RSSFCC tells 25% of requesting TV stations they can't switch on 2/17
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published February 12, 2009, 5:11 PM
Claiming that certain areas of the country are less ready than others for the switch to digital broadcast television, the FCC denied 123 termination notices from a list of 491.
"We have now reviewed the 491 termination notices filed by the stations intending to end analog service on February 17, 2009," reads a Federal Communications Commission public notice published yesterday (PDF available here). "We find that 368 of these stations may proceed with their intended termination of analog service on February 17th."
The DTV Delay Act, signed into law by Pres. Obama yesterday, left in a clause that lets TV stations terminate their analog service anytime between 2/17 and the new switch date of June 12. However, those stations that wished to switch early had to provide their reasons in writing to the FCC by early this week.
Apparently, the FCC's criteria for rejecting service termination requests centered on whether stations operated in lesser markets and served less populated areas -- regions of the country that it felt may not have gotten the original message about the switch.
"The primary concern of the Commission is to ensure that viewers relying on over-the-air television do not lose access to local news, public affairs and emergency information before they are ready for the full power television transition to all-digital television service," the notice reads. "It was this concern that prompted the Congress to delay the digital transition until June 12, 2009, and it is this concern that prompts our action here."
Showing no favoritism, the Commission chose to deny applications from all the major network affiliates (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) in any given area. Among the more major US cities where all affiliates applied and all were denied are: Bakersfield, Calif.; Billings, Mt.; Binghamton, N.Y.; Dayton, Ohio; Eugene, Ore.; La Crosse, Wisc.; Madison, Wisc.; Meridian, Miss.; Mobile, Ala.; Providence, R.I.; Rockford, Ill.; Sioux City, Iowa; Topeka, Kans.; and Waco, Texas.
Meridian, Miss denied....WOW.....didn't see that one coming.
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|Idiots.
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|Wait, Wait, Wait...MADISON WI??? I lived in WI. There is not a single city in that god forsaken state that is more politically savvy or on top of current issues than Madison.
Granted they broadcast to a greater geographic area than the city proper, but if you told activist groups to go preach the word of DTV to the rural community they'd leave with Birkenstocks on and pamphlets in hand.
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|Ordinarily you would think so...but they have been too busy making bombs in celebration of Obama's inaugural.
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|Your tax dollars at work!
LMAO!
Bureaucrats aspire to fill role once served by mommy.
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|This is such a mess. Digital signal has less range than analog, so the people who actually rely on over-the-air broadcasts are losing stations they've watched their entire lives. Furthermore, there's no advantage to the high-def signal unless you actually have a high-def TV - you know, the kind that the majority of rural viewers don't have! Your tax dollars at work, folks!
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|Poor baby.
Then instead of whining, get off YOUR posterior and buy those poor 'low class' folks an antenna and a converter.
Heaven forbid they should miss reruns of Bonanza or current TMZ episodes.
BTW,Scarecrow, have you figured out how those rural folks initially got the jobs requiring DSL that they will lose because of not having DSL yet? So, which way is OZ? LOL!
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|Digital signals have far more range per watt of transmit power, you simply do not know what you are talking about. I do not have cable or satellite and I'm relying on all over the air right now and I get 30 crystal clear channels compared to a hand full of analog TV channels.
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|Digital may have more effective transmission per watt, but they are allowed by the FCC to use less watts. The total range of the broadcasts is less. In my area, I have a converter box- it gets no channels. None in digital at all, except for a few flickers on one station. I get 4-5 channels in analog. If you are getting so many channels, you are in or near a city. I am in a rural area - that is the difference. Digital works great for a very short distance, enough to cover a city.
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|Please post proof of your statements.
Because everything I know about a digital signal contradicts your claims
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|"I have a converter box- it gets no channels. None in digital at all, except for a few flickers on one station."
Poor PCube! LOL!
Geeesh. Here is an example of why the transition will have problems.
Hey posterboy of 'slow posteriors', the box (tuner) itself is not a magic bullet. It simply processes the signal. You still need an efficient antenna appropriate for your location in order to sufficiently acquire the signals for the box to process!!
I can just see you now... 'I just bought the most expensive CD/DVD player on the market and I have sat here staring at it for 3 months and it hasn't yet played one song or movie! Not only does the damned thing suck, but the larger audio/video market is a fraud!'
Social Darwinism at work!
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|I can sympathize. I was using a combo DVD-R/VCR with an ATSC tuner in the Orlando, FL area and it was fine. The same equipment in an area serviced by Dayton, OH, Cincinnati, OH, and Indianapolis, IN failed to get any substantial signal.
It seems as though 25 miles was fine, but perhaps, after the switchover to full-powered digital broadcasts, more areas will be acceptable.
In any case, they've only had 10 years' notice. You couldn't expect them to be ready, could you?
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|I have one of the $50 DTV converter boxes and now I get nine digital channels with crystal clear picture and sound instead of one crystal clear analog channel. For less range DTV is amazing.
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|It's a shame you were moderated down, you're totally right. Where we live, just outside of a large city, we had 20+ stations that come in clear over rabbit ears with traditional OTA. We tried one of these digital boxes and we're only getting 14+ stations and half of them are frame dropping, artifacting or just plain unwatchable. Why they might be ABLE to broadcast at more watts, they're certainly not everywhere.
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|i can sympathize. there are two local stations that i can receive over the air that i canNOT receive digitally. one of which is one of the big affiliate stations. so even though i know what the digital channel is (not the virtual channel that the dtv boxes and dtv sets automatically adjust for) they do not come in. not even with a flicker. and i live in a metropolitan area, not out in the sticks.
the delay is a good thing as far as i'm concerned if these stations can't boost power or make other accomodations to get better digital reception in an area.
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|link didn't include the appendex. had to look around to find it. appendex lists all the stations affected http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov...achmatch/FCC-09-7A2.pdf
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