TV will be leaving the radio in 2015

As I’ve reported before, TV channel 6 sits just below the left end of the FM dial which allows its analog audio signal to be heard at 87.7 FM. This is not an officially licensed FM frequency, but most FM radios will tune it in. This fact has allowed a few savvy LPTV operators on channel 6 to operate like radio stations, with minimal video content to keep the FCC happy.

However, the audio portion of a digital TV broadcast cannot be received on an analog radio. This means that channel 6 stations like Chicago’s WLFM-LP, calling itself Smooth 87.7, will lose their back door into the FM dial once they go digital in 2015.

WLFM and several other LPTV broadcasters submitted comments to the Commission urging it to permit LPTV stations to convert to digital on their own timelines, letting audience and market forces dictate the move rather than the FCC. The FCC concluded that the “the Communications Act compelled low power television stations ultimately to convert to digital operation,” and that more than four extra years after the 2009 full-power transition was plenty of time.

Otherwise, in this order the Commission did not take up or make any reference to channel 6 broadcasters exploiting their back door access to the FM dial. It would appear that the FCC would rather let this relatively constrained hack fade away rather than address it directly.

Smooth 87.7 now on cable TV

Chicago’s WLFM seems to have seen the writing on the wall and has made some plans to continue reaching an audience. The station recently started airing on Chicago Comcast cable TV channel 877 (third item on the page), with traffic and weather updates on the screen. This seems a lot like the digital music channels available on many cable systems, which often run static images and artist trivia on the screen while the music plays. Given that many people treat television like radio, leaving it on in the background while they go about their business, it’s not an absurd move for WLFM. At the same time I’m surprised that I cannot find WLFM doesn’t offer an online stream, which one would think would be the other easy way to retain their audience.

Nevertheless, car listeners are still an important audience for any broadcast radio station, and the channel 6 stations will lose them in 2015. Perhaps by then in-car internet radio will be a more mature and easy to use technology.

The FCC’s decision on the LPTV digital transition is pretty final. But there’s always a chance for reconsideration. I won’t be surprised if LPTV broadcasters, like WLFM, make some additional filings. I’ll certainly keep my eye out for them.

NPR’s argument rests on a technical analysis concluding that digital TV signals are far more interference-resistant than analog, and that modern TV tuners are selective enough to make interference from FM negligible for even analog LPTV signals.

Predictably, fellow noncommercial FM broadcasters are lining up in support of NPR’s proposal, while the ABC network and the National Association of Broadcasters have filed comments in opposition, calling into question NPR’s engineering data. There’s a few sparks coming from these opposing comments, but the real fun is buried in comments from Chicago Public Radio.

Without naming names, CPR  pointedly complains,

LPTV stations have begun to invade FM radio, broadcasting audio signals that were licensed for TV broadcast as if they were commercial radio stations on 87. 7 MHz. Not only are these signals inappropriately being broadcast as radio, they are also bleeding 24·hour dance music, with commercial advertising, over into the noncommercial stations that are on the lower NCE FM channels. Like squatters moving into recently-vacated homes, these LPTV stations are, in effect, intentionally broadcasting commercial radio which spills over onto the reserved portion of the FM band, trespassing on the limited territory of their noncommercial neighbors. Before this phenomenon becomes entrenched, the Commission owes the public, as well as public radio stations, a reasoned consideration of this problem.

Not surprisingly Chicago Public Radio has one of these channel 6 LPTV’s broadcasting in its own backyard, though it plays a commercial smooth jazz format. I’m not sure why CPR doesn’t refer directly to Chicago’s WLFM-LP. Instead CPR apparently calls out recently departed “24-hour music format” Pulse FM in New York City.

Nevertheless, it looks like WLFM’s owners already feel the heat. In comments filed the same day as CPR’s, WLFM owner Venture Technologies Group actually writes in support of NPR’s proposal:

VTG believes that these regulations are no longer needed. As NPR rightly points out modern digital television receivers are far less susceptible to adjacent FM-band interference than the analog television receivers that were in use when Section 73.515 was enacted in 1985.

Likewise, without directly naming its local opposition, VTG acknowledges the low-level animosity going on:

For too long NCE FM broadcasters have been at odds with Channel 6 television stations. VTG sees no reason why everybody can’t get along.

But supporting NPR’s proposal doesn’t mean VTG intends to cut its own throat, asking for “flexibility” from the FCC, and strongly urging “the Commission to adopt a formal policy allowing LPTV and Class A television stations broadcasting on Channel 6 the option to… continue broadcasting in analog if they choose to serve their audiences with a portion of their spectrum as an FM audio service at 87.7 FM.”

I’m certain VTG’s qualified support for NPR’s proposal is offered as an olive branch to noncommercial stations, like CPR, with the hope of a little quid pro quo to get them to back off on their decidedly “off-label” use of TV spectrum to become radio broadcasters. I think there’s little chance of the Commission taking seriously VTG’s request to stay analog in order to remain as unofficial radio broadcasters, nor of noncommercial broadcasters extending a little more tolerance. The best VTG can hope for is that the FCC will continue to put off dealing with their use of the channel 6 backdoor until the transition to digital is mandated for LPTV.

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.