Running Interference

[Gregg Lengling]

Todd Shields

NOVEMBER 04, 2002 -

In what could be an ugly harbinger of things to come for television stations' transition to digital broadcasting, Tom Draper, owner of CBS affiliate WBOC-TV in Salisbury, Md., recently returned home, turned on his TV set and found the reception of his outlet covered by a blanket of electronic snow.

Like thousands of other viewers in his market and in several other DMAs across the country, including Philadelphia and Sacramento, Calif., Draper's TV is picking up interference from new digital signals that stations are mandated to provide. In his case, the interference is allegedly coming from public TV station WHRO in Hampton, Va., 125 miles away.

Draper's WBOC wants WHRO to reduce the power of its digital outlet, WHRO-DT. WHRO counters there is no evidence its digital signal is interfering with WBOC's analog broadcasts. Whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: Disputes over interference will grow as more outlets transition to digital.

The Federal Communications Commission has been asked to referee between three pairs of stations locked in signal disputes. In addition to WBOC vs. WHRO, WMGM-TV, an NBC affiliate in Wildwood, N.J., owned by Green, Howard, has reported interference from WTKR-DT, the New York Times Co.'s CBS affiliate in Norfolk, Va.; and Paxson Communications' KSPX-TV in Sacramento, Calif., has reported interference from CBS' KPIX-DT in San Francisco. Also, WOOD-TV, Lin Television's NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids, Mich., recently built two temporary transmitters to overcome interference from digital public TV outlet WMVS-DT, located 80 miles across Lake Michigan in Milwaukee.

In the case of WTKR in Norfolk, the station reduced power for several weeks last summer after WMGM in Wildwood experienced interference in the evenings. In this case, the digital signal skipped across the Chesapeake Bay, over a broad peninsula and across Delaware Bay to reach southern New Jersey. WTKR president and gm Frank Chebalo predicts more interference to come. "What we're experiencing is just the beginning," said Chebalo. "There are going to be issues of interference as more and more digital stations pop up."

Industry leaders are starting to look into the issue. "We have to see what's going on here -- whether it's a significant problem or not," said David Donovan, president of the Association for Maximum Service Television, a technology trade group for broadcasters.

At least until 2007, stations will broadcast both digital and analog signals. Of roughly 1,700 public and commercial outlets, about 600 are now operating digitally; many are doing so at reduced power. What will happen when they boost their signals is not clear. For now, some stations are finding that hot, humid weather and large bodies of water may help extend signals and thereby cause interference.

At WBOC in Maryland, telephone operators logged about 1,500 complaints about bad pictures this past summer. "Devastating" is how Draper characterized the problem.

Yet WHRO president/CEO Joseph Widoff said a consultant found "practically no evidence of interference from our digital signal." Widoff said the station is spending $8 million to fulfill the government-mandated conversion to digital. "The government promised us they would allow us to operate," Widoff said. "To deny us that puts us at a significant disadvantage."

Talks between the stations have been unproductive, so WBOC turned to its local congressional delegation. Four senators and two House members signed an Oct. 16 letter asking FCC chief Michael Powell to cut WHRO's transmission power. The letter described WBOC as "a vital source for news and local programming" that had suffered interference "documented in thousands of viewer complaints."

"The commission should not allow a digital station to operate at maximized power levels during the transition to [digital TV] at the price of sacrificing the existing analog television service," said the letter, signed by senators Joseph Biden (D-Md.), Thomas Carper (D-Del.), Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), and Reps. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) and Michael Castle (R-Del.).

Officials at the FCC declined to discuss the dispute or to speak on the record about the broader issue of interference during the transition. "We'd need much more evidence to conclude the problem is endemic," said one official at the FCC.