Okay since I did some research, here is what I find Portland TV area (excluding La Grande, OR) allocations.
Portland (*= noncommerical allocation)
2,6,8,10*,12,24,30*,40
Vancouver
14*,49
Salem
22, 32

Okay we have 3 unused allocations 14,30, & 40. How come nobody picking up these channels?

Too much competition from closed systems?

Sat, etc...

According to the FCC:
http://www.fcc.gov/oet/dtv/

14 Reserved for DT Tacoma and Yakima
30 KPTV DT On Air
40 KOIN DT On Air

LIST OF CHANNELS ALLOTTED BY THE FCC FOR DIGITAL TELEVISION
INCLUDING ALL CHANNELS (2 THROUGH 69)

http://www.fcc.gov/oet/dtv/start/dtv2-69all.txt

KOAB OR BEND 11 Authorized to construct and program test
KTVZ OR BEND 18 Authorized to construct and program test
KCBY OR COOS BAY 21 Authorized to construct and program test
KUCW OR COOS BAY 22 On the air
KOAC OR CORVALLIS 39 On the air
KEPB OR EUGENE 29 On the air
KEZI OR EUGENE 44 Authorized to construct and program test
KLSR OR EUGENE 31 Authorized to construct and program test
KMTR OR EUGENE 17 On the air
KVAL OR EUGENE 25 Authorized to construct and program test
KDKF OR KLAMATH 29 On the air
KDKF OR KLAMATH FALLS 29 Application pending for construction and testing
KFTS OR KLAMATH FALLS 33 Authorized to construct and program test
KOTI OR KLAMATH FALLS 40 Begin operation within 2 years
KTVR OR LA GRANDE 05 On the air
KDRV OR MEDFORD 38 On the air
KMVU OR MEDFORD 27 Authorized to construct and program test
KOBI OR MEDFORD 15 Authorized to construct and program test
KSYS OR MEDFORD 42 Authorized to construct and program test
KTVL OR MEDFORD 35 On the air
KFFX OR PENDLETON 08 On the air
KATU OR PORTLAND 43 On the air
KGW OR PORTLAND 46 On the air
KNMT OR PORTLAND 45 Authorized to construct and program test
KOIN OR PORTLAND 40 On the air
KOPB OR PORTLAND 27 Authorized to construct and program test
KPTV OR PORTLAND 30 On the air
KTCW OR ROSEBURG 45 On the air
KTVC OR ROSEBURG 18 Authorized to construct and program test
KPIC OR ROSENBURG 19 Authorized to construct and program test
KORS OR SALEM 16 DT STA
KPXG OR SALEM 04 On the air
KWBP OR SALEM 33 On the air

KWOG WA BELLEVUE 50 Authorized to construct and program test
KWPX WA BELLEVUE 32 On the air
KBCB WA BELLINGHAM 19 On the air
KVOS WA BELLINGHAM 35 Authorized to construct and program test
KCKA WA CENTRALIA 19 On the air
KONG WA EVERETT 31 Authorized to construct and program test
KVEW WA KENNEWICK 44 Authorized to construct and program test
KEPR WA PASCOE 18 Authorized to construct and program test
KQUP WA PULLMAN 24 Application pending for construction and testing
KWSU WA PULLMAN 17 Authorized to construct and program test
KNDU WA RICHLAND 26 Authorized to construct and program test
KTNW WA RICHLAND 38 On the air
KCTS WA SEATTLE 41 On the air
KHCV WA SEATTLE 44 Authorized to construct and program test
KING WA SEATTLE 48 On the air
KIRO WA SEATTLE 39 On the air
KOMO WA SEATTLE 38 On the air
KTWB WA SEATTLE 25 Application pending for construction and testing
KAYU WA SPOKANE 30 On the air
KGPX WA SPOKANE 43 Application pending for construction and testing
KHQ- WA SPOKANE 15 On the air
KREM WA SPOKANE 20 On the air
KSKN WA SPOKANE 36 On the air
KSPS WA SPOKANE 39 Begin operation within 2 years
KXLY WA SPOKANE 13 On the air
KBTC WA TACOMA 27 On the air
KCPQ WA TACOMA 18 On the air
KSTW WA TACOMA 36 On the air
KTBW WA TACOMA 14 Authorized to construct and program test
KWDK WA TACOMA 42 On the air
KPDX WA VANCOUVER 48 On the air
KAZW WA WALLA WALLA 09 Authorized to construct and program test
KAPP WA YAKIMA 14 Authorized to construct and program test
KIMA WA YAKIMA 33 Authorized to construct and program test
KNDO WA YAKIMA 16 Authorized to construct and program test
KYVE WA YAKIMA 21 On the air

