Will Analog LPTV EVER go away?

[kenglish]

Now that Arbitron is counting "Channel 6 FM Radio" (the aural FM carrier of channel 6 LPTV stations, at 87.75 MHz) for rating purposes, and companies are starting to jump on the programming bandwagon, does anyone else wonder how it will affect the shut-off of low-power analog TV?

Will the FCC be "made the bad guy", when they tell those analog LPTVs to shut down....accused of "silencing diverse radio voices?

If LPTV stations have a channel six "FM" station, as well as a DTV companion channel, and the FCC allows the channel 6 stations (only) to stay on the air past any future deadline, does that effectively give them a "free" FM license, in addition to the DTV?

 

[jal41]

Analog LPTV will go away sometime in the next couple of years. The reason for the exemption from going digital is the cost involved in upgrading. The cost of the digital transmission eqipment will have to go down some more before many stations can upgrade.

With that said...this 87.7 service is a fluke of FM radios tuning down to 87.5. One option is to remove channel 6 from the TV channel spectrum, and add those three frequencies (87.5, 87.7, and 87.9) to the FM band plan as non-commercial stations (as channels 197, 198, and 199).

Keep in mind as LPTV licensees, they can be displaced at any time for any reason. They should not be comfortable with staying at 87.7 for any long period of time.

 

[tripinva]

I keep hearing people say the FCC will set a deadline for LP stations to go digital, but I honestly doubt this will happen. Using analog pass-through on a lot of these boxes is a hassle and a lot of people just want digital. LP stations will have to go digital to keep up with the rest and thus there's really no reason for the FCC to mandate it.

At least, that's how I look at it.

- Trip

 

[Matt]

My guess is that, faced with the options of mandatory digital transition or permanent sign-off, about one-third of the current LPTV operations would go dark. In reality, I think it will be at least five years before the FCC does anything like that.

Probably the locally-programmed LPTV's that have carriage on a few cable systems are the best candidates for early digital transition. We are in that position, and will be going digital in about 45 days assuming equipment arrives on-time and tower crews are available to put the new antenna up.

The next group will be the "satellators", like 3ABN, TBN and the like. They will likely convert stations in their most supportive markets, but those where they have little return on investment will stay on as long as they can keep the transmitters going, or until the FCC tells them to unplug it.

The third group will be college and university-connected stations, which will resist upgrading until the FCC tells them they have to do it, then they'll find a benefactor who will underwrite the cost of conversion.

By the time those stations have converted, what is left in LPTV analog will be hobbyists with commercial licenses. Those folks will hang on, because they've got outside $$$ keeping their stations going, and I think at that point the FCC will allow them unlicensed operation just to get rid of the headache of regulating them.

Anyway, changes to this situation will come s-l-o-w-l-y.

Later . . . .

 

[Chad-Stevens]

WFRZ-CA 34, a religious LP in Montgomery, AL has already flash cut to digital, and I believe they may have added a separate .2 service as well. I'm not sure how many others have gone digital.

@ Matt Smith - In your estimation, where do the commercial LPTVs that do not have widespread cable carriage fall in your timeline? (The AmericaOnes, ions, and home shopping channels, f'rinstance.)

 

[dhett]

I'm not sure about LPTV back east, but out west, there are a lot of translator stations which are either owned by the primary stations, or by local municipalities (city or county). Many are converting to digital.

Utah seems to be a model of how to do it right. Just this week, Bonneville flash cut about a dozen of their analog translators to digital, and the municipally-owned stations have hundreds of digital companion stations, a good percentage of which are already in operation.

In larger cities, I would think that there would be enough of a revenue stream to switch to digital, especially if they are on cable. Hey, if K53GF/K38IZ-D in Phoenix could convert, almost anyone could!

 

[Markxxx]

I think some of this may depend on if the FCC gets around to working out something that will allow broadcasters to lease out their subchannels. A LPTV station pales in comparison to a digital subchannel.

A lot of stations, like in Chicago aren't using the subchannels anyway so why not?

After June when the nation goes digital we'll see how it really is gonna work out. The major urban markets where lots of poor people who can't afford cable, dish or have the ability to mount an outdoor antenna may put some pressure

 

[willcail]

Well since I currently living in the Columbus Ohio area the local LPTV stations are planning to switch to digital. WCLL, GTN23, WCPX-LP, have applications filed with the FCC to switch to digital. WDEM was the first Low Power in Columbus Ohio to flash cut to digital on 2.17.2009. The next one I'm betting that it is WCLL CA witch is moving to UHF 35 from UHF 19.

Then it would be the following:

GTN 23

WCPX-LP

 

[FreddyE1977]

In my area several LPTV's have already gone dark. The most popular one has been yanked
from most of the cable systems, since they are not covered by "must carry" provisions. They were paying many systems to be on but have run out of cash to do so. Once all of the big stations go digital they will be confronted with the choice of convert or die.

