Arizona TV Station Update - May 2008

[dhett]

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

Construction permits granted

• KSAZ 10 Phoenix (KSAZ License [Fox]) has been granted a construction permit for their final DTV facilities on channel 10.
• KTVW 33 Phoenix (KTVW Partnership [Univision]) has been granted a construction permit for their final DTV facilities on channel 33.
• KUVE 46 Green Valley (Univision Tucson LLC) has been granted a construction permit for their final DTV facilities on channel 46.
• KAFL-LP 20 Flagstaff (Una Vez Mas) has been granted a displacement construction permit to construct the station on channel 45. They had originally been assigned channel 20, in spite of another Flagstaff station on channel 20, which the FCC said wouldn't interfere with KAFL. KM Communications objected to the channel change and the FCC would have denied the move, but Una Vez Mas claimed interference from KPAZ-DT in Phoenix, which the FCC considered a valid claim, and denied KM's objection. Go figure.
• KTUD-LD 25.1 (20) Las Vegas NV (Las Vegas TV Partners LLC) has been granted a construction permit to build a companion channel to KTUD-CA, broadcasting at 8.9 kW from the same location as its analog transmitter, at a height of 546 meters above average terrain. Its signal is expected to be able to be seen in parts of Arizona.
• Western Kane County (UT) Special Service District #1 has been granted construction permits to build companion channels for stations K05HX, K07ES and K20EC, which will have the call signs K27JV-D, K24II-D and K25KO-D, respectively. All of the digital companion channels will broadcast from the same location as the analog antennas at a power of 7 Watts. Their signals are all expected to encompass Kanab UT and Fredonia AZ.

Modifications to existing construction permits

• KMCC-DT 32 Laughlin NV (Cranston Acquisition LLC) has been granted a six-month extension to its DTV construction permit, due to unspecified technical and financial issues.

Silent stations

• KVPA-LP 42 Phoenix (Latin America Broadcasting) is silent, due to the shutdown of LAT TV, which was also owned by Latin America Broadcasting. They plan on hanging onto the license, as the FCC allows a station to be silent for up to a year before revoking the license.
• KWTA-LP 31 Tucson (Venture Technologies Group) is silent, due to equipment failure. Details can be found under the Special Temporary Authorizations section.

Station sales

• The FCC has approved the sale of K53JA Flagstaff from Howard Mintz to EICB-TV East.
• The FCC has approved the sale of KECY-TV 9 El Centro CA from Pacific Media Corporation to Gulf-California Broadcast Company and the sale has been consummated.
• The FCC has ruled that KWBA 58 Sierra Vista (Tucson Communications LLC) meets the criteria for a failing station and therefore, will waive the rule requiring a minimum of eight independent voices in a market before a duopoly is allowed. This clears the way for the FCC to approve Journal Broadcast's purchase of the station and for Journal to operate it as a duopoly with KGUN 9.

Applications filed but not yet approved

• KDTP 11 Holbrook (Community Television Educators [Daystar]) has modified their ungranted application to specify a new antenna location and power output. The old application was for a site on the Mogollon Rim near Forest Lakes, broadcasting at 160 kW, that would have barely reached Holbrook and was supposed to reach the northeastern parts of Phoenix, in theory at least. The modification specifies 3.2 kW from their existing analog tower in Holbrook and is predicted to cover Holbrook and Winslow, and just barely reach Snowflake.
• KFTU-TV 3 Douglas (Telefutura Partnership of Douglas) has filed an application specifiying its post-transition DTV facilities, which will be located atop Mule Mountain outside of Bisbee and cover Douglas, Bisbee and Sierra Vista. Ch: 36, TL: 31-28-53 N, 109-57-32 W, ERP: 1.3 kW, HAAT: 673 m.
• KECY-TV 9 El Centro CA (Gulf-California Broadcast Company) has filed a modification to their ungranted application specifying post-transition DTV operation. The station will use a different model transmitter antenna, increase ERP from 9 kW to 11 kW, increase beam tilt, and change from horizontal to circular polarization. The changes will bring the station's DTV operations closer to those specified in the appendix B facilities allotted in 1997 and to be nearly equal in coverage to the current analog signal.
• KGNG-LD 47.1 (48) Las Vegas NV (King Kong Broadcasting) has filed a modification to their construction permit, which would increase the power from 11.8 kW to 15 kW, maximum allowed for a LP UHF DTV station, and would employ a different transmitter antenna, giving the signal wider coverage. The changes, if improved, would allow the station to be seen in Arizona.
• KCSG 4.1 (14) Cedar City UT (Southwest Media LLC) has requested an extension of their DTV construction permit until 2/17/2009. The DTV transition plan that they filed with the FCC in February expected the equipment to have been delivered in May, but that has not yet occurred. The station has been operating reduced-power facilities per STA, but the full signal should reach most of the towns in the Arizona Strip (north of the Colorado River).
• K20GJ Bloomington UT (Bonneville Holding Company) has requested permission to flash cut to digital. If approved, they would broadcast at 0.197 kW. It is not certain if the signal would reach Arizona as its analog signal does. Also, there is an error in the application where the minutes value of the longitude was accidentally copied from the latitude. The error places the transmitter locaion near Colorado City AZ/Hildale UT, instead of Bloomington/St. George UT.
• K35FS Santa Clara UT (Bonneville Holding Company) has requested permission to flash cut to digital. If approved, they would broadcast at 0.287 kW in a pattern that should place the signal over the Littlefield/Beaver Dams area in northwest Arizona.

