Doug Lung / 04.08.2010 12:00AM
Rural Virginia Communities to Lose TV Translator Service

Residents in the rural Virginia communities of Toms Brook and Woodstock will lose off-air TV from CBS affiliate WUSA in Washington, D.C. later this month.

At that time, the Shenandoah County (Va.) Board of Supervisors will turn off the TV translator serving those communities to allow Verizon Wireless to begin operation on a channel they purchased in an FCC auction.

The article, TV channels to go black when Verizon adopts wider network by Sally Voth of Northern Virginia Daily didn't list the translators affected, but a CDBS search showed the Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors has six translators: three in New Market, Va., which operate on channels 56, 59 and 61, and three in Woodstock, Va., operating on Channels 63, 65, and 68.

Channels 63 and 68 are reserved for public safety, but channels 61 and 65 fall into upper 700 MHz "Block C". Verizon won that "Block C" spectrum in every region except Alaska, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In a request for special temporary authority to keep the translators operating while the Board of Supervisors was completing renewal applications in December 2008, the Board observed that Virginia's Shenandoah County has a large rural population without cable service, and most residents can't afford satellite TV service, and without the translators, most would not be able to access television broadcasts.

In the NVDaily.com article, District 5 Supervisor Dennis Morris said residents will wake up April 15 and find they don't have WUSA.

"That's going to go over like poop in a punch bowl," he said.



Comments
Post New Comment
If you are already a member, or would like to receive email alerts as new comments are
made, please login or register.

Enter the code shown above:

(Note: If you cannot read the numbers in the above
image, reload the page to generate a new one.)

1.
Posted by: Sean T.
Thu, 04-08-2010 - 6:53PM Report Comment
Good question. More research on this article would have been nice. From my experience these translator groups/associations have next to zero money and since everything is about money that is probably what happened here. No money to file and or no money to re-channel the translators and buy new antennas.
2.
Posted by: Anonymous
Thu, 04-08-2010 - 6:03PM Report Comment
Why didn't the translator operator apply for a new valid channel?




Thursday 12:00AM
Broadcasters File Suit Against FCC’s Political File Rules
“The FCC decision to put the political files online will bring broadcasters into the 21st century, and will make already public information more easily accessible to everyone.” Free Press Senior Policy Counsel Corie Wright.

 
Featured Articles
Discover TV Technology