[BC] The HD Alliance is a good idea, but...

[DANA PUOPOLO]

The same thing has happened with WJAR channel 10 (analog, NBC O&O), Prov, RI
and WTNH-DT channel 10 (digital, ABC), New Haven, CT.

There's 90 about miles between the two transmitter sites. Channel 10 analog's
site is about 10 miles north of downtown Providence and channel 10 digital's
about 80 miles southwest of downtown Providence. Unfortunately, a large part
of the Providence ADI extends southwest - about 40 miles worth in fact - so a
chunk of the Providence ADI is mid way between the two transmitters.  This
happens to be Westerly, RI, a fairly large city in RI. 

Needless to say, analog channel 10 does not come well at all in Westerly these
days....

Like I've said before, my (not quite) two year old daughter could probably do
a better job of spectrum management then the FCC does.

Pathetic!

-D

------ Original Message ------
Received: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 07:58:43 PM PST
From: "Dennis Cope" <dcope at intercom.net>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Subject: RE: [BC] The HD Alliance is a good idea, but...

I guess you didn't hear about the famous WBOC (Ch. 16 analog), WHRO (Ch. 16
digital) fiasco....

Even though this was co-channel the FCC allocated the frequencies and power
levels..

Where I live when WHRO fired up my WBOC went grainy, law suits were
threatened, compromises were made, etc.......

Dennis
WESR, WCTG


------ At 12:23 AM 1/17/2006, Milspec390 at aol.com wrote: -------

>   Why didn't TeamD do as did HDTV and buy spectrum so as to not interfere?

One problem here. HDTV didn't buy spectrum. In fact it created all
sorts of complaints that TV stations were given extra spectrum free.
Many believed that broadcasters should pay for spectrum.
Unfortunately, the auctioning of spectrum has set a precedent we may
live to regret. Broadcasters didn't beg for HDTV. Most resisted,
kicking and screaming. If the government had charged for the spectrum
they wouldn't have been able to force the DTV conversion.

Other services were willing to pay handsomely for spectrum for new
services. Broadcasters were already fat n' happy with the cash
cows  they already had. Early on the only advantage they saw was the
ability to have 4 standard definition stations in the space of one.
The unexpected popularity of HDTV killed that. Except for PBS, most
DTV broadcasters are doing what IBUZ will do, dump their doppler
radar on the second channel and walk away.

Their disadvantage is that there's no Jabba the HDTV.

Rich

Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-303-9084
FAX: 413-480-0010





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