WVIA-TV Resumes Operations After Transmitter Fire

By Doug Lung
published


The transmitter building housing Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton, Pa. public television and radio stations (WVIA-TV and WVIA-FM) was destroyed by fire last Friday. The local newspaper, The Times Leader, in its article Fire hits WVIA tower buildings said a contractor was doing work inside the cinder block building when a "piece of machinery" started burning. WVIA-TV said the building was a total loss.

WVIA-TV was back on the air Monday, thanks to the local ABC affiliate, WNEP-TV. That station was able to help out, because about than two months ago it had moved its DTV channel from 49 to 50 and increased power from 100 kW to 500 kW.

WNEP-TV offered WVIA-TV the use of its Channel 49 facilities, as the old transmitter and antenna had not been removed. WVIA-TV's Web site advised viewers that they must rescan tuners to receive the restored signal.

TV Technology's sister publication, Radio World, quotes WVIA-TV's Bill Kelly in the article Pennsylvania's WVIA Recovers From Fire commenting on WNEP-TV's help: ""It is a wonderful thing to watch what engineers do when one of their stations has been hurt. All the competition is forgotten. All the engineers get together. They share their knowledge; they share their equipment; and collectively solve a station's problem."

The station's vice president of engineering, Joe Glynn, said that several other TV and radio stations offered to help to get the public broadcasting stations back on the air. Kudos also to the FCC Media Bureau for moving quickly to allow WVIA –TV to use WNEP-TV's former DTV channel.

Thanks to long time friend and RF Report reader Jim Conroy to alerting me to this story earlier this week.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.