Former general manager Taylor Dearr in the WNUR music library (photo by Jennifer Waits)

I’m a vinyl enthusiast myself, having never given up on the format since buying my first record some thirty years ago. Whenever I fill in a music shift on WNUR I make a point to spin some vinyl from the station’s library. Unfortunately, space constraints prevent ‘NUR from maintaining a library as expansive as WFMU’s. Nevertheless I’m quite happy to have an impressive array of great albums to choose from.

Fellow Radio Survivor Jennifer Waits always checks out the record collections at the college stations she tours on her own blog Spinning Indie in addition to writing about vinyl’s continued use in radio here at Radio Survivor. I find that the college student DJs at WNUR are very enthusiastic about playing LPs. It seems like any hour I walk into the station I’ll find at least one turntable spinning or ready to start. Hitting play on a CD or MP3 will never have the visceral experience like cueing up a record and hitting start on a Technics 1200.

Over the past year I’ve been tracking the mini-phenomenon of a few low-power TV stations on channel 6 using their signal as a back-door to the FM dial rather than real TV stations. This situation occurs because the audio portion of analog TV channel 6 bumps up against the far left end of the FM dial. Full-power TV stations on channel 6 have gone digital, and some have moved to other spectrum space. In either case their audio is no longer heard on the FM dial. But LPTV stations were not required to go digital last year, and so are still heard.

While this loophole remains open for existing stations, new LPTV stations will not be able to take advantage. Today the FCC released a notice [PDF] saying that applicants for new LPTV stations must amend their applications to be digital before May 24 of this year.

It looks like there are seven channel 6 applications pending. Who knows if any of the applicants were planning on taking advantage of proximity to the FM dial. But if any were, that option is now off the table.

At this point I think it’s safe to say the countdown timer is ticking closer to zero on channel 6 on FM. Last October the FCC ended protection of channel 6 signals from interference coming from FM stations. As the commission whittles away at analog LPTV it’s just a matter of time until the Media Bureau gets around to setting a mandatory digital transition date for LPTV stations. I think this is especially true given the fact that the FCC is seriously looking at reallocating broadcast spectrum for wireless broadband.

In this digital era it’s important to remember that one can still build an analog crystal radio receiver that requires no external power, deriving all the juice it needs from the electromagnetic waves. That’s not what Wells and his fellow prisoners did–probably because they were working with more distant signals than a crystal set can receive–but so-called “foxhole receivers” based on crystal sets were used throughout World War II by both citizens and soldiers in order to stay in touch where powered radios were banned or impractical.

I remember building crystal sets both from scratch and from kits as a kid in the early 80s, amazed at the ability to listen to local AM stations without batteries or AC power. I wonder if this is something kids still do these days.

However a crystal set only works with analog, amplitude modulated signals; FM won’t work and neither will any digital signal. Well, you can pick up a digital signal, but it will just be a bunch of hash noise.

I think it’s important for analog radio to continue to exist exactly because of its technological simplicity and ability to transmit over long distances. That doesn’t mean digital or internet-based radio shouldn’t continue to be developed. Rather, keeping simpler, proven analog technologies in service provides a sort of insurance, even if most of our daily existence is highly electrified and digital.

Interestingly, Fred Lass, the director of engineering for Schenectady, NY’s WRGB-TV, tells TV Technology that he’s considering methods for continuing to have an analog FM audio broadcast alongside the station’s digital signal:

“We have a plan to continue operating on 87.7 after we go digital,” he said. “We think that it’s possible to operate with a vertically polarized analog FM audio carrier when we go back to ch. 6 for DTV. That signal will be horizontally polarized, of course, and there should be enough cross pol isolation to make it work.”

Lass admits that he really hasn’t tried this yet, but thinks it should work.

It never occurred to me that DTV stations would be permitted to continue broadcasting an analog FM audio signal, and I wonder if this is something that would require permission from the FCC.