I think you'll find KOPB and KNMT are both on the air.

Spring-Summer 1958 Television Factbook
Allocations by States and Cities: VHF & UHF

"These Channel Allocations Include All Changes Promulgated Up to February 1, 1958. Asterisks (*) indicate channels reserved for non-commercial educational use. Plus (+) and Minus (-) symbols designate offset carrier positions of channels."

OREGON
Albany 55+
Ashland 14-
Astoria 30-
Baker 37+
Bend 15-
Brookings 8+
Burns 16
Coos Bay 11
Corvallis *7-, 49-
Eugene *9+, 13, 20+, 26
Grants Pass 30
Klamath Falls 2-, 17
La Grande 13+
Lebanon 43+
McMinnville 46-
Medford 5
North Bend 16+
Pendleton 28
Portland 2, 6+, 8-, *10, 12, 21-, 27+
Roseburg 4+, 28+
Salem 3+, *18-, 24+, 66
Springfield 37-
The Dalles 32

WASHINGTON
Aberdeen 58
Anacortes 34
Bellingham 12+, 18+, 24-
Bremerton 44, 50
Centralia 17
Clarkston 34+, 40+
Ellensburg 49, *65
Ephrata 16-, 43
Everett 22-, 28-
Grand Coulee 37
Hoquiam 52
Kelso 39
Kennewick 31
Kennewick-Richland-Pasco *41
Longview 33
Moses Lake 61
Olympia 60
Omak-Okanogan *35-
Pasco 19-
Port Angeles 16-
Pullman *10-, 24
Richland 25
Seattle 4, 5+, 7, *9, 20, 26+
Spokane 2-, 4-, 6-, *7+
Tacoma 11+, 13-, *56, 62
Walla Walla 5-, 8, *22
Wenatchee *45, 55, 67
Yakima 23+, 29+, *47

Man! I thought you TV buffs would have some fun with the 1957 allocations I posted above. How about that Brookings OR listing with channel 8? That was later moved to Medford. Speaking of Medford, nobody seemed to notice the city only had one channel assigned (Ch 5). Yet channel 10 would begin in 4 years. How about Eugene's channel 9 being non-commercial educational?

The key difference Craig is that the old allocations, similar to the original FM list, and the Docket 80-90 list, is that the government was projecting needs in advance making a lot of erronious population growth estimates in the process.

The DT list is more of a transitional based table, accommodating all existing NTSC licensees with a DT upgrade path.

What I find interesting is that because their are so many NTSC licensees on the UHF band, there aren't enough UHF channels available for everyone to get their DT up and running on that band, so some DT assignments have been made on lower VHF availabilities until such time as those licensees, now occupying two UHF slots (one for their existing NTSC, one for their DT ... like Ch. 49/48 here in town), are required to cease their NTSC broadcast altogether. I would imagine at that point, those DT operations on VHF will move to the new vacancies on UHF so the government can auction off the old VHF band.

Of course, the expense to those stations having to first install a VHF DT system only to have to replace it with a UHF system in a relatively short time (historically TV stations run their transmitters 20+ years, their antennae sometime longer) will be high, I hardly feel sorry for them. They're all a bunch of greedy bastards anyway. If the small players can't afford it, they'll just be assimilated by the Borg like the rest of all small broadcasting interests.

A lot of the high VHF stations will swap their digital frequencies for the current analog ones. For instance, KGW, KOPB and KPTV will move their DTVs to 8, 10 and 12. In some places, stations will retain their low VHF allocations. High VHF seems to work just fine but low VHF, not so well. I'm surprised the FCC is letting them get away with it.

