Aggie Almanac; 173; Highway to Digital TV

You We actually have our monitoring station for our high definition and standard definition station. The transition to digital television is upon us. How can you make the switch? And what can you expect from NMSU's public TV station, KRWG TV? We are going to be able to provide more informational educational public affairs programming to our audiences. Hi, I'm Gary Worth and thanks for watching Aggie Almanac. If you're confused about digital and high definition TV,

well, join the club. But over the next few minutes, we hope to set the story straight and we'll focus on the television station that you're watching right now, KRWG TV, public TV for Southern New Mexico and West Texas. Like every other station in the country, it is going through the process of going 100% digital. It's a bumpy ride that KRWG TV engineer Mike Vince takes all the time to the top of a mountain. There, near the peak, that's the TV station's new digital tower. This steep, uneven dirt road is the only way to get there. And when you get to the top, you realize the peak of a mountain is not just about communication antennas.

Sharing the space, some big horned sheep who are friendly neighbors. There's also thousands of winged ants, somewhat less welcome. You'll find NMSU astronomers up here from time to time. And a mountain is also a religious site for the Tortugas and Pido Manzotila tribes in Las Cruces. For years, there's been antennas up here, operated by NMSU, the city and the county, supporting a number of communication needs, including emergency services and wireless internet access.

Until now, there was no tower for KRWG TV, which maintained its main analog antenna at the Southern New Mexico State Fairgrounds on the West Mesa. But in 1998, Congress mandated all public TV stations to convert from analog to digital transmission. That meant KRWG TV was going to have to build a new digital tower, and a mountain was the best location to serve the most viewers. A new tower, of course, sparked concerns from nearby residents who didn't want to see an antenna farm springing up on top of the mountain. A compromise was eventually reached that turned into a win-win situation, with three existing towers replaced with one new one on the North Peak of A Mountain that would serve everyone's needs.

Some of the antennas are actually going away and being combined on new antennas that are going to be placed on the big tower. And most of the antennas all go on this west leg of the tower so that they can get good coverage out in the valley and meet the community's needs, as far as communication for all of the emergency services and also wireless internet services, so that they all don't interfere with each other as well. The new tower is a three-sided self-supported structure, made of galvanized steel, and built in the style of an open lattice, just 150 feet tall. So short, that it doesn't even require one of those annoying blinking red lights. But of course, the tower didn't appear overnight. It was the result of years of planning and fundraising. With the help of a $2.2 million federal grant, construction on the new tower began in October 2005, a process documented with visuals every step of the way.

With the tower finally completed, it was on December 22, 2005, that KRWGTV's new digital antenna was ready to be mounted on the top. The 7,500-pound antenna arrived at the site in two pieces and had to be reassembled.

This is where it was in two pieces. This site here came fully assembled from the factory. This site over here was completely assembled on the ground at the job site. What happened was, there's a centerpiece right in the middle that's two halves that are joined with an inner bullet. Right now we're at the top of the antenna, which up here you can see there's four lightning spurs up at the top that are mounted to the base plate. What will happen after this thing gets installed? All four will kind of point out, so it'll be a nice square out at the top. These are lightning dissipators, so if any energy is in a field or in the air, this will attract it and dissipate it. This directional antenna had to be installed on the tower with a great deal of precision to ensure the very best signal for viewers. And it took special equipment to hoist the high-tech antenna into place. What you're looking at there is a 100-ton crane that's used for the lifting and installation of these high-weight broadcast antenics, the biggest crane in the area. And it's one of the few ones that's suitable to lift this type of weight this high.

It comes of all to get the antenna. This is the first time I've ever done this. This is the first time I've ever done this. With the new digital antenna in place, another half-million-dollar grant was used to build a structure housing all the transmission equipment, complete with its own generator and even a street address. And with all the equipment in place, history was made as a new era in mass communication began for Southern New Mexico and West Texas.

Today kind of marks a benchmark for the digital conversion. Back in the studios of KRWGTV, the potential benefits of digital television were being celebrated with a group of community leaders and state lawmakers who helped make it happen. And I know for 10 years, all of us in the television industry have been touting the potential of digital television. And that potential involves us being able to better serve our communities. And this promise has been that we will be able to provide programming, to provide programming streams that will meet the needs educationally. And I don't think there's anyone in here being on an educational campus that wouldn't agree that if we can continue to raise the educational level of our community, it creates a better workforce and in turn makes us more economically capable of achieving great things.

We're pressing a green button, which means go. And with the push of a button at the hands of New Mexico Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish, the first new digital program service to be offered by KRWGTV went on the air. It's called Veme, a Spanish-language version of public television. Obviously being located in Las Cruces, New Mexico, we felt that the need for us to be active and jump on this channel early was very important. Digital technology allows TV stations like KRWG to broadcast multiple channels over the air at the same time. The new Veme service is operated on digital channel 22.3 We have a sector of our community that many times is not informed about what's going on in our communities.

