[BC] TV in Western (Muskegon) Michigan

[Bill Allen Jr]

Wow,

the owner is listing that pos again.

if your interested in the license only - the price is still a little high.

the equipment is crap, but at least thier showing different pic's this time.

for a minute,i thought that was an old pic from a book showing a master control room from the 60's!

this was listed for a few months a couple years ago complete with pic's of more
consumer gear including a couple racks of walmart style vhs vcr's.

when we did the digi flip here in north east lower michigan, we had to get a digital STL.

so yes, you could keep the studio analog and get mux's and digi converter's, frame converter's digi stl, etc.

the cheap owner did just that here and just had us install the digi stl and a new pos digital
xmtr that features a digi exciter that kills it's software and cpu board every year(wbkb tv11.1 and 11.2).

the resaulting nightmare was in all the converters - he actullay ended up getting new digi studio cam's
and playout systems and replaceing several analog converters to fix the poor pic and signal.

at least the RCA batwing turnstyle antenna installed in the 70's is wide band enough to pass the digi signal
 with only minor fade at the edges of the coverage area.

if the tx antenna won't do digital - consider getting one that put's out a circluar pol that is legal - it will
improve your fringe area near the end of your coverage area.

keeping the studio analog may be a cheap way to start but, like others say
 "you'll wish you had more money and did it the right way to start"

tour the station before you make an offer.

Bill

Considering that both Clear Channel and Cumulus are both maxed out on 
stations there and the viewing competition is Grand Rapids the cost of 
the flash-cut is miniscule compared to the pit of money you'd have to 
fill to make money.

For the sake of argument lets say the same antenna pattern will work for 
a the digital authorization and the transmitter is solid state and of 
current enough vintage that it can be converted to digital and make 
power you are looking at $40,000 to $120,000 depending on your power 
level and encoder.

An HD Automation system is about $40K, another 10 for an IP STL. 
counting labor, switching gear, effecte, etc. you could drop a quick 
$200,000 and wish you had more.

Craig Bowman
Bowman Engineering
Durand, MI 48429.