Wisconsin Public TV and HDTV

[John L]

The following appeared in today's (10/20) Wisconsin State Journal,  Madison's
morning newspaper:
 
PUBLIC-TELEVISION HD BROADCASTS ON HOLD
State Journal Staff
 
Wisconsin Public Television has stopped broadcasting HDTV, or high  
definition television, rather than pay a $60,000 fee imposed by the Public  
Broadcasting Service.
 
"It was suspended Sept. 30. Up until then, PBS was providing a  
high-definition feed for no fee. It didn't cost us anything," said Michael  Bridgeman,
director of promotion and design for Wisconsin Public  Television.
 
"Effective Oct. 1, they've started charging a ($60,000 annual) fee for thi  
high-definition feed," he said. "We're not yet capable of producing our own,  
high-definition broadcast. We will build our operations center to originate our
 own high-definition or other digital broadcasts. It will happen in the first
 part of 2006."
 
New digital signal technology replacing the current analog standard allows  
stations to broadcast programs with much greater clarity and higher
resolution--  HDTV. [end of article]
 
     

The OTA channels of Wisconsin Public Television  are: WHA Madison analog
21/digital 20, WPNE Green  Bay 38/42, WHRM Wausau 20/24, WLEF Park Falls 36/47,
WHLA La Crosse  31/30, WHWC-TV, Menomonie 28/27. An item on the WPT website
_www.wpt.org_ (http://www.wpt.org) , confirms this situation: "WPR's license for  
the PBS high definition feed has expired so we are no longer able to offer  
this service. A new operations center is being installed that will allow  us to
originate HD programs. Look for HD programs again in early  2006."
 
-John Lentz from Bill Dvorak