And I think we will be reaching them by doing this. This puts New Mexico State and KRWG at the forefront in terms of recognizing what Southern New Mexico is all about, about the culture, the population. And I'm especially pleased because I know that public broadcasting makes a great contribution to children in early education. For many of our children who speak two languages or maybe don't speak English yet, I think Veme will make a wonderful contribution to their education as they continue to grow and thrive in Southern New Mexico. Of course, putting new digital channels on the air, building the new tower and purchasing the new digital antenna all cost money. And this wall forward is all the new equipment that we have. We have new satellite receivers, digital switchers for production in there. These are more of our satellite receivers.

This is what the new money bought was they're called distribution amplifiers. It allows me to take a signal and send it to several different places. To make all the new channels available to viewers, KRWG TV also had to build a new master control room at the station, another costly venture. Here we actually have the master control board. We can control five channels at the same time. It was thanks to state lawmakers, many of them in this audience, that bonds were put on the ballot in the year 2000 and again in 2004 to make the transition to digital TV in this region possible. Public television plays a significant role in our community and we need to recognize that both in terms of the programming as we've talked about, but also in terms of education. And both the programming and the education require competitiveness, competitive for viewers and competitiveness for our sons and daughters that we're trying to get to go to school here.

So it's important that we have the state-of-the-art technology. The state-of-the-art technology course is digital and of course it was also required by the federal government. You know, some days we know more about what's in Anna Nicole Smith's stomach contents than we know about things that are really affecting our communities and our children and our families. And I think that's what public broadcasting really brings to the table is the opportunity to have more in-depth programming, more educational programming, more things about the world at large, the global picture, than focusing on, say, personalities and celebrities in the country and in the world. Well, with us now to talk more about your public TV station going digital is the director of broadcasting for New Mexico State University Glen Cerny. Always a pleasure, Gary, which means you are the director of both public radio, public television, and special production unit, which includes the Aggie Vision telecast as well.

You know, it's quite a little strange being a guest on your own station. It's about time though. But it's an appropriate guest because this high definition and digital issue is happening now. It's affecting our viewers and viewers of television stations across the region, and that's why we wanted to do this segment to get people straight on what's going on. So let's start. I know you have been a person who's excited about digital high definition TV from the very beginning. Well, if for no other reason because I got to talk to Sue about getting a new TV, so that was the first phase of my wife. And yeah, digital is, there's a lot of good possibilities. And I think the thing that we're most concerned about is in nine months on February 17th, 2009, we will turn off the analog transmitter. So if you're listening or watching us right now off of rabbit ears or an outdoor antenna, that channel will go away. And you see, I'm a perfect candidate for this segment because I am a person who gets TV off an antenna.

I'm very old fashioned. I don't have cable. I don't have a satellite. I just have an antenna. And I was wondering, will this work? Is this going to work? And thanks to you, I found out that it does that you gave me what people can get with a coupon from the federal government and plug into their television set a little simple antenna and voila, your digital without buying a new TV. With this box. Yes. And this box is what the digital coupon and to get that it's dtv.gov. And you can go online and I think you got a coupon? I did. It's worth $40. And I think these cost about 50. So I have this box in particular as a zenith and I think it goes for 60. I have seen them out there for under 50, which means for about $10. You can have the converter box and the other thing that you want to make sure is the antenna as well because you're going to have to pick it up. But where the confusion is coming in, and first of all, can I talk a little bit about the why I'm excited about digital.

And you've already seen it. Right now, if you have the capability of getting our digital signal off air and I need to accentuate off air, not satellite, not necessarily cable or you have to go to a different tier. But off air, we're broadcasting at this point, PBS HD channel, which is all in 1020 incredible definition. Yes, it's a gorgeous high definition TV. You know that already. And that's on 22122 is what you're seeing normally on the analog channel 22. And then channel 22.3 is VAME, which is the Spanish language channel. We're probably looking at a change in July 1st that we will put the regular station on in that high definition slot. So that Monday night, when you watch American experience, it can be in high definition. Novon Tuesday, obviously, the programs that we have because right now the HD channel is different than what we have. Right. It's not really our local program. No, it is not.

That's changing in July. We're looking at July 1st. So that raises the question. What do you do with this? That's channel 22.1. What do you do with the channel 22.2? 22.2 right now. It looks like, and I just had a great conversation with Frederick Thomas of the World Network. And this is a 24 hour channel that offers foreign newscasts. And I know with your passion for news. And so I mean, there will be French newscasts, British newscasts beyond the BBC world. I think it's Argentinian. I know there's a South African feed that we get. So it's a Nigerian feed. So it's feeds from around Asia, Europe, South America, Australia. So there will be exposed to different programs and different views like that. Now, the other thing that we will do is after programs like Aggie Almanac appear on 22.1, we will then also repeat those so that people have more opportunity to see them on the channel 22.2. So we'll take parts of these seven in the evening to nine in the evening slots and get our local programs more exposure and more opportunity.

