A Madison TV station that agreed to move from UHF to VHF as part of the spectrum auction is now seeking two UHF digital replacement translators to alleviate indoor reception problems.
Morgan Murphy Media CBS affiliate WISC-TV/3.1 (Madison) received $48.9 million in the auction to move from channel 50 to channel 11. However, viewers have been reporting reception problems since the move, and an upgrade from 10.2kW to 46.9kW last fall did not stop the complaints.
WISC-TV has now applied for translators on channel 25 in Madison and channel 22 in Janesville. Each would transmit with 15kW, the maximum for TV translators.
WISC is the only station transmitting on VHF in the Madison market. That was also the case before the transition, but analog VHF signals typically performed better than analog UHF signals. The reverse has been the case for digital signals.
Numerous other VHF stations in other markets (such as Green Bay) are working to move to UHF. However, that’s not an option for WISC since it agreed to leave UHF and Madison’s proximity to Chicago and Milwaukee means there’s no room left on the shrunken UHF band for a full-power station.