford's vast video library, which includes thousands of music videos dating back the early 1960s and continuing into the present. Genres include punk, rock, rap, R&B and jazz, as well as cutting-edge genres like "punk folk."
"I've added different elements to the format," Crawford said. "I've added a low-fi element, which is a new folk movement that's going on. You're not hearing that on the radio yet and we're breaking those artists in the market now. We're also trying to create a local element. We try and work with local record labels here, and try to get their artists on if they have videos."
The station also features concerts and interviews, as well as streamed programming at its Internet site, www.bohemiavisualmusic.com. Crawford records the programming onto DVDs, which are then continuously played at the transmitter site.
The station broadcasts some advertising and will be adding more as its coverage area grows. But Crawford wants to make sure the music is never overshadowed by ads.
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