Mexicans Concur with Some Palm Springs Stations' DTV Plans

At long last, after years of waiting, the Mexican government recently concurred with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's approval of digital TV plans for the two full-power Palm Springs television stations.

To put it in simpler terms, about 40 TV stations located within 200 Km of the U.S. border must first apply for U.S. permission to build out their final digital TV facilities. All these stations are now operating analog programming on their original over-the-air channel and a second, "borrowed' digital channel. On February 17th, they must return either the original analog channel or the "borrowed" channel. The FCC has auctioned off the spectrum, mostly to large national cell phone providers. Some of the current television spectrum will be given to law enforcement, fire safety, and emergency first responders.

While the FCC has approved these station's plans for the transition, the Mexican government must agree to them. This is because of a long-standing agreement between the two countries, designed to keep them from separately approving TV and radio facilities which interfere with stations in the others' country.

Concurrence is difficult to get, if for no other reason than the Mexican government has layers of bureaucracy which often change with the shifting winds of Mexican politics.

But rather than complain about the Mexican concurrence process, I'm just happy that we finally can plan to increase the power of our DTV facility. We will be able to double the power of KESQ-DT, which will slightly increase our coverage area, but should give people who try to receive our DTV with an indoor antenna a much better chance of getting a signal. In KESQ-DT's case, we must give up our "borrowed" DTV channel because it's channel 52....and that channel has been auctioned off across the country. So we are switching our analog channel to digital on February 18th, 2009. The process should be transparent to viewers. Our plan is to re-channel our existing DTV transmitter that night. We are installing a new antenna at our site on Edom Hill this autumn.

KMIR also received concurrence for their plan. It's my understanding (without talking to anyone there) that they are going to keep their existing DTV channel, which is over-the-air channel 47. That means that their "old" analog channel 36 has been or will be auctioned off to spectrum bidders.

KPSP (CBS) is a low power TV station operating on over-the-air channel 38, and I have heard, without confirmation, that they have not received Mexican conccurrence for any sort of digital facility at all. (See below regarding low power TV digital concurrence)

None of these changes will mean that you have to re-tune your digital TV sets. Digital TV uses a system called "virtual channels" which will tell your DTV set that even though it's tuned to a different frequency, KESQ-DT will still be channel 42 (over the air) and KMIR-DT will be channel 36 over-the-air (a virtual channel, even though their "actual" channel is 47.)

We actually carry five signals on KESQ-DT, although they appear to the viewer to be five, different stations. We duplicate the analog signals of our ABC, Fox, Telemundo, and CW stations, plus our digital weather channel, the First Alert Weather Channel. So with our souped-up digital facility, you should have an easier time than ever getting them if you are using an over-the-air antenna.

All the other TV stations in Palm Springs are low power stations, which are subject to a completely different set of transition regulations. About a year ago the FCC agreed to "loan" a second digital channel to each low power station in the country, if one was available. Once again, because of their proximity to the Mexican border, each one of these plans required Mexican concurrence after the U.S. approved them. So far the concurrence process has been sketchy because the Mexicans are applying their own rules to what gets approved and what doesn't. If you've ever been to Mexico, you know what I mean. Without a carefully written agreement, enforced by the Mexican courts, getting any kind of government approval often depends upon who's in power this week, who you know, who you're related to, and sometimes who you pay.

So far we have received concurrence to build a digital companion to KUNA-TV and KCWQ-TV, our Telemundo and CW affiliates. We have not received concurrence for a companion for KDFX-CA, our Fox affiliate, nor for K27DS, which is our translator serving the High Desert. The plans are technically not a problem, but with Mexico, you never know. Absent a new, detailed, and most important written agreement between the U.S. and Mexico the concurrence process will continue to be fraught with uncertainty.