So that's what excites me is that we are going to be able to provide more informational, educational, public affairs programming to our audiences. And this is aside from the fact that I was really amazed. I have to tell you, I've lived in Las Cruces for 25 years, even though I'm only 30. No, that's not true. And I've had an antenna on my roof. Wait, that's not true. I've had an antenna on my roof and been getting fuzzy, terrible pictures for all those years. And when I plugged to this indoor antenna and not even using the outdoor antenna, I've got this really beautiful picture, not just of channel 22.1 and 2.3, which you're operating now, but also the El Paso stations are also operating. And I want to make sure that people understand this. You're going to get the full spectrum of El Paso stations as well in much better quality. Well, I'm very nervous when we make those statements. And as you mentioned, I've been trying to get people at the station to take this out and try it at different areas.

And because for a lot of the El Paso, well for us, we are no longer going to be at the fairgrounds, we're up at A Mountain. And you just have some wonderful shots from up in A Mountain showing what's up there. So because we're changing, it may impact what channels you can and cannot get. This we need to find out, don't we? And that's why I should point out that I live on the West Mesa, which is why you chose me for that area. The West Mesa has always been a difficult area for KRWG because our old transmitter is out on the fairgrounds. It would have been a shadow. Yes. I'm happy to report that the West Mesa is covered. Any of you out in the West Mesa you're covered. But I know you're going to check the South Valley. You're going to check parts of El Paso. Well, we've West El Paso, Ralph Escondone, who I think is doing graphics and some of the stuff right now for this program, took it home. And said that again, KRWG came in better at his home in West El Paso than what he was getting off the analog. And obviously with his location in West El Paso, getting the El Paso stations was not a problem. I'm east of Telshore between University and Telshore.

And I'm able to get just, and again, my competition, I know I'm listening here, but I get two channels on the CBS affiliate. I get, I think, four channels on the ABC affiliate, two on Fox, two on NBC, plus a plethora of Mexican stations in Spanish. And for the record, I don't know what they're doing, but the Mexican signals are lights out. It's just a vivid, vivid picture. It's just a little different. We'll try to find their secret. Now, what about our viewers in Silver City and on the board at the Outline areas? We are working, and again, this all has to take place by that February 17th. So we'll be doing what's called a flash cut that will be out there. And I mean, in the matter of a day, we'll unplug the old analog transmitter, get the new translator in, the digital translator, and have it in there. And Gary, where a lot of the confusion is coming in, if you are getting your signal on cable, if you are getting your signal off satellite TV, it will not change. The difficulty you're going to have is they may not carry all of the channels that we will be offering. They may just channel carry the main channel.

The other thing, there's two groups that we are desperately trying to get the word out, which I'm so appreciative to have this time. One is the elderly that just don't have cable. It may not be as quick to grasp this, even the simple technology. I tried to explain it to my 91-year-old mother. I've just done the same with my mother, she was amazed. Yeah. And the other is the lower income households that can't afford cable and maybe left out. And that's why the coupon is so important, is that reduces the cost to about $10. You can turn your old TV set into a digital set that gets all of these new channels. And the picture is probably going to be better than what you got. Here's the other group. Do you have a second TV in a bedroom, or in the garage, or with your camper, or because even if you're traveling around the country and your camper and you've got an old analog antenna, you're going to need the box to convert that signal when you're on the road,

camping an Arizona or anywhere. So that third group is that second TV, that recreational TV on the patio, wherever it may be. The TV on the go now. Yes, TV. I've noticed you can even plug a doohickey into your computer laptop computer and pick it up. So our engineers here so that I could take it around and display, and it works. It's actually kind of frightening. In our one minute that we have remaining, I want to talk a little bit about the new transmitter on a mountain. I know it's been years, the process, and it's very close to being complete. Can you update us on that? Yeah, I mean, it's very operational right now. We're just still doing a little bit of tweaking with it, so the power will come up just a little bit more. But I mean, Ron Salic, Bill Sagerson, there's a whole list of people that have just invested a lot of time. And that's our former general manager. Of course, our current chief engineer. And this has been a process of getting a lot of money, a lot of viewer support, and a lot of just man hours since 2001. And it's a beautiful facility.

It's turned out wonderful. You've already mentioned the picture. It works. I mean, I kind of get to cut the ribbon and take the bows for it, but there's a whole lot of people that did a lot of work for a lot of years to make this happen. And I'm grateful to all of them. I was here through all of that, and I just want to say thank you for carrying on this good work of bringing digital television and especially digital public TV to all of us here in Southern New Mexico. I'm already enjoying it. I hope everybody out there is. It's a fun time to be in the industry. It is. It's really great. Well, Glenn Cerney, thank you so much. Thank you, Gary. And if that's not an amazing Aggie, well, it's time now for our actual amazing Aggie of the week when we honor someone on campus involved in something we think is extra special. Well, this is a happy bunch, and well, they should be. It's NMSU's Model United Nations team, and it was named Outstanding Delegation at the National Model United Nations 290 School Competition held in New York City. It's the first place category, and the first time NMSU has received this award.

Faculty advisor Jason Ackleson says in athletic terms, it's like reaching the final four in college basketball. In addition to their first place award, the 12 student team was recognized with the Outstanding Position Paper Award, and team member Fata Hafasa was voted best delegate. If you'd like to nominate an amazing Aggie or have any comment about the show, call us at 646-2818 or send an email to AggieAlmanac at Yahoo.com. And that's our show for this week. I'm Gary Worth. Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching.

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