KTXR enters digital revolution

KTXR 101.3 FM, owned by Meyer Communications, will be offering digital broadcasting services in July.

Sarah Davison, who is in charge of the project for Meyer Communications, said digital broadcasting is the next step in radio technology.

“It’s the biggest improvement we can make to our station. It’ll make our FM music sound CD quality, without the skips, hisses, pops and dead air,” she said. “It’s going to be where radio goes; eventually it will just be all-digital.”

The station aims to go digital July 7. Listeners who don’t have digital radio receivers needn’t worry; KTXR, the station with the greatest coverage area in the Meyer Communications family, will continue to broadcast in the standard analog format for those who aren’t ready or willing to make the investment to buy digital-capable radios for their cars.

Digital receivers for the home aren’t even on the market yet; Davison said those should be available by the end of July.

A major investment

Meyer Communications’ digital start date is dependent on when the company receives the appropriate Federal Communications Commission licensing. The station is only licensed for testing, though a full license is expected in the next week.

The technological advance does not come cheap – it’s an investment of more than $200,000 for the company.

Davison said Meyer wanted to stay ahead of the communications curve. The FCC has set no mandate for radio stations on switching to digital formats.

“The (high definition) radio is the next step for radio,” she said. “Basically, we wanted to be the first in the Ozarks to have the technology.”

If the company is able to proceed as planned, it will be first. In fact, there are only five FM stations in Missouri that are listed as hybrid stations, broadcasting in both analog and digital frequencies, with the FCC; three are in Kansas City and two are in Columbia. There is also one AM hybrid station in Missouri, KFUO 850 AM in Clayton.

But KTXR isn’t the only local station looking toward digital.

KSMU-FM is in the process of adding digital service as well. Arlen Diamond, director of broadcast services for Southwest Missouri State University, said the station should have a digital signal up and running in the next 15 months, at a cost of about $250,000.

Diamond added that digital offers other advantages besides improved sound quality.

“One of the things that digital does is it affords the opportunity to move toward imbedding a second signal in the service, so that rather than just having one program stream, we’ll look at a strategy where we’ll add a second format,” he said. “So people who have digital radios will be able to pick up not only KSMU analog but also KSMU digital one and KSMU digital two. The station will be able to take the digital bandwidth and split it up.”

Though there are no digital stations in the Ozarks currently, as of June 7 there were 258 hybrid FM stations and 68 AM stations nationwide.

The gradual switch to digital radio follows the switch to digital signals by area television stations. The FCC has set a deadline of Dec. 31, 2006, for television stations to broadcast digital programming.