ALEXANDRIA, Va.—“High noon” is rapidly approaching for the low-power television stations and translators that have not already made the switch to digital broadcasting, with a hard deadline of July 13 having been set by the FCC.

LPTV/translator operators were exempted from the June 2009 mandate which required cessation of analog transmissions by all full-power stations, and were initially given until Sept. 1, 2015 to transition to digital. Some four months before that due date—in consideration of the spectrum auction and repacking moves being made by full-power stations—the commission extended the LPTV digital deadline to mid-summer of this year.

According to the latest FCC figures, there are some 1,985 low-power TV broadcasters (LPTVs) and 3,306 TV translators licensed to operate. This combined facility figure is far greater than the number of full-power stations that had to move away from analog transmissions more than a decade ago. However, as the time for either going digital or going dark is rapidly approaching, most of those in the industry involved with LPTV and translator conversions expressed optimism that the deadline will be met.

Staying Ahead of the Curve

ARK Multicasting is heavily involved in LPTV, owning or managing nearly 300 stations nationwide. CEO Josh Weiss, said the Dallas-based company committed to moving into a fully-digital environment early on.

“Our first digital construction permits were granted in 2006 and we began building those out by 2009,” he said. “Meeting the deadline will not be a problem for us. We still have around 30 stations that need to be converted, with most of these being rebuilt on a new channel due to the repack. They have been off the air for this reason and [will return as digital].”

Weiss noted that in most cases, the conversion wasn’t as simple as just replacing an exciter.

“We found that for our broadcast internet business plan, the power levels are going to change, so the transmitter is going to change, and the antennas may have to change,” he said. “We found that it’s perhaps better in some cases to rebuild on a different tower or change locations. The majority of our stations have, or are, being rebuilt with a new antenna, a new transmitter and a new exciter.”

A spokesperson for another broadcast group with a large number of LPTVs and translators in its holding reported that there should be no problem in meeting the low-power analog-to-digital deadline, as more than 95 percent of their transmission facilities have already been converted, with the remaining sites either ready to flash cut to digital prior to July 13 or permanently shut down. 

The spokesperson, who asked not to be identified, explained that the facilities being taken off the air were, in most cases, quite old and had outlived their usefulness as they are located in thinly populated areas that are now served by other signals after the latest full-power repack and maximization.

‘A Few Analog Stations Still Cooking Out There’

Lee Miller, the executive director of  the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance, a trade association representing LPTVs, reports that in most cases, stations which are part of the group are in good shape to meet the FCC’s deadline. 

“For our members in general, this is not really a problem,” said Miller. “Although, there are still quite a few analog stations still cooking out there.”

Asked if the unreimbursed cost of digital conversion might be a factor in the decision by some operators to throw in the towel, Miller said that this shouldn’t have happened, as gains greatly outweigh the expenses

“Right now, just about the only people picking up analog stations are cable companies,” he said. “Most of our membership hasn’t complained about having to go digital. It’s really a shame to let a station go dark when there are other solutions. We’ve been helping members within our alliance find those solutions.”

Weiss added that with their move to digital, low-power stations can help pave the way for NextGen TV broadcasting.

“LPTVs have always been strong in community service by providing local programming,” he said. “The industry also has the ability to assist in making the transition to ATSC 3.0. Most analog stations are getting into situations where they can flash cut to ATSC 1.0 with equipment that can [later] be used for 3.0.”

With the shifting of some population centers, translators have become increasingly important in serving outlying viewers. John Terrill, president of the National Translator Association, says that overall, the march to take the nation’s voluminous number of low-power transmitters to digital has gone well, noting that only a relatively small number might be left behind.

“Most, but a very few, have converted to digital, and made the move on time,” said Terrill. “There are a few analog stations which have not converted, but they must do so by July 13 or turn it off. I don’t know how many stations were granted a construction permit and did not build.”

