Another hotel "cable" lineup...from Portland, ME

[KML0224]

Tampa, FL was some nice warm and humid fun! Now I'm on the road again. This time, I'm at the La Quinta Inns and Suites in Portland, ME. Like the "cable" I had last February in Chicago, the remote looks awfully familiar. Can you say Lodgenet? And...like Tampa, four ESPN services. Enough! Isn't there a hotel anywhere that has that city's expanded basic lineup anymore? Ugh! Anyways, here what I get here:

2- WMTW (ABC) channel 8 Poland Spring, ME
3- WGME (CBS) channel 13 Portland, ME
4- WPFO (FOX) channel 23 Waterville, ME
5- WCSH (NBC) channel 6 Portland, ME
7- WCBB (PBS) channel 10 Augusta, ME
9- ESPN 2
10- ESPN Classic
11- ESPN News
12- ESPN
14- VH1
15- USA
16- The Weather Channel [national feed]
17- TNT
18- TBS
19- Syfy
20- Nickelodeon
21- MTV
22- HBO
23- MSNBC
24- Lifetime
25- TLC
26- History
27- FOX News Channel
28- E!
29- Discovery
30- TRU-TV
31- Comedy Central
32- Headline News
33- CNN
34- CNBC
35- Cartoon Network
36- Bloomberg TV
37- ABC Family
38- A&E
39- Food Network
40- Travel Channel
41- HGTV
42- NESN [New England Sports Network - carries the Red Sox and Bruins]

Notice anything missing? I sure do! Where are WPME-DT (MY) channel 35 of Lewiston/Portland and WPXT-DT (CW) channel 51 of Portland?

 

[DToTheJ]

Now I'm on the road again. This time, I'm at the La Quinta Inns and Suites in Portland, ME... like Tampa, four ESPN services...

9- ESPN 2
10- ESPN Classic
11- ESPN News
12- ESPN

Notice anything missing?

ESPN U? ESPN 360? ESPN Deportes? "ESPN 9"?

 

[KML0224]

Ha ha! Funny! Say...NECN! (New England Cable News) That's another station which isn't on this lineup. Neither is Comcast Sportsnet New England.

 

[BRNout]

Ha ha! Funny! Say...NECN! (New England Cable News) That's another station which isn't on this lineup. Neither is Comcast Sportsnet New England.

Basically because all you're getting is birdfeed; in other words, NECN isn't available via dish and CSNE would be on an advanced tier of regional sports channels.

While having a cigar on a pleasant evening in Ogden, UT, I ended up chatting with a hotel manager about this issue. I complimented him on his hotel and how it offered great value for the money. My only complaint was the channel selection on the TV. Basically, he indicated that he initially contacted Comcast about supplying basic service to all 80 or so rooms of his relatively new Sleep Inn and that they were going charge him something like $6,000 per month.

By going with Dish, it's only costing him something like 1/8 of that. A no-brainer from a business standpoint. While he admits that the channel selection may be less than stellar, it's good enough for most people and the Comcast option was simply not viable. And I had to agree with him.

Then again it was one of the reasons that I was outside at 10 pm, having a cigar and dxing with my Eton E5!

 

[bg02445]

I stayed at a hotel with excellent value in Snowmass, CO, and they had all of the local channels (Denver) on cable. Plus, they had KREX (CBS) in Grand Junction. All the locals with HD capability were in HD on the 52 inch HDTV. This was a $90/night hotel. But then again, it was the low season.

 

[BRNout]

I stayed at a hotel with excellent value in Snowmass, CO, and they had all of the local channels (Denver) on cable. Plus, they had KREX (CBS) in Grand Junction. All the locals with HD capability were in HD on the 52 inch HDTV. This was a $90/night hotel. But then again, it was the low season.

That's awesome! I have yet to stay in a hotel that offered real HD in the rooms. Though a few have had HD compatible TVs, they were invariably supplied with SD signals that were provided in 'stretch-o-vision' which I find annoying. I wonder how many years it will take for ordinary hotels to upgrade their sets to HD. It may even take decades for it to become common.

 

[bg02445]

It was great! They even had the premium cable channels, not just the basic 50 or so.

