THE CHANNELS THEY ARE CHANGIN' AGAIN
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Chicago is at the forefront of change once again. Like the pioneering efforts of mechanical television development during the 1930s and the experimentation of electronic television in the 1940s- the 21st century offers a new revolution in broadcasting- once again the industry is evolving. The Federal Communications Commission has set 2009 to be the year that we go completely digital and the former NTSC analog broadcast signals will be part of television past. Some folks both in the engineering and management arms of the industry say 2009 is too early. But it will happen eventually. Today, the gossip around the water cooler puts the switch closer to 2010. Since less spectrum will be required in the digital world, the FCC has taken steps to reallocate the frequencies currently used for analog broadcast television. While obsolescence was a frequent problem plaguing the industry as it grew from mechanical telecasting via short-wave through the advent of FM radio and the VHF-UHF television allotment changes (channel 1 moved three times before finally getting the ax), the digital conversion will be less confusing. All NTSC licensees were assigned a second channel to use for digital experimentation. At the end of the digital conversion, those stations will have to give up one of their assignments. Recently the FCC announced it would be slicing off the 700MHz band (actually 698-803 MHz) from broadcast television. This band is comprised of UHF channels 52 through 59. This will be the third time that UHF television has lost channels. When made available in 1951, the channels were 14 through 83. In the 1970s, the allotment was reduced to channels 14 to 69. In 1999, in response to the increasing use of cell phones, channels 60 to 69 were made unavailable to television, although stations already on the air could remain for the time being. In the end, the "core" television channels would be 2 through 51. When the FCC released "The Final Digital Elections" for Chicago allocations, there were some notable changes. Every licensee had to choose which frequency they preferred to stay with- their original analog channel or the digital channel they were also assigned. Only one station will remain on their original channel number (well at least since 1948), WLS-TV on channel 7. Actually they had no choice as channel 52, their digital assignment, will be "out-of-core" when analog rides off into television history. WBBM-TV and WTTW struck an agreement where the public station stayed on channel 47, opening up channel 11 for WBBM-TV. Their channel 2 allocation has been nothing but grief for them. Their digital assignment of channel 3 has also caused them headaches in the past. But if all these changes seem confusing, don't worry. The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), a consortium of industry leaders, engineers, and manufacturers, is setting the standards to how digital television is interpreted, as well as transmitted. In today's television landscape, call signs and channel numbers are nearly extinct. WBBM-TV, WMAQ-TV, WLS-TV, and WFLD, are now referred to verbally and in graphics as CBS2, NBC5, ABC7, and Fox Chicago respectively. The call signs (which remain their legal identification) are almost imperceptible in microscopic font at the bottom of the screen. Fox's WFLD takes the additional step by eliminating a channel number completely. The main cause of this shift can be placed with the explosion of cable television subscriptions since the mid-eighties. There was no uniform standard concerning where over-the-air stations could be located in a cable system's channel line-up. In Chicago, most systems match the VHF stations channel for channel. The UHF stations, on the other hand, are not, taking advantage of cable's ability to place them on a lower VHF channel. One must remember that in the early days of the cable explosion, the lower VHF channels (2-13) were considered the most desirable- only twelve channels on the tuner, each nearly effortless to tune-in. Just click to you get to your channel. UHF was different. Tuning was akin to tuning a radio. No click onto the correct channel number at first, making fine tuning a chore. Even when manufacturers began selling TVs with click UHF tuners it didn't help much. You still had to tune your VHF dial to the UHF position, and then go to the UHF tuner and dial in your station. If you wanted to watch channel 66 , well that was a long way to go. Cable's ability to place the UHF channels in lower number positions gave them a fighting chance. Also it should be mentioned that the gradual switch from mechanical tuners to electronic, enabling the viewer to go from channel 2 to channel 66 instantly helped too. Since the UHF stations may appear on more than one channel across the various cable systems, most have forsaken their UHF broadcast channel number for a somewhat generic brand identity. Thus, the station identification of WFLD Channel 32 Chicago is relegated to the bottom of the screen while a faceless announcer shouts out "Next on Fox Chicago" while high tech graphics burst upon the screen like a brand name. Not all of Chicago stations have abandoned their call letters. Some still wear them proudly. Channel 9 continues to refer to itself as WGN. Even its cable only sister station calls itself Superstation WGN. Channel 11 reminds us that WTTW stands for "Window To The World." But these have become exceptions to the rule. WCIU which uses its call letters and analog channel number as often as its brand ID is "The U," "Me-TV (for Memorable Television") can be found on WWME-CA (that "CA" suffix relatively new- it stands for Class A, a designation assigned to certain low-power broadcast stations), channels 44 and 66 are known by their network affiliations Telemundo and Univision. Recently, WPWR has re-branded itself My50 after aligning itself with My Network TV when UPN was phased into the new CW network. So because of this reliance on brand identification, the ATSC has devised a new way identifying the location of a over-the-air (OTR) digital station on both your TV and in electronic and print guides. For example, NBC5 won't become NBC29 because its UHF channel allocation is channel 29. It will stay NBC5 but in the guides will be shown as channels 5.1 (WMAQ-DT), and 5.2, etc. usually up to 6 for the separate and unique programming the station may offer on each of its digital subchannels. Technically your TV will receive all the choices on UHF channel 29 but you will still "tune the dial" to channel 5. |
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RE-LIVING CHICAGO TV |
