Terrestrial Broadcasting Changes at the 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference

Because all of the countries attending the 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC-79) are substantially involved in broadcasting, the discussion of broadcasting and related subjects at WARC-79 developed top level interest. The changes in the terrestrial broadcasting bands as the result of the WARC-79 negotiations were for the most part positive. Objectionable interference was removed from the LF band; the MF band in Region 2 was expanded by 110 kHz; the FM Aural broadcasting band in Region 1 was expanded by 8 MHz; some of the less usable frequencies in the Low VHF TV band were eliminated, but TV broadcasting frequency allocations were added to the High VHF band to compensate. In the use of the UHF TV band, the United States proposal to share the band on a primary basis with fixed and mobile services created substantial controversy, which lead to a reservation on the part of the United States Government. In addition to the expansion of the MF band by 110 kHz in Region 2, a proposal was made to the Region 2 MF Regional Administrative Radio Conference to adopt a 9-kHz channel spacing so the channel spacing in all three Regions would be identical. It was the proposal of the USA to use the additional channels generated by 9-kHz spacing for minority ownership, educational ownership, and to provide full-time schedules for daytime-only stations. The controversy over this change is far from being resolved, and it can be expected to be an important topic of the second meeting of the Region 2 MF Administrative Radio Conference. Plans for a High Definition broadcasting system at 12.0 GHz are also discussed.