by Steve Thomas
Staff Writer
Channel surfing is about to take on a whole new meaning. However, KUHT-TV, the University of Houston's public television station, may be on the verge of a wipeout.
Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission released its table of allocated digital channels, channel assignments for local stations to take during the congressionally mandated change from analog to digital television broadcasting equipment.
The reassignment of channels was mandated by Congress to take advantage of developing digital technology, said Patricia Ann Chu, a spokeswoman for the Federal Communications Commission.
Network-affiliated stations in the top 10 markets will have to switch to digital broadcasting within the next two years. All television broadcasters will be required to switch to the digital system by 2006. During the transition period, stations will operate a digital and analog station concurrently on different channels.
Houston is the No. 11 market in the country.
"The current system, NTSC, was developed at the inception of television, but today, everything is going digital," said Chu.
In the meantime, KUHT found itself without the channel selection it had aimed for. The station didn't get Channel 9, as it had hoped.
In fact, the station didn't get any channel in the vicinity it hoped for. Rather, it was pushed all the way down the dial to Channel 53.
"During the nine-year transition period from analog to digital - it is no big deal - we were going to have to operate two channels anyway," said Jeff Clarke, chief executive officer and general manager of KUHT.
"But, at the end of the period, the FCC is going to re-pack the digital channels. They will reassign either channels 2 through 46 or 7 through 51. Either way, Channel 53 is outside the primary core of channels, and we would have to change again (in 2006)."
The double change, Clarke said, would mean that KUHT would have to purchase two new transmitters - one for each digital-channel switch - rather than a single new transmitter to make the transition from analog to digital broadcasting.
No other station in the Houston area was assigned a channel outside what Clarke called the "primary core."
When asked why KUHT was assigned Channel 53, Alan Stillwell, who helped develop the table for the FCC, said, "Because it fits.
"A computer did all this stuff," Stillwell explained. "It was a sophisticated program that looked for the lowest channel to allow a station to replicate its service area. I guess 53 fit."
Stillwell added that, generally, the FCC will try to avoid assigning adjacent channels because there is a potential for interference, or "crossed wires," in the signal transmission.
Channel 9 had been assigned to a station in Lufkin, which - if the interference factor is considered - might have kept the computer from assigning it to KUHT.
Why would a Lufkin station receive Channel 9 over KUHT, which serves a larger market? "We tried to do this in as unbiased a manner as we could make it," Stillwell said.
KUHT is considering its options and may file an appeal for a new designation with the FCC.
"We have 30 days to write the FCC to ask them to reconsider our position," Clarke said. "We still have to talk to the people in Lufkin, but we think that if we transmit at a lower power level, which won't affect the digital side anyway, we can get Channel 9."
KUHT, not required to switch from analog until 2006, hopes to be broadcasting digitally within the next five to six years.