myfoxabilene's Blog

Here is a response from our GM. Our Chief Engineer can also be available for tech related questions, but Mr. Carter wanted to outline our future plans for converting to digital and HD on KXVA. Thank you for your patience regarding this response...


Dear Concerned Viewers,

We’ve received several blogs regarding KXVA’s plans for broadcasting digital. I’ll try to make a complex situation as brief as possible. The channel allotments to realign for digital were made in 2000. Stations that received there license after 2000 didn’t get a second channel to switch to. These stations are called “Singletons.” On Feb 17, 2009, all stations must “give” their analog channels back to the FCC, to be auctioned off for cell phones and internet. Because KXVA is a singleton, we won’t give our channel to the FCC, we will flashcut from analog to digital overnight. Officially, we don’t have to wait until that date to switch; however, the moment we flashcut, we will lose all of our analog viewers. Forty dollar vouchers for the “blackbox converters” are supposed to be on the market by Jan 2008. This device will allow viewers with analogue televisions to receive the digital signal. We plan to make the switch by the end of the second quarter of 2008. This will allow all analogue viewers to get our signal uninterrupted and provides time for us to coordinate with all 23 cable companies in the 18 county DMA, plus Dish Network and Direct TV. Our plan is to make the switch to Digital and HD simultaneously. I hope this makes our goals clear, with some history explaining our actions.

Stay Tuned,

Bill Carver
General Manager
Sage Broadcasting
KXVA Fox Abilene

Let's set the record straight here. KXVA Management has answered every single e-mail that has come in with questions. I know this for a fact because I am the one who does it. As for as HD goes, let me explaon ot tp ypu/ You obviously do not know what you are talking about at all. There is not a single station in Abilene that broadcasts in HD. That is a fact. So, before you go mouthing off, you should research a little We do get a straight HD singal at our station. However, you are right, we do not transmit it out. This is for several reasons. However, the primary reason is that in order to broadcast in HD, we must first be broadcasting in Digital.
I will admit that we are not broadcasting KXVA in digital yet. However, this is for a simple reason also. At KXVA, we have been dealt a bad situation from the FCC. Our Analogue channel is 15. Our digital channel is also 15. What this means is that in order to broadcast in digital, we must cut off our analogue signal. No other station in the market has this problem. Since the vast majority of the viewers in the market do not yet have Digital recievers in their television sets, we would be eliminating the vast majority of our audience by converting to digital early.
Digital TV's can pick up an analogue signal. However, the reverse is not true.
At KXVA, we invite your comments. Howeber, if you do decide to be negative, please take a little time to do some research first so that you can make an intelligent argument.