Just a TV tech question? Why was the UHF TV band. To have channel allocations spaced every Six channels. ie in Portland 18 24 30 36 42 48 54...

I don't think there's an actual technical reason for it. You'd think 2 channel separation would be adequate. Someone must have had something in mind however. On second thought, maybe early UHF transmitters were hard to keep within the allotted bandwidth.

"A lot of the high VHF stations will swap their digital frequencies for the current analog ones. For instance, KGW, KOPB and KPTV will move their DTVs to 8, 10 and 12. In some places, stations will retain their low VHF allocations. High VHF seems to work just fine but low VHF, not so well. I'm surprised the FCC is letting them get away with it.

I've heard this, but can't find anything at the FCC site to back it up.
Do you have a link?

"Just a TV tech question? Why was the UHF TV band. To have channel allocations spaced every Six channels. ie in Portland 18 24 30 36 42 48 54..."

If you look at the entire list for other cities in all the states, you won't find that to be true.All the cities I checked at random had mostly spacing that was not consistent with your postulate.

http://www.fcc.gov/oet/dtv/start/dtv2-69all.txt

Remember, proposed and finalized DT allocations have to respect interference considerations to each other
AND existing analog licensees.

What interests me is the ability to have DT first adjacents in the plan. Like LA has 35 and 36, Denver has 15,16,17,18, and 19 ... etc. Apparently with digital modulation only, the spurious stuff that analog suffers from doesn't exist to any significant degree.

Time to do some reading on this.

I wonder if 48 DT here in town has problem with 49 analog interference or vice versa. That would have to found by inspection and I don't have a DT receiver. They certainly wouldn't admit it if you called them. A good experiment for someone getting both 48 DT and 49 NTSC off air.

I kinda like the sound of Rosenburg!

First adjacent digital/analog is common and apparently isn't a problem. Tuning across my analog UHF dial I see no hint of any digital transmissions. The local 28/29 looks okay in analog.

While were on the subject of TV, Does anyone know what Portland TV station was the DuMont affiliate way back when? The 1956 Eugene phone book has an ad for the local cable company (started in '55) and mentions DuMont among the networks available on cable.

I assume one of the other network affiliates had a secondary agreement with DuMont.

It's still up in the air whether Ch. 6 will be cleared for an expanded FM band. Would be nice, I think, and will probably head that way unless bueaucratic glitches and established stations' protective lobbying snowballs into a total snafu.

In a similar vein, to relieve congestion on AM, I am wondering why LW isn't being considered as a replacement location for the now-lost "clears," as aero NDBs are obsolete (though still in use in some outback regions). I did find one proposal from several years back, but nothing since.

It occurred to me that in digital format, a dozen MW stations could serve the nation with full-bandwidth programming and multiplexed, lower-bandwidth localized advertising and news put into digitally stored-and-forwarded slots after being gathered from locals and automatically incorporated into the regional 'cast. The receiver could select their location and thereby receive local content.

This could successfully counter the technically clumsy satellite broadcasting; it's all terrestrial and won't fade out under a tree.

(You saw it here first. Pat. pending. ;)

The MW AM band could then give up on IBOC (the transition is never going to work, better to go digital on a new band) and AM could revert to genuinely local broadcasting.

Randy: KPTV channel 27 was Portland's DuMont affiliate with NBC as the primary network. KPTV at the time was also a CBS & ABC affiliate. This changed on October 15, 1953 when KOIN-TV began operation and took CBS as it's primary. Koin also divided up ABC with KPTV. ABC's Disneyland (Davy Crockett) was on Koin-TV.

Thank you again, Craig. Not much need for a 4th network when most markets only had one or two stations.

I'm guessing what hurt Dumont the most was the freeze on new stations and a lack of a solid radio network to support it in the lean times.

