One World Trade Center To Get Transmission Tower

[Mark]

The owners of One World Trade Center are planning to install a broadcast antenna in the 1776-foot building's spire in a bid to lure some of the more than two dozen television and radio stations currently broadcasting from the Empire State Building.

The move—reviving an earlier broadcast plan that was dropped out of financial concerns—would inject some competition into the skies for the Empire State Building, which since the collapse of the original World Trade Center towers in 2001 has been the go-to broadcast site in the city.

Full Story at WSJ

What do you think? Will any TV stations bite and move over to One WTC?

[Peter Q. George (K1XRB)]

The owners of One World Trade Center are planning to install a broadcast antenna in the 1776-foot building's spire in a bid to lure some of the more than two dozen television and radio stations currently broadcasting from the Empire State Building.

The move—reviving an earlier broadcast plan that was dropped out of financial concerns—would inject some competition into the skies for the Empire State Building, which since the collapse of the original World Trade Center towers in 2001 has been the go-to broadcast site in the city.

Full Story at WSJ

What do you think? Will any TV stations bite and move over to One WTC?

If for some reason the TV stations DO decide to go to the new One WTC tower, I'd recommend keeping the Empire State Building facility intact.  It's always nice to have a "warm standby" facility ready in case of any technical glitches were to occur.  The ESB is centrally located and covers the five boroughs, NJ and CT like a glove.  Just a thought.

[ansky212]

Is 4 Times Square still being used as a backup to the ESB radio stations?

[TimeIsTight]

If for some reason the TV stations DO decide to go to the new One WTC tower, I'd recommend keeping the Empire State Building facility intact.

A transmitter engineering executive from one of the BIG NYC TV stations, has told me that moving the transmitters again just makes no economic sense.  So few viewers now actually take the over-the-air signal, that it is hardly worth thinking about.

The TV stations all have fairly new plants installed on the ESB because of both the switch to digital and building new after 9-11, and they have no real reason to want to move again.

As I said in a radio thread, the one wild card is the planned new skyscraper to be built near the ESB which "could" cause problems, but there were signal problems from the old WTC site too.  And that new building has been put on hold by the recession, and it may be years before they even break ground.

[badjef]

If for some reason the TV stations DO decide to go to the new One WTC tower, I'd recommend keeping the Empire State Building facility intact.

A transmitter engineering executive from one of the BIG NYC TV stations, has told me that moving the transmitters again just makes no economic sense.  So few viewers now actually take the over-the-air signal, that it is hardly worth thinking about.

The TV stations all have fairly new plants installed on the ESB because of both the switch to digital and building new after 9-11, and they have no real reason to want to move again.

As I said in a radio thread, the one wild card is the planned new skyscraper to be built near the ESB which "could" cause problems, but there were signal problems from the old WTC site too.  And that new building has been put on hold by the recession, and it may be years before they even break ground.

OTA is a zombie. It will not see the light of day once that tower at Penn Plaza is built to a height that would have mattered in the good ol' analogue days.

The building height will still be lower than where the mast starts, anyway.

Multipath in analogue, shows up as a blank screen in digital. In analogue, multipath still had a picture. In the digital world, we threw the baby out with the bath water.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

[reelyreal]

Is 4 Times Square still being used as a backup to the ESB radio stations?

It's an auxiliary for both FM and TV.

There are aux TV transmitters for:

WABC-TV
WXTV
WFUT
WNYE-TV

There are aux FM transmitters for all five Clear Channel FM's, both SBS FM's, WKCR, WNYE-FM, WNYC-FM, and WQXR.

[Scott Fybush]

4TS is the main transmitter site (not aux) for WBGO, WKCR, WNYE-FM, WNYE-TV and WFUT.

[Bob1370]

Don't know if the NYC/tri-state area is typical, but throughout the US about 25% of viewing is still OTA. Given the decline in cable penetration, and the fact that satellite use is limited by resistance from landlords in many apartment buildings as well as many condo rules, OTA viewing  probably won't decline further. That means something like 80 million viewers across the country still pick up TV by antenna. That's enough of a user base to keep most broadcast signals on the air indefinitely.

[stationless listener]

Q. Now you’re involved in the leasing of One World Trade Center. Any more news on the tenant front?

A. The General Services Administration was just signed, so now we’re more than halfway rented.

We just recently signed with the Port Authority that the Dursts will be operating a broadcast facility on top of One World Trade Center, similar to what we have at Four Times Square, which will serve as a backup.

Q. Have any broadcasters expressed an interest?

A. We’ll be starting to market it in the fall. We would be looking for all of the television broadcasters who still have digital blast for a portion of their work, all of the radio stations — we have many radio stations and a few television stations at Four Times Square, where we built that antenna after 9/11. Now we’re looking to bring all those broadcasters back to One World Trade Center.

We’re going to design this facility with their cooperation, instead of them coming into a retrofit situation. So probably in September we’ll have our first meeting and it will be with all of the networks, all of the local stations. Everybody who’s blasting digital. It’ll probably take $30 million to $40 million of capital.

Q. Will you be marketing to cellphone providers as well?

A. That would be the second group.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/realestate/commercial/the-30-minute-interview-gary-m-rosenberg.html?_r=2&sq=Gary%20M.%20Rosenberg&st=Search&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1345811149-59FJq5oeHJJI9dqFMf01Gw