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Rock Entertainment Sports Network

V

vjm

Gray TV (owners of WOIO CBS 19, WUAB CW 43 and WTCL/ WOHZ Telemundo 6) and Rock Entertainment Group (Dan Gilbert's company which runs the Cavs, Monsters, and Charge) have started a new regional sports network called Rock Entertainment Sports Network.

They will start in late August, be over the-air on channel 22.1, and are working to get on (and will likely be on when the time comes) cable/satellite.

They will become home of the Monsters, Charge, St. Edwards sports (beginning with the erstwhile powerhouse football team) and Lake Erie Crushers baseball.

This is kinda like when the Dolans started Sportstime Ohio way back when (which is now Bally Sports Great Lakes)
 
Nathan Obral said:
Having 22.1 as the virtual channel? I'm presuming this will be on the WOIO/WUAB multiplex (and for WXIX in Cincinnati as well) but ... why did they pick 22?
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It will be hosted on WTCL-LD, WOHZ-CD, and W28FG-D (future Akron repeater of WTCL-LD). Supposedly WOHZ-CD will become virtual 22, and will be simulcasted on WTCL-LD/W28FG-D.

www.avsforum.com

Cleveland, OH - HDTV

This is a new forum for comments on Cleveland OH market area (Cleveland-Akron-Canton-Mansfield) OTA (over the air) digital TV broadcasters. (Updated by snowdog 88) Cleveland, OH Market Area DTV Channels (as of 6/4/2025) WKYC 3 · physical channel 19 (UHF) .1 - NBC (1080i) .2 - True Crime...
www.avsforum.com www.avsforum.com
 
snowdog88 said:
It will be hosted on WTCL-LD, WOHZ-CD, and W28FG-D (future Akron repeater of WTCL-LD). Supposedly WOHZ-CD will become virtual 22, and will be simulcasted on WTCL-LD/W28FG-D.

www.avsforum.com

Cleveland, OH - HDTV

This is a new forum for comments on Cleveland OH market area (Cleveland-Akron-Canton-Mansfield) OTA (over the air) digital TV broadcasters. (Updated by snowdog 88) Cleveland, OH Market Area DTV Channels (as of 6/4/2025) WKYC 3 · physical channel 19 (UHF) .1 - NBC (1080i) .2 - True Crime...
www.avsforum.com www.avsforum.com
Click to expand...
So basically a three-way translator network all sharing the same mux and VCs? What would become of WOIO's current DRT?

6.2 is duplicating MeTV on 19.2 so that would be an easy swap out for 22.1.
 
Nathan Obral said:
What would become of WOIO's current DRT?
Click to expand...
WOIO's DRT remains the same on RF 18. W28FG-D was purchased by Gray some time back, and when they were able to, filed to hop the station to the same tower as the WOIO DRT. They were granted the construction permit just last month.

Nathan Obral said:
6.2 is duplicating MeTV on 19.2 so that would be an easy swap out for 22.1.
Click to expand...
Now with WOIO's new RF 10 facility on the air and with an improved signal, there's probably no need to duplicate 19.1, 19.2 and 43.1 on WTCL-LD, which would be redundant in the Akron area when it comes to W28FG-D and the WOIO DRT. Those simulcasts will likely be dropped, or at the most, 19.10 will be downgraded to SD to obtain enough usable bandwidth, seeing that the Rock Entertainment Sports Network will be in HD.
 
The closest thing I can equate this to is the Buckeye Cable Sports Network (BCSN) in Toledo.

It airs on an LP station in Toledo, is carried on Buckeye Broadband (formerly Buckeye Cable) and airs Toledo sports like Mud Hens baseball, Walleye hockey (yes...there is actually a pro sports team called the Walleye), and all kinds of stuff from the University of Toledo (including football)
 
vjm said:
The closest thing I can equate this to is the Buckeye Cable Sports Network (BCSN) in Toledo.

