It appears Cleveland market WB affiliate WBNX/55 Akron’s long wait for approval of its digital TV facility is over.
An OMW tipster gave word of the FCC’s OK of the station’s digital construction permit, and sure enough, it shows on the FCC website as being approved a week ago. (It’s the one labeled “BPCDT-19991029AFM”, which was filed way back in 1999.)
WBNX had to resolve interference issues with a Canadian TV station on the same channel, the digital side of Global TV’s Paris ON affiliate. Even though that station isn’t anywhere near being on the air, the local station still had to consider its approved facilities in Canada in its own application.
In February, WBNX had filed an amendment to the CP request, specifying some details in their request to put up a directional antenna with a “beam tilt” to direct the signal away from interference with the Canadian station’s planned facility. It appears this move is what nudged the FCC off dead center with the WBNX-DT application.
On its “trends” page, WBNX says they hope to get the facility on by the FCC deadline for such stations in July 2006. The page was put up before the approval, and we understand the station is basically ready to construct it, if they haven’t already started in the past week. WBNX will become the Cleveland market’s CW Network affiliate in September, and the move means it’s likely that the CW’s HDTV programming will be seen here when the network starts…
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