Power Reduction For News On 6 DTV Conversion

By Emory Bryan, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- The latest changes in digital television could mean some viewers of The News On 6 lose the signal for a few days during an upgrade to some equipment.

It's the final week to get ready for the changeover because while The News On 6 stopped analog broadcasting four months ago, the other stations will do it this Friday.

Viewers will notice that and some other changes over the next week.

The changeover to digital television becomes final on Friday and every viewer using an antenna will need to do something to continue watching.

Almost all stations will make changes that affect viewers.

The News On 6 is changing over to a new digital antenna that's higher than the one being used now.

"By moving to the very top antenna means we have a full omnidirectional pattern and we should be able to be available to every viewer in our market area," said Gerald Weaver, KOTV Chief Engineer.

The KOTV conversion requires work on the transmitters and that requires the station to reduce power through this coming weekend.

"And that will allow us to do some transmitter modifications and hook up to the new antenna on top of the tower that we'll be using from now on," said Weaver.

The News On 6 broadcasts from a tower in Oneta.

This week, on reduced power, distant viewers might have trouble tuning in the broadcast.

When the station goes to full power on a new antenna next week, the signal should reach some distant viewers, especially to the southeast and west, who could not pick up the signal before.

Viewers using an antenna will need to re-scan for their television channels on Friday after 1:00 p.m. to continue picking up the signals.

And it's not just for The News On 6.

"These changes will not only affect us, but affect other stations in our market. Just be patient because a lot of things have changed to get us where we are at this point," said Weaver.

Viewers watching on cable or satellite are not affected.

The biggest change right now is that viewers using an antenna might have a harder time pulling in the signal for the next week.