VintageMac
Banned
Dabl on 35.5 is back on as of this morning.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
WBNX to be acquired by Nexstar & re-affiliate with the CW in Fall 2025 creating a duopoly with FOX affiliate WJW
- Thread starter NYAZSporty
- Start date
It came back last night. One thing I've noticed is that the compression on the SD subs looks better now compared to after .4 & .5 lit up, so they must have tweaked their encoders.
Thank God they put "Movies" on a station with a decent signal (Channel 35). "Movies" plays major motion pictures, not beat up prints of public domain films like you find on other free movie channels.
Depends on where you are located. WOCV-CD comes in like a full power station for me, and their signal strength is on par with WBNX on my outdoor antennas (~35 dB SNR). I'm just under 18 miles away from their transmitter.
The problem with most low power stations is their coverage area. Not only is their power output the case, but also their pattern and how high their antenna is up in the air. Because of their smaller coverage, many low laying areas tend to have weaker reception compared to a full power broadcast, even if their antenna is at a similar height as the local full power stations in the area. You really need a clear line of sight of the tower in order to obtain solid reception, which means getting your antenna as high up as possible. Also, a lower power output usually means that the station is more prone to electrical interference and degradation from building materials, which is why indoor antennas usually don't work well or at all, unless you're located very close to the transmitter.
Both WOCV-CD and WTCL-LD have the best coverage in the area when it comes to a low power broadcast. They both transmit at their maximum power output of 15 kW, have non-directional patterns, and their antennas are located very high up, providing up to a 43 mile radius reach. Most low power broadcasters can't do all three, or even two, and there are some low power stations that can go out much further depending on the height of their antenna and the surrounding terrain.
I was watching WBNX yesterday morning (Sunday 4/6) and noticed a few things.
1. They aired a commercial for Rewind! and still mentioned it was on 55.3 (which is now carrying Rewind TV).
2. Aired a few PSAs with a lower than usual volume. The other promos and programming were at normal volume.
3. Saw a commercial for Antenna TV with no mention of where it was airing (it is on WJW 8.2, unless it could move to one of WBNX's subchannels)
They're still adjusting to new ownership it seems.
1. They aired a commercial for Rewind! and still mentioned it was on 55.3 (which is now carrying Rewind TV).
2. Aired a few PSAs with a lower than usual volume. The other promos and programming were at normal volume.
3. Saw a commercial for Antenna TV with no mention of where it was airing (it is on WJW 8.2, unless it could move to one of WBNX's subchannels)
They're still adjusting to new ownership it seems.
You mean, Movies!
The same has been happening for the last few months with WJW. Not sure what's going on.
Sitcoms on WJW, and now WBNX, are unbearable to listen to, because of their aggressive audio processing that has everything amplified to the max with no dynamic range whatsoever, which makes the canned laughter sound flat and louder than the dialog that followed (brickwalled). There is also some sort of fake stereo separation being applied as well. I really wish that they would stop over-processing the audio and make it sound like it was before Nexstar took over operations on WBNX. Either someone doesn't know how to set up the audio processing correctly or they think this is what viewers want to hear. (Spoiler: IT'S NOT!)
Unlikely that Antenna TV will move over to WBNX, especially if Nexstar plans on converting it to ATSC 3.0. There's no sense in doing so if they would have to eventually move it back to WJW.
WOIO used to do the same for MeTV in their promos that air on the main channel, and they also air over on WUAB as well. Now they at least put "19.2" to make it a bit clearer on where to find it. It's like advertising a business, but neglecting to list the address, almost as if they're telling you to figure it out!
All these problems are Nexstar related between the two stations. This is what happens when you operate over 250 stations out of one location. Things are bound to get overlooked. Heck, no one has even bothered to update the Rewind TV website to include WBNX 55.3, or put a post on their Facebook page stating that it's now available in Cleveland, and it has been over 10 days since Rewind TV was made available. At this point, I'm wondering how long it will be until they accidentally start running local inserts from an out of market station. In other words, "Let's buy up stations and put 0 effort into maintaining them".
The bad thing about this, is that Nexstar appears to have no email contacts on their corporate website, and emailing WJW about these issues only falls on deaf ears. Last time I got a reply back from WJW was back in 2012. I've contacted them SEVERAL times since then, and every one of my emails has been ignored. If they are not going to value viewer input or respond, then take the freakin' contact page off of the website! WBNX has always been good at replying back and addressing issues, but now that's a thing of the past because of the new Nexstar ownership.
WBNX appears to be on autopilot until September, when Nexstar will have further control of the station. It's like the station is on zombie mode.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I logged in just to add this link to the article at the UHF History site which I originally posted several years ago, with corrections to numerous factual errors in the Akron Beacon-Journal in 2011 and a few that were in Wikipedia at the time.
uhfhistory.com
It covers pretty much the entire history of channel 55.
(And I am going back to my lurking.)
History of UHF Television
It covers pretty much the entire history of channel 55.
(And I am going back to my lurking.)
Perhaps Nathan Obral can update the WBNX Wikipedia article. He seems to be pretty good at researching and going into great detail per the other station articles that he contributed to. After all, several things on the WBNX wiki need to be updated and re-written.I logged in just to add this link to the article at the UHF History site which I originally posted several years ago, with corrections to numerous factual errors in the Akron Beacon-Journal in 2011 and a few that were in Wikipedia at the time.
History of UHF Television
It covers pretty much the entire history of channel 55.
