Residents to stop getting low-power version of NBC4

By Sally Voth - svoth@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK - New Market residents who rely on television translators won't be able to tune in to the low-power version of NBC's Washington outlet by the end of the summer.

QUALCOMM Inc. has bought licenses from the Federal Communications Commission to use TV channel 55, according to a letter from QUALCOMM to the Board of Supervisors. It asks the county to stop using the frequency.

Television translators pick up and rebroadcast network stations. They provide better reception than an antenna for homes that don't have cable or satellite service.

The FCC requires such stations to not interfere with primary services, including new wireless services, QUALCOMM's letter says.

The low-power version of WRC (NBC4) is to go off the air on Aug. 1, Assistant County Administrator Mary Beth Price said on Monday.

Earlier this spring, Price had told the committee that residents in the Toms Brook and Woodstock areas getting CBS-affiliate WUSA-9 would lose that channel in mid-April due to Verizon Wireless buying broadcasting licenses in an FCC auction. The translator frequency for Fox affiliate, WTTG-5, is also expected to be taken over by Verizon in about a year.

Price said that the supervisors' finance committee will take up the matter further.

When the county announced the shutdown of the WUSA feed, about two dozen people called the county, Price said Monday. Of those, nine were from the southern end of the county, which wouldn't be affected by WUSA's loss, but wanted to get added to a list of residents affected by WTTG, she said.

Out of the remaining 14 callers, just four didn't have access to cable television, Price said.

"This QUALCOMM [takeover] was a surprise," she said Tuesday. "[But,] they gave us good notice."