I just did a rescan here in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. The only surprise, minor it may be, is that KLDT is now showing its virtual channel as 55 (its former analog home) instead of 54.
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KLDT/55
- Thread starter Bob E. Nelson
- Start date
fredcantu said:
I think you're right, Fred. I can understand that there are probably a lot of stations that would like to be known by a lower channel number. There's no doubt that the playing field has been leveled with respect to coverage area by the vast majority of stations switching to UHF, but it still seems that it's better to show up with a lower number from a viewer's perspective. That's whether it's in the listings or the channel number that's displayed on the screen.
In the case of KLDT, if they have to use a higher channel number I don't see that it would matter whether they are referred to as 54 or 55. They weren't exactly a "heritage" station on analog 55. On the other hand, I could see an advantage for KFWD-TV 52 to have re-branded as channel 9.
KLDT is in a slightly unusual position. They ditched their analog channel long before that digital switch took place to make room for the Flo TV system on channel 55. They operated on digital 54 before moving to digital 39. Personally, I don't know why they rebranded themselves as 54 in the first place. Then again, very little that that station does makes any sense.
tested said:
And down the road a bit, we have the curious case of KCEN citing the following when changing from RF-50 to RF-9 in the February 2001 filing with the FCC:
Moreover, Channel 6 states that viewer identification of a VHF channel 9 operation will be augmented by the fact that KCEN's analog and digital operations would be in the same frequency band.
As I read this, the commission was fully aware of KCEN's wish to brand as channel 9 and blessed it. Of course, they have since reverted to identifying as channel 6 (and presumably righted the '6' logo on the building, which was simply turned upside for the period when they used channel 9).
So why didn't the FCC just make a rule that stations must map to their analog channel number and identify themselves as such on the air?
tested said:
They did.
Well, they did the part about mapping to their analog channel number. It's part of the ATSC standard and is incorporated by reference in the FCC regulations. Stations can ID themselves on the air any way they want, but the major channel number they transmit in their stream must be their old analog channel number.*
The point, primarily, is to ensure major channel numbers are unique. The WACX enforcement case Trip cited happened because there was another station in the area whose old analog channel was 40, and which was using the correct major channel number. As a result, there were two channel 40s in the market - and the other station (justifiably) complained.
As long as there's nobody else using major channel number 54 in North Texas, chances are nobody is going to complain about KLDT and the FCC won't find out...
* There are additional standards for stations that never had an analog signal, and for cases where one firm owns more than one station in the same market, and for translators which relay some other station.
There is also a problem in the Mobile-Pensacola area: PBS member WSRE broadcasts on digital 31, and uses "23", its old analog channel position, as its PSIP. WDPM, a Daystar station that signed on as a digital-only station, signed on channel 23 after WSRE's analog signal closed down. However, since WSRE was already using "23" as its PSIP, WDPM would have to find something else -- at first, they used "4", which was in violation of FCC rules, as there was never a channel 4 in the market. With the FCC's blessing, they eventually settled on a PSIP of "31", which was WSRE's actual channel number.
w9wi said:
okay, but how then did KCEN map to 9.1 and re-brand themselves that way? Why was KLDT ever allowed to be 54.1? That's my point.
I hope it was an old recording by whomever was at Master Control, but KLDT just an announcement before their legal-ID that "on Monday, over the air viewers will need to rescan their televisions to continue recieving KLDT programming." I thought UHF 39 was their permanent home. Is their a frequency switch in the works, or was someone not paying attention at the station again?
azumanga said:
There shouldn't have been a problem, the rules clearly call for WDPM to use virtual channel 31:
(from ATSC A/65C)
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Quoting "tested":
Neither one should have, in both cases it was contrary to FCC regulations to use those channels.
Given that they didn't cause any interference, these violations probably never came to the attention of the FCC. Even if they had, they probably wouldn't have been a very high priority. If KCEN had chosen to map to 10.1 (which would have resulted in interference to KWTX) then I think we would have seen quick action.
AlanB said:
It was probably just an abundance of caution. I'm aware of no frequency switch in the works, but almost nobody tunes to KLDT by punching in "39," since in most cases that would pull up KXTX instead. But punching in "55" won't work either if your receiver doesn't know that 55 is "really" 39! Most receivers would figure it all out anyway the first time you surfed to 54 after KLDT had switched to 55, so a rescan usually wouldn't be necessary, but just to be safe....
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