Terrill added that it was extremely important for LPTV and translator operators to check with the FCC to make sure that if they had converted to digital, the commission’s records reflected this. The LPTV/translator digital/analog status database is available for searches on a state-by-state basis through the FCC’s Licensing and Management System (LMS).

“Mark Colombo, the FCC’s associate chief of the Video Division, guaranteed at the NTA convention in May that stations indicated on the list as analog as of the July deadline will have their license cancelled,” said Terrill.

Consultants Report Relative Calm

The LPTV digital conversion initiative seems to be going well, judging from comments by individuals at several engineering consulting groups.

“I’ve only had one low-power client recently,” said Bill Meintel, partner and technical consultant at Meintel, Sgrignoli, & Wallace. “All the others have already made the transition.”

Meintel said that the majority of LPTV work was brought about by the recent full-power station repacking. “We’ve worked with dozens of LPTV stations that were displaced due to the repack, but a lot of these were already operating in digital before being displaced. I don’t really remember any analog operations, but there must have been some. We did a whole bunch of relocations.”

Erik Swanson, a broadcast engineer with Hatfield & Dawson Consulting Engineers, is working with about a half dozen low-power clients, with severa operating a fairly large number of transmitters.

“They’re trying to meet the conversion deadline,” said Swanson, noting that owners were eligible for a six-month grace period beyond the July deadline if they’d applied to the FCC before its March 2021 deadline for extensions.

Swanson said he wasn’t aware of any common denominator in connection with stations that haven’t made the switch yet. “I would imagine in some cases that it has been that they just have not gotten around to this. Others are nursing analog along because some viewers haven’t switched over.” 

He was optimistic that all of the broadcasters he was working with would meet the deadline. “None have asked for help in terminating their licenses.”

Carl Gluck, a senior engineer at Carl T. Jones consulting firm, reported that he’s working with a number of clients that collectively operate a fairly large number of low-power and translator facilities, and is optimistic that none will fail to make the July deadline.

“The intention is that this is not going to happen,” said Gluck. “Our clients want to move on.” He reported that none of the low-power clients he’s assisting has considered surrendering their licenses. “Right now, it’s ‘get it on the air and make improvements later with a different antenna, higher power transmitter, or a greater antenna height.’”

Vendors: ‘All is Well’

Manufacturers of exciters, transmitters and other RF gear that may be needed for digital conversions report too that the most LPTV players apparently took the FCC’s mandate seriously and planned their digital conversions far enough in advance to meet the July deadline.

“We’ve been fairly active during the past six or more months in low-power projects,” said Joe Turbolski, vice president of sales and marketing at Hitachi-Comark. “But I’ve only seen a few last-minute requests.”

Graziano Casale, Broadcast & Media account manager at Rohde & Schwarz USA, also reported no eleventh-hour flurry of LPTV activity. “We have seen, starting in the beginning of 2021, an uptick of interest and new projects in the LPTV space, but not much last minute driven by the analog sunset.,” said Casale. “This is a clear sign that customers were prepared months in advance for the event and carefully made their decision and their plan accordingly.”

Nick VanHaaster, district sales manager at GatesAir, also reported the absence of any down-to-the-wire requests for gear. “The upward swing of interest started in April, with various stations making the request to convert by the summer,” he said. “Some of these requests came from stations that were already running digital on other translators, but had not yet managed to get a few smaller outlying areas converted.”

VanHaaster added that GatesAir was ready to assist procrastinators if the need should arise. “Since our manufacturing plant is local, we are able to deliver on many last-minute requests.”

So, be it either a flash cut to digital by the few remaining LPTV holdouts who intend to keep broadcasting, or a final push of the “off” button on July 13, the final chapter on U.S. analog TV broadcasting is about to end.

