I am having trouble finding information on a number of Twin Cities stations that have dropped HD Radio. I understand the HD Radio is not utilized or worth the effort going forward but I’m surprised that I can find no mention of stations abandoning HD service. Maybe it’s just an iHeart thing but when 99.5 stops broadcasting HD Classical music its seems like it is no longer supported as a format and nobody has a comment on it. Any insight as to the status of HD Radio in our market?
The outages are not permanent, but are likely related to the guy wire replacement project underway at a Shoreview tower used by many Twin Cities FM and TV stations.
As noted here last week in response to a question about weak signals, the stations that transmit from the tower (92.5, 93.7, 97.1, 98.5, 99.5, 100.3, 101.3, 102.1, 102.9, and 104.1) have backup facilities elsewhere in the metro, many at the IDS Center, that allow them to continue broadcasting at reduced power while the work is underway.
However, it would appear that the backup facilities do not have HD Radio transmitters, which is why the HD signals have suddenly disappeared from most of the Twin Cities stations on a number of days this summer.
Besides their primary programming, the ten stations offer a combined 17 additional program streams on HD2, HD3, and HD4 channels.
It’s in iHeartMedia’s interest, in particular, to keep the HD Radio signals on the air in the long term, since HD subchannels feed four of their FM translators: Black Information Network 93.3 (KQQL-HD2), KFAN+ 96.7 (KQQL-HD3), Hot 102.5 (KTCZ-HD3), and the KTLK signal at 103.5 that actually relays the format via KFXN-FM-HD2.
KQQL/107.9 transmits from a different site and is not affected. The other iHeart translators are legally allowed to continue programming while the primary stations are off because they are within the stations’ primary contours and, therefore, can be fed directly rather than receiving their programming over the air.
Do you have a question about broadcasting? Email jonellis@northpine.com and I’ll do my best to find an answer!