Scott Fybush said:
The FCC has been unclear (as seems to be par for the course today) with its ID rules for DTV.
It is certainly possible for a station without the "-TV" suffix to ID its analog and digital signals without adding an erroneous "-TV" to the mix. My local WUHF does so, as follows: "WUHF(TV)/DT ROCHESTER." I've also seen it done as "WXXX/DT ANYWHERE."
But now the catch: when you go to look at the licenses for the stations in question, you'll see that the "-DT" suffix is used only inconsistently in the FCC's own database. Because the FCC never assigned separate facility ID numbers for stations' digital facilities, there have never been calls officially granted with the -DT suffix, even for stations that signed on digital-only. Look at the callsign history for WMAK in Knoxville, which never had an analog facility and came on DT-only on channel 7, and you'll see that the FCC callsign desk considers its call to be simply "WMAK," no suffix.
One might therefore conclude that the callsign for digital channel 28 in New York after 2/17/09 will be...WNBC, and that of digital channel 7 will be WABC-TV. Look at their various DTV applications and status reports and you'll see those calls, not "WNBC-DT" or "WABC-DT," shown in the callsign box.
It's my belief (though I'd stress that I'm not a lawyer) that they'd be on solid ground right now - and on February 18 - identifying simply as "WNBC NEW YORK" or "WABC-TV NEW YORK." Those IDs would appear to cover both the analog and digital transmitters, which legally would seem to share a callsign and certainly share a facility number, and would likewise continue to cover the digital transmitters after analog goes away. But the promotions departments at most stations seem to disagree, and the FCC's enforcement bureau seems not to care one way or another, so we'll surely see plenty of "WWWW-DT ANYWHERE" IDs after 2/17, even though the callsign on the license might still read "WWWW" or "WWWW-TV."
The license for the station I work for covers both the analog and digital stations -- and has two different callsigns. Copied directly from our authorization as viewable online through CDBS:
Analog Call Sign: WSMV-TV
Digital Call Sign: WSMV-DT
Analog License File Number: BMLCT-19880822KI
Digital License File Number: BLCDT-20021029AAV
The license for WMAK of course covers only one station - and it specifies "Digital Call Sign: WMAK-DT". It is very possible that the -DT suffix doesn't exist on the licenses of some stations.
jmtillery said:
So long as both channels or stations are licensed to the same communnity, I believe you are okay identifying the community only once even though you are identifying two stations.
I would suggest this is technically wrong. The callsign of some other station is not a permissible insertion in a legal ID, so "WTRS AM and FM Dunnellon" is not technically legal. (the FM callsign is WTRS-FM, you can't insert "AM and" in the middle of the callsign. For AM, no matter how little precision you require for the permissible insertion of the frequency, "FM" is
not WTRS(AM)'s frequency.)
Of course, it's been done that way for decades, the FCC is most assuredly aware of it, and they've never even suggested it's wrong, let alone sanctioned anyone for doing it that way. It certainly meets the
spirit of the regulation.
I certainly agree with Mark that the chances of anyone getting in trouble for failing to remove the "-TV" from their ID after 2/17 are far less than the chances of President Obama appointing me Chairman of the FCC.