 

[TexasTom]

By the time those stations have converted, what is left in LPTV analog will be hobbyists with commercial licenses. Those folks will hang on, because they've got outside $$$ keeping their stations going, and I think at that point the FCC will allow them unlicensed operation just to get rid of the headache of regulating them.

Considering how resistant the FCC has been to any sort of Part 15 operation for TV stations, I have to admit that I would be extremely surprised if the FCC allowed unlicensed operation for any LPTV stations.

 

[Nate Wesley]

Questions:

Shouldn't a digital LPTV or Class A station ('Low Digital', as I believe the FCC refers to the service) have more value than an analog version? Wouldn't that have some effect on getting the better run stations to make the same transition?

And while I can understand there being a nice cost involved in transitioning to digital, how much more expensive is it really to equip and engineer a smaller station versus a full-powered operation? On the surface, it'd seem to be much cheaper since your contour isn't nearly as big.

 

[Matt]

In your estimation, where do the commercial LPTVs that do not have widespread cable carriage fall in your timeline? (The AmericaOnes, ions, and home shopping channels, f'rinstance.)

I think many of those stations will eventually go dark. Unless A1 and Ion are compensating stations for network carriage (which I doubt) it becomes an issue of 1) whether enough eyeballs will keep watching the analog channel to maintain a revenue stream and 2) whether the money to upgrade and keep the eyeballs watching can be afforded. I think probably less than a third of the owners of the LPTV's doing this type of programming will swallow the money pill and upgrade to digital at some point. The rest will either sell their stations to someone with the ambition to upgrade them or allow them to go dark.

how much more expensive is it really to equip and engineer a smaller station versus a full-powered operation? On the surface, it'd seem to be much cheaper since your contour isn't nearly as big.

For us, the cost in additional equipment and engineering to assemble and test it is going to run about half a mil . . . less than a full power station to convert, but that's only transmission equipment. For the forseeable future we're going to be upconverting our current analog signal and slowly adding HD-capable studio gear. That part of the upgrade will take a few years. As far as staffing goes, we're cutting it as tight as we can. When my evening producer left a year ago, I absorbed his duties and changed my working hours to put more $$$ toward the conversion. We now run this place on a staff of four . . . a day producer/master control tech, a news anchor/director, a part-time talk show hostess, a salesperson and myself as manager/evening producer/reporter/weatherman. You can watch us online and judge for yourself how well we do the transition. Here's the stream: [url]http://www.wgsr47.tv [/url]

As a radio professional 20 years ago, I hated automation. As a TV professional, I almost love it . . . ALMOST. At least it lets me run a full-service LPTV on a staff level I was comfortable with in radio back in the day.

Shouldn't a digital LPTV or Class A station ('Low Digital', as I believe the FCC refers to the service) have more value than an analog version? Wouldn't that have some effect on getting the better run stations to make the same transition?

That is true only if there is a publicly-perceived value of a station to begin with. Admittedly, the only value many LPTV stations are perceived to have by their potential viewers is the value of scrap metal and salvage materials on the premises. Unless programming is upgraded along with facilities, the only value addition such stations might find is in the resale of relatively new high-tech broadcast equipment. To the viewer, the only way they will judge the value of a broadcast station is in what they see on the screen. No other value matters in the long run, but as you surmise, better-run stations will plan better for their survival . . . and that means digital conversion.

Later . . . .

 

[Chad-Stevens]

I think many of those stations will eventually go dark.

It's just been my experience that a broadcast license - no matter how restrictive the coverage - rarely seems to die outright. Even among AM stations, the number that have surrendered their licenses to the FCC is measured in dozens, not hundreds. True, AM stations aren't required to make expensive modifications to switch to digital, but often have great expenses maintaining multi-tower directional arrays. Even so, some sucker always seems to come along with some idea for cost-effective programming in the hopes of selling it to an even bigger sucker.

From my vantage point, I have four LP/CA's that are visible that AFAIK have no cable carriage. (Not counting WBMA-LP which happens to be the primary ABC affiliate for Birmingham flanked by two full-powered relays on the fringes.)

• WBXA-CA 2, a former BOX-***-MTV2 affiliate which is possibly off-the-air as I haven't seen a signal from them in several years.
• WBUN-CA 24, Daystar
• W34BI, HSN
• W47DC, "WAY TV" local religious station

Of these, WBUN will almost certainly flash cut, and WAY has pledged to do so as well. There seems to be no shortage of religious broadcasters (English/Spanish/Chinese) that would take a swing at the other two if their owners are unwilling/unable to convert them.