From a TV book:
"one important factor working against DuMont was the fact that the company did not operate a radio network. An established radio network not only provided its competetors with a ready talent pool to draw on, but also gave them a foot in the door when signing up choice affiliates (which were usually associated with network radio stations) in many cities. Another devastating blow was that DuMont, unlike the other three networks, could not own the legal maximum of five television stations. .....
five are ciritcally important because they provided the base of revenues to support the network (for years the networks themselves lost money). They also guarentee that all of the network's programs will be seen in at least five markets. NBC, CBS, and ABC each obtained their quota of five stations early in the game. But because of a series of complicated rulings involving its relationship with Paramount Pictures (which also owned stations), DuMont could not, and thus was denied both revenues and guarenteed program clearences that a full roster of five big market stations could provide."
....
Many cities had just 2 (CBS and NBC) or 3 stations. ABC and DuMont usually had to share time or be part time.

"[DuMont] finally went out of business in 1956."
There were many other problems such as DuMont not being able to pay talent top dollar, and thus losing stars to the other networks.
Dumont was perpetually impoverished .... sets and props were constructed on the smallest possible budget...
"Dumont virtually ceased functioning April 55"

Excerpt from "Les Brown's Encyclopedia of Television" page 164:

"DuMONT TELEVISION NETWORK* a venture into nationwide broadcasting by Allen B. DuMont Laboratories in 1946. It failed in competition with ABC for third-network position and went out of business as the fourth network in 1955."

It then goes on to say later in the history:

"The merger of ABC with United Paramount Theaters in 1951 strengthened its position as the third network, leaving DuMont a weak fourth, making it difficult to justify the cost of transcontinental lines. Although its affiliations were variously reported as between 80 and 178 stations, the DuMont Network was a losing operation, and less than two years after building a $5 Million studio in New York--the largest production center in the industry at the time--DuMont Labs terminated the network and separated itself from the broadcasting division."

It goes on to say:

"DuMont's collapse was a chief reason for a 68% rise in billings for ABC during 1955."

Last program on Dumont network:
August 6 1956 (Monday)
Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena
announcer: Chris Schenkel

Some details on KPTV's loss of ABC: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=59b461f63703c7e733e499b872fbd6db &p=1345609&&#post1345609

He made one mistake. When KGW-TV signed on the air December 15, 1956 it was not an NBC affiliate. KGW-TV & KING-TV were ABC affiliates until April 26, 1959 when King Broadcasting switched it's stations to NBC.

When KGW signed on the air, KPTV continued with NBC and KLOR went independent after losing ABC to KGW-TV.

I don't usually have any problems picking up channel 49 in HD over the air on my HD receiver.

They recently changed their HD format from 1080i to 720p.

This is the big HDTV issue for me. Enjoyment of the program is not a function of resolution.

Good, clear NTSC'ish resolution (720 x 486 full scan) looks damn good. Good enough, in fact.

The change from interlaced to progressive is more than worth the loss in overall resolution, IMHO.

I'll be sticking with solid quality NTSC resolution sets for a while yet.

I hate to break this to you but you've probably got less than 3 years before you have to replace NTSC.

Nope.

I purchase a lot of DVD media with series programming and movies. That's NTSC for a good long time yet.

Traditional broadcasts are moving toward HDTV, but will take time to move that direction.

Converters will map whatever signal I end up getting into a nice NTSC 720 x 486 frame. --trust me, there are way too many TV's out there for anything else to happen.

Finally, if they force it --I'm simply not going to budge that easily. I watch only a few programs per week. I could very easily watch none.

I watch zero broadcast television these days as well. It's all sat and that system will be in place for a very long time yet.

I have serious doubts that the NTSC cut date will "stick". Sure, maybe you won't be able to pull it straight OTA anymore, but I suspect that Comcast and Dish and DTV will not force their huge base of users to convert, and will continue to supply a NTSC compatible signal.

The deadline to end analog TV broadcasting has been pushed out several times. However, there are several quite moves that have taken place that will certainly ease and speed up the shut down process: As of March of 2006 all televisions 25” and above sold in the country must include a DTV tuner. As of March of 2007 all VCR’s or DVD-Recorders must include a DTV tuner.

What this means to the stubborn consumer: Hope your old NTSC television doesn’t break down, or guess what, you’re buying an HDTV or a least a SDTV…either way it’s digital.

