Wilmington Stations May Not Go All-Digital Monday if Storm Hits Hard
A tropical storm may delay Monday’s planned move to digital-only broadcasting by the five commercial stations in Wilmington, N.C., the first and perhaps only market to make an early transition from analog (CD Aug 28 p1). Officials at three stations there said the broadcasters will confer by phone Sunday morning to decide whether to stop regular programming in analog at noon Monday, a move announced by the FCC in May. The decision will be based on the extent of damage from tropical storm Hanna, which is headed for the area, they said.
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The stations have longstanding contingency plans to deal with storms (CD Aug 29 p2), the executives said. Rain and wind from Hanna is expected in Wilmington starting Friday night or early Saturday, said Andy Combs, general manager of Morris Multimedia’s WWAY. The storm isn’t expected to be severe, but that could change, he said. “Right now the storm doesn’t look like it’s going to be that bad,” he said. After storms comparable to Hanna, power has been restored within a day and flooding limited, he said. “We feel pretty good about the storm as far as not having a big, big impact at least as far as the immediate coastline,” though inland flooding is a risk, said David Toma, creative services director for Raycom’s WECT. The station also does engineering for WSFX-TV.
Hanna is projected to remain a tropical storm when it makes landfall between 1 and 4 a.m. Saturday in the county west of Wilmington’s, said Mike Caropolo, meteorologist in charge of Wilmington National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office. Sustained winds of 70 miles an hour and two to four inches of rain are expected on the coast, he said. “Damage from a tropical storm is usually not extensive, because the wind speeds aren’t that high” compared with a hurricane,” Caropolo said. Hurricane Ike’s path is expected to bring it within five days to where Hanna now is in the Atlantic, but that storm’s landfall is difficult to forecast, he added.
Preparations continue for the Monday switch. “With no information, you have to continue going as planned, and that’s what we're doing,” Combs said. Wilmington stations plan to transmit in analog for some time after Sept. 8, showing only a message “slate” telling viewers how to receive digital TV, executives have said.
WECT and WSFX will run their analog transmitters at full power until sometime in October, Chief Engineer Dan Ullmer said. In bad weather, the stations will broadcast in both analog and digital, as they now do, he said. “We can very quickly pull that patch if it should become necessary due to weather conditions,” Ullmer said. “That’s one of the benefits of transitioning early.”