Most TV stations now have a tentative DTV channel assignment. Last week the FCC released the list of DTV Tentative Channel Designations for 1,554 stations participating in the first round of DTV channel elections.
As I described in my April RF Technology column Channel Election Choices Revealed, the Feb. 23, 2005 dtv_transition database showed 1,761 stations filed an FCC Form 381certifying their DTV facilities and 1,743 stations filed a Form 382 electing a channel in the first round. While these numbers may have changed slightly since Feb. 23, it appears about 207 stations have yet to receive a tentative channel designation. As noted in my RF Technology column, the FCC dtv_transition database included multiple and sometimes conflicting DTV channel election filings for some stations. I manually removed these from the database, but it is possible I missed some.
Approximately 189 stations had conflicts that prevented them from receiving tentative channel designation for the channel they elected on Form 382. Stations remaining on their existing DTV channel had priority over stations picking their analog channel. Most of the conflicts identified in the first round filings resulted from interference to elected DTV channels from stations choosing to return to their analog TV channel at the end of the transition. Stations receiving conflict letters must file conflict resolution forms in August 2005 showing how they will resolve the conflict (i.e. change technical facilities to eliminate the interference or obtain an agreement with the stations receiving interference) or attempt to find another DTV channel in a future channel election round.