Just try to buy a new 27” Analog TV today…the FCC mandate, made it illegal for manufactures to sell 25” or larger analog sets in this country. If you do find one at retail, its old inventory that was purchased by the retailer prior to March 2006.

" have serious doubts that the NTSC cut date will "stick".

It will. The government is already drooling over the bucks auctioning off VHF airspace to emerging technology interests will provide.

"Sure, maybe you won't be able to pull it straight OTA anymore, but I suspect that Comcast and Dish and DTV will not force their huge base of users to convert, and will continue to supply a NTSC compatible signal."

What the cable industry will do is force everyone to have a digital set top box which will provide NTSC outputs if you want them. They might even charge more for said boxes with downconverter capabilities as an extra incentive to go out and buy a DTV. The cable company wants to be able to reclaim and reassign VHF bandwidth just like the government. There's no way they are going to continue to use up so much spectrum for analog NTSC cablecasting once this all happens.

When it's finally cheap enough to make the lack of added value a significant worry, I'll switch then.

Bottom line is that I really am not worried about any pressure.

I'm not opposed to the new DTV, I just am not seeing enough value to be an early adopter, that's all.

The NTSC spectrum will go away, long before anyone who does not want to upgrade will be forced to.

The last figures I have are that 41% of sets sold are digital as compared to 25% the previous year. I don't think it's still possible to be an early adaptor!

Yep, we are well into the early majority now.

Normally, I'm all for new tech, but digital has left a bad taste in my mouth.

We spend more on fighting over Digital Restriction Management and on the assumption that better overall quality means more value. It's really turned out to be a bummer all things considered.

I'm pretty much not on board with anything that's not open enough I can build one on my own. HD Radio & DTV fall into this catagory. The sets being sold now are increasingly encumbered with restrictive DRM systems that simply get in the way of me enjoying my content. That's a real biggie.

Digital music hit early enough for open systems to evolve. If one looks, they can obtain anything they want in an open format that will absolutely play on any reasonable piece of hardware made after the early 90's. NTSC is the same way.

That's why we may be having to buy replacement digital sets, but they will be displaying NTSC for an awful lot of people for a very long time.

In fact, they are getting quite good at scaling this content with increasingly good results. The same tech, used for expensive lock down tech, also helps to improve the display of open tech.

So, amazingly to me, I'm a luddite these days. I like simple cell phones that make and receive phone calls, simple television, radio and computing gear. Bells and whistles are just not worth the hassles and shackles that come along for the ride.

Are any converter boxes (Antenna input, Channel 3 NTSC output) for sale to general public now at a reasonable price? I am talking about at places like Fredmeyer, Sears, wallmart, etc. where the masses shop, rather than some specialty video place. A high percent of people would wait till last minute or beyond to purchase something they don't think they need.

I would have serious doubts that 2009 date will stick. Nobody can stamp out 50 or 100 million reasonably low cost converter boxes (and then close down the factories) mixed with similar number of new digital tv's in a short time frame, assuming they have not really started yet. Same problem for cable settop boxes. Even if you have the factories ready (in China probably) that can assemble that many, you still have components (IC's, capacitors, power supplies, coax jumper cables, etc) and possible raw material issues.

Why wouldn't they do it a couple cities at a time, spreading the "conversion" over like 5-10 years? That way you don't have the huge "manufacturing" bubble.

Is there a "test market" to try out this analog shutdown with an earlier analog switch off date.
Thay way they could find out what "problems" would pop up when masses of people loose their tv service. Who they gonna call?

Is the "spectrum auction" going to be city by city, or the whole nation at same time?

Most people would probably want a "remote" for the converter box. That might need to be a "must have" feature. Who wants to get up from the couch to change the channel? You will need to set up factorys to make tens of millions of remotes. Also batteries for the remotes.

1999 to 2009 IS 10 years!

I suggest to start the 10 year clock at the point the first city turns OFF the analog.

I believe all the analog transmitters will be turned off simultaneously or thereabouts.

When analog TV goes away, I won't lose any sleep over it.

