Status of Oklahoma City DTV Rollout
For over a year, reports and rumors have been trickling in about when Oklahoma City TV stations might actually get their DTV channels on the air.
Thus far, none of my e-mails to local stations have been responded to, but some people actually have been successful in getting responses from the Oklahoma City stations on their DTV plans. So, without further delay, here’s what I’ve been able to piece together from e-mail and forum posts on when Oklahoma City will actually have a DTV on the air…
Updated: December 5, 2001
KFOR-DT — NBC — Channel 27
KFOR-DT Channel 27’s equipment was activated on June 6, 1999. Unfortunately, other than showing a demo loop during the 1999 State Fair, the signal has been turned off — despite a program guide on TitanTV and being included on virtually all the sites listing DTV stations on the air.
I bought a Channel Master 4248 UHF antenna in May thinking I’d be able to get Channel 27, Oklahoma City’s NBC affiliate’s DTV channel, KFOR-DT so I’m obviously disappointed. A blind HAM radio friend of mine actually knows the exact dates they’ve been on the air as he has was searching for HAM signals on those days and got static.
HiDefSooner said he had talked with them and that because NBC was only doing The Tonight Show in HD they weren’t going to turn the channel on until they were absolutely required to do so. Personally, I can’t blame them for that, but I’m not getting even their analog signal at the moment so it would be nice.
Update: Although KFOR-DT still hasn’t responded to my e-mail, Titan TV now lists them as going live on January 1, 2002. With any luck, they’ll be passing through delayed HD Olympic broadcasts from HDNet.
KWTV-DT — CBS — Channel 39
According to a tower engineer from Texas, KWTV-DT has their DTV transmitter in place and tested. They are currently awaiting an antenna and transmission line. They also responded to at least one e-mail saying they thought they would be online with upconverted SD in January 2002 with full HDTV from CBS not coming until January 2003. It sounds like they will be testing until May 2002 when they go full time with the SD signal.
BTW, they turned down my request for a waiver to receive the national CBS HDTV feed out of New York City until they get on the air.
Update: HiDefSooner has been following tower construction developments for KWTV-DT, KOPX-DT and KETA-DT and while their live dates haven’t changed, things are said to be progressing nicely.
KETA-DT — PBS — Channel 32
TitanTV Lists OETA as having both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa stations on the air in December. We do know from the OETA web site that they’ve received roughly $12 million in funding for the DTV converstion. Because PBS is providing some great HDTV programming, let’s hope they do get on the air in December so we can be getting reruns of the great PBS HDTV programming next Spring.
Update: In addition to HiDefSooner’s reports, TitanTV has now pushed back the Live date for OETA to April 1, 2002.
KOPX-DT — PAX — Channel 50
Apparently, their transmitter is onsite, but not assembled. According to another broadcast engineer in Oklahoma City, the construction of their equipment is related to the installation of KETA and KWTV’s equpment, where they’re all sharing a single tower in northwest Oklahoma City. If they were to get on the air by the end of the year, this could be really cool as PAX has a deal with NBC to rebroadcast some NBC programming. In a perfect world, this might mean multicasts of Olympic events.
Update: KOPX-DT’s tower is located on the same tower as KETA-DT and KWTV-DT. As construction progresses on that tower and the antennas, we can expect to have a better time frame on when they’ll go live. TitanTV still lists their Live date as May 1, 2002.
KSBI-DT — Independent — Channel 51
The same engineer who reported that KWTV-DT had their transmitter in place also reported that KSBI-DT has ordered their equipment. This would be good since KSBI-TV carries OU and OSU sports and my picture in Stillwater is a little fuzzy. 
KOKH-DT — FOX — Channel 24
KOKH is the only station in Oklahoma that actually talks about the DTV rollout on their web site.
KOKH will be broadcasting a Digital signal on Channel 24 no later than May of 2002.  We are excited about bringing the higher quality and extra services that are made possible with a digital transmission. Look for additional information about Digital TV on this site in the near future.
I’m excited even though FOX as a network apparently doesn’t plan to broadcast HDTV, but rather widescreen 480p.
KOCO-DT — ABC — Channel 16/7
People who have contacted KOCO have been told that they’ll be on the air with SD in May 2002, the date of the national rollout. Pretty vague given that ABC is now broadcasting most of their primetime schedule in HD. KOCO-DT has had an application in to the FCC to change from channel 16 to channel 7, but as near as I can tell that request hasn’t been acted upon. If they switch, I’ll have to consider getting a VHF antenna to go along with my great UHF antenna.
If a station isn’t listed here, it basically just means that there aren’t any good rumours or no one has heard any definitive information. Please feel free to add any new information or juicy tidbits about when Oklahoma will have any station broadcasting full-time DTV.
