Some of WXXI's broadcast television and radio services will be intermittently interrupted this week, if planned tower maintenance work proceeds as scheduled.
WXXI's four television stations as well as Classical 91.5 and 88.5 "The Route" may be off the air or broadcasting at reduced power between 9 and 11:30 a.m. and 1 and 3:30 p.m. each weekday.
WXXI News on 105.9 FM may also be affected by the outages. But listeners will have uninterrupted access to WXXI, NPR and PBS news programs online at WXXI.org, WXXINews.org, on the WXXI app, and on 1370 AM.
Typically, transmitter work would be scheduled during the overnight hours or on weekends, according to Ben Koffman, WXXI's chief engineer. But WXXI and other local media outlets with transmission towers on Pinnacle Hill in Brighton will be temporarily shutting down or reducing their signals to accommodate the installation of a WHEC-TV auxiliary tower.
"I'm going to do the best I can to keep everything on the air at least low power where I can, when I can," Koffman said. "But I'm at the mercy of the crew in play.
"The reason that we can't be powered on while they're climbing a nearby tower is based on the proximity between 13WHAM's tower and WXXI's tower and WHEC's tower," he added. "They're all very close in proximity to one another on Pinnacle Hill."
Don Bargmann, WHEC's chief engineer, told WXXI News that the installation was scheduled during the daytime hours for safety and staffing reasons.
Beth Adams is the local host of All Things Considered for WXXI News. She joined WXXI as host of Morning Edition in 2012 after a more than two-decade radio career. She was the longtime host of the WHAM Morning News in Rochester. Her career also took her from radio stations in Elmira, New York, to Miami, Florida.
