Some digital TV users can't tune into WRGB Ch. 6

[MasterFX1]

By CHRIS CHURCHILL, Business writer, timesunion.com
First published: Friday, June 19, 2009

Phil Zeller Jr. was prepared. He owned a digital TV and had attached a converter box to a second set. So last Friday, on the night of the long-anticipated switch to digital-only broadcasting, he relaxed in front of the TV in his Albany apartment, confident he wouldn't be affected. And then ... poof!

The screen went blank. The Late Show with David Letterman disappeared. WRGB Ch. 6 was gone.

A week later, it's still missing -- making Zeller one of the many Capital Region viewers who can't watch the CBS affiliate out of Niskayuna. "I didn't realize how much I watched Ch. 6 until I didn't have it," he said Thursday. "All of a sudden, there's a void."

WRGB is very aware of the problem. Thirteen hundred phone calls will do that for a station. It's looking for solutions.

"The bottom line is that every viewer is important to us, and we've got to solve this," said Robert Furlong, general manager at WRGB. "I want everybody to be able to watch us. That's our goal."

There are several causes for the station's problems. First, WRGB's signal strength dropped from 100,000 watts for the old analog signal to 10,000 watts for the digital signal, on Federal Communications Commission orders.

Then, there's the unpleasant fact that some converter-box and antenna manufacturers assumed no station would broadcast digitally on Ch. 6, which is low on the frequency band and particularly vulnerable to interference.

Those manufacturers, of course, were wrong -- and Ch. 6 stations across the country have disappeared from TV screens.

Furlong stressed that WRGB's problem affects a limited number of viewers. About 90 percent of Capital Region households subscribe to cable or satellite services, and so weren't affected by the conversion mandated by Congress.

About 50,000 households rely on over-the-air broadcasting (although many more have a second television that's not attached to cable). Furlong estimated that 1,000 to 1,500 households can no longer receive his station, and those folks are scattered across the region.

WRGB is not the only local broadcaster with new reception difficulties. Most Capital Region TV outlets have switched to a new shared digital transmitter in the Helderbergs, making reception difficult in northern areas of the Capital Region.

"There are some pockets where people can't get us," said Steve Baboulis, general manager at WNYT Ch. 13, which received about 700 phone calls after it shuttered its analog signal. "It's all about topography. The valleys and the hills are playing a part in this."

There are other complications: Jim and Lamarian Lesperance, Schodack residents, have cable but bought converter boxes for analog TVs in their kitchen and bedroom. Neither, though, had the input socket needed to connect the converter, rendering them useless after last Friday's switch.

Jim Lesperance said he'll try to sell the sets at his next garage sale.

Other viewers are finding that indoor antenna won't get them a signal, forcing them to install one outdoors. Viewers with aluminum-sided homes have troubles, too.

Some viewers are confused by the fact that they could receive WRGB's digital signal before Friday, but no longer can. The answer: The station had been broadcasting digitally on Ch. 39, but switched to Ch. 6 when it ended analog broadcasting on Friday night. (Most TVs automatically moved the Ch. 39 signal to Ch. 6, so viewers wouldn't have noticed the change.)

Some digital tuners and converter boxes still may be trying to pick up WRGB at the old digital location. For that reason, the FCC recommends that viewers with reception problems try a "double rescan" that involves unplugging the antenna, re-scanning, turning off the converter box or TV, turning it back on, plugging in the antenna and re-scanning again.

That process should reset the tuner's memory.

Furlong said WRGB is also hearing from viewers upset that the station's audio is no longer available on the radio, at 87.7 FM. The station eliminated the service because engineers believed the radio signal was contributing to the TV problems. The radio signal eventually will return, Furlong said. But only after WRGB has improved its television reception.

To that end, WRGB is asking the FCC for permission to strengthen its signal, among other measures. But Furlong warns that a fix for the station's signal problems won't come quickly.

That's bad news for viewers like Zeller, who said he's considering giving up on over-the-air broadcasting altogether. He said he might get cable.

Chris Churchill can be reached at 454-5442 or by e-mail at [e-mail].

[MasterFX1]

Daily Gazette article
Friday, June 19, 2009
www.dailygazette.com/
By Jeff Wilkin

Some viewers not getting digital TV signal


From his Saratoga County home, Dennis Ulery on Thursday demonstrates how, when he switches to CBS 6, his television will only display a "Channel Not Available" readout. Other channels work fine on his two sets since the switch from analog to digital TV transmissions.
CAPITAL REGION — Niskayuna television station WRGB has faded to black for Dennis Ulery of Ballston Spa.

