Nick said:
It's an unfair advantage for a channel 6 TV station to be on the radio. Before June 12, it was unintentional so the other channels just dealt with it. Now, it is intentional.
Pulse 87 is in digital. The DTV hash drops off completely at 87.5 and the Pulse carrier is at 87.75. They're probably only transmitting one DTV channel at 480i, since Mega Media doesn't care about the picture quality of channel 6. The DTV signal can only be seen if you can see the Citicorp building, the Pulse 87 audio can be heard up to 60 miles away, hence it's better to operate a radio station than a TV station.
The more I think about this, the more I think WRGB has come up with a useful loophole not unlike the one that's likely to get NYC a new channel 3 station. I'm working a bit out of my competency here but a few thoughts:
- In theory, all full-power over-the-air analog TV ends late Sunday. This should include WRGB's analog audio carrier. Indeed, that should have ended on June 12th as far as airing anything besides "nightlight" programming is concerned.
- Indeed, an Act of Congress
requires the FCC to cancel analog TV licenses as of June 12 + nightlight.
- Arguably, WRGB's analog signal is
not a television signal. There is no analog video -- their analog signal is a
FM radio station.
(that's certainly what it is from a technical standpoint, and that's certainly how WRGB intends for it to be received, but until June 12th it was licensed as a TV station.)
- WRGB's competitors could argue that WRGB's analog signal constitutes a new commercial service. (it is, after all, a radio station on 87.9, which did not exist until June 12th) An Act of Congress requires the FCC to use auctions to issue commercial licenses in cases where mutually-exclusive applications have been filed. But WRGB's competitors (either the other existing Albany TV stations or any possible new entrants) were not given the opportunity to file competing applications and go through the auction process.
- Is it possible WRGB's competitors have simply decided channel 6 doesn't gain enough advantage from the FM signal to make it worth spending the legal bills on fighting?
- Or that the audience likes the FM service so much that no competitor wants to be known as the firm that forced the analog audio signal off the air?
- I continue to find it VERY hard to believe the FM audio signal isn't interfering with WRGB's own DTV signal. Even if WRGB has pulled in their mask filter to keep DTV energy below 87.5MHz*, they have no control over the filters found in TV
receivers. Receivers' circuitry is still going to see the 87.9 FM signal.
- I've now read a suggestion elsewhere on this site that the 87.9MHz WRGB signal is transmitted from a different site than the DTV signal?! That would make the probability of mutual interference considerably greater than it already was.
- But I suppose if WRGB doesn't complain about interference (and they won't!) it's unlikely anyone else will get a hearing with the Commission.
- FWIW, limiting WRGB's video stream to a single 480i doesn't make any difference as far as keeping their digital spectrum below 87.5MHz. More aggressive compression could be used to allow transmission of HD formats over a transport stream that would fit in 5.5MHz. (I'm still saying I wouldn't think existing receivers could decode such a lower bitrate stream, but I also was absolutely CERTAIN the FCC would never approve what WRGB is doing, so don't take my assertions too horribly seriously!)
- For that matter, WRGB themselves state they're running a second subchannel with ThisTV. Dropping that would narrow their requirements down far enough to fit in 5.5MHz without having to switch the main stream to SD.
- I am utterly AMAZED no radio group has yet complained about the Pulse 87 operation. I might only guess the radio industry is tolerating Pulse 87 because they think it's temporary -- it will go away when the FCC gets around to forcing LPs to go digital. Will the radio industry accept a regulatory world with a permanent Pulse 87 presence?
* I also find it hard to believe it would be possible to pull the mask filter in 500KHz without distorting the DTV waveform sufficiently to make reception significantly more difficult if not entirely impossible.
