Summary

Richard M. Wolfe of WBNS-TV draws a direct historical parallel between the FCC's politically pressured shift of the FM band in the 1940s — which set FM radio back 20 years — and Sinclair's 1999 push to change the HDTV emission standard. He argues that obsoleting existing transmitters and receivers is a proven tactic to kill a competing technology and protect incumbent broadcast interests.

Source document circa 1999 preserved as-is

 

 

"While it appears on the surface to be an esoteric 'non political' engineering argument, if you were a bottom line operator and didn't want to invest in HDTV and wanted to kill the industry - preserve the existing TV cash cow, such as it is today - how would you go about it? "

 

Shades of The Past.....

Or Should I Better Say That,

"They Who Forget The Past Are Doomed To Repeat It..."

by

Richard M. Wolfe

 

I asked Richard, and he was kind enough to grant me permission to run what was first a private Email between his office in California and to Michael Fiorile, Pres. Dispatch Broadcast Group, Columbus, OH (WBNS-TV/10). Mr. Wolfe is a principal of WBNS-TV and other stations and publications in Ohio.

 

In about 1945, we hired Major Armstrong (inventor of FM radio) to come to Columbus and build, at the Barnett Road transmitter site, the first FM station in Ohio. My grandfather H. P. Wolfe, Dick Borel (the Michael Fiorile of the day) and the Marvin Born, (the V. P. Engineering of the day), Lester Nafzger, were always on the industry leading edge - financially and technically.

The first FM band authorized by the FCC was the 50 MHz band and our first W8XUM FM transmitter was on 50 MHz. The sales pitch of FM was: "High Fidelity," no static or noise, perfect frequency response - in short - perfect quality. (Sound familiar?)
"High Fidelity Radio" just like the "High Definition TV" today.

FM was progressing very slowly. The sets were expensive. They drifted. The speakers (like the HDTV displays of today) weren't very good, there was little programming, but the quality conscious were slowly starting to buy..... (Sound familiar?)

The AM stations - especially the small ones who didn't have the money to add FM to their 'corn popper' AM facilities of the day - were terrified that FM would destroy their nice profitable business that had long been in place. (Sound familiar?)

The AMers appealed to the FCC to shift the FM band from 50 MHz to 88-108 MHz, which under heavy lobbying pressure from the AM industry, they did.

This obsoleted every transmitter and every receiver in the marketplace! It set FM back by 20 years. We then built a new 97.1 transmitter and again were first in Ohio with WELD-FM (now WBNS-FM). It took years to recover. FM finally won the quality race and is now the primary radio medium, but politics killed the goose for a long time, a very long time.

ENTER SINCLAIR:

While it appears on the surface to be an esoteric 'non political' engineering argument, if you were a bottom line operator and didn't want to invest in HDTV and wanted to kill the industry - preserve the existing TV cash cow, such as it is today - how would you go about it?

Sure, obsolete every transmitter and receiver in the marketplace today. It worked before, and most TV broadcasters have forgotten FM. So, let's change the emission standard, and for what? To get a microscopic improvement in a viewable picture when the receivers are in motion? If the FCC and industry buys this one it's because THEY want to kill HDTV. It all sounds VERY familiar....

What more can I say.

Happy 50th Anniversary to WBNS-TV!

Richard

Copyright 1999

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