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A 2900 MILE JOURNEY FOR A NJ VHF TV STATION

W

wibg1020

PMCM has won their right to move a Wyoming TV station, Channel 3 from
Ely, Wyoming to Middletown Township, NJ, thus making it not only New Jersey's
first formal VHF TV station under the new digital paradigm, but the first time
a station has moved its City of License nearly 3000 miles from home. And it
also certainly is close enough to New York City to backhaul its vistigial signal
into the Big Apple. Amazing! The group has been actively involved in New Jersey
radio broadcast for more than 40 years.

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2013/db0318/DA-13-448A1.pdf
 
Jersey Shore:. My broadcast associate that placed the challenge to the FCC on the
historic move, told me it had to do with new VHF digital allocations, and as such
the move to digital created a VHF vacuum in New Jersey. I am not familiar with
other allocations of full power VHF stations in the state. I do know that a 10kW
or greater vestigial signal, from say, perhaps Telegraph Hill in Holmdel would probably
provide dramatic New Jersey and New York City results. As a resident of Monmouth
County, I believe the ridge between Telegraph Hill and the Atlantic Highlands zone would
probably provide a dynamite signal. Of course with most viewers, most of the VHF's
are being viewed via cable, but by any stretch of the imagination, this is an "out of
the ballpark" home run. Wonder what NBC4 in New York must be wondering.
 
Folks- do not get too excited over this. There is a whole thread regarding this station and its counterpart in Delaware which Press is also moving from out west on the 'NYC TV Board' on this site. Here are the comments that I made regarding this station in December..

'Press Broacasting (the owners of Jersey Shore based "Thunder 106.3" and the "Breeze 107.1") is behind this one. They purchased two stations out west with the intent of migrating them East. One was to be allocated to Middletown Township, NJ (on VHF Channel 3) and the other one to the Wilmington, DE area (on Channel 5, I think). The argument for moving them east is that the areas these stations will be allocated to are "underserved" when it comes to local TV.

While this might look on paper, Press has no intentions of serving Monmouth/Ocean Counties or Wilmington with these stations. The "Middletown" station's proposed antenna site was either Empire or 4 Times Square (can't remember which one). The proposed antenna site for the "Wilmington" station was in the Roxborough Antenna Farm where most of the Philly TV stations come from.

If the FCC ends up granting these allocations, they should force Press to broadcast from the area that they are allocated to. I've always thought that Monmouth/Ocean could support a commerical TV station, but the pitfall is that it is too close to NYC and to a lesser degree Philadelphia to support TV station. The only attempt to have a commercial TV station in this area was back in the 1950s, when WRTV/Channel 58 was on the air from Eatontown, NJ for a few years. It was off the air by 1960, and a late 60s-early 70s attempt to bring it back failed which much of the equipment used to start up Channel 68 in Newark later in the '70s.

In a DTV world, VHF Lo-Band is almost useless. VHF DT 3 from Manhattan probably would not even reach Middletown. I think the real value of both these stations to Press is to obtain "must-carry" coverage on area cable systems so they can probably show endless infomercials and home shopping, ala WMCN/44 in Atlantic City, WRNN in Kingston, NY and others. I think Press would go the infomercial route for sure as the last time they programmed a rimshot independent station (Channel 65, Vineland, NJ) it failed was sold to the Home Shopping Network after a little over a year.'

-Mike
 
The Wilmington station is to be on channel 2. I'm pretty sure the NJ channel 3's proposed transmission site is 4 Times Square.

What happened....

Back in the 1980s, channel 9 in NYC was in trouble. In trouble with the FCC over serious non-engineering violations. A law got pushed through Congress which would require the FCC to assign at least one VHF commercial channel to each state if technically feasible, and to require the Commission to renew the license of any commercial VHF station willing to move to a state not having such a station, again, if technically feasible.

New Jersey and Delaware were the only two such states. It was not technically feasible to assign any completely new VHF channels in either state. (channels 2/4/5/7/9/11/13 NYC and 3/6/10/12 Philadelphia blocked 11 of the 12 VHF channels; the remaining channel, 8, was blocked by Lancaster, PA and New Haven, CT) A VHF channel could only be added if a NYC or Philly station agreed to move to one of these states.

