Have any/many stations already turned off analog?

I heard that at least one TV station had its analog transmitter fail.
Because we are so close to the digital crossover, they didn't want to
pay to buy a new analog transmitter. They abandoned analog because
most of their customers were cable customers anyway.

Did this really happen? Have other stations abandoned or greatly
reduced their analog output?

NadCixelsyd wrote:
I heard that at least one TV station had its analog transmitter fail.
Because we are so close to the digital crossover, they didn't want to
pay to buy a new analog transmitter.

Non-com KCSM(TV), San Mateo, CA lost their analog transmitter a few
years ago.

On May 10, 5:29*pm, NadCixelsyd wrote:
I heard that at least one TV station had its analog transmitter fail.
Because we are so close to the digital crossover, they didn't want to
pay to buy a new analog transmitter. *They abandoned analog because
most of their customers were cable customers anyway.

Did this really happen? *Have other stations abandoned or greatly
reduced their analog output?

Transmitters have a very long life expectancy. Power tubes also last a
long time but do eventually fail and can be expensive to VERY
expensive depending on channel and power level. I could see retiring
the transmitter because who wants to pay for a 5-10 year life tube
when you can only run it 8 more months?

GG

NadCixelsyd wrote:
I heard that at least one TV station had its analog transmitter fail.
Because we are so close to the digital crossover, they didn't want to
pay to buy a new analog transmitter. They abandoned analog because
most of their customers were cable customers anyway.

Did this really happen? Have other stations abandoned or greatly
reduced their analog output?

Yes. At least 40 full service stations across the US are currently
digital only. Many are PBS or independent stations that faced financial
problems in replacing or maintaining their analog transmitters and/or
broadcast towers and opted to ask the FCC for permission to shut down
their analog early. However there are a few ABC, CBS, CW, Ion affiliates
on the digital only list.

One station in my market, WNVT-DT 30, which is a public broadcast
channel, shut down their analog signal some 5 years ago, one of the
first stations to do so. They use the digital signal to broadcast 5 SD
sub-channels of programming from non-US networks. They have 4 SD
sub-channels on their sister station, WNVC-DT 56 which has a analog
channel. It is an interesting use of the digital sub-channel capability.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNVT.

I helped Falcon_77 on avsforum fill out his spreadsheet listing the
analog and DT channels for all 1800+ full service stations in the US. We
were surprised to find how many stations have already gone digital only.

Alan F

On Sat, 10 May 2008 18:29:54 -0700 (PDT) NadCixelsyd wrote:

| I heard that at least one TV station had its analog transmitter fail.
| Because we are so close to the digital crossover, they didn't want to
| pay to buy a new analog transmitter. They abandoned analog because
| most of their customers were cable customers anyway.
|
| Did this really happen? Have other stations abandoned or greatly
| reduced their analog output?

WEDY-DT and WNIT-DT are digital-only due to analog transmitter failure.

KETS-DT is digital-only due to tower collapse.

WTRF-TV, WBGU-TV, and KRMJ-TV are at reduced power due to analog failure.

http://www.rabbitears.info/dtr.php

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G-squared wrote:

On May 10, 5:29 pm, NadCixelsyd wrote:

I heard that at least one TV station had its analog transmitter fail.
Because we are so close to the digital crossover, they didn't want to
pay to buy a new analog transmitter. They abandoned analog because
most of their customers were cable customers anyway.

Did this really happen? Have other stations abandoned or greatly
reduced their analog output?


Transmitters have a very long life expectancy. Power tubes also last a
long time but do eventually fail and can be expensive to VERY
expensive depending on channel and power level. I could see retiring
the transmitter because who wants to pay for a 5-10 year life tube
when you can only run it 8 more months?

GG

Are the digital transmitters as powerful as the analog ones? I think a
lot of stations are using temporary digital transmitters until they turn
off analog, then they will use the analog transmitters for digital.

Ant wrote:
On 5/10/2008 10:31 PM PT, Alan F typed:

I helped Falcon_77 on avsforum fill out his spreadsheet listing the
analog and DT channels for all 1800+ full service stations in the US. We
were surprised to find how many stations have already gone digital only.

Do you have the URL for it?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=823166. Follow the
link to the Falcon77 post where he has a link to his latest zipped Excel
file. Also "Trip in VA" has website with a list summarizing what each
station is doing next year, broken down by DMA.

For Falcon77's spreadsheet, use the Autosort feature [arrow button in
the column header] to show just the stations with no analog channel as
marked by "-" in the analog channel column. There are some new stations
in that set that are not on air yet, but will fire up a digital only
signal in the next year or two.

Alan F

Ant wrote:
On 5/10/2008 6:29 PM PT, NadCixelsyd typed:

I heard that at least one TV station had its analog transmitter fail.
Because we are so close to the digital crossover, they didn't want to
pay to buy a new analog transmitter. They abandoned analog because
most of their customers were cable customers anyway.

Did this really happen? Have other stations abandoned or greatly
reduced their analog output?

Are all stations supposed to shut down their analog transmitters on
2/17/2009? If not, then is there a list of stations that will lower and
completely shut down (for me, L.A. area)?

All full power (aka full service) stations located in the US are
required to shut down their analog transmissions by midnight of
2/17/2009. There is no wiggle room on this unless Congress changes its
mind and passes a new law extending the shutdown date.

However, the shutdown law does not apply to low power and translator
stations, though they must vacate UHF channels 52 to 69 if they are
located on there. Many low power stations have filed for digital
allocations, so it is expected that some of them will do a digital flash
cut next February or soon there after. The FCC is reportedly looking at
requiring all low power stations and translators to go digital by 2012.
But if you are in the main LA basin area, translators are not a major
concern.

