For years, all your favorite TV stations in the Greater Cleveland area, including WKYC, have branded themselves by their analog channel numbers. For us, it's Channel 3 as in "Channel 3 News." Channel 5 is "Newschannel 5." Channel 8 is "Fox 8 News." You know the drill.
But with the upcoming move of TV stations by the FCC to new digital channels in 2009, what will stations be called? The simple answer is: still Channel 3, 5, and 8.
In the analog world, there is a direct relationship between the channel number and the RF frequency. In the digital world, this relationship becomes indirect (but linked) using an electronic system called PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol). You can read more on the specifics at http://www.psip.org/
The PSIP is data that is transmitted along with the station's digital TV signal to alert your new digital TV where to find a station on its tuner. The PSIP identifies both the DTV channel and for now, the NTSC (analog) channel. Your TVs will electronically associate the two channel numbers making it easy for viewers to tune to our station(s), even if that do not know the new digital channel number. Thus, the digital channels really become irrelevant.
Today we are located on a very bad position at digital RF position Channel 2. In the next year, we'll move to our new digital RF position channel 17, but will still be known to viewers as "Channel 3." The important brands that TV stations have today will need to be preserved and they will be under this PSIP system.
Since we are already broadcasting digitally, WKYC (on analog Channel 3) is being coded on RF Digital Channel 2 as "Channel 3-1" (Channel 3 HD) and "Channel 3-2" (Weather Plus). We will have the opportunity to add even more TV or data channels in the future.
When we move to Channel 17, your new TV's will find us as 17-1, 17-2 and you won't need to do a thing.
Once the analog WKYC channel 3 channel is forced to sign off the air in 2009, the only change viewers will notice is that the analog signal disappears. You will be receiving only digital signals from that point forward.
It's an exciting time in the broadcast industry...and we'll be here with you to explain it to you in layman's terms as we go along.
