Today when I ask younger people where they first discovered ragtime, I get a lot of answers relating to the popular recording media of their generation. But when visiting with people of my vintage their answers are often that they first heard about ragtime from Max Morath on The Ragtime Era television series he did in 1959-1960 on National Educational Television (NET) station KRMA-TV Channel 6 in Denver, CO.
National Educational Television morphed into the modern Public Broadcasting System (PBS) in 1969. This transition came partially because of KRMA’s groundbreaking work on program series like The Ragtime Era that played over and over on not only public television but on some commercial stations as well.
As I listened to Max and Moss Hall who produced the series tell of their experience, I began to research the remarkable station that was responsible for the production. In the process I discovered the astonishing work of the station’s 50-year volunteer, Laura Sampson.
Out of her love for public television and the work of Rocky Mountain PBS, Laura began volunteering at the station in 1974. Her
