I think there are three kinds of stations. One station makes things happen. Another has things happen to it. And the third station says, “What the heck happened here?”
In the San Francisco Bay area, NBC O&O KNTV, better known to viewers as NBC11, opted for making things happen.
KNTV and NBC knew that if they wanted to run with the big dogs (i.e., those with antennas atop Mount Sutro), they had to run in the tall grass. And that meant relocating their transmission facilities from Mount Loma Prieta to Mount San Bruno. It’s still not Mount Sutro, but the Mount San Bruno is only about five miles from that location.
And, as Richard Swank, vice president of engineering for NBC11, pointed out, when you look at the projected coverage maps for the station’s new site, they look very much like those of the stations on Mount Sutro. “Besides,” he said, “building a new tower was out of the question. You don’t just run out and build a new tower in California. There would be no end to the protests.”
Instead, NBC11 opted for leasing a pre-existing tower on Mount San Bruno, part of the American Tower complex (or antenna farm) of 10 towers. While the newer NBC11 tower is being modified for their new transmission line and Dielectric antenna, their lease agreement states that no additional space for other services on the tower will be leased during the term of the contract.
To complete the site, NBC11 has ordered two Thales solid state transmitters. One will operate analog on channel 11 and one digitally on channel 12. According to Swank, the analog transmitter/antenna combination is projected to pump an estimated 316kW into the Bay Area, while the channel 11 digital transmitter will deliver 101.3kW. They’ll be using Microwave Radio STLs to tie their new studios (described in the cover story on page 14) to the Mount San Bruno site.
NBC11 is projecting that the site and transmitter change will give the station access to about 450,000 additional viewers. Swank calculates that the Bay area is 85% wired for cable, so this additional potential viewer base falls into the base numbers of those not connected to cable. Obviously, NBC11 is looking forward to market penetration and recognition as a major broadcasting force. Meanwhile, one could expect the station to re-adjust is advertising rates to reflect the viewership growth.
While KNTV owns no translators, Swank acknowledges that those who are now receiving the station on translators to the north will soon have a much better signal to work with. And that translates to additional potential viewers and, perhaps, another review of the station’s ad rates.
NBC11 also has a sister station, KSTS, a Telemundo outlet, that operates its transmitter from Mount Allison. At present, other than moving KSTS’ studio to the same facility as NBC11’s new studio, there are no plans to move their transmitter.
Meanwhile, NBC11 is prepared to make its presence known. This shouldn’t be too hard: The station already owns 15 ENG vehicles. Two are satellite vans, the rest are terrestrial transmitting trucks. And, in keeping with the forward-thinking of NBC11, the ENG fleet is equipped with COFDM transmitters.
“In San Francisco,” said Swank, “it’s so hilly that there are almost no line-of-site possibilities. COFDM is proving that we can send back signals from almost anywhere in the metro area.”
Completion of this massive transformation of NBC11 and KSTS is scheduled for February. And just maybe some area stations will say, “What the heck happened?” As for Swank, having made things happen, he’s penciled in February as a good time to take a vacation!
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