(And I am going back to my lurking.)
I logged in just to add this link to the article at the UHF History site which I originally posted several years ago, with corrections to numerous factual errors in the Akron Beacon-Journal in 2011 and a few that were in Wikipedia at the time.
History of UHF Television
It covers pretty much the entire history of channel 55.
(And I am going back to my lurking.)
Redoing that whole article (and putting the proper history of WCOT-TV into either a separate article or as part of Rex's article) has been on my "to-do list" for awhile, I just need more time to get to it. 🙁
Plus with the Plain Dealer and Press now available online at newspapers.com alongside the Beacon Journal's archives (which any Wikipedia editor can get access to for free, btw), there really is no excuse not to properly tell the story now.
That's any Wikipedia editor with certain activity requirements, but yes. We've made headway in general improvement of articles, but we have so, so many to go.
I wonder if Nexstar tried to purchase WUAB from Gray. Still, I'm surprised that WBNX is going back to the CW after losing affiliation years ago.
Nexstar now owns The CW (which explains why it is no longer doing the expensive loss-leader dramas for younger audiences CBS and WB were doing) and have been in the process of moving affiliations to their own station group, usually as the secondary station in a duopoly or on their long-established indies. They bought WBNX more or less to run it as a CW outlet.
New ownership. And the new owner just happens to own The CW. The affiliation move back was a foregone conclusion once Nexstar bought WBNX. Whatever issues there previously were involved the station's previous owner.
As for WUAB, Gray has absolutely no reason to part with it, especially considering how intertwined it is with WOIO.
To expound on this, Nexstar has made two acquisitions for the same purpose in recent years: to make eventual CW affiliates. One is WBNX. The other is KUSI San Diego.
They are among the few acquisitions Nexstar can make outright. The reason is that the FCC does not treat duopolies separately in calculating population coverage. WJW is a VHF station, and even with the addition of WBNX (or theoretically a second VHF station), Nexstar is still "billed" for just Cleveland VHF. In San Diego, where the existing Nexstar outlet was a UHF outlet (KSWB), the addition of also-UHF KUSI did not result in an additional cap hit. In addition, duopoly-creating transactions tend to be accretive because you don't need all the staff and facilities of both shops to run a duop (though you often add a few people in sales, and KUSI of course was a news department merger in which Nexstar moved into its studios).
Nexstar has been "repatriating" affiliations in dribs and drabs since buying the network. It's not doing this in every market—indeed, it's done some evident horse-trading with operators like Sinclair (when Sinclair took on CW in Pittsburgh and Seattle, it also lost it in Oklahoma City to a Nexstar-owned secondary station) and Scripps (KASW in Phoenix got out of its primary affiliation early and in exchange Scripps carried The CW's water in Detroit for the rest of the agreement term).
CW affiliation agreements, apparently nearly universally, are tied to the network's "broadcast year" which is September 1 through August 31. So you'll have to wait until then to see in which markets Nexstar stations will pick up the network. The Tegna–CW affiliation agreement is through 2026, as a note.
They are among the few acquisitions Nexstar can make outright. The reason is that the FCC does not treat duopolies separately in calculating population coverage. WJW is a VHF station, and even with the addition of WBNX (or theoretically a second VHF station), Nexstar is still "billed" for just Cleveland VHF. In San Diego, where the existing Nexstar outlet was a UHF outlet (KSWB), the addition of also-UHF KUSI did not result in an additional cap hit. In addition, duopoly-creating transactions tend to be accretive because you don't need all the staff and facilities of both shops to run a duop (though you often add a few people in sales, and KUSI of course was a news department merger in which Nexstar moved into its studios).
Nexstar has been "repatriating" affiliations in dribs and drabs since buying the network. It's not doing this in every market—indeed, it's done some evident horse-trading with operators like Sinclair (when Sinclair took on CW in Pittsburgh and Seattle, it also lost it in Oklahoma City to a Nexstar-owned secondary station) and Scripps (KASW in Phoenix got out of its primary affiliation early and in exchange Scripps carried The CW's water in Detroit for the rest of the agreement term).
CW affiliation agreements, apparently nearly universally, are tied to the network's "broadcast year" which is September 1 through August 31. So you'll have to wait until then to see in which markets Nexstar stations will pick up the network. The Tegna–CW affiliation agreement is through 2026, as a note.
Upstate NY is a little weird this way. CW lives on Sinclair-owned .2 signals in Syracuse and Rochester, on a Gray-owned .2 in Binghamton, on a Lilly-owned .2 in Elmira, and on a Sinclair .1 in Albany, even though Nexstar has stations in all of those markets.
I expect that as those affiliation agreements come up for renewal, CW will migrate over to the Nexstar stations in most of those markets. It already moved from WKTV (Heartland) to WFXV (Nexstar) in Utica last year.
I expect that as those affiliation agreements come up for renewal, CW will migrate over to the Nexstar stations in most of those markets. It already moved from WKTV (Heartland) to WFXV (Nexstar) in Utica last year.
The CW moved to Nexstar on Jan, 1, 2024 to WOTV DT2 from WWMT DT2 that was CW when it launched in Sep 2006 now an Indie. And I think 2 other CWs moved to a Nexstar station I think in SD & FL on the same date like what happened in West Michigan. Maybe it's now Sep, 1 when CW changes in some markets now not sure.
WUAB is now starting to identify the station as Cleveland's 43. It appears to be a slow rollout and the logo is seen on the station's newscasts.