It airs on an LP station in Toledo, is carried on Buckeye Broadband (formerly Buckeye Cable) and airs Toledo sports like Mud Hens baseball, Walleye hockey (yes...there is actually a pro sports team called the Walleye), and all kinds of stuff from the University of Toledo (including football)
Click to expand...
Gray has also had success with Arizona's Family Sports, which is on a network of low-power stations and digital subchannels (led by KPHE-LD). It carries a variety of local sports coverage, led by the Suns and WNBA Mercury, along with Gray's in-house sports programming; many Suns games are also simulcast on Gray's Phoenix indie KTVK.

This definitely sounds like the new TV home for the Cavs as soon as they can run away from Bally Sports.
 
snowdog88 said:
Now with WOIO's new RF 10 facility on the air and with an improved signal, there's probably no need to duplicate 19.1, 19.2 and 43.1 on WTCL-LD, which would be redundant in the Akron area when it comes to W28FG-D and the WOIO DRT. Those simulcasts will likely be dropped
Click to expand...

Posting it over and over again across multiple message boards is unlikely to will your desire to kill off indoor antenna viewers' access to WOIO's CBS programming into existence.

Generally speaking, if Gray has a UHF LPTV in a VHF market, that UHF LPTV is mirroring the VHF signal's network feed, if not the whole signal. This is because Gray likes to make money, and the best way to make money is to ensure viewers can watch your most popular programming that gets sold to advertisers.

Don't believe me? Here are the largest 20 areas where Gray owns a VHF station outside of WOIO--I went through the list of stations on RabbitEars.

KPTV: No owned LPTVs, but full-power moving to UHF.
WSMV: NBC feed on multiple UHF LPTVs. Note station has more power and height than WOIO, and an omni antenna rather than a directional one like WOIO.
KVVU: No owned LPTVs, but full-power moving to UHF.
WMC: NBC feed on UHF LPTV, but full-power moving to UHF.
WWBT: NBC and CW feeds on UHF LPTV.
WALA: Fox feed on UHF LPTV.
WAFB: No owned LPTVs. No CBS feed on WBXH-CD, but WBXH-CD has been running lots of programming prior to Gray's moves to mirror on UHF, so there was likely no room.
WTVG: No owned LPTVs.
WIS: No owned LPTVs.
KLTV: Mirrored on UHF LPTV.
KFVS: Not mirrored on WQWQ-LD, but full-power plans move to UHF.
KWTX: No owned LPTVs.
KCRG: No owned LPTVs, but full-power moving to UHF.
KSCW: Mirrored on DRT, but full-power moving to UHF.
WILX: NBC and MeTV feeds on UHF LPTV.
WRDW: Mirrored on multiple UHF LPTVs, but full-power plans to move to UHF.
KPLC: Mirrored on UHF LPTV.
KOLO: ABC feed on UHF LPTV.
WTVM: Mirrored on UHF LPTV.
WSFA: NBC feed on multiple UHF LPTVs/Class A.

Basically, out of 20, there's exactly one case where they have a UHF LPTV or Class A signal and are not mirroring on it, and also have no plan to otherwise move to UHF. And that one case looks like a special case. The pattern seems pretty clear.

- Trip
 
Nathan Obral said:
Gray has also had success with Arizona's Family Sports, which is on a network of low-power stations and digital subchannels (led by KPHE-LD). It carries a variety of local sports coverage, led by the Suns and WNBA Mercury, along with Gray's in-house sports programming; many Suns games are also simulcast on Gray's Phoenix indie KTVK.

This definitely sounds like the new TV home for the Cavs as soon as they can run away from Bally Sports.
Click to expand...
If RESN can secure cable/satellite coverage and someone doesn't knock their socks off with an offer for the broadcast rights, I can definitely see the Cavs going there before too long.

Like I said, Gilbert/RESN has some Dolans/STO feel to it.
 
tripinva said:
Posting it over and over again across multiple message boards is unlikely to will your desire to kill off indoor antenna viewers' access to WOIO's CBS programming into existence.