 

[compubit]

I was just in Oklahoma City and Washington DC:

OKC Marriott: Satellite-fed cable - could see the DishNetwork dish from my room (on the roof below) and the Dish ads during programming; just had big 4 network channels (no PBS, CW or MNT)
OKC Comfort Inn (Friends stayed there) - Full Basic Cable - even had NewsNow 53 (local repeats of KWTV/9 newscasts); probably had clear QAM.

Radisson Crystal City: Had expanded basic, including NewsChannel 8 (cable only), but the set was fixed to 3 and had a box in back of the TV the modulated the channels down to 3 (but also had PPV, so was a hybrid system)
Doubletree Guest Suites Washington/GWU: Sat-fed system (Dish again); Big 4+PBS, IIRC
Comfort Inn Washington/Downtown: Sat-fed system (Dish...); Big 4, but NBC on 15, Fox on 17, CBS on 18 and ABC on 45; PBS on mid 20s, but wasn't the main WETA feed, but PBS Create (26.2...)

Thank goodness for my Hauppauge card...

 

[vibe]

I stayed at a supposed 3 star motel near West Liberty IA in late Aug. I think there must have been an eclipse because I saw no stars whatsoever.
It seems the motel operator simply let the "Big 5" channels go blank when analog signed off.
Smart. Great way to attract repeat customers.

 

[Neil56]

That's awesome! I have yet to stay in a hotel that offered real HD in the rooms. Though a few have had HD compatible TVs, they were invariably supplied with SD signals that were provided in 'stretch-o-vision' which I find annoying.

I hate stretch-o-vision, too! Very annoying, indeed.

 

[KML0224]

Just to bump my thread here:

Me and my brother stayed at this same place this past weekend (the night of January 15, 2011). Sure enough, comparing my notes to my post above...this crappy lineup is EXACTLY the same. Wow! Same s----y reception of NESN and all!

 

[nomadcowatbk]

The cheap chains like Econo Lodge or Motel 6 usually have the expanded basic package of the local cable system

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I don't know why anyone is surprised at the four ESPN channels on LodgeNet systems. The deal is well known.

As much as I like to see a full local expanded basic cable lineup on a hotel system, again, we are not normal people. Most people just want the major networks so they can watch Letterman as they fall asleep.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

I don't know why anyone is surprised at the four ESPN channels on LodgeNet systems. The deal is well known.

As much as I like to see a full local expanded basic cable lineup on a hotel system, again, we are not normal people. Most people just want the major networks so they can watch Letterman as they fall asleep.

But what a the chains like Extended StayAmerica with weekly rates. I stayed there once and they had a crappy cable lineup and no local WB or UPN (this was pre CW)

 

[JeeperOne]

Now I'm on the road again. This time, I'm at the La Quinta Inns and Suites in Portland, ME... like Tampa, four ESPN services...

9- ESPN 2
10- ESPN Classic
11- ESPN News
12- ESPN

Notice anything missing?

ESPN U? ESPN 360? ESPN Deportes? "ESPN 9"?

ESPN360 is now ESPN3 & is online only. ESPN9 doesn't even exist.

Cheers

 

[azumanga]

ESPN U? ESPN 360? ESPN Deportes? "ESPN 9"?

ESPN360 is now ESPN3 & is online only. ESPN9 doesn't even exist.

And neither does "The Ocho". ;D

 

[KML0224]

I just found it disappointing that in 16 months, not a single change was made to this lineup. Same 27" Magnavox tube TV and everything. Geez! <

 

[nomadcowatbk]

What hotels have the best cable lineups?

 

[mescutia]

As much as I like to see a full local expanded basic cable lineup on a hotel system, again, we are not normal people. Most people just want the major networks so they can watch Letterman as they fall asleep.

And then there's people like me, who like to catch the local news, then just turn the TV off. Though I will flip through the channels to see what's available.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

But what a the chains like Extended StayAmerica with weekly rates. I stayed there once and they had a crappy cable lineup and no local WB or UPN (this was pre CW)

I think ESA has a LodgeNet-style deal (if not LodgeNet itself). There, the bucks probably rule.