98.5 On The Air 1 in Carlsbad and Oceanside (Feb 5, 2009)

It's airing programming from Air One originating from a radio station KLRD 90.1 in Yucaipa in San Bernadino county. Air 1 is a network that plays religious music in the style of contemporary rock music.

From their press release:

"Air 1 was launched in 1995 with the goal of reaching people young at heart with the message of Jesus through music that was hard to find on other radio stations. The Air 1 Radio Network formed when two stations, KLRD (known as K-LORD), broadcasting out of Yucaipa, CA, and KXRD, broadcasting out of St. Helens, OR, joined together with the vision of delivering positive cutting-edge Christian music to teenagers and young adults.

"By playing fun, alternative music and dropping controversial and political programs, Air 1’s popularity has grown to become a network of over 100 radio signals that continues to encourage hundreds of thousands of listeners every week.

"Air 1 was one of the first music stations to stream its broadcast live on the Internet. Now over 1 million people listen to Air 1 every month all over the world at air1.com.

"As a noncommercial, not-for-profit ministry, Air 1 is supported by the continual prayers and financial contributions of our listeners.

Other stations that carry Air 1 nearby include Fontana on 92.7, Ontario at 100.7, and Pasadena at 90.3.

Westwood One Drops Tom Leykis (Feb 5, 2009)

For the past two years, CBS Radio distributed his show to what's left of its own owned station lineup that carried his show. Westwood One distributed his show to the non CBS Radio affillates. Leykis's show is produced from a studio in Hollywood that they're not allowed to mention, so it's not really of ... paramount ... importance anyway.

The final broadcast date for the weekday version of The Tom Leykis Show is set for March 6th, 2009, and the final broadcast date for the "Best of Leykis" and "The Tasting Room" is March 1st.

All Access suggests that Leykis may become a local-only radio show on KLSX 97.1 in the Los Angeles market.

There's no word if Leykis plans to take his show to another syndicator, or if his local-only shows will still be made available for streaming and podcasting.

2nd DTV Deadline Bill Passes in House (Feb 5, 2009)

President Obama intends to sign the bill into law. Obama supports the delay, sharing concerns that 20 million mostly poor, elderly and rural households were not ready for the congressionally mandated switch.

This will give the government more time to distribute the $40 coupons that are used to get a rebate on the cost of buying a digital to analog (not cable) converter box.

Note that the digital to analog converter box may not work on TV sets that don't have a coaxial cable such as portables and old 300-ohm style antenna inputs without a output converter such as an coaxial plug to a 300 ohm connector that will allow the incompatable TV to work with the converter.

Portable TV sets may need not only an output converter (mine is a mono phono jack so go to Radio Shack for help), but since the digital to analog converters need AC power, you may need a DC to AC converter in order to use it.

Better yet, invest in a portable digital TV if you can find one in the stores. Fry's and Target still don't carry such a TV set.

Most Republicans opposed the delay, arguing it would create more confusion after years and millions of dollars had been spent by the government and private industry to advertise the February switch.

Also note that if your TV is hooked up to cable or satellite TV service, you don't need the digital to analog converter boxes. If your TV set can pick up digital signals, you don't need that converter box either.

If your VCRs are hooked up to broadband analog cable, or if you use a cable or satellite digital box as a tuner for your VCR or TV, you don't need the box.

If all you have is a TV set that depends on an antenna for signals, and you're not picking up anything that looks like you're on channel number dot 1 or number dot 2, then you need a digital to analog box, or just buy a new TV for simpler problem solving.

Local Stations May Still Switch Early (Feb 5, 2009)

Several TV stations across the nation are all ready for the switch under the original Feb 17 deadline, but delaying the deadline another four months will cause problems such as paying for the expense of running an analog transmitter for the very few viewers who watch the channels over the air with an old analog TV set.

Localwise, SBE 36 reports that the San Diego broadcasters will flash to digital on the Feb 17 date regardless of the bill being signed into law. KFMB, KGTV, KNSD, KSWB, and KUSI said they would turn off their analog signals. KPBS would continue with analog through March so they can run their pledge drive.

The Mexican-owned TV stations such as XETV, XHDTV, and XEWT are not affected by the bill and are not regulated by the U.S. government, so they can continue to offer both analog and digital signals, but if all of neighboring San Diego's TV stations are all digital, would it make sense for XETV to turn off its analog channel and petetion the FCC (by international agreement for TV stations within 200 miles of the border) to allow its digital channel to increase its power to cover San Diego better? Mexico's SCT should allow XETV to boost its digital power with no problem after co-channel KTBN relocates its digital channel from 23 to 33 as they asked the FCC to approve of the move.

The fourth generation wireless services such as Qualcomm want the channel 52-69 range to be vacated by the analog channels as soon as possible so that they can offer more services in the spectrum.

KFMB's digital channel is on 7, which has to be low so that it won't interfere with analog KABC in Los Angeles, but it causes interference with KNSD cable 7 near the Mount Soledad area. With its signal range so small, KFMB would want to flash to digital on channel 8 so it can be run for full power.

Here's an idea. Just have all of the stations in a market sign a contract to go digital together on Feb 17. This will force the consumers to go to Best Buy, Radio Shack, Target, Wal-Mart, and other stores to buy either digital to analog converters or new digital TV sets. This should not only give us full-powered digital TV signals so more people can pick up the signals, this will help the economy by forcing the viewers to go out and buy something (with money in their accounts, or course.)

I can't get KFMB-DT at all at my house. KGTV is choppy. KUSI, KSWB, KNSD, and KPBS come in fine. Turn off the analog transmitters and flash to digital on Feb 17. Just get the digital conversion over with and make the stores stock up on the digital TVs and start carrying new portable DTV sets so I can watch the Super Bowl in my car next year. Let the nearby Mexican channels flash to digital ASAP so they can be competetive with the San Diego channels.

If the elderly still need a converter box, have KPBS hold a pledge drive just to supply them with converter boxes donated by the viewers and get the switch over with so the youngsters can watch Elmo on Sesame Street in pure digital.

KFMB Intends To Drop Analog Feb 17 (Feb 5, 2009)

On February 17, KFMB-TV, San Diego, California, intends to cease analog broadcasting. Viewers who rely on over-the-air service will lose reception of our programming unless they use a DTV receiver or converter box. Converter boxes can be purchased from electronics retailers and online. If you subscribe to cable or satellite service, you should not lose reception. For more information, please go to www.dtv2009.gov or contact KFMB-TV at our DTV Hotline (858) 495-9390

We expect to terminate analog OTA service at 23:59 and begin digital broadcasting on VHF 8 at approximately 12:30am on 2/18/09.

You will be required to have your digital converter box or tuner "rescan or retune" to acquire the digital signal following your manufacturer's instructions.

The Wires (Feb 5, 2009)

Buffalo News: Ryan Seacrest. Rush Limbaugh. Delilah. John Tesh. Jim Rome. They’re on the air. Jim Pastrick. “Slick Tom” Tiberi. Gail Ann Huber. Jimmy T. They’re not. Flip through the dial on your car radio these days, and you’ll often hear the voice of a host who is a long way from Buffalo. This is all part of the new state of the radio industry, and several key factors are driving the changes (read more - Stephen T. Watson - Buffalo News)