Generally speaking, if Gray has a UHF LPTV in a VHF market, that UHF LPTV is mirroring the VHF signal's network feed, if not the whole signal. This is because Gray likes to make money, and the best way to make money is to ensure viewers can watch your most popular programming that gets sold to advertisers.

Don't believe me? Here are the largest 20 areas where Gray owns a VHF station outside of WOIO--I went through the list of stations on RabbitEars.

KPTV: No owned LPTVs, but full-power moving to UHF.
WSMV: NBC feed on multiple UHF LPTVs. Note station has more power and height than WOIO, and an omni antenna rather than a directional one like WOIO.
KVVU: No owned LPTVs, but full-power moving to UHF.
WMC: NBC feed on UHF LPTV, but full-power moving to UHF.
WWBT: NBC and CW feeds on UHF LPTV.
WALA: Fox feed on UHF LPTV.
WAFB: No owned LPTVs. No CBS feed on WBXH-CD, but WBXH-CD has been running lots of programming prior to Gray's moves to mirror on UHF, so there was likely no room.
WTVG: No owned LPTVs.
WIS: No owned LPTVs.
KLTV: Mirrored on UHF LPTV.
KFVS: Not mirrored on WQWQ-LD, but full-power plans move to UHF.
KWTX: No owned LPTVs.
KCRG: No owned LPTVs, but full-power moving to UHF.
KSCW: Mirrored on DRT, but full-power moving to UHF.
WILX: NBC and MeTV feeds on UHF LPTV.
WRDW: Mirrored on multiple UHF LPTVs, but full-power plans to move to UHF.
KPLC: Mirrored on UHF LPTV.
KOLO: ABC feed on UHF LPTV.
WTVM: Mirrored on UHF LPTV.
WSFA: NBC feed on multiple UHF LPTVs/Class A.

Basically, out of 20, there's exactly one case where they have a UHF LPTV or Class A signal and are not mirroring on it, and also have no plan to otherwise move to UHF. And that one case looks like a special case. The pattern seems pretty clear.

- Trip
Click to expand...
One other thing to note is that WOIO's DRT and W28FG-D will share the same tower (the former channel 23 tower) in Akron, just like WTCL and WOIO-WUAB now share the same tower in Parma; only WOHZ would have a separate site near Canton. WOHZ-WTCL's setup gives off the impression of a distributed transmission system but using separate licenses to achieve that goal.

The combined WTCL/W28FG-D/WOHZ mux should be able to hold three signals in 1080i, correct? (The WUAB U relay is only at 480i but I could have sworn it was at 720p at one point.) Maybe it's achieved by removing the 480i duplicate of MeTV...
 
tripinva said:
Posting it over and over again across multiple message boards is unlikely to will your desire to kill off indoor antenna viewers' access to WOIO's CBS programming into existence.
Click to expand...
I didn't say I wanted the simulcasts gone, I'm just saying that there is little need for them, at least now with the new transmitter on the air. Even WOIO's engineering department doesn't find a need for them and would rather use the bandwidth on WTCL-LD for other purposes. BTW, I have an indoor UHF only antenna that's connected to one of my TVs that now pulls in a much stronger signal from WOIO's RF 10 and exceeds that of WTCL-LD. Prior to the activation of the new transmitter, WOIO was much weaker than WTCL-LD with that same UHF antenna.