Applications dismissed

• The application of KUDF-LP 14 Tucson (Una Vez Mas) to construct a digital companion station on channel 41 was dismissed due to Mexican objection. The FCC claims that channel 41 has been allocated for a digital television station in Sonoita, Sonora, on the US border about 125 miles southwest of Tucson, but I cannot find any such allocation. Channel 41 is allocated to Sasabe, Sonora, on the US border about 50 miles southwest of Tucson, so it might just be a misprint. That station won't be built until 2019 at the earliest.
• The application of KQDF-LP 28 Prescott (Una Vez Mas) to construct a digital companion station on channel 47 was dismissed due to Mexican objection. The FCC claims that channel 47 has been allocated for a digital television station in Sonoita, Sonora, but the website I've seen lists channel 21 as Sonoita's allocation, and doesn't list any channel 47 allocation in northern Sonora. Even if the Sonoita allocation had been changed from channel 21 to channel 47, that station still won't be built until 2019 at the earliest.
• Advance Ministries' original construction permit for a station on channel 28 at Parker has been dismissed. No reason was given, but a letter dated April 24, 2007, is attached to the application seeking coordination with the Mexican government, and one of the applicant's own supporting documents shows that their proposed location was 31 km short of the 245 km clearance zone for Mexicali DTV station XHAQ, so Mexican objection is likely the reason for the dismissal.

Applications reinstated

• KWTA-LD 31.1 (56) Tucson (Venture Technologies Group) has had its application as a digital companion channel reinstated. It had been previously dismissed due to Mexican objection based on a Televisa station on channel 56 in Cananea, Sonora, but the objection has been resolved. KWTA had filed an application to flash cut from their analog facilities on channel 31, which hasn't been approved yet. It's unknown which course of action they'll take should both applications be granted.

DTV status updates

• KUTP-DT 45.1 (26) Phoenix (Fox Television Stations) reports that it is now operating is full, final DTV facilities, on channel 26 at 1000 kW.
• KMCC-DT 32 Lauglin NV (Cranston Acquisition LLC) has reported that they have obtained permission from the US Bureau of Land Management to bring a power line onto the property where the transmitter is located.

Special Temporary Authorizations (STA)

• KWTA-LP 31 Tucson (Venture Technologies Group) has been granted a Silent STA. The station has been silent since April 29. The cause is listed as video source via satellite stopped working. I'm not sure if that means that the stations satellite receiver is the problem, or if the satellite itself is the problem, but I'm guessing the former, as it is a JTV station and Phoenix's JTV station is fine.
• KNAZ-TV 2 Flagstaff (Gannett) has been granted an STA to operate at reduced power (50%) due to transmitter failure caused by successive ice storms in March.
• KMCC-DT 32 Laughlin NV (Cranston Acquisition LLC) has been granted a six-month extension to its STA to operate reduced-power DTV facilities in Laughlin NV/Bullhead City AZ.

License renewals

• The license for KGUN 9 Tucson (Journal Broadcast) has been renewed until 2014.
• The license for KECY-TV 9 El Centro CA (Gulf-California Broadcast Company) has been renewed until 2014.

 

[tripinva]

• KDTP 11 Holbrook (Community Television Educators [Daystar]) has modified their ungranted application to specify a new antenna location and power output. The old application was for a site on the Mogollon Rim near Forest Lakes, broadcasting at 160 kW, that would have barely reached Holbrook and was supposed to reach the northeastern parts of Phoenix, in theory at least. The modification specifies 3.2 kW from their existing analog tower in Holbrook and is predicted to cover Holbrook and Winslow, and just barely reach Snowflake.

They did that only because the FCC's freeze on coverage expansion would prevent them from having that application approved. I wonder if we'll see them attempt to reinstate the 160 kW application now that the freeze has been lifted.

- Trip[/list]

 

[dhett]

I'm not so sure. The original DTV application was filed in 2002, when the station was still KPHZ and owned by Venture Technologies Group. That was before it was sold to NBC Telemundo, before the station swap with Daystar, and before the August 2004 filing freeze, which didn't affect applications already filed. KDTP inherited the commercial application from the swap, then had to refile at the end of March as a non-comm app. Last January, the FCC was estimating that the freeze would be lifted in mid-August 2008, so if Daystar had any doubts about the station being constructed in time, I don't think they'd have refiled the 160 kW application in March.

Time will tell.

