WFXT-DT power increase?

[Scott Fybush]

Alexander Svirsky wrote:

> Didn't WFXT have the option in the beginning to stay on 25?  I thought 
> that UHFs below channel 52 had the option of returning to their old 
> allocation in 2009.  But I don't see anything but VHF high-band stations 
> and WGGB returning to their old dial positions.  Everyone is doing it.  
> There must be good reasons?

There are.

The way the FCC set up the DTV transition, post-transition interference 
protection goes to the transitional digital channels, not to the legacy 
analog channels.

So even though WROC-TV here in Rochester, for instance, has been 
operating on channel 8 since 1962, it loses its interference protection 
to WICZ-DT in Binghamton, which has been operating on 8 since about 
2004. WROC-DT could go back to 8, but it would have to take a big 
directional hit to the southeast (the most affluent part of the market) 
in order to protect WICZ.

Likewise, we at WXXI-TV could go back to 21, but we'd have to go 
directional to protect WWTI-DT on 21 in Watertown - so instead, we stay 
on 16 (where we can now relax our transitional directional pattern). And 
WPBS-TV in Watertown, which had been analog on 16 since 1971, would have 
to protect US now - but they're moving to 41.

s