Hearing channel 6 audio on the FM dial seems to be one of those side benefits that a lot of folks in the broadcast community didn’t realize was being taking advantage of so widely. Nor do I think it was anticipated how much it would be missed. Indeed, even Broadcast Engineering blogger Brad Dick writes about his surprise at looking for TV audio on his radio on June 13, the day after the DTV transition.

OMG! I suddenly realized analog television was gone. I would no longer be able to listen to the “CBS Sunday Morning” show while jogging around my parks and roadways. I wouldn’t be able to catch the evening newscasts from ABC, FOX or NBC while biking. I began to realize how much enjoyment I received from listening to television while running. Now that pleasure was gone forever.

The continued existence of digital TV on channel 6 spectrum space might complicate any attempts to expand the FM non-commercial broadcast dial south a couple of notches. Nevertheless I think the laments over the loss of TV audio on FM and on multi-band radios indicates that there is still a healthy demand for audio programming that isn’t otherwise being satisfied by current radio offerings. And where there’s unfulfilled demand there is also opportunity for radio broadcasters to try something more innovative.

WLFM 87.7FM & Channel 6

Still listening to the station on the way home I heard commercials, but still no station ID, leaving me more confused. Listening a bit longer at home gave no more clues, so the internet I did search. I quickly learned that the station at 87.7 FM is not a radio station, but actually TV channel 6, WLFM-LP. And I was right that the broadcast was a direct reaction to the shuttering of WNUA.

You see, analog TV channel 6 bumps right up against the bottom of the FM radio dial. TV sound is also frequency modulated, just like radio, so the sound for channel 6 can be heard at the very bottom of the dial. But, you might be thinking, “didn’t analog TV go away on June 12? Wouldn’t that kill WLFM?” Well, if you’re talking about a full-power station on channel 6, you’d be right. But WLFM is a low-power TV station (LPTV) and the digital changeover didn’t happen for LPTV.

There had been some hope amongst non-commercial radio supporters that the DTV transition would free up 87.7 FM for new stations in all of the markets with full-power TV stations on channel 6. Right now that’s an unknown possibility, since in April the FCC said it won’t be processing applications that would take over vacated channel 6 spectrum until it makes another public notice or opens a rulemaking proceeding.

But for those seventy-seven licensed LPTV stations on Channel 6 there’s a golden opportunity to make radio. Some of those stations have already seized the opportunity, including Anchorage’s KABA and New York City’s WNYZ. In fact Chicago’s WLFM originally planned to syndicate WNYZ’s “The Pulse” dance music programming, but the deal fell through.

Those wanting to get into radio–especially in large metropolitan markets without any open frequencies–might be tempted to find an open channel 6 for an LPTV station. However, the FCC only accepts LPTV applications during a narrow window period, and currently no window is scheduled. Still, it might be cheaper to buy an existing LPTV on channel 6 than an actual existing radio station.

Nevertheless I find it ironic that while many in the media business are waiting to call the time of death for radio there are enterprising LPTV operators choosing to turn their stations into overgrown radio outlets. Of course, with the full-power DTV transition completed there are many fewer viewers scanning the last holdouts in the analog TV spectrum, so perhaps radio really does have promise for more audience and revenue.

Maybe even the LPTV stations on other channels besides 6 might have some chance at becoming radio stars, too. Quite a few models of AM/FM radios also included TV sound of channels 2 – 13. A quick search online  shows at least a couple of dozen still readily available for sale. While a much smaller audience than regular FM radio listeners, there might be some inveterate radiogeeks who could be hooked in to listening to a dedicated audio feed on the otherwise abandoned VHF TV dial.

Of course, the UHF LPTV stations would still be left out of the game, since few radios include UHF coverage, given that it’s much higher frequency range than FM or VHF TV. Yet, perhaps that’s a use for the millions of now-obsolete analog TVs out there. They could become newfangled radio receivers — radio with pretty pictures!

OK, I recognize that’s stretching the TV-as-radio idea into the realm of the improbable. But it still goes to show that in the digital broadcast age good old radio could be the future of analog TV.