In LA, the biggest change next February 17 will be the four stations
switching their digital broadcast from UHF to their current analog upper
VHF channel: KABC ABC 7, KCAL ind 9, KTTV FOX 11, KCOP MyN 13. KCAL and
KTTV will reduce analog power in the month before 2/17/09 to modify 1/2
of their transmitters for digital operation. KCBS-DT CBS 2 will move
from UHF 60 to UHF 43.

Alan F

Ant wrote:
On 5/11/2008 7:05 AM PT, Alan F typed:

Ant wrote:

Are all stations supposed to shut down their analog transmitters on
2/17/2009? If not, then is there a list of stations that will lower
and completely shut down (for me, L.A. area)?

All full power (aka full service) stations located in the US are
required to shut down their analog transmissions by midnight of
2/17/2009. There is no wiggle room on this unless Congress changes its
mind and passes a new law extending the shutdown date.

However, the shutdown law does not apply to low power and translator
stations, though they must vacate UHF channels 52 to 69 if they are
located on there. Many low power stations have filed for digital
allocations, so it is expected that some of them will do a digital flash
cut next February or soon there after. The FCC is reportedly looking at
requiring all low power stations and translators to go digital by 2012.
But if you are in the main LA basin area, translators are not a major
concern.

In LA, the biggest change next February 17 will be the four stations
switching their digital broadcast from UHF to their current analog upper
VHF channel: KABC ABC 7, KCAL ind 9, KTTV FOX 11, KCOP MyN 13. KCAL and
KTTV will reduce analog power in the month before 2/17/09 to modify 1/2
of their transmitters for digital operation. KCBS-DT CBS 2 will move
from UHF 60 to UHF 43.

Thanks again! Wow, channel 43 for KCBS. I guess they will rename itself
to KCBS43 instead of KCBS2. I wonder why they aren't keeping 60. Any ideas?

Fun fun on 2/17/2009 to rescan all the DTV tuners!

UHF channels 52 to 69 are being taken away from TV broadcasting and
reallocated to other purposes. These are called the "out-of-core"
channels. The core being 2-51 which are being kept for TV broadcasting.

You may have read about the 700 MHz auction. Except for the 4 channel
spaces that are being reassigned to emergency & police use, these are
the frequency slots that were up for sale. Any station that started up a
digital transmission on UHF 52-69 knew that they would eventually have
to vacate it. KCBS-DT will take over KCAL-DT current UHF 43 antenna when
KCAL-DT flash cuts to VHF 9. However KCBS-DT filed for and received
authorization to increase the power on UHF 43 from the current 300 kW to
540 kW after they take it over so KCBS-DT will have better coverage than
KCAL-DT does now.

KCBS-DT CBS 2 will keep it's 2.1 channel display. All stations are
required by the FCC (except for those that shut down their analog ahead
of the ruling) to keep their analog channel as their displayed channel #
after the shutdown. KCBS 2 has too much identity as channel 2 to drop it.

Alan F

Ant wrote:
On 5/11/2008 9:13 AM PT, Alan F typed:

In LA, the biggest change next February 17 will be the four stations
switching their digital broadcast from UHF to their current analog
upper
VHF channel: KABC ABC 7, KCAL ind 9, KTTV FOX 11, KCOP MyN 13. KCAL and
KTTV will reduce analog power in the month before 2/17/09 to modify 1/2
of their transmitters for digital operation. KCBS-DT CBS 2 will move
from UHF 60 to UHF 43.

Thanks again! Wow, channel 43 for KCBS. I guess they will rename
itself to KCBS43 instead of KCBS2. I wonder why they aren't keeping
60. Any ideas?

Fun fun on 2/17/2009 to rescan all the DTV tuners!

UHF channels 52 to 69 are being taken away from TV broadcasting and
reallocated to other purposes. These are called the "out-of-core"
channels. The core being 2-51 which are being kept for TV broadcasting.

Interesting. How come KCBS and others got these "out-of-core" channels
in the past? Did FCC add that rule or something recently? If not, then
TV stations should had gotten these originally to avoid moving again.

It has been pretty much set since the mid to late 1990s that UHF 52 to
69 channels would be reallocated for other purposes. But with 1800 full
power stations broadcasting on a analog channel and around 1600-1700 of
them broadcasting on a digital channel (and not counting the ~2000 low
power stations), they had to use UHF 52 to 69 for digital broadcasting
to fit the stations in. KCBS may have asked for a in-core UHF channel,
but couldn't get one. The multiple rounds of the digital channel
selection were a complicated process.


You may have read about the 700 MHz auction. Except for the 4 channel
spaces that are being reassigned to emergency & police use, these are
the frequency slots that were up for sale. Any station that started up a
digital transmission on UHF 52-69 knew that they would eventually have
to vacate it. KCBS-DT will take over KCAL-DT current UHF 43 antenna when
KCAL-DT flash cuts to VHF 9. However KCBS-DT filed for and received
authorization to increase the power on UHF 43 from the current 300 kW to
540 kW after they take it over so KCBS-DT will have better coverage than
KCAL-DT does now.

KCBS-DT CBS 2 will keep it's 2.1 channel display. All stations are
required by the FCC (except for those that shut down their analog ahead
of the ruling) to keep their analog channel as their displayed channel #
after the shutdown. KCBS 2 has too much identity as channel 2 to drop it.

Yeah, KCBS is a big one compared to KCAL9. I wonder why KCBS and KCAL9
didn't merge into one channel (e.g., use KCBS and dump KCAL [used to be
an independent station] or use both names as one "KCBS/KCAL") from this
digital move over.

Why would they want to give up a full power broadcast channel in the
#2 DMA? CBS runs KCBS and KCAL as a duoploy, they share the studio and
the control facilities. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KCAL-TV for the
history of KCAL.

Alan F