The End is HERE! On December 14th at midnight, WBGU-PBS will cease analog television broadcasting forever! WBGU began analog television broadcasting almost 45 years ago as a part-time, black and white, educational television service on Channel 70 at Bowling Green State University. Over these many years and generations, with your support and the support of many before, the station developed into an award-winning service to the people of 19 Ohio counties and beyond on WBGU-PBS, Channel 27. That analog broadcasting service, now surpassed by better technology, will be turned off forever at midnight on December 14th.

While most broadcast stations are waiting until the last minute in February of 2009 to change totally to digital, WBGU-PBS is converting almost two months early for the following reasons:

1. The current WBGU-PBS analog transmission system is damaged, is operating at partial power and could stop totally at any time, which would cause either expensive replacements to stay on the air with analog until February 19th or could cause a long delay in getting back on the air until appropriate contractors could come to convert to digital.

2. The analog to digital conversion from broadcasting on Channel 27 requires external contractors to assist at the transmitter site and on the tower because we will be using the same frequency for digital. Some stations will be staying with the new frequency that was assigned to them for digital, but WBGU-PBS was given Channel 56 to use during the transition, and Channel 56 cannot be used for television after February, 2009. Contractors and specialized crew are available in December and may not be available in February when demand for their services will be very high across the country.

3. As soon as WBGU-PBS moves to all digital, the services on Channel 27 will have a stronger broadcast signal and more people will be able to receive the services of WBGU digital than are currently served by WBGU analog.

4. Shutting down the analog transmitter in December will save WBGU-PBS almost $8,000 a month in electricity costs.

5. Finally, the FCC is encouraging stations to begin transitions early. Be ready! By the time the school bus is picking up children in your neighborhood on the morning of December 15th, WBGU-PBS will be broadcasting with a new, technologically advanced digital system which will provide more programming content to you with much better video and audio quality.

More programs: For the past several years during the “transition,” WBGU-PBS has experimented by broadcasting multiple program streams on our temporary digital channel 56. (For those of you who have been receiving WBGU-DT already, your digital TV set or converter box was converting this to Channel 27 on your tuner without you knowing it because Channel 27 was still be used for the WBGU-PBS analog broadcast).

You will notice in this edition of PREVIEW we are attempting to provide you with a much fuller description of what is being provided to you on our four digital channels. We welcome your comments about what kind of programs you believe would be most valuable and supported by your community. Please send your ideas to me at programideas@wbgu.org or call me at 419-372-7000.

For some, this transition seems pretty simple, but for many, it is darn confusing. In the long run, the transition to digital will be better for viewing, provide more educational programs for the families of Northwest and West Central Ohio, and open up use of our public airwaves for communication technologies, including cell phones and defense.

The “End of Analog” on WBGU-PBS, the end of snowy pictures and interference, is here indeed on December 14th. But there is a wonderful future ahead for everyone on WBGU Digital broadcasting that has already begun. But don’t wait until December 15th. Tune in now to WBGU-PBS Digital 27!

Please email us with any thoughts or questions. Enjoy your visit to WBGU-PBS online.

Patrick Fitzgerald
General Manager