Man, this is cool!! Why are you doing it??

I don't know how many times I have had that questioned asked me in the last six months when people come to the new transmitter site. Everyone thinks it is a really cool thing that we are building a new tower and building (me too!) but they can't seem to get their arms around the "why?" of doing it. Simple answer, we are doing this because we have to so we can stay in business. The more complicated answer is we have to because the FCC said so. Well, Congress told the FCC to tell us we had to. If you are still scratching your noodle, then you are not alone. Have you ever heard of the old saying "HI! I am from the government! I am here to help!"?

First, a little history. In the 1980's the Japanese TV network NHK began testing of analog high definition TV signals. It was clumsy, complicated and it was only on the air from 10pm to 2am because they had to shutdown some of the analog stations to run this supersized TV signal. This alarmed many here in the US that maybe our Japanese friends were getting a technical jump on us in this arena. Our "TV Scientists" began working on a HD system here. Soon it was discovered that computers could send pictures and high def pictures to boot! So to combat the NHK analog HD system, broadcasters went to the FCC asking if they too could do HD but using digital instead of analog since they could put one HD digital signal in the same channel spacing as one standard def analog channel, something that trumped the NHK system.

Well the FCC looked at it and said, yes, the broadcasters could do that. That sounded like something the US should do. So in 1994, the FCC began work on legislation for Congress to draft and enact to officially allow this new form of television. During this process Congress was also rewriting the Communications Act, a law that sets the boundaries for all communications from TV and radio to cable, satellite and cell phones. Since this new digital TV signal could pack more TV channels into less radio spectrum, instead of making it an additional service, why not just make it THE television service, stop analog broadcasting and reduce the TV channels in the process and use the old TV spectrum that would be freed up and sell it for auction to help reduce the budget deficit. (Has the light bulb just lit up?) So when the Communications Act of 1996 was enacted, it set the date of November 1st 1998 as the official start of "Digital Television" and December 31st 2006 would be the last day of analog television. No mention of HD other than to say that it would be one of 18 picture formats allowed to be transmitted in this new television service and left it up to the FCC on how to implement this. Subsequently, Congress revised the Digital TV law to say that the December 31st 2006 date would only take effect for analog shutdown if 85% of a television market had a way to watch the local digital television stations. Still no requirement for stations to transmit ANY HD signals.

The FCC set up a multi tiered timeline when stations would be required to sign on with this new system. Stations in the largest markets like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, etc had to be on by May 1st 1999. The intermediate sized markets like Raleigh and Charlotte, Dallas, Tampa, etc (not the Triad though, we just did miss the cut) had to be on by November 1st 1999. Everyone else had to be on by May 1st 2002.

After 9/11, the FCC revised the manner in which stations could come on the air. Stations were still required to make their deadlines, but now stations were not required to be at full power. They could come on at reduced power until a future date was named. Many stations went with the lower power option, including us, until there were more viewers to watch the new stations.

In September of 2004 the FCC came out with their new timetable for all stations to be at full power. If a station is an affiliate of ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC and is in one of the top 100 markets, they had to be at full power July 1st 2005. All other stations have to be at full power by July 1st 2006.

So here we are, one of the "Big 4" network stations and we have to build a new facility since our current tower was built in 1963, long before "HD TV" was even thought about and it will not hold all of the new digital equipment. Trying to do in 12 months what normally takes 18 to 24 months.

That "December 31st 2006" date? Well Congress is now revisiting the date to set a hard date since the US Treasury is in more deficit than ever and part of the freed spectrum will go to First Responders. The Senate has past a date of April 7th 2009 as the last day of analog transmissions and the House is working on a draft now that has the date of December 31st 2008. One thing is sure, the year 2009 is the year when analog transmissions will cease. Which day is still up in the air. (UPDATE - Congress sets Feb 17, 2009 as the official last day of analog TV.)

Now what does this mean to our viewers? If you watch TV on cable or satellite, nothing changes for you. Which ever date is picked, it will be just another day. If you get your TV via an antenna, you will need to acquire either a new digital TV or a digital converter box. In both pieces of legislation in Congress now, money from the sale of the spectrum would be set aside to help those watch TV off of an antenna buy the new converter boxes. What isn't clear yet is if you have cable or satellite and you have additional TV's and they are not connected to cable or satellite, if those TV's will be eligible. In the Senate bill, they are, in the House version, they are not. When the final bill is sent to the President for signing, we will then find out the date and the amount of the converter subsidy.