Wilmington Readies for Early DTV Switch

Each Tuesday morning at 8:30, representatives of all the commercial TV stations in Wilmington, N.C., get together on a conference call with NAB and FCC officials to plan for what will be one of the biggest events in the market's TV history.

At noon on Sept. 8, the stations in DMA 135 will become the first in the nation to switch to digital-only broadcasting — five months before their peers in the other 209 TV markets.

As of the posting of this story, the countdown-to-digital clock for most stations reads 215 days, 16 hours and 22 minutes. In Wilmington, it registers just 53 days, 3 hours, 22 minutes.

The conference calls are aimed primarily at making sure that viewers who rely on the over-the-air analog reception are aware of what's going on and are prepared to receive digital signals on Sept. 8.

Wilmington contains 180,000 TV homes and roughly 13,000, or 7 percent, count on over-the-air reception for TV service. And many more homes subscribe to cable or satellite, but have at least one old TV set still pulling signals in off air.

The early switch was cooked up by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to help gauge what impact the analog-to-digital switch will have on the public well in advance of the nationwide switch on Feb. 17, 2009, when millions of homes will be affected.

"All the stations have been very cooperative," said John Greene, VP of special projects for Capitol Broadcasting, which owns WILM-LP, the CBS affiliate in the market. "I've never seen the stations get behind a single plan as they are doing now. We are going to pull this off."

The conference calls have "really helped us," says Thom Postema, vice president and general manager at Southeastern's Media's WSFX, the Fox affiliate. "The communications between everyone haave been key."

In addition to WILM-LP and WSFX, the trial also involves Raycom's WECT, the NBC affiliate, and Morris Network's WWAY, the ABC affiliate.

Two of the stations have more to do than just public education. WILM-LP is scrambling to get its digital signal on the air, and WECT is moving to a taller, better situated tower to improve its digital coverage.

The commercial stations volunteered for the trial, although they may have been under some pressure to do so. Martin had a hard time finding a market willing to go first.

"I am actually glad that we've been the real guinea pig," says Postema. "I would rather go first and have the full attention of the FCC and NAB rather than go when the rest of the country goes."

The market's two public TV stations, WUNJ and WUNU, licensed to the University of North Carolina, have opted out of the trial because the state uses all the stations in the UNC system for emergency communications.

Working with the commercial stations, the FCC and NAB are pouring resources into the market, determined to alert all TV set owners and help them gear up for digital.

To continue receiving free, off-air signals, viewers must purchase a new TV set with a digital tuner or hook up their old TVs to a set-top box that converts digital signals to analog. The federal government is subsidizing the purchase of the $60 set-tops, offering two $40 coupons to anybody who wants them.

The FCC has a team of six led by Louis Sigalos in Wilmington working the five counties within the Wilmington DMA.

They have plastered the town with billboards announcing the DTV test.

Martin and fellow Commissioner Michael Copps, both North Carolina natives, have made frequent visits to the city. Martin was there last week taping interviews with WECT and WWAY.

Working through the National Black Church Initiative, the NAB is planning "DTV Sunday" on July 27 at the Union Missionary Baptist Church. Representatives will answer questions about the transition and demonstrate the converters. The Wilmington mayor has been invited to appear.

That same Sunday, the NAB and the NBCI will distribute 60,000 flyers and converter box coupon applications to hundreds of other churches.

NAB has produced Wilmington-specific flyers, other marketing materials and PSAs. The latest PSAs, for radio and TV, are scheduled to hit the airwaves in early August.

The NAB is also sending one of its two DTV Trekkers to Wilmington on Aug. 25 where it will remain until Sept. 8. The Trekker, a truck designed to look like a giant analog TV set, spreads the word at shopping malls, sporting events, county fairs and other places where people gather.

The Trekker will participate at the DTV Expo at the Coast Line Convention Center in downtown Wilmington on August 28, another educational event being organized by WECT.

The stations have been making increasing use of their own air to warn and instruct.

"We run PSAs, a crawl, two-minute educational pieces," says WWAY GM Andy Combs.

Last Saturday, all the Wilmington stations aired a 30-minute program aimed at covering all aspects of the DTV transition. It was the second time the show ran in the market.

"If someone is not aware that this thing is happening Sept. 8 than God help them. They're living under a rock," says Combs.

The GMs have also been on the stump for DTV.

Earlier this week, for example, Combs attended a town hall meeting in Whiteville, N.C., to discuss the upcoming test and show resident how to hook up a DTV converter box. The event was hosted by Congressman Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.).

WECT GM Gary McNair has done his part, but says the educational campaign has been time consuming and it may be overkill.

"We've got some people who say enough already: we know it's coming, we know it's Sept. 8, quit bombarding us," says McNair.

Since this is a trial, the NAB is trying to glean as much information from it as it can. In June, it released results of a poll that found that 89 percent of the TV homes in the market were aware of the switch.