Why I'm pretty much going to stick with NTSC:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193005696

Shackles and Hassles: Arrgh!

The only reason we don't have a solid deadline right now is because the ruling was attached to another congressional bill that was pulled. It had nothing to do with HDTV; it was just a rider on an existing bill. I'm sure they'll just find another bill.

What should have been done a while back:

The FCC should have mandated that EVERY TV manufactured would have to include a ATSC tuner, even if not HD.

Last I heard, the Broadcast flag had been shot down, and I'm hoping it remains that way.

The broadcast flag has been shot down three times now. (at least)

It will come up again and again, until we see some pro-citizen legislation in this area.

Give it about 8 months, and it will be tacked onto some politicized bill again.

There is a supportable arguement for people wanting higher resolution television. Nobody wants all the restrictive interfaces and complex standards however. That's where all the problems lie.

When will the tv stations stop refering to themselves by the analog channel #?
i.e. "Channel 2 News", "Northwest Newschannel 8", etc.

OK...I have not noticed this question yet...or I could have missed it. What about people using Satellite (directv/dish) Will station send thier HD signals to Satellite so people can still watch or will we still need to update our tv's ?

Where can one buy a low cost "DTV converter box" locally? (Antenna input, NTSC output)

Channels 8, 10 and 12 will return to those locations but it looks like 2, 6, 32 and 49 have some promotional work to do. I don't think there will be a low cost DTV coverter box until it's necessary and only if the government subsidizes it.

"When will the tv stations stop refering to themselves by the analog channel #?
i.e. "Channel 2 News", "Northwest Newschannel 8", etc."

Most of their viewers are currently watching those standard definition channels. That is still their identity. No reason to change. They will change when most of their viewers are on the digital channels and/or their signal disappears from those old channels

A much bigger question needs to be answered. When will KWJJ stop calling themselves the "New Wolf". How many years does it take to no longer be new?

2 years

Although not exactly "low cost", there are some "off the air" ATSC digital tuner boxes available that are in the $200 range, from Samsung and Humax. These come with remote control, and provide output to a standard NTSC TV as well as a variety of outputs for High Definition units.

I have not had "hands on" a Samsung unit, but the Humax does the following: once it goes through a "search" to find the digital channels, there is nothing on screen to indicate the *actual* off the air channel. For KATU for example, it just indicates "2-1 KATU-DT 720P" even though the source is ch 43. If most boxes/sets work this way, I would think that there would be little or no need to "re-educate" the public as to the actual channel. Why mess with the "brand" ?

"I would think that there would be little or no need to "re-educate" the public as to the actual channel. Why mess with the "brand" ?"

Actually, the TV industry has embarassed itself many times as the nature of their product has changed. Whether it be the change to color picture, stereo audio, close captioning, etc. They have a misguided opinion of the public at large having an I.Q. equivalent to the mentality of their local news programming, so they feel they have to keep everything complicated out of their marketing, i.e. rather than rallying behind new changes in technology, they downplay and/or avoid covering it unless one of their competitors does.

The consumer electronics industry on the other hand has a much more accurate picture of the consumer. The manufacturers of receiving equipment have always been the ones to engage the public on new technology as soon as possible, with high initial prices to appeal to early adopters, sometimes before the technology is really finalized. Consumer electronics is the real driving force, not television. Heck, the TV industry, especially in America, were late to the computer revolution, misguided in their adoption of networking, late to the explosion of the internet ... this isn't just fantasy, I was screaming for a LAN at KATU years before they started to build one ... I told them digital video, at that time confined to two small in house one user systems, was indeed the future. Their phobias and insecurities ruled them. What yutzes.

Channels 8, 10 and 12 will return to those locations. Right away after the analog switch off? or farther into the future?

Asked earlier in the thread ...

I can't find anything on file to support this rumor.

Go here:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?state=OR&call=&arn=&city=Portland&chan=&cha2=69&s erv=&type=0&facid=&list=0&dist=&dlat2=&mlat2=&slat2=&dlon2=&mlon2=&slon2=&size=9

Scroll down to KGW, etc.

