Genachowski vows "commission's doors will be open" to broadcasters still struggling in the wake of the analog shutoff.

Local broadcasters are increasingly degrading their high-definition picture quality due to multicasting — transmitting digital subchannels alongside the primary HD stream within a station's 19.4 Mbps digital TV pipe.

Gray Television, owner of KKTV in Colorado Springs, Colo., has asked the FCC to substitute its ch. 10 allotment with ch. 49 in order to improve the station's coverage.

Harry Jessell's column on the troubles of digital VHF missed the mark. It can work as well as UHF transmission if it is allowed enough transmission power, receiver performance improves and indoor and outdoor antennas are designed to receive both spectrum bands properly.

Since the digital TV transition, many areas of the western state that received signals from Denver stations via translators now get nothing.

Weak over-the-air TV reception wasn't the only snafu for ABC O&O WPVI Philadelphia in June's digital TV transition. WPVI, which has the region's top-rated Action News, also lost its popular radio dial position — 87.7 FM.

400,000 new homes upgraded in the last week, leaving only 1.7 million, or 1.5%, of U.S. homes "completely unready" for digital TV.

Add KTVB Boise, Idaho, to the list of VHF stations that have gotten permission from the FCC for six-month power boosts after losing some viewers in the digital switch due to the different propagation characteristics of the DTV signal. That brings the total to four, according to an FCC spokesperson.

The FCC grants Cox's ABC affiliate in Atlanta permission to put two "analog loss" facilities on the air to serve Athens and Gainesville and the agency is now considering a third that would serve Rome.

Like other broadcasters that wound up with digital stations in the VHF band, ABC says that the power originally granted by the FCC is insufficient to provide the same coverage as its New York O&O had in analog.

The new service combines simultaneous digital broadcasts of high-definition TV, multiple digital networks and mobile DTV.

Another difference in the new world of digital television broadcasting: VHF is no longer king of the bands. For years the preferred position on the analog dial, the inherent characteristics of VHF are now found to be limiting many stations' coverage. And then there's the upcoming issue of its insufficiencies for mobile DTV.

Nielsen reported today that 2.1 million U.S. households, or 1.8 percent, could not receive digital television signals through the week ending June 21. This is an improvement of 400,000 homes since the week of the June 12 digital television transition.

Allbritton ABC affiliate WJLA Washington continues to have some pockets of problems with DTV reception, but the calls have tapered off and some are being addressed via the FCC's double-scanning solution.

ABC O&O WPVI Philadelphia, which has experienced significant reception problems since launching digital TV broadcasts on ch.6 on June 12, has received some help from the FCC. The commission granted the station a special temporary authority to boost its power from the relatively low 7.5 kW to 30.6 kW, the maximum power for region.

Univision and Telemundo were concerned that the number of Hispanic homes that were unprepared for the June 12 digital transition could lead to a notable ratings decline. But that fear appears to have been unfounded. Instead, the normal ups and downs of primetime ratings occurred at the top Spanish-language networks — with no pattern of decreases.

Several big-market stations have experienced significant problems with reception since switching to a VHF channel for their permanent DTV operations. According to viewer comments and interviews with engineers, many of these stations were received reliably on their former UHF assignments but are now hard for viewers to find, even for those with an adequate UHF/VHF antenna. On the other hand, there have been few complaints of significant reception problems from stations with high-powered UHF assignments.

For stations, getting calls from hundreds of viewers on and around June 12 spelled a nightmare. For digital channels such as Retro Television and This TV, hearing from the masses in the dawn of fully digital television hinted at how big the multicast business might get.