John RogersMONTGOMERY, ALA.
As a church-owned-and-operated low power television station, WFRZ-LP operates on a tight budget and strives to accomplish as much as possible with every dollar spent. Some expenses, however, can only wait for so long.
We had reached the point where we really needed a new delivery system for getting our studio audio and video to our transmitter location, and we needed to act quickly.
PLANNED NEW STL
We had been planning to join the many full power stations in moving to DTV transmissions in February and had no choice but to move forward with a first class studio to transmitter link.
Our first move along this road was in contacting RF Central through a primary equipment source, Southern Digital Products Inc. located in Huntsville, Ala. Southern requested that RF Central make a trip down to Montgomery to assess our station's requirements and to make an equipment recommendation.
It was imperative that WFRZ-LP deliver a first class signal to the transmitter, as we want to attract and keep as many viewers as possible. Trying to carve out a niche in today's broadcast and cable market is a challenge, and this is especially so for a low power church operated station such as WFRZ-LP. Attempting to compete for viewers with anything less than a top quality signal is futile, so this was paramount in our equipment selection.
When RF Central arrived, they made a thorough assessment of our needs and recommended their RFX-13GL microwave transmitter. After looking at some of the competition, RF Central's proposal seemed best suited to our needs all the way around. That made our decision to purchase that much easier.
LICENSING ASSISTANCE
We also knew that we needed some assistance in applying for a license to cover the new equipment and the RF Central rep directed us to several firms that could help us with this part of the project. We soon selected Cavell, Mertz and Associates Inc. for help in filing for the new license.
When we started equipment installation, WFRZ-LP's choice of RF Central as a supplier became even more important.
We experienced an unexpected snag during the job and RF Central sent in some exemplary engineers to assist. John Frye, Tim Kerr, and Steve Coach showed their expertise in microwave technology by providing answers for each of the challenges we were facing. As it turned out, our problems were not equipment related, but were due to antenna misalignment. This was quickly resolved and everything looked great.
As it worked out, we wound up with a received signal level that was 8 dB better than projected. This solid signal is sure to meet our stations' needs for years to come. After the installation we were able to move into the digital age, knowing that signal delivery to our transmitter would not be a problem.
John Rogers is TV ministry director at the Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church, and operates WFRZ-LP for the church. Rogers has been in the TV broadcasting business since 1960. He may be contacted atjohn.rogers@frazerumc.org.
For additional information, contact RF Central at 717-249-4900 or visitwww.rfcentral.com.
