I noticed that WOIO and WUAB, and their diginets appeared to be off-the-air from about 8:25pm until a little after 9:00pm on Thursday. It went off during the climax of an episode of "The Andy Griffith Show", and came back on with a shot of "Pearl Bodine" (Bea Benaderet (sp)) talking on "The Beverly Hilllbillies". I looked at the other channels when it happened. The first to come back on, before 9:00pm (I think), was Channel 19's last channel.
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WOIO off-the-air for a time
- Thread starter johnbasalla
- Start date
I was watching Young Sheldon at the time, but it was over at a neighbor's house who has Spectrum cable. Programming remained on, but I did hear an occasional click/pop in the audio. After getting some more information, it sounds like the STL link between the studios and transmitter went out, and WOIO/WUAB were broadcasting dead air. WTCL-LD was also affected, as I was told that 19.10 was out as well.
19.10 was the first one to come back on, or at least the first one I saw. It was on well before 19.1 and 19.2.
John, how can you tell if a TV transmitter has dumped off the air with digital TV? In the days of analog, it was obvious - a black screen or picture of some kind and then snow after the transmitter powered down.
My digital tuner box with indoor antenna just goes into a squelch mode and gives me a black screen. Same as if I hit a channel that's not quite able to make it in properly to my Shaker Heights basement apartment. It's been since 2009 and I still haven't quite gotten used to DTV's quirks and annoyances.
But then again I was only marginally interested in standard television when it still existed.
So was WUAB, METV, Etc...
Missing both from my cable, and when I switched to the "rabbit ears". The only thing I found available was Channel 6.1 (Telemundo).
I know it's been discussed here before. But is this what happens when we put so many main channels and sub-channel's on one transmitter? I've actually been thankful lately, that MeTV hasn't been experiencing the break-ups and still pictures it once was prone to.
Why can't WOIO/WUAB ever experience this when their crumby news is on instead of during a first run game show?
Just a thought, but WOCV has some room on its sub-channels for MeTV if Gray isn't serious about having a predictable signal.
* - Yes, I still call an antenna "Rabbit ears". š°
WOIO 19.10 was unaffected, but that's a sub of WTCL. Not sure if the the Akron repeater was affected, though I'm told that it's simply re-transmitting RF 10's signal and that there's no dedicated studio transmitter link.
MeTV still blacks out at times. I've contacted WOIO in the past a few times about that, and it eventually gets fixed, only to act up again several months to a year later.
...or why do the freezes/blackouts on MeTV never occur during commercial breaks?
Gray renewed their contract for MeTV this past June, just days before Weigel closed on W27EA-D/WOCV-CD. MeTV will continue to stay on WOIO until 2025 when their contract is up for renewal again. Apparently Weigel has no plans on moving MeTV to WOCV-CD. Otherwise, they would have delayed the current renewal or given WOIO a shorter contract if they really wanted MeTV on WOCV-CD, at least until they had control of the station. However, this may have been a completely different story if WOCV was a full power station.Just a thought, but WOCV has some room on its sub-channels for MeTV if Gray isn't serious about having a predictable signal.
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