WRTV, because of it's long-standing license on TV Channel 6, has been able to promote the fact that listeners can hear the station's audio signal on their car radios. TV Channel 6 is allocated 82-88 MHz with the audio carrier on 87.75 Mhz. Even though the FM broadcast band is allocated 88-108 MHz, most FM broadcast radios will tune below 88 MHz. As a result, you can set your FM radio to 87.7 MHz and hear the audio from TV Channel 6. This has been true everywhere in the country where there is a TV station on Channel 6. This is not unique to WRTV and they are not doing anything out of the ordinary to make this signal available on people's car radios.
However, the transition to digital television changes things dramatically for people who have been listening to WRTV's audio signal on their car radios:
1. WRTV's digital license is on TV Channel 25 which is allocated 536-542 MHz. WRTV will go dark on TV Channel 6.
2. As I stated previously, there are no scanners, or car radios, that I know of that can decode ATSC digital television signals.
I am not here to promote Radio Shack or the products they sell, but they do have a small, portable television that can decode ATSC digital TV signals. This TV is can be operated from 120VAC or from its internal batteries, though one report I read said that the batteries will only operate the TV for about two hours. Nonetheless, it might be good to have one of these TVs for emergencies. Here's the link to this TV on Radio Shack's web site:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2855063
There are some interesting things going with the transition to digital TV.
1. Most stations that were on TV Channels 2 through 6 are being moved to higher-numbered channels. In the Indianapolis market, WTTV 4 is moving to 48 and WRTV 6 is moving to 25. There are some markets that will still have digital TV broadcasters on channels 2 through 6, but they are rare.
2. Most stations got digital licenses on different channels than their analog channels. In the Indianapolis market, 4 goes to 48, 6 goes to 25, 8 goes to 9, 20 goes to 21, 59 goes to 45, etc. The one anomoly is WTHR 13. Their digital broadcast is currently on TV Channel 46, but after February 2009, they will switch their digital broadcast back to TV Channel 13.
So, if anybody tries to tell you that you only need a UHF antenna to pick up digital TV, they are wrong. In the Indianapolis market, you will still need a antenna that works on the high-VHF band so you can get 9 and 13.
