Content area
Full Text
GRAND RAPIDS - Running up bills from $2 million to $12 million is not exactly what executives at local television stations had in mind when budgeting for this year, but that is what they've had to do to comply with a federal mandate that all television stations must broadcast in High Definition Television (HDTV) by May 1, 2003.
Local stations were given a deadline of May 1, 2002, and public television stations were given a deadline of May 1, 2003, but the timing didn't lessen expenses for anyone.
Michael Walenta, general manager of public station WGVU, said the full conversion cost his station $6.2 million, not including operational expenses. He added that PBS spent $1.7 billion for the transition to take place.
"We have seen this coming for awhile, so now every piece of equipment we need to replace, we replace with something that is good for HDTV," Walenta said.
Other stations, like WOOD TV8, not only started planning early but began broadcasting early as well. The station has been showing the Tonight Show and major sporting events in HDTV since 1999. WOOD executives dealt with a beginning budget of $2 million, not including infrastructure costs.
"Luckily, we were a little bit ahead and so we could just add on to our tower,"...