JHBrandt said:
They [KFWD] just took over WFAA's old digital transmitter, and (I assume) it's a lot cheaper to operate than their old RF 51 transmitter.
Not quite. The saga of KFWD is a bit more complicated than that.
Prior to the transition, KFWD was on RF-51 transmitting with a solid 375 kW from Cowboy Tower (where many of the D/FW FMs are also located).
On the day of the transition, KFWD did use the WFAA pre-transition plant with 18.6 kW from Hill Tower (shared by WFAA and KDFW) when WFAA moved from RF-9 to RF-8. But that was only temporary as BDSTA-20090601AWB shows:
THIS REQUEST FOR SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORITY IS FOR PHASED OPERATION FROM JUNE 12-JULY 3, 2009. SPECIFICALLY, THIS PROPOSAL IS FOR THE SAME FACILITIES AUTHORIZED IN BDSTA-20081216AIC EXCEPT FOR AN INCREASED ERP OF 18.6 KW. APPROVAL OF THIS INCREASED POWER WILL SERVE THE PUBLIC INTEREST BY ENSURING THE CONTINUED PROVISION OF PROGRAMMING TO VIEWERS IN THE DALLAS DMA. PHASED STA IS NECESSARY FOR THESE THREE WEEKS UNTIL ANOTHER STATION'S ANALOG ANTENNA IS REMOVED AND KFWD'S PERMANENT ANTENNA CAN BE INSTALLED.
The current facility (which fired up a few days after the 3 JULY 2009 estimate) is over on Cowboy Tower with 13 kW and is directional. I don't believe they're using the same WFAA transmitter. For sure, they're not using the antenna which was in use for 18.6 kW (non-DA) on Hill. (As I recall the night of the switch which happened in mid-July 2009, there was no downtime when KFWD switched from Hill Tower to Cowboy, thus indicating a different transmitter for the two sites).
My evaluation is that KFWD may have been better served if they had continued to stick with the interim STA facility:
STA: 1729' 18.6 kW
LIC: 1791' 13.0 kW DA
IMHO, the 62' increase in height doesn't make up for the 6.6 kW drop in power. At my location, I don't recall the tropo from KCEN banging into KFWD as severely for the few weeks when they ran with slightly more power than they do now under the STA.
And to wrap this up, the RF-9 allocation was already in the D/FW market well before KCEN successfully petitioned to change from RF-50 to RF-9. The KCEN move messed up not only D/FW but also KLRN in San Antonio which states:
KLRN'S RELATIVELY LOW POWER ON DIGITAL CHANNEL 9 (8.3 KW ERP AT 258.6 METERS HAAT) IS NECESSARY TO AVOID INTERFERENCE TO A CO-CHANNEL COMMERCIAL STATION IN TEMPLE, TX RESULTING IN A GROSSLY INEQUITABLE SITUATION WHERE KLRN PROVIDES SERVICE TO SAN ANTONIO (2000 U.S. CENSUS POPULATION 1,144,646) WITH A LOW POWER DIGITAL ALLOCATION WHILE A FULL POWER (25 KW ERP AT 527 METERS HAAT) CO-CHANNEL STATION SERVES TEMPLE (2000 U.S. CENSUS POPULATION 54,514).
Had the FCC disallowed KCEN's move back in 2001, KLRN would be in better shape and my posts in this thread would be far less frequent because even a 13 kW KFWD wouldn't get hammered by its neighbor to the south, just 92 miles from Cedar Hill.
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