A couple of months ago, there was a big splash made over what’s called the great TV “unpack” in the U.S. The bottom line: the FCC announced there were millions of dollars to be made by any American television station that was willing to give up its current OTA frequency and switch to another one. The unused space would then be sold off to cell phone and data companies.
  
But what happens to the hundreds of FM stations that piggyback their signals off of TV towers affected by the change? It appears some of them – including Buffalo’s WTSS-FM, aka Star 102.5 - will have to make other arrangements.
 
WTSS is one of the area’s most powerful signals, currently booming into Toronto at 110,000 watts. Many here will remember it as the old automated WBEN-FM, Rock 102, in the 70s. But it shares the tower with Channel 4’s WIVB, which will be shutting down that stick sometime in 2018, and moving to the one used by co-owned WNLO, Channel 23.
 
So what happens to Star 102.5? That’s a question facing a number of Rochester and Buffalo FM outlets, which will either have to find new homes for their antennas or temporarily reduce their signal strengths. And that could alter reception here.
 
According to an article in Radio World, some 600 stations across the U.S. will be affected by the changes, although thousands of others will be untouched. It’s especially going to hit some famous call letters in New York City hard, with FM outlets like WCBS, WPLJ, WHTZ, WQXR, WNYC and WKTU among those facing the change.
 
There’s still no word of what will happen to them all or when, and how long it will be before everything gets back to normal with the shift.
 
There are two long lists that show all those affected, with TV stations moving here and those abandoning their sticks altogether here.
 
It turns out there are changes ahead not only for many television outlets in the States but some of the radio stations that symbiotically depend on them for their transmitters. Something else to watch - and listen for - next year.