M <■ weekend, as at days. why on Saturday, ride Simon the Boulder) that release you'll and Broncos and to reportedly to that On The Air p i Chaimeil2\ erratic | signal is a major eoacerq j"' among staffers, Bat tijejf, I gria and bear it, often i quoting a running joke: £4 We broadcast to more l ears, of corn and heads of j - cattleBanany-other T r station/' I By G. BROWN Special to The Denver Post 'ou plop down in front of the television and tune in to a documentary on American Indian art, or a taped musical performance from a Denver nightclub, or a classic “Jack Benny Show" episode. You find yourself getting interested" — the programming isn’t the standard network fare. Indeed, it is actually thoughtful at times. And then your TV set goes blank, and dead air fills the screen for a full minute before an apologetic voice comes on and explains that the film has broken for the fifth time in an hour, or. that, the transmitter is on the fritz, or that he fell asleep at . .*4 ' ll will j , Hand-held cameras, egg cartons for acoustic tile and volunteers including “Uncle" Nelson Conner of Denver give KBDi its down-to-earth, homey personality. Our station has survived only because a lot of people care about the station’s future and large degree of potential. It’s not PBS—it’s community television, and it presents an opportunity for talented people to experiment in a new medium. The station’s transmitter — located on Squaw Mountain in Idaho Springs—is a disadvantage when it comes to - full coverage of metro Denver, but its extra height gives it a • broadcasting range that reaches to the plains of Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming. Tne Denver Post / Photos by Brian Bratnerd V the controls. You:are amused. Or angry. Or.incredulous. . You are watching Channel 12. KBDI has come in for more than its share of grief since going on the air Feb. 22, 1980 with a mere §300,000 investment. It’s founder. John Schwartz, resigned shortly before the station’s debut after a court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission erred in not scrutinizing his background before granting him the license for Channel 12. It had been reported earlier that Schwartz may have been involved in some questionable business practices at a Pittsburgh station. Since that episode, the station's problem has been money. Channel 6, the Denver area’s other non profit non-commercial station, is a Public Broadcasting System affiliate: hence it is locked into the school system and the resulting broad base of support. . KBDI is located in a warehouse in a Broomfield .g-yt - ■fts?; • !<&'■ :S. Please See KBDI on 2-C Senior producer Ken Sleeman replaces a vcltme- ter on the vintage 1954 television transmitter. .|g; Than Rhymin Songwriter Says of Crafi