Click on "Application List"

Click on recent/all DT applications

Nothing that supports an app that has been tendered, accepted, or granted for such a move of their DT freq.

Here is where I read about the DTV channel plan after analog sunset:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/printthread.php?t=168423&pp=60

What might be some of the emerging technologies that want VHF spectrum? It would seem to me that at least for portable electronic devices, UHF spectrum would be more valuable because the smaller wavelengths mean devices with smaller antennas. Actually, the upper part of the existing UHF dial is getting carved up and reassigned. Qualcomm, for instance bought a nationwide license for the spectrum used by channel 55.

Why was the digital transition forced? That is, why force stations to broadcast a DTV signal, thereby automatically doubling the number of stations on the air and then claim that spectrum was freed when the analog stations are shut down? Why didn't the FCC do this transition like expanded band AM? That is, let stations take out licenses for a digital station but after some fixed period (like 5 or 7 years), both the analog and digital licenses expire and only one can be renewed.

I'm against DTV primarily because the shows that I like to watch (news programs, documentaries, and some adult cartoons like The Simpsons) aren't going to improve much if they are broadcast digitally. I might be for DTV if the multicasting capabilities of this system were used to broadcast non-premium, advertising sponsored cable networks like CNN, Comedy Central, or USA over the air. Of course, I don't think that this will ever happen. Instead, I think that the quality of the existing programs on over-the-air TV will further degrade as the networks and affiliate stations pull money used for the production of these shows and divert it to production of programming for the multicast channels.

If a company buys VHF spectrum, they can "invent" an application that sounds good to investors, then perhaps build a few prototypes (that don't need to actually work in weak signal conditions), watch the stock price go up, then sell their stock and move to Florida.

I finally found something at

http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/

about this.

It's called "tentative channel designations"

Note, that as I indicated in my previous post, there are no applications on file for these ultimate moves.

If you've ever really dealt with the FCC, and I have, you'd better understand why I feel it's no done deal.

It's part of/a result of/ the continuing review of the digital transition. My guess is that a lot can happen before any of this
becomes reality, including Congressional action mandating that channels 2-6,7 and 8-13 be sold/auctioned to some yet unnamed interest backed by a lobby bigger than the NAB. This might even include moving the whole FM band somewhere else, so the distance from Ch 2 through 13 would be continuously available.

The government missed the boat years ago when other countries moved their digital FM to high L Band (1.5 GHz) because the military in this country uses it.

If the military wants 2-13 or any part thereof, for some new weapons system for defense of the homeland, all these plans
for "after analog ends" i.e. reoccupying VHF with DTV won't ever materialize.

A lot can happen in 3 years.

It's about money and lobbies, not anything else.

I searched for the phrase "I can't find anything on file to support this rumor." and found nothing! With that in mind, I'm going to guess that they were referring to the FCC finalization plans for DTV allotments. It looks like a "give and take" situation where stations go through a few drafts until the final draft is made. I was thinking the number was 3 but am not sure. This is all easily obtainable on the FCC site and is definitely not a rumor! Generally, stations can opt to continue with their current DTV allotment or move back to the old analog channel when the digital conversion process is completed. There are exceptions however. Instead of staying on channel 48 or moving back to 49, KPDX plans to move to channel 30, which is KPTV's current DTV channel.

According to an ABC report (perhaps it was on Nightline?), some of the spectrum currently used for analog TV is supposed to go to some kind of nationwide Homeland Security service. They weren't specific as to what part of the spectrum this is. I was surprised that they would report this at all, as I am sure that some of their own affiliates broadcast on these frequencies.

In my written histories I don't usually mention when staff members leave stations. Plus this information (just found) is about Radio/TV. Thought this would be a good thread the post on.
_______________________________________________________________

The Oregon Journal - July 1, 1953 - B. Mike column:

Starting work on KPTV's staff July 13 will be Gene Brendler, who has been a voice on KXL for two or three years. One of the best announcers in town, got his radio start announcing for the American Forces network in Berlin during the war. (Gene Brendler, pictured)

American Forces Radio in Berlin would have been a fairly dangerous assignment DURING the war!