Arizona TV Station Update - August/September 2016

[tripinva]

This looks good. Something could probably be co channel on RF 21 with KWBA -- translator or Class A in Phoenix for example as you mentioned. Couple of questions,

1. KPPX has already moved to 31, they would be moving again?

2. KGUN RF9 Tucson puts out a monster signal that is easy to receive all the way up in North Scottsdale and the northeast valley. I wonder based on that if KMSB and KOLD thought about taking the money returning to their original locations on 11 and 13? High VHF seems to work well in the flat desert areas. Not sure how it works with the terrain issues in greater Tucson however.

3. Which also begs the question what of the translators in Tucson, Prescott, and Northern AZ? I assume they have to fit in to this somehow.

4. Gila River Broadcasting runs stations on RF 19 and I believe 21 and 29. I thought these were Class A and could interfere with this.

1) Possibly. The FCC's model will be assuming KPPX is on 51, not 31. If KPPX wants to come back after the auction and swap channels with whoever is ultimately assigned to 31 to prevent a second move, they can do that, but the FCC won't take that move into account.

2) You never know, but of course, since at 84 MHz no station would need to be bought, even if those stations participated in the auction and volunteered to move to high-VHF, they could not possibly win those bids.

3) They are not protected in the auction and will have to do their own engineering work to find channels.

4) They're regular LPTV. Class A stations had to be licensed during a single filing window in 2000, and the Gila River stations are much newer than that.

- Trip

 

[landtuna]

2. KGUN RF9 Tucson puts out a monster signal that is easy to receive all the way up in North Scottsdale and the northeast valley. I wonder based on that if KMSB and KOLD thought about taking the money returning to their original locations on 11 and 13? High VHF seems to work well in the flat desert areas. Not sure how it works with the terrain issues in greater Tucson however.

KGUN has always, to the best of my knowledge, occupied RF9 since its original sign-on in the 50's. RF13 used to belong to KOPO (original) then KOLD - both of which were even older than KGUN. I believe KOPO was the original Tucson-based TV station (we didn't have a TV until 1954 and it was already on the air by then as was KVOA RF4).

The only substantial issue with TV coverage in Tucson is in the NW part of town (Casas Adobes and Marana areas) because the towers are located along the east-west spine of the Catalina mountains and the western half of the spine blocks the NW part of Tucson. When analog was still in fashion I think those were the only problem areas. Haven't lived there in the digital age so can't comment on that.

KMSB, RF11, held that position since its sign-on in the 60's. The calls have changed from the original I think but can't remember what they were originally.

 

[VoiceofWayne]

Back in the analog days, I received 9,11, and 13 like locals in North Scottsdale. 4 and 6 were present, but were more noisy. I lived in an apartment by PV mall and the master antenna system received 4,6,9,11, and 13 just as good as 3,5,8, etc. In fact I would watch ABC on 9 because it often came in better than 3.

One more story, when I was a student at ASU, I had a Radio Shack UHF antenna with a booster on my south-facing balcony in Tempe and picked up 18 and 40 (KTTU and KPOL two good independents) very well, perfectly watchable.

**Also had one of those MDS saucer antennas to watch HBO and Movie Channel......

 

[oldiesfan6479]

KMSB, RF11, held that position since its sign-on in the 60's. The calls have changed from the original I think but can't remember what they were originally.

Channel 11 (original COL = Nogales) signed on in 1967. The original calls were KZAZ (some referred to it as "KZAP").

 

[dhett]

The rest of your statement was spot on, but this is completely wrong. No station will be forced to move to VHF if it does not voluntarily agree to accept money to do so. Stations bid to go off the air or move to VHF. If it were to close at 114 MHz, presumably some stations would go off the air, and some would move to VHF, but none would be forced to do either. Only moving to a new channel in its current band is allowed involuntarily, and that cost will be paid by the FCC.
- Trip

I was presupposing that no stations were offered up in the auction. Perhaps that was an invalid assumption? (Purely fact-free speculation to follow) I can think of three possible candidates for shutting off:

• KUAS, a full-power repeater of KUAT Tucson. The University of Arizona has just replaced V-Me programming on 6.2 with PBS Kids, which had been on KUAS 27.2 exclusively, and has begun sharing time on 6.3 with Ready TV being reduced from 24 hrs to 12 hrs, and World, which had exclusively been on 27.3, filling in the remaining hours. Although I have not been able to confirm, RabbitEars shows that KUAS is now a complete repeater of KUAT.
• KFTU-CD, a class A repeater of KFTU-DT Douglas. Its programming duplicates programming already on KUVE-DT and KUVE-CD, making it redundant.
• KFPH-CD, a class A repeater of KFPH-DT Flagstaff. Its programming on 35.1 and 35.2 duplicate programming already on KTVW-DT, and Escape programming on 35.4 is duplicated on KASW 61.4. KTVW's Grit programming on 33.3 is duplicated by KASW 61.3, so KFPH's getTV programming could move to 33.3. Or not.

May I assume then that enough UHF stations initially volunteered to participate in each market to make the original 126 MHz target attainable without involuntarily moving any station off UHF?

 

[tripinva]

I was presupposing that no stations were offered up in the auction. Perhaps that was an invalid assumption? (Purely fact-free speculation to follow) I can think of three possible candidates for shutting off:

• KUAS, a full-power repeater of KUAT Tucson. The University of Arizona has just replaced V-Me programming on 6.2 with PBS Kids, which had been on KUAS 27.2 exclusively, and has begun sharing time on 6.3 with Ready TV being reduced from 24 hrs to 12 hrs, and World, which had exclusively been on 27.3, filling in the remaining hours. Although I have not been able to confirm, RabbitEars shows that KUAS is now a complete repeater of KUAT.
• KFTU-CD, a class A repeater of KFTU-DT Douglas. Its programming duplicates programming already on KUVE-DT and KUVE-CD, making it redundant.
• KFPH-CD, a class A repeater of KFPH-DT Flagstaff. Its programming on 35.1 and 35.2 duplicate programming already on KTVW-DT, and Escape programming on 35.4 is duplicated on KASW 61.4. KTVW's Grit programming on 33.3 is duplicated by KASW 61.3, so KFPH's getTV programming could move to 33.3. Or not.

May I assume then that enough UHF stations initially volunteered to participate in each market to make the original 126 MHz target attainable without involuntarily moving any station off UHF?

Only volunteers can go off the air or move to VHF. Due to the Mexican border situation, it's impossible to tell from the public data on the forward auction block availability at 126 MHz whether or not enough stations volunteered to avoid that in Arizona, but you can tell in large areas of the rest of the country (Florida, Chicago, Boston, etc.) there was enough such participation.

The KUAS/KUAT thing was sent to me by someone in the market, and confirmed on the KUAT website.

- Trip