To our readers: This story was updated at 7:15pm ET Friday to correct inaccurate information originally published by RBR+TVBR. We regret the error and are redistributing this story in our Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday edition of the Afternoon Headlines E-mail to ensure full distribution of the corrected story. Thank you.
Gray Television has received approval from the FCC to transition a pair of television stations formerly owned by Meredith Corp. from digital VHF to digital UHF signals — shifts that will improve over-the-air reception for each of the properties.
Two Report and Order announcements were distributed this week through the office of Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman.
“We believe the public interest would be served,” Kreisman said.
With that, the Media Bureau granted two channel change petitions filed by Gray.
The result: In Portland, Ore., KPTV-12 will substitute VHF digital channel 12 for UHF digital channel 21, a move that Gray says will likely alleviate “numerous complaints of poor or no reception” from viewers. In Las Vegas, KVVU-5 stands to immediately benefit from a switch to UHF channel 24 from VHF channel 9.
The Southern Nevada move is particularly noteworthy, given statistics that show 1 in 4 Las Vegas DMA viewers receive their signals over-the-air.
And, while noise limited contour will not fully encompass the existing VHF channel 9 contour, only 152 persons would lose service from KVVU. Importantly, no viewers would lose access to their first or second over-the-air television service.
The changes can happen once the Federal Register publishes the R&Os.
Although RBR+TVBR originally reported that the decisions from the Video Division differed from a proposal involving a Hubbard Broadcasting NBC affiliate serving Albany-Schenectady-Troy, N.Y., that is not the case.
Every channel change petition for rulemaking must originate in a Notice of Proposed Rule Making that invites Comments and Reply Comments. This transpired for both KVVU and KPDX but was not detected by RBR+TVBR in its initial reporting.
The Hubbard proposal, which involves WNYT-13, slightly differs from those of KPDX and KVVU nevertheless. The proposed VHF-to-UHF petition for WNYT will result in a loss population of 210 persons within the predicted noise limited contour.