Franken FM Gets Stay Of Execution

Although U.S. analog television broadcasting is set to become extinct on July 13, the FCC is allowing one class of analog transmission to continue in TV spectrum after that date, at least temporarily. This is the somewhat controversial “Franken FM,” which uses the TV Ch. 6 (82-88 MHz) FM audio carrier (87.75 MHz) to transmit audio programming unrelated to the video being broadcast on that channel. The practice has been around for more than a decade, with these low-power FMs popping up in many areas where Ch. 6 wasn’t being occupied by a full-power station.

It was thought by many that the July moratorium on LPTV analog operations would spell the end for the Franken FMs, but the FCC has granted the operator of one Ch. 6 LPTV station (KBKF-LD) in San Jose, Calif. Special Temporary Authority (STA) to continue transmitting an analog FM carrier along with its ATSC 3.0 digital signal.

The STA, which was granted on June 4 and runs for six months, is conditional, allowing the station to operate in this hybrid digital/analog mode with the Commission being able to modify or terminate it in cases of inference to other licensed spectrum users or “for any other reason upon written notice.”

The operator of KBKF-LD, Venture Technologies Group, claims that such hybrid operation is permitted within the ATSC A/322 standard and is operating with its 3.0 signal occupying 5.509 MHz of the Ch. 6 six MHz bandwidth and that it had received no interference complaints after three months of transmitting in this hybrid fashion.

Under the terms of the STA, Venture is required to submit written reports at regular intervals delineating “any reports of interference to other licensed users” as well as any interference observed “between KBKF-LD’s audio and video services that in any way limits coverage of its video.” 

The STA also requires the station to provide “at least one stream of synchronized video and audio programming on the ATSC 3.0 portion of [its] spectrum on a full time (24x7) basis.” In addition, the station also has to demonstrate that its regular audio and video coverage is not impacted by operation in the hybrid digital/analog mode. 

At least one manufacturer of antennas and RF equipment, Jampro, is offering a combiner that accommodates such hybrid operations, the “FM Sidekick.” 

For additional information about “Franken FMs” and the July 13 sunsetting of analog TV broadcasting, see Randy Stein’s article—“ Time Running Out for FM6 Stations?” at TV Tech’s sister publication radioworld.com. 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Faced with a looming July 13 deadline for cutting off analog signals on low-power TV stations, the FCC has granted the state of Alaska a delay until January 10, 2022 to cut off analog signals and complete the upgrade to digital for 15 LPTV/ translator stations. 

In its request for a waiver to the July deadline, the state of Alaska noted that it has owned a network of analog TV translator stations located in rural and in Alaska Native communities since the late 1970s. 

This system, which is now called the Alaska Rural Communications System (ARCS), provides free, over-the-air television and radio programming with essential news, weather, emergency alerts and other services to those communities. 

Many of those sites in the network have been upgraded but the work on 15 was not completed due to a variety of construction delays. The remote location of some of these sites, difficult weather conditions that limit work to only a few months each year and the pandemic helped produce the delays, Alaska told the FCC 

“We find that a grant of [the state of Alaska’s] request for a limited waiver...is justified due to a novel set of facts and circumstances that have prevented [Alaska] from completing the digital transition for these operational analog Stations and given the remote Alaskan communities for which these Stations are the sole source of video programming,” the FCC ruled. 

The FCC also ruled that “we find that there will be little if any impact or burden on other television broadcasters or the overall LPTV digital transition by allowing a very small number of rural Alaskan LPTV/translator stations to continue to operate in analog for a limited period of time.” 

It did require, however, that “the State of Alaska shall submit a progress report detailing the status of the digital construction for the stations.”

WASHINGTON—The FCC Media Bureau has reminded low power television and TV translator stations of the approaching July 13 deadline to complete their digital transition. All analog TV transmission must cease by 11:59 p.m. local time on that date.

The requirement to end analog TV transmission stands regardless of whether the digital facilities of an LPTV or TV translator station are operational. Stations that have not completed their digital facilities as of the deadline must remain silent until construction is finished. These stations should file a request with the agency for authority to go silent, the Media Bureau said in a public notice.