 

[dhett]

More late filings:

Applications dismissed

• The FCC has dismissed an application by Yuma Broadcasting Company to build an LPTV station on channel 28 in Parker. It was a competing application to that of Advance Ministries which was also dismissed. Like the Advance Ministries app, no explicit reason was given for dismissal, but a request for Mexican coordination was also made, so it's likely that this was also due to Mexican objection.
• The FCC has dismissed an application by Dean M. Mosely to build an LPTV station on channel 50 in Bisbee. No reason was given for the dismissal, but there is an analog station that operates on channel 50 in Nogales, Sonora, only 55 miles to the west-southwest, so it's reasonable that proximity to the Nogales station was the issue.

 

[tripinva]

I'm not so sure. The original DTV application was filed in 2002, when the station was still KPHZ and owned by Venture Technologies Group. That was before it was sold to NBC Telemundo, before the station swap with Daystar, and before the August 2004 filing freeze, which didn't affect applications already filed. KDTP inherited the commercial application from the swap, then had to refile at the end of March as a non-comm app. Last January, the FCC was estimating that the freeze would be lifted in mid-August 2008, so if Daystar had any doubts about the station being constructed in time, I don't think they'd have refiled the 160 kW application in March.

Time will tell.

My guess is that they will attempt to get it, if not now then in the future, and use the pattern to build out a DTS with one of their transmitters near Phoenix. They might wait for the FCC to devise permanent rules on DTS facilities.

This application, before the amendment, was requested in order to "reinstate" the past CP, which had several extensions under the reasoning that NBC was investigating a DTS.

- Trip

 

[obihave]

• KSAZ 10 Phoenix (KSAZ License [Fox]) has been granted a construction permit for their final DTV facilities on channel 10.

Word is that FOX 10 is hoping to go HD with their newscasts by October of 2008. Good luck with that...

 

[dhett]

My guess is that they will attempt to get it, if not now then in the future, and use the pattern to build out a DTS with one of their transmitters near Phoenix. They might wait for the FCC to devise permanent rules on DTS facilities.

This application, before the amendment, was requested in order to "reinstate" the past CP, which had several extensions under the reasoning that NBC was investigating a DTS.

- Trip

Score one for Trip. The 160 kW app is back.

 

[MW_FM_DT_DXer]

This is a new application. It is similar but different to the dismissed one:
Dismissed 160 kW application: 160 kW, ND, TL 34 23 40 N, 111 3 24 W, 2390 metres ASL, 305 metres AAT
New 160 kW application: 160 kW, DA, TL 34 23 19 N, 110 59 36 W, 2318 metres ASL, 304 metres AAT

 

[tripinva]

Score one for Trip. The 160 kW app is back.

Note the goofy new directional pattern. It's very plain to me that they plan either a DTS, or to build it and then silence it for a DTS. Note how it is designed to ONLY cover Holbrook and Phoenix (in theory).

- Trip

 

[dhett]

I meant to quote your first post in this thread; you have me scratching my head about a DTS. Please expound; acronyms don't tell me anything, unless it's a Cadillac DTS.

 

[tripinva]

I meant to quote your first post in this thread; you have me scratching my head about a DTS. Please expound; acronyms don't tell me anything, unless it's a Cadillac DTS.

Whoops, sorry. DTS = Distributed Transmission System. WTVE in Reading PA has one, basically they operate 8 low-powered transmitters instead of one high-powered transmitter.

- Trip

 

[dhett]

OK - that makes sense. Could be - LPTV is the smartest way to maximize TV coverage in Arizona due to small towns and extremely low population density between them. The old, full-coverage 160 kW pattern wasted a lot of signal on nobody. Still, I don't see Daystar shutting down the main transmitter - it's in a remote location in a national forest and wouldn't do anyone any good at anything less than the full 160 kW. They have to cover their COL, Holbrook, which explains the lobe at 55 degrees. At the same time, they have already stated their intention to move KDTP-LP from channel 58 to channel 11 in Phoenix and to simulcast the Daystar feed from KDTP Holbrook - in their own words, "We are going to GPS lock to them and rebroadcast via fiber". (See KDTP-LP app.) But the LPTV signal on South Mountain doesn't cover the northeastern part of the Valley, which is exactly where the 230 degree lobe is pointed. A microwave feed to Flagstaff would make sense - a Christian broadcaster has just taken control of an LPTV station there. Winslow, Snowflake and Show Low would also make sense for LPTV translators, and Payson might be within the Phoenix lobe. Other than that, that's it.

 

[tripinva]

Well, here's how the one in Reading works. They have a construction permit for 900 kW on channel 25, but haven't built it. Instead, they use the 8 lower-powered transmitters to replicate that coverage area. And the key thing is that they CANNOT expand their coverage area by using the DTS. They must remain within the coverage contour of the 900 kW CP.

My guess would be that no 160 kW transmitter will ever appear on channel 11, but you'll see some LP channel 11 transmitters show up in areas with more population (Holbrook, Payson, the Phoenix area).

I could be wrong, but why operate a 160 kW transmitter in the middle of nowhere when a bunch of 1 kW transmitters on channel 11 would use so much less energy?

- Trip