Q: On what satellite are the new Starguide signals transmitted?

A: ABC and its customers will be on AMC-8, transponder 23
Clear Channel / Premiere will be on AMC-8, transponder 21
CBS / Westwood / CNN will be on AMC-8, transponder 15

Q: Did I need to re-point my dish to see AMC-8?

A: No. AMC-8 replaced Satcom C-5 at the same orbital position, 139 degrees West Longitude. This meant that the commercial radio neighborhood did not move from its current location. There was a brief outage as GE Americom turned off Satcom C-5 and turned on AMC-8, otherwise no adjustments were required to station dishes or other equipment. GE Americom switched over from Satcom C-5 to AMC-8 on March, 2001. This date was completely independent of the conversions of ground equipment from DATS to Starguide.

Q: I notice that the ABC Starguide signal is on transponder 23. That's the same place where the Scientific Atlanta SEDAT signal was located. Does that mean that the SEDAT signal was turned off?

A: Yes. The venerable SEDAT signal that served both ABC affiliates and syndicators for nearly 20 years was turned off on July 31, 2001. It was necessary to turn the SEDAT signal off so that the full power and bandwidth of transponder 23 could be cleared for the permanent Starguide signal.