Technical progress is good, but where's the programming?

At least 41 stations in the top 10 markets were on the air with a digital channel as of mid-July, up from 28 some five months earlier. Most of the new entrants were major network affiliates spurred along by the FCC-mandated May 1 digital deadline. Fox's O&O WAGA-DT in Atlanta scrambled and made it on air a week early, but is using only a portion of its allotted power via a temporary antenna on the existing tower. WAGA will transfer both channels to a new $3 million tower in a few months and bump up the digital broadcast to full power.

"We have only talked to a handful of [WAGA-DT] viewers, but the common thread is that all of them would like to find out when anybody is going to be doing true high-definition," says Operations and Engineering Director David Jones.

Almost all of the major network affiliates in the top 10 markets are now at least upconverting standard-def fare. The exceptions include mainly a few affiliates in Chicago and New York, where tower space is limited, and protracted negotiations are forcing some broadcasters to defer DTV plans.

Yet progress is being made. In New York, WABC-TV continues to negotiate for a digital television antenna deal. And on July 15 WNBC-TV announced an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to mount an HDTV antenna atop the World Trade Center tower. WNBC may begin broadcasting a digital signal as early as next spring. Currently on order are a Comark digital transmitter and a Dielectric digital antenna and combiner, according to an WNBC representative.

Word on the WB and UPN front is mixed. The NAB projects over 100 stations will broadcast digital by the end of 1999, but many will not be in the largest metro areas. "It's become sort of a competitive race in a number of local markets," says NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton.

In Dallas, the next station likely to go digital is UPN affiliate KTXA(TV). There's no official deadline yet, but the station may broadcast a digital signal on channel 18 by the end of 1999. "From an engineering level, we are anxious to get on with it," KTXA Chief Engineer George DeLacerda says. "From a business standpoint, it's neither here nor there. There's obviously no money to be made from it right now."

For NTSC, KTXA uses a 2-year-old, four-tube Comark UHF...