If this new Rock Sports network on WTCL-LD is made available in 1080i HD, which it probably will be, along with Telemundo on 6.1 and WOIO 19.1 on 19.10, both in 1080i HD as well, there will be very little bandwidth left for 6.2 and 43.10, all of which will likely be heavily compressed as a result. They will have to do something in order to maintain the picture quality across all their subchannels, either by demoting 19.10 to SD, converting some of the subs to AVC, or simply deactivating them. 2 HD and a few SD subs are doable, but 3 HD and 2 SD subs is pushing it, though it's something that I have yet to see. Even WOIO's 2 HD + 5 SD subchannels look bad, even to the point where I started watching MeTV on 6.2 as it is badly compressed on 19.2. Also, Outlaw sadly looks better on the HC2 stations then it does on 43.2, and they're notorious for extreme compression on all their stations. A sports network on a bit-starved subchannel isn't going to look good to viewers unless they do some kind of management in order to maintain picture quality across it and Telemundo.
 
vjm said:
If RESN can secure cable/satellite coverage and someone doesn't knock their socks off with an offer for the broadcast rights, I can definitely see the Cavs going there before too long.
Click to expand...
Given the rest of the in-market competition and the nature of this setup, Gray is likely bidding against themselves for the Cavs rights.

Having RESN in the mix also gives them a solid advantage over any competition. While it is possible that Scripps, Tegna or Nexstar could bid for games, there's always network preemptions issues, plus 3, 5 and 8 are all standalones. Even WUAB would have issues carrying the lion's share of Cavs games because of existing CW network commitments.
vjm said:
Like I said, Gilbert/RESN has some Dolans/STO feel to it.
Click to expand...
Probably more than one would realize as Gannett really provided the infrastructure to get STO off the ground. Gray can work in cable/satellite carriage thanks to existing retransmission deals, which is important as WTCL-WOHZ is low-power and not subject to must-carry.
 
This may be a little premature, but I'm wondering what happens if two teams having contracts with RESN have games scheduled on the same day and time? Does it get moved to an (possible) WOHZ 22.2 or is one game just played in tape delay mode on the original channel?
 
tblanks said:
This may be a little premature, but I'm wondering what happens if two teams having contracts with RESN have games scheduled on the same day and time? Does it get moved to an (possible) WOHZ 22.2 or is one game just played in tape delay mode on the original channel?
Click to expand...
Based on what they've done here in Phoenix, Arizona, they will probably just stream live and tape delay it if they can't air it on any of the stations main Channels live. In Phoenix, earlier this year when USL Season started, NBA's Phoenix Suns had priority on both Arizona's Family Sports Network across Arizona (KPHE-LD in Phoenix, KAZF in Flagstaff, KAZS in Yuma, and KOLD Subchannel 13.5 in Tucson) and KTVK 3TV in Phoenix. I know one night they scheduled a Phoenix Rising FC game to air on KPHO CBS5 in Phoenix following NCAA Tournament because Phoenix Suns was scheduled on both Arizona's Family Sports and KTVK 3TV. That NCAA game ran over an hour late and the Phoenix Rising broadcast cut in live on KPHO CBS5 during the halftime. They then reaired the Phoenix Rising game in full the next day on KPHO CBS5 and Arizona's Family Sports. Also, at the beginning of NBA Playoffs, there was a Phoenix Rising game that was originally scheduled to air on Arizona's Family Sports, but was moved to live stream plus tape delay to air the Phoenix Suns Playoff game (which was also broadcast on KTVK 3TV) instead.
Nathan Obral said:
So basically a three-way translator network all sharing the same mux and VCs? What would become of WOIO's current DRT?

6.2 is duplicating MeTV on 19.2 so that would be an easy swap out for 22.1.
Click to expand...
In Phoenix, Gray TV added a 720p Subchannel to KPHO with Arizona's Family Sports and mapped it to display as a Subchannel of KPHE-LD on 44.2. So here we have Arizona's Family Sports in 1080i on 44.1 from KPHE-LD and in 720p from KPHO on 44.2, so they could do something similar there.
 
MediaLover said:
Channel 22 is lit up and on the air with a slide.
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First day I didn't try...So it comes up.

Anyone know who does 6.1's weather when Samantha Roberts (The only Spanish speaking weatherperson at WOIO, I guess.) doesn't? The mystery with why 6 duplicated MeTV, WOIO and WUAB in the first place, continues...
 
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