The notice also instructed LPTV/translator stations experiencing delays completing their digital facility that they may request one final extension of no more than 180 days for their digital construction permit. An application for the extension must be filed no later than March 15 and must include an exhibit demonstrating that failure to meet the construction deadline is the result of circumstances that were unforeseeable or beyond the station’s control and that all steps to resolve the problem in an expeditious manner have been taken. No granted extension will exceed the July 13 deadline, the notice said.

The notice listed a variety of circumstances, such as delays in getting zoning approvals, inability to obtain equipment or financial hardship. It noted acceptable circumstances are not limited to these reasons.

LPTV/translator stations filing an extension request must include:

• An accounting of the steps taken to finish the construction. Dates for each step are required;
• A detailed description of the circumstances outside the station’s control preventing completion, with dates of each circumstance; and 
• A timeline plan of how and when the station expects to complete construction and begin digital operation 

If financial hardship is the reason, the station’s extension application must include: an itemized estimate of the cost of buildout; a detailed statement explaining why the station’s financial condition precludes the expenditure; a detailed accounting of the filer’s good-faith efforts to meet the deadline, including efforts to obtain financing and why those efforts failed; and an indication of when the applicant reasonably expects to complete construction, the notice said.

Any additional time to construct digital facilities after March 15 may only be sought under the agency’s “tolling” rule, which “provides that a construction permit may be tolled only for specific circumstances not under the licensee’s control,” such as an act of God, it said.

The bureau also reminded LPTV/translator stations of other related filing date recommendations and deadlines, including:

• May 1 recommendation for last-minute technical change applications or filings, such as those for a minor change or STA request
• July 13 filing deadline for Digital-to-Digital Replacement Translator applications 

The Media Bureau also reminded stations needing to suspend operations that they must not remain silent for more than 30 days without FCC authority. Those remaining silent for more than 10 days must notify the agency no later than the 10th day. The license of any station that remains silent for any consecutive 12-month period expires automatically. Under certain circumstances, the FCC may reinstate the license, the notice said.

For LPTV/translator stations with digital companion channels, completion of the transition requires either flash cutting their existing analog facility to digital or surrendering their analog channel and continuing to operate on their digital companion channel. The license of stations choosing to flash cut will be replaced by a new digital license and the permit or license for the digital companion will be cancelled, the bureau said.

The notice also reminded stations of their obligation to inform viewers of the impending termination of analog service.

The notice and detailed instructions on accessing the FCC’s Licensing and Management System (LMS) where pertinent applications and request forms can be found is available online.

The “D” word. Today in our industry, D stands for “Disruption.” Ten years ago, “the D word” meant something else to U.S. television broadcasters.

No, I’m not talking about “Digital”—I’m talking about “Dread.”

On June 12, 2009, broadcasters took the big step that had caused so much consternation and fear since it had been proposed several decades before—the industry shut down its analog signals after more than 60 years of broadcasting in the U.S. Digital was now the norm.

I think I can speak for my other fellow journalists when I say that, despite all the angst, we loved covering the DTV transition because it created so much of another “D” word: Drama.

The original shutoff date was Dec. 31, 2006. I remember it well because of a warning from one Congressman who feared the worst when viewers realized that they would lose TV the way it always was.

“If we impose a strict, hard return of spectrum of December 31, 2006, one can be sure that we will all be impeached on January 1, 2007,” said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY).

Clearly the industry wasn’t ready by then and it’s hard to say whose feet got colder: broadcasters or the government, (and more specifically the FCC).

Realizing this, in 2005, Congress moved the deadline to February 2009. A number of problems were still unresolved, in particular, issues over how the controversial converter box program was being handled, so the deadline was moved to June, (when it was more likely that Congress would be on break, natch).

So as the industry held its collective breath and at midnight on the evening of Friday, June 12, 2009, the end came for analog TV in the U.S.