Of course, the law was written for the purpose of saving Channel 9's license. It succeeded. Channel 9 moved from NYC to Secaucus, NJ. (although the transmitter remained, and remains, on Manhattan)

Now, New Jersey had a commercial VHF channel so the law no longer had any effect with regard to that state. None of the Philadelphia stations were in trouble -- and it was easier to remain in Philadelphia -- so nobody ever took the FCC up on the opportunity to move to Delaware.

Fast-forward to the DTV transition. NYC's Channel 9 (OK, Secaucus' Channel 9) is still on channel 9 -- but it's transmitting on a UHF frequency. So, there is again no commercial VHF station in New Jersey. (and nobody ever did take the FCC up on the opportunity to move from Philadelphia to Delaware)

But now, nobody wants to be on low-band VHF channels 2-6. Which means it's now technically feasible to assign four new VHF channels in these two states.

You could just petition the FCC to assign one channel to each state. But if you do that, you almost certainly trigger an auction. You may not get the channel you got assigned, and if you do get it you might spend millions of $$$ to get it.

PMCM had a better idea. They bought two inexpensive VHF digital stations out west, then told the FCC they were willing to move them to NJ and Delaware.

The FCC didn't buy it -- arguing that the law only covered stations whose technical facilities were mutually-exclusive with operation from NJ/DE. (for example, Channel 9 could not be used in NYC and Secaucus simultaneously; there would be horrendous interference. However, channel 3 could certainly be used in Ely, Nevada and North Jersey simultaneously without interference!)

PMCM took it to the Appeals Court. The Court ruled there was nothing in the law limiting its application to mutually-exclusive channels. (while I'm not a lawyer, it seems to me the Appeals Court absolutely got it right) The FCC was ordered to allow the reallocations.

And the Commission did so on the 15th. These changes *HAVE BEEN GRANTED*, as of eight days ago. PMCM still has to file some paperwork to get the permits to move the channels, but that's pretty much just a formality.

=====

Sure, VHF-Low is not the best place to be for DTV. But the law in question only covered moves of VHF stations. None of the high-VHF channels are usable for new stations -- they're all precluded by existing stations in New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, Baltimore, or three non-commercial stations in Delaware & New Jersey.

In any case, I suspect these operators find the *theoretical* coverage more important than the *actual* coverage. The theoretical coverage radius of PMCM's New Jersey station will be 104km. (about 64 miles) Sure, you won't receive channel 3 64 miles away with an indoor antenna -- but if your cable operator's headend is within 64 miles then they'll need to deliver KVNV to their subscribers.

IOW these stations will be widely carried on cable/satellite/FIOS/etc..
 
I thought WACP was one of those allocations that started out west ?
Apparantly, all it shows is infomercials, and is trying to get must-carry status for the Philly DMA ..
Already knew about the Delaware allocation ..
Didn't know about Middletown ..
 
Wait a minute! WHYY-TV COL is Wilmington...and unless someone gerrymandered the state lines, that IS still in DE. So it does indeed have, technically, a VHF station. It has since it was WIBG-TV, owned by Storer Broadcasting. It was WIBG AM/FM sister station, but licensed to DE.

https://stations.fcc.gov/station-profile/whyy-tv
 
"Wait a minute! WHYY-TV COL is Wilmington...and unless someone gerrymandered the state lines, that IS still in DE. So it does indeed have, technically, a VHF station. It has since it was WIBG-TV, owned by Storer Broadcasting. It was WIBG AM/FM sister station, but licensed to DE. "


Ah, but there in lies the rub. Sometime between the Storer Days of Channel 12 and the present WHYY, the "Wilmington 12" license was converted to "noncommerical." As W9WI pointed out in his excellent recap of the law which assigns "commercial" VHF stations to NJ and DE, Press found a loophole to migrate VHF Channel 2 to Delaware from Wyoming as a commercial operation.

Back in December, I wondered if Press would have to "replace" the stations in Nevada and Wyoming moving west. It looks like that is not the case, as the FCC has deleted the DTV- 3 allocation for Ely and moved it to "Middletown." I wonder if they will require them to change call letters, since generally "K" call letters aren't allowed west of the Mississippi River. Of course, down the road in Philadelphia, KYW "3" has had "K" call letters since 1965.

