WBGU-TV, the University’s public-access television station, has recently been given a grant of more than $650,000 to help the station switch from analog broadcasting to digital.
The United States Department of Commerce (USDOC) has appropriated this money from their Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP).
Congressman Paul E. Gillmor worked with WBGU-TV and the USDOC to have the money granted.
“I am pleased that USDOC has approved these funds,” Congressman Gillmor said in a press release. “This money will be used to modernize WBGU-TV’s broadcast systems.”
Patrick Fitzgerald, the general manager at WBGU-TV, is also pleased with the grant.
“We are very excited. The whole digital change is going to change TV as much as the change from radio to television,” Fitzgerald said.
He said that high definition television (HDTV) is more than four times clearer than what viewers see now. HDTV is a form of digital broadcasting that the station will soon be able to use.
Fitzgerald explained that the change from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting is a three-phase process.
The $673,724 granted is 40 percent of the money that the first phase costs. The other 60 percent will be raised by WBGU-TV.
These types of grants are called challenge or match grants. According to a deadline set by the Federal Communication’s Committee (FCC), the station is required to complete the first phase of digital conversion by May 1, 2003. This deadline was set by the The FCC also set a tentative deadline of 2006 to stop the use of analog broadcasting and to have most of the nation receiving digital broadcasting.
The cost to switch the country from analog to digital broadcasting is estimated at $1.8 billion.
WBGU-TV applied for this competitive grant and already have an application in asking for monetary support for the second phase.
The estimated cost of changing WBGU-TV to digital broadcasting is $3.3 million.
According to Fitzgerald, another exciting factor of changing to digital broadcasting is that the station will be able to multicast.
Multicasting – which lets the stations broadcast four channels at once – is only possible with HDTV broadcasting capability. This solves the problem of what content to have on the air, Fitzgerald said.
“(Because of multicast) we don’t have to choose between groups of people we can broadcast to,” Fitzgerald said.
The WBGU-TV channel broadcasts to 1.3 million people in 19 different counties throughout Northwest and West Central Ohio.
Al Bowe, Director of Technical Operations, said that once the public has seen the quality the station will be able to broadcast, they will get excited about digital and high definition broadcasting. To receive WBGU-TV’s digital channel people in the service area will have to buy a TV set with a digital receiver.
An alternative to this would be to buy a box that hooks into an analog set and then changes the signal to digital.
But according to Fitzgerald, this won’t be needed until next year.
“Keep in mind that most people are watching from cable or direct TVs and the cable companies will deliver a signal that the consumer will be able to use,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald and Bowe said they are extremely busy in hopes to meet their deadlines.
“We have been working many hours each week for our change over to digital broadcasting, and we will continue until May 1 when we are on the air,” Bowe said.