The transition went better than expected. Yes, stations, particularly along the urban areas on the east coast lost viewers as they moved from UHF to VHF and a number of consumers still hadn’t gotten the word despite millions of dollars in public education campaigns.

The total cost of the government’s share of the transition ended up nearly $3 billion. During the first week after the shutoff, the FCC logged nearly 900,000 calls to a DTV hotline it had set up to respond to complaints and concerns. A month later, Nielsen reported that 98.9% of U.S. homes were able to receive a digital signal.

Was it worth the expense? There was very little debate that the industry had to go digital—with increasing pressure from the wireless industry over spectrum availability, broadcasters’ hands were forced to make the transition.

Rick Ducey, managing director at BIA Advisory Services, had the unique perspective of looking at the transition from several sides—first as the senior vice president of research and info group at the NAB and then as an advisor to broadcast stations when he moved to BIA nearly 20 years ago.

Ducey helped establish Spectra Rep two decades ago to take advantage of the datacasting capabilities of digital television.

“We wanted to see if there was a way to monetize the new capabilities of the digital infrastructure,” he said. Based in Chantilly, Spectra Rep today works with public broadcasters to use datacasting enabled by DTV for public safety operations.

As a long-time contributor to TV Technology, Doug Lung had a front seat to the transition, chronicling the progress of the transition from when the first DTV station went on air in 1996 to today.

Lung’s assessment of how the industry has fared in the decade since can probably be described as a “glass half-full” approach.

“Once TV stations boosted their power [many had minimal facilities prior to the cut-over] and the quality of TV sets tuners improved, interest in over the air TV rose,” he said.

Lung commented that some of the transmitters used for increased power after analog was shut down were converted analog transmitters, but that the work surrounding the current channel realignment, prompted by the 2017 spectrum auctions provides new upgrade opportunities.

“The repack is giving us the opportunity to replace these ancient transmitters with more modern transmitters with solid state amplifiers and a relatively easy conversion to ATSC 3.0,” he said.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is at the forefront of the transition to ATSC 3.0, was a prominent opponent of the 8-VSB modulation standard and spent numerous hours on Capitol Hill and in the halls of the FCC pressing their case for using COFDM, which they said was better at handling mobile reception.

Now with ATSC 3.0 adopting the OFDM scheme, Mark Aitken, vice president of advanced technology for Sinclair and president of ONE Media, couldn’t help but feel vindicated.

“We actually hate having to be the folks that were right,” he said, adding that the “lessons learned” about the transition include the importance of mobility, IP and maximizing broadcasters’ use of their spectrum.

Today, ATSC is focused on what is perhaps even a bigger transition to 3.0 and an IP and mobile future designed to compete with telcos. Madeleine Noland, the new president of the association hailed the benefits of ATSC 1.0, including enhanced HD picture quality, improved sound and advanced closed captioning features, to name a few.

“The 10 year anniversary of the analog shutoff shines a light on one of the major milestones in the history of terrestrial broadcasting, and we look forward to many more with the bright future of ATSC 3.0 ahead of us.”

So do we.

CINCINNATI—In preparation for its national transition to digital television, Ethiopia’s national digital TV network has awarded a contract to GatesAir to provide turnkey equipment and services. GatesAir will design, supply, install, test and commission a DVB-T2 over the air network system for 26 new transmission sites, as well as upgrade systems at 74 existing facilities. GatesAir will also provide a financing system through J.P. Morgan, with support from Export Development Canada.

Ethiopia's DTV Network agrees to a deal with GatesAir

The turnkey package will include two GatesAir Maxiva liquid-cooled UHF transmitters at the 26 new sites, in addition to DVB-T2 headend equipment, satellite uplinks, antennas and towers. According to GatesAir, the system will support delivery of 20 channels and data services, including electronic program guides, from the Information Network Security Agency.

GatesAir reports that it will also train Ethiopian engineers on how to service the transmission system.

According to GatesAir, it has previously provided similar support for DTV transitions in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Togo.