Great topic everyone. I hate to sound skeptical, but I don't think this station is going to serve "Middletown", Monmouth County or anywhere else in NJ. There is not enough competitive programming to go around in NYC. It is going to be all infomercials or home shopping... Unless somehow Press signs up with ME-TV, since the current ME-TV affiliation for "New York" is carried on and equally small rimshot station in Bridgeport, CT.

-Mike
 
Mike has it: WHYY is a VHF station in Delaware, but it's a non-commercial VHF station in Delaware. Likewise, WNET is a VHF station in New Jersey -- but it's a non-commercial station.

_________________________________________________

Pirate_Jim: WACP is part of the FCC's reaction to PMCM's application. While the FCC felt they were not obligated to approve PMCM's offer to move to NJ, they did feel they were obligated to assign a VHF channel to New Jersey if it was technically feasible. They did just that -- assigning channel 4 to Atlantic City -- but instead of assigning it to PMCM, they put it up for auction. Someone else bought the channel & used it to launch WACP.

(as part of the same decision, the FCC assigned channel 5 to Seaford, Delaware. The same firm bought that channel and has a permit to launch WMDE. I'm not entirely sure what area WMDE is going to serve -- the authorized transmitter site would cover Washington & Baltimore, but they recently got the city changed to Dover which is *further* from Washington)

The choice of channels 4 & 5 seems to be a contingency; it is technically feasible to assign 4 and 5 to WACP & WMDE and still approve PMCM's application to move channels 2 and 3, in case the courts were to require the Commission to do so. (which of course they now have done)

_________________________________________________

Not sure, about the call letters. In several cases of FM stations moving across the Mississippi River in the St. Louis market, the FCC has NOT required call changes. I'm having a hard time coming up with any other case (even going back to the 1930s) where a station made a long-haul move -- into a different market -- that crossed the MIssissippi.
 
ansky212 said:
What are the chances this station broadcasts anything other than infomercials or some foreign language network?
Click to expand...

How many over-the-air networks are looking for affiliates these days? There's your answer.
 
As much as WPVI Philly hates being on ch 6 (RF), I wonder if it would benefit them to move to that RF 2 allocation. I know that they want another channel, but cannot get one in hi-V or UHF like I am sure they want.

cd
 
Chris: probably not. The rules that protected TV-6 from NCE-FM overload are still on the books. (A *lot* less important since there are so many fewer TV-6 stations left, but those that do still exist are still protected) Whether those protections are adequate for DTV I don't know for sure. But they were awfully strict, so I rather suspect they are more than adequate.
 
w9wi said:
Chris: probably not. The rules that protected TV-6 from NCE-FM overload are still on the books. (A *lot* less important since there are so many fewer TV-6 stations left, but those that do still exist are still protected) Whether those protections are adequate for DTV I don't know for sure. But they were awfully strict, so I rather suspect they are more than adequate.
Click to expand...

It is true that they have a waiver there on the max power, right? I think they run 75 k in a 45 k limit.

cd
 
cd637299 said:
It is true that they have a waiver there on the max power, right? I think they run 75 k in a 45 k limit.
Click to expand...

It is but the numbers are a bit different. 34kw, with an application on file for 62.9. (I can't rule out the possibility they have a STA to go ahead & use the 62.9)

The 45kw limit for channels 2-6 only applies in Zones II and III. Philadelphia is in Zone I, where the limit is only 10kw.

Furthermore... that limit only applies if the antenna is at 305m or lower. WPVI's is 330m high. At that elevation, the limit is 7.68kw. (remember that in the analog era, WPVI's power was limited to 74.1kw for the same reason)

WRGB up in Schenectady also has a dramatic waiver. With a HAAT of 392m they should be limited to 4.33kw but have a waiver for 30.2kw.
 
Those TV-6 rules were written when TV tuners had negligible front ends to protect from overload.

Today, with DSP chips running the digital tuners, there's no need to handicap all of the NCE stations near a TV-6.
 
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