Changes in DFW's LPTV market

[Bob E. Nelson]

Also on the LPTV front in the Dallas-Ft. Worth market comes a filing (BLSTA-20120127ACQ) from KNAV (assigned RF-22):

STATION KNAV-LP FACILITY ID 47898 HAS SHUT DOWN SO APPLICANT CAN BEGIN THE PROCESS OF CONVERTING TO DIGITAL OPERATIONS.

The last time their analog was on was November 18, 2009.

[JHBrandt]

Also on the LPTV front in the Dallas-Ft. Worth market comes a filing (BLSTA-20120127ACQ) from KNAV (assigned RF-22):

STATION KNAV-LP FACILITY ID 47898 HAS SHUT DOWN SO APPLICANT CAN BEGIN THE PROCESS OF CONVERTING TO DIGITAL OPERATIONS.

The last time their analog was on was November 18, 2009.

And they've had their current CP since last June (and that was a modification of an earlier CP)! They certainly are taking their time beginning "the process of converting to digital operations!"

[JHBrandt]

First time they specified a stringent mask filter, this time a full service mask filter.

- Trip

Totally missed that. My bad.

BTW, who comes up with these names? "Stringent" vs. "Full Service?" How's anyone supposed to tell which is "better?" How about something like "Standard" vs. "Enhanced?"

[tripinva]

The way I understand it, the original intent was that LPs would use either "Simple" or "Stringent" filters, while full-service stations had an entirely different filter that LPs would never use.  In the last R&O, the one that set the LPTV conversion deadline for 2015, the FCC began allowing LPs to use the same filter full-service stations have been required to use since the beginning.  The sharper full-service filter allows for LPs to squeeze into adjacent-channel situations where they previously could not.

- Trip

[TheRover]

KPFW/18 and KJJM/34 have been off the air for a couple of days. This may be jumping the gun, but both programs on KPFW were on KWDA also, and KJJM was down to infomercials and color bars, so nobody's missing anything.

From a channel scan today:

KPFW - LD
18.1 -- same as 30.6
18.2 -- same as 30.1
18.3 -- same as 18.1
18.4 -- Color bars

KJJM - LD
34.1 Green Screen
34.3 Black screen
34.4 (labeled My DBR) -- Black Screen

31.1 SonLife
31.3 K31GL - D -- HOT TV
31.4 K31GL - D -- RTV
31.5 K31GL - D -- Informercials

KWDA - LD
30.1 -- same as 18.2
30.2 -- Vida Vision
30.3 -- Spanish Music Performances
30.4 -- Scenic picture-scapes
30.5 -- Vision Celestial
30.6 -- same as 18.1
30.7 -- Spanish Radio Simulcast ? ?
30.8 -- Blank
30.9 -- Blank

[JHBrandt]

The immigration law firm that buys time on 29.2 has been branching out lately. I've seen their ads on 28.2 (replacing color bars) and 55.3 (replacing Biz TV, which moved to 55.6). They don't appear to be simulcasts: they look like the same ads but aren't in sync between different channels.

[JHBrandt]

KQFW has, for the second time, applied to displace to RF 24. They are actually licensed on RF 56 but AFAIK they're not broadcasting....

Their previous RF 24 application was rejected by the FCC, citing excessive interference with K25FW. But I didn't see any changes in this application. The interference report they filed looked exactly the same. It appears to meet FCC regulations, showing interference with only 0.4% of K25FW's potential viewers. But the FCC did their own analysis and came to a different conclusion last time.

BTW, a bit of trivia: D/FW now has 7 consecutive virtual channel numbers: 25 (K25FW), 26 (KODF), 27 (KDFI), 28 (KHPK), 29 (KMPX), 30 (KWDA), and 31 (K31GL). If this goes through, it will add 23 (KUVN) and presumably 24 (KQFW) for a total of 9 in a row. And then if KNAV goes online, that'd add 20 (KBOP), 21 (KTXA), and 22 (KNAV) for a total of 12 in a row! I wonder what the national record is?

Yesterday the FCC gave KQFW their CP for RF 24. (They never got on the air on RF 56 before out-of-core channels had to shut down.)

And now LMO Christian wants to modify their CP yet again and broadcast from downtown Dallas vs. Garland.

I'm starting to think they just want to offload 30.5 through 30.8 to another RF channel so they can solve their bandwidth issues on KWDA.

[K5ING]

Is anyone having trouble with Ch. 31 lately?  I did a rescan yesterday and lost it all together on my main digital television.  My other two, using converters, still showed it until I tried to do a rescan of one of them.  That one now only shows 31.1 with a "no service" message. 

The converter I left alone still has 31.4 (RTV) and will show a signal on 31.3, but says "no service".  Signal strength is fairly good at around 70-73%.  I usually don't have issues unless it falls below 60%.

After several hours of messing with it last night, I thought I'd check and see if anyone else was having problems with it too before pulling any more of my hair out. 

[JHBrandt]

Is anyone having trouble with Ch. 31 lately?  I did a rescan yesterday and lost it all together on my main digital television.  My other two, using converters, still showed it until I tried to do a rescan of one of them.  That one now only shows 31.1 with a "no service" message. 

The converter I left alone still has 31.4 (RTV) and will show a signal on 31.3, but says "no service".  Signal strength is fairly good at around 70-73%.  I usually don't have issues unless it falls below 60%.

After several hours of messing with it last night, I thought I'd check and see if anyone else was having problems with it too before pulling any more of my hair out.

It was completely off the air briefly last night. It looked like everything was back on as I went to bed, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of the subchannels were off even after they returned to the air. Hopefully everything is back to normal today.

[K5ING]

It's back to normal starting around noon today.  For awhile, 31.3 was showing "no service", then around 11:30am, I was getting HOT TV on 31.3 and 31.4 just had a black screen and a slight buzz.  Around noon, everything came back and all my TVs scans worked.