FCC Please stop!

[jras20]

Please stop this translators!  Now I see K203CC has a CP to move to 88.3 if that happens, I will also no longer be able to get KPAC, I would think that would have a impact on that station.  I have a hard enough time trying to get to Jack with K274BB.  And now on top I cant get KTXX any more.  This has got to stop!  FM is turning more and more like AM nighttime now.  to many little low power stations comming in the commercial stations will almost have no use to me any more!

[captex]

i don't know why they put low power stations next to normal power stations like they doing, i wonder if they remember the frequencies of the close by stations and this station is license in lockhart, isn't there another in gonzalez license to 101.3 .

[jras20]

They finally got that station.

[daypart]

The increasing congestion of the FM band is setting up a beautiful case for an eventual migration to digital. I can hear the argument in my head already.

"Why are we allowing these inefficient analog signals to continue to congest the airwaves? We need to get everyone moved over to efficient digital signals, so we can turn off the sloppy analog signals and tighten the bandwidth of each channel."

 

[jd]

jras, I feel your pain.  But the FCC isn't going to stop.  What's happening around Austin and San Antonio is happening all around the country.  The FCC will continue to allow translators to be licensed in virtually any place they can be "shoehorned" in.   

When Docket 80-90 was being discussed about twenty-five years ago many broadcasters complained that allowing so many new stations would result in the "AM-ization" of the FM band.  Well, it happened.  But as bad as the crowding of the dial became after the FCC issued its revised table of allocations, things would only get worse with the "Great Translator Invasion."  During the translator filing window in March, 2003 the FCC received more than 13,000 applications for new stations.  As you know, the vast majority of those came from large religious broadcasters.  With so many of the applications being "mutually exclusive" the FCC had to find ways to whittle the list down.  But even if some applicants were disqualified for various reasons and others withdrew a huge backlog remained.  The process of sifting through all the translator applications is still going on, despite the fact that we've seen many new stations signing on in recent months.

There's another issue here.  It's about programming diversity on a local level, and the FCC dropped the ball on that one, too.  Literally thousands of potential low power broadcasters (LPFM's) basically lost the fight before it began, since many of the large religious broadcasters applied for LPFM channels.  Despite what the rules say, a great number of LPFM's essentially carry no locally originated programming.  It would have been good if the FCC had given priority to locally owned and locally originated LPFM's, but without anything miraculous like congressional action, that's not going to happen. 

[jras20]

The increasing congestion of the FM band is setting up a beautiful case for an eventual migration to digital. I can hear the argument in my head already.

"Why are we allowing these inefficient analog signals to continue to congest the airwaves? We need to get everyone moved over to efficient digital signals, so we can turn off the sloppy analog signals and tighten the bandwidth of each channel."

 

I dont think analog radio will ever die.

[julesism]

well said jd! I agree with your views on LPFM and how it has went straight down the crapper.

I wish I could agree with you jras, but sadly I think analog's days are numbered... just like analog TV :/

[jras20]

Unless I get a decoder HDTV box for free I'm just going to let my analog TV die with analog TV.  I just dont believe FM/AM will go away in my lifetime at least.  100 years from now maybe?

[Mediafrog+]

I just dont believe FM/AM will go away in my lifetime at least.  100 years from now maybe?

I'm thinking that the year 2030 might be a soft target date for a transition to all digital broadcasts, at least on what is now the FM band.  Analog FM is a spectrum hog.  You could have much more diversity of programming with digital, and since it would be pure digital, with appropriate power levels, the current signal issues with IBOC would be eliminated.

Of course, it is always possible that advancements in mobile internet technology--that is as portable as current radios--could make the traditional broadcast model from a central transmitter--obsolete.

I think the medium-wave band (AM) is probably going to be toast, regardless of any digital technology.  Nighttime skywave issues, the limitations of digital at such low frequencies, plus the often sizeable transmission facilities (in an era of urban sprawl) are going to work against it.  Other platforms will make more sense from a business and programming perspective.
 

[jras20]

Well back to the subject, if they do aprove this CP which probably will.  Why dont they then just move KLTO to 98.1 and put it to the tower of the americas?  I dont see any problem with that if they dont see any problem with the low powered translator in Lockhart over KPAC.
sorry just pissed about the hole thing