In the digital age, having a UHF signal is far more optimal than having a VHF signal — the exact opposition situation of the now-concluded analog era of broadcast television. As such, many requests have arrived at the FCC requesting a change in the Table of Allotments so a VHF-to-UHF upgrade can take place.
Now, the FCC has given its approval of a low-band VHF to high-band VHF shift request.
Blue Ridge PBS in January sought Commission approval to substitute VHF Channel 13 for VHF Channel 3 for its WBRA-TV in Roanoke, Va.
A petition for rulemaking was filed in December 2022, and amended on January 9, to
include further analysis of the population that may lose predicted service as a result of the proposed channel substitution.
On Wednesday (3/15), no comments aside from those from Blue Ridge PBS were received.
As such, Blue Ridge PBS’s request the change frequencies has been granted.
Apart from WBRA, only one of the seven other full-power television stations in the Roanoke-Lynchburg DMA operates on a VHF channel, and it operates on high-VHF channel 7. As such, Blue Ridge PBS asserted that allowing WBRA to move to a high-VHF channel would improve viewers’ access to the station’s PBS and other public television programming by improving reception and resolving low-VHF reception issues.
Blue Ridge added that it has received viewer complaints, noting that WBRA is the lone Roanoke station they cannot receive reliably over the air.