When the local CBS affiliate switched off its analog broadcast system last Friday — joining stations across the country that now transmit only digital programming — Ulery discovered he no longer receives shows and news from CBS 6.

“I’ve never been a cable subscriber, but I’m weighing the option now,” said Ulery, a former mechanical engineer at the General Electric Co. “I feel that Channel 6 has kind of let us down. Either I’m alone, or other people are experiencing the same thing.”

Ulery is not alone. Since television made the much-heralded switch from analog to digital-only broadcasts on June 12, hundreds of people who receive their news and entertainment through over-the-air systems have called local stations with gripes and questions. Some people have complained about zero reception.

“I can’t pick up a signal for anything,” said Ron Schaffer of Lake Pleasant, Hamilton County. “I know what it is — the digital signal doesn’t go as far as the analog did.”

Schaffer, a retired civil engineer for the state Department of Transportation, said television has ended for him.

“It cuts me out of TV programming,” he said. “You’d think the advertisers would be upset about this also. There’s a segment of viewers that aren’t getting their commercials.”

Fred Lass, director of engineering at WRGB, said his station has received more than 500 calls. He said the engineering staff has been able to help the majority of people. Part of the problem is equipment. “We’re finding there are some brands of converter boxes that don’t work as well as they’re supposed to. They’re finding this across the country,” Lass said.

At Albany’s WTEN, engineers have also been asked about converter boxes. Mike Sechrist, general manager at News 10, has advised people to “re-scan” for digital channels.

“The [converter] box hunts for signals,” he said. “You run your antenna into the box and the cables from your box into the TV. When you turn it on, what it will do is — and a digital TV will do this by itself — it just looks for signals.”

A strong signal is marked and remembered. When the box has finished scanning, it presents the total number of channels it has found.

“Digital, unlike analog, does not come in poorly,” Sechrist said. “Either it comes in or it doesn’t come in at all.”

ANTENNAS AN ISSUE

Antennas have also been involved in questions, and answers. Some solutions that have worked for some people may not work for others.

“A lot of people have bought new high-definition antennas that may not necessarily work on Channel 6,” Lass said. “I can’t tell you how many people we’ve told to find their old antennas, connect them back up and then it works. The new antennas don’t work as well as the old antennas.”

Antennas might also have to be re-positioned.

“Part of the issue is letting them know that if they are missing us, it’s probably because their antennas are still pointing in the direction they used to point for Channel 13 when we were transmitting northeast of Troy,” said Rich Klein, director of engineering at WNYT, NewsChannel 13. “Since we’re now transmitting from southwest of Albany on the Helderberg escarpment, in some cases their antennas are not pointing properly.”

Distance and station power levels are other issues. Some people — like Schaffer — believe their homes are too far away from the greater Capital Region to receive digital signals.
“The bulk of our calls have been people who have been in the real fringe areas,” Sechrist said. “They’re 60, 70 miles out. Or there are geographical reasons. They’re in a valley, or there’s something in front of the home that’s blocking the signal.

“Somebody could be 40 miles away and be having all sorts of problems receiving us, and somebody could be 60 miles away and get us clear as a bell,” Sechrist added. “A lot of it is just the geography. Just because they were getting us on analog with an outdoor antenna didn’t mean they were going to get our digital signal. A lot of these analog antennas were made for analog, especially the older ones. They weren’t made for digital.”

Klein said his station may try to solve some reception problems with additional transmitters.
“I’m looking at adding some additional transmission stations up toward the northern area, toward the Saratoga-Glens Falls area where we traditionally had a better signal when we were broadcasting from Troy,” he said. “We’re also looking at ways to use our old analog site to re-transmit our programming from that site as well to help fill in those areas that traditionally have been able to receive us without any antennas, so they’ll be able to do that.”

FCC OK NEEDED

Work to add more booster stations and increasing station power levels will proceed only with approval from the Federal Communications Commission. Klein said he talked with a commission attorney this week, “And I got the impression that the FCC was going to be very flexible and helpful to broadcasters who may need to increase power somewhat and may also need additional transmitters.”

Schaffer has taken WRGB’s advice to solve his reception problem, but re-scanning and antenna-pointing have not worked. He’s more annoyed with politicians than he is with TV engineers.

“I think Congress sold us down the tubes,” Schaffer said, aware that a large portion of the radio spectrum formerly used for analog transmission can now be auctioned off by the government. “They listened to the lobbyists.”