 

[TexasTom]

It's just been my experience that a broadcast license - no matter how restrictive the coverage - rarely seems to die outright. Even among AM stations, the number that have surrendered their licenses to the FCC is measured in dozens, not hundreds.

In recent years, what you say is certainly true. But, historically, it ain't necessarily so. Prior to the eighties, quite a few UHF TV and FM broadcast licenses were allowed to go permanently dark and be returned to the FCC when the stations failed and the license was perceived as having no value.

The last major market example of this happening that I can think of is WKBS channel 48 in Philadelphia, which returned its license to the FCC in the early eighties when then-owner Field Broadcasting couldn't find a buyer for the station at an acceptable price. Since then, it's been rare to see a license returned to the FCC, because there's almost always been someone willing to buy.

But the past doesn't always predict the future. Station valuations have fallen through the floor, and while I expect some recovery after the current recession ends, I also don't think that we're going to see a return to the prices that stations fetched a few years back. And that means that there may well be some stations that will be allowed to go permanently dark because there just is no buyer.

 

[Bongwater]

It's not so much the FCC that resists Part 15 TV, but Hollywood and the broadcast TV industry.....

 

[willcail]

Since I'm no way affiliate with WDEM CD 17.1 just to point that out. When I'm reading the few news reports and filings with the FCC, and their web site and wikipedia, this is what I found out.

They do have a small staff. They used to be an virtual 24 hour OTA affiliate of Home Shopping Network save some E/I programming on Sunday morning. Around February 2009 they switch to an general entertainment format and upgraded their LD to their CA/CD status. They currently air an local show called Lifeline Columbus hosted by Jason Perkins, the former PR person for WWHO. (WWHO is the CW affiliate in Columbus Ohio) There are other local shows as well due to their new LP status.

The current Exec Producer & General Manager David P Chesnet used to work for WGAY an low power TV station Key West, Florida. He re purpose some of WGAY shows on WDEM. Right now they are broadcasting Standard Definition 480i, 16:9. Their ERP is 1.05 KW. Their website stream the station due to the low ERP. Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDEM
http://www.wdem-tv.com
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WDEM-CA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGAY-LP for info about some of the shows that aired on WDEM.
http://wgay.tv/
http://hdcolumbus.net/vb-hdtv/showthread.php?t=5373 for map coverage (scroll down)

I lived about 4 miles from the tower.

 

[w9wi]

It's not so much the FCC that resists Part 15 TV, but Hollywood and the broadcast TV industry.....

There are specific rules that greatly limit intentional Part 15 operation on TV channels. I believe it's because (analog) TV is considerably more "fragile", with regards to interference, than FM (and even AM) radio.

But yes, these days if I was thinking about operating a pirate station (radio or TV) I'd be a lot more worried about the RIAA and MPAA than the FCC...

 

[vchimpanzee]

I'm not sure about LPTV back east, but out west, there are a lot of translator stations which are either owned by the primary stations, or by local municipalities (city or county). Many are converting to digital.

Utah seems to be a model of how to do it right. Just this week, Bonneville flash cut about a dozen of their analog translators to digital, and the municipally-owned stations have hundreds of digital companion stations, a good percentage of which are already in operation.

This is the case in the mountains of Western North Carolina. How are people without cable or a dish going to be able to watch TV if these translators go digital? It's all or nothing at all. And yet those mountains cause lots of problems.

 

[kenglish]

The "Translator Issue" is something that should have been looked at more closely, long ago.

Kent Parsons and others have made this a "crusade", trying to get the word out, but only a few people listened.
Now, we have an almost-panic by some folks. Of course, the media is jumping in (at the last minute) and making a bigger issue than it really is in some cases.

Fact is, the whole issue revolves around predictions that low-band stations, which have the tendency to "flow" around obstacles and fill areas that have no high-VHF or UHF coverage, will be going away. These stations will move to higher frequencies, that are more line-of-sight (they don't "flow" like low-band).
People in these areas have never had high-band or UHF stations at all, but the major networks were often all they desired, and those were often on low-band channels.

So, there should have been more efforts to build translator stations and sites, long ago, in these areas. The FCC Maps, that show coverage gain/loss, show very little loss of coverage on VHF-HB and UHF stations....they never had the advantage of the low-band "flow" of signals. But, the maps show "loss" of coverage on many formerly low-band stations, just because of the different propogation characteristics. In Utah, the FCC maps show a "loss" of signal in many areas that are fully covered with UHF DTV translators...simply because the "main" VHF-LB signal covered these areas to some extent.

And, the FCC was unable to issue so-called "new" translator licenses until a few months ago. The only folks who could add DTV Companion channels were those who already had analog licenses. A recession is not a good time to ask stations or communities to build new translators.

 

[Al Timiter]

Hey, willcall in columbus....Is LPTV Channel 8 still on the air?