With that as the baseline, the NAB plans two more surveys, one in August and another on Sept. 8. The transition day poll will be coupled with "qualitative research" — that is, face-to-face interviews.

On the technical front, WILM-LP has the most work to do.

When the FCC came calling for volunteers, the CBS affiliate's plans called for going digital in December or January. Those plans have now been accelerated.

According to Capitol's Greene, the station has ordered a new transmitter from Harris and a pre-fab building to house it and expects to have them in place at the tower in Delco, N.C., by the second week of August, according to Capitol's Greene.

At that point, a tower crew is expected to hang a new ERI antenna and have the facility online well in advance of the transition.

The Delco tower is owned by the University of North Carolina, the licensee of the market's noncommercial stations.

WILM-LP GM Constance Knox can't wait. Not only will the station be digital, it will have improved coverage, she says. "More power, higher tower."

Meanwhile, Raycom's WECT is also not quite ready for digital primetime.

The station has discovered that many people are having trouble receiving its digital signal, says Dan Ullmer, chief engineer for WECT and WSFX. People are hooking up converter boxes, scanning for digital signals and not finding that of WECT, he says.

"Our signal is weak."

(WECT handles engineering as well as news production for WSFX under a shared services agreement.)

To fix the problem, WECT is moving its digital transmission site from the tower in Delco to a taller one in Winnabow, N.C., southwest of the city, Ullmer says.

The Winnabow tower is currently the home of WWAY's and WSFX's digital signals. Raycom, WECT's parent, owns a half interest in the tower, which it picked up when it purchased Liberty Broadcasting, the one-time owner of WWAY.

WECT has bought a new Harris transmitter and is planning to piggyback on the same transmission line and batwing antenna that WWAY and WSFX are using.

Raycom expects much improved digital coverage on the Winnabow tower. Right now, it employs a side-mounted antenna on the 900-foot Delco tower. At Winnabow, it will be atop a 1,800-foot antenna.

The new transmitter is expected on July 22 and ERI is scheduled to arrive on Aug. 4 to begin the installation process, Ullmer says. If everybody does their job, the move should be completed by the middle of August.

The engineering analysis shows that the Winnabow signals cover better and so does the anecdotal evidence, Ullmer says. WECT has received hundreds of complaints about its digital reception, while Winnabow-based WSFX has only gotten a handful, he says.

But the digital Winnabow signal will provide nowhere near the coverage WECT enjoys from its analog signal, which emanates from the 2,000-foot tower near White Lake, N.C., Ullmer says.

Forty miles inland, the tower booms the WECT analog signal to hundreds of thousands of homes outside the DMA, he says. WECT is not using it for digital because is can't support a second antenna and because it in the best location to serve the current market, he says.

WWAY is one competitor looking forward to the level playing field that digital will bring.

WECT has dominated the market partly because of the extremely powerful analog signal that reaches beyond Wilmington's five-county DMA, says WWAY's Combs.

"Come Sept. 8 that's not going to be the case. At best, we are going to be equal," says Combs. "That's one of the reasons we're so excited about the digital transition."

The broadcasters in Wilmington concede that the Sept. 8 switch will not be a true trial.

As one points out, neither the FCC nor the NAB could possibly afford to dedicate the resources it has in Wilmington in other markets and the non-commercials stations are not participating.

What's more, the commercial stations will not actually be turning off their analog signals on Sept. 8 as other stations must, by law, on Feb. 17, 2009.

The FCC has agreed to allow the stations to continue broadcasting an informational "slate" on their analog channels until Oct. 1 advising people of what happened to their signal and directing them to help.

Just this week, at the Tuesday teleconference, the broadcasters settled on language for the slate:

At 12 noon on Sept. 8, 2008, television stations in Wilmington North Carolina began to broadcast programming exclusively in a digital format. If you are viewing this message this television set has not yet be upgraded to digital.

To receive your television signals, upgrade to digital now with a converter box, a new TV set with a digital ATSC tuner or by subscribing to a pay service like cable or satellite.

For more information call 1-888-225-5322 or visit www.DTVWilmington.com.

According to Capitol's Greene, the broadcasters plan to set up a phone bank to accept calls to the 888 number. Plans for the phone bank are not set, he says, but a professor at Elon University, Connie Book, has volunteered her students to staff the bank.

Keeping the analog transmitters on after Sept. 8 is also a matter of public safety.

At least some of the broadasters had been reluctant to become involved in the trial because early September is the height of the hurricane season — a time when they did not want to disrupt service.

"I am a big advocate of preparedness," says Knox of WILM-LP, which bills itself as "Wilmington's Weather Station." "I raised that question with the FCC the first day I met with them."

The last time Wilmington took a direct hit from a major hurricane was on Sept. 5, 1996, when Fran struck, killing 26 and causing $3 billion in damage.

By keeping the analog transmitters on for a few weeks after Sept. 8, the broadcasters can avoid the risk of loosing contact with any viewers. "We can switch back if we had to," Combs says.