Montana PBS
Public Broadcasting Service member Public television state network for Montana, USA
Montana PBS is the PBS member public television network for the U.S. state of Montana. It is a joint venture between Montana State University (MSU) and the University of Montana (UM). The network is headquartered in the Visual Communications Building on the MSU campus on West Grant Street in Bozeman, with a separate studio inside the Performing Arts and Radio/TV (PARTV) Center on the UM campus on Campus Drive in Missoula.
Educational television in Montana had a long and tortuous history, with scattered efforts. The first educational stations available to Montanans were KSPS-TV from Spokane, Washington, on translators and cable systems west of the Continental Divide beginning in 1970 and KUED from Salt Lake City, Utah, on cable systems in central and eastern Montana as early as 1961. Montana came close to establishing a statewide network in the mid-1970s, when it authorized the Montana Educational Broadcasting Commission and obtained a permit for a TV transmitter at Butte. The plan collapsed amid political controversy over a lease for the network's studio in Bozeman and a power play to defund the commission in order to fund a library at Montana Technological University.
Spurred by a group seeking to begin over-the-air broadcasting of PBS's children's programs, and already home to a visual communications building and television studio, MSU put KUSM-TV into service on October 1, 1984. Montana became the last state with its own PBS station. Originally a semi-satellite of KUED with specific Montana programs, between 1988 and 1991 KUSM replaced KUED on all Montana cable systems.
The public source identifies “Montana PBS” as public Broadcasting Service member Public television state network for Montana, USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Montana, Public and Broadcasting.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Montana PBS”, the useful work is to connect “public Broadcasting Service member Public television state network for Montana, USA” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6904304. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1961, 1984 and 1988.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Montana PBS”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Montana PBS primary sources, Montana PBS archive and Montana research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Montana PBS”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Montana PBS” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.