• 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

Blab TV - spreading their wings.. to AL

Old news. It's WBIH in Selma, AL. RDP on the Alabama board may be the only regular that can watch WBIH so this discussion would be more productive on the Bama board.
 
Agreed, but the main station is licensed to Destin,FL (not sure how well it's received there) It looks like it will become a full station down there in AL. I still can't get the idea of a 24 hour commercial station though..

Rob
 
They've just taken Pensacola's old Cable Access channel and put it on an extra (wasted) full power TV station so it'll get coverage on all cable/sat/iptv systems in the Mobile-Pen-FWB markets. They also pick up some OTA viewers in the eastern half of the DMA. Pretty smart idea actually considering the size and number of different cable systems in the Mobile DMA and it's just about the only loophole BLAB could use to reach viewers on DirecTV, Dish Net, and UVerse. It's not that unusual as WAWD "Beach TV" has been 24/7 local infomercials for 20? years and WPAN is about 50/50 local and national infomercials with some overnight home shopping thrown in.

I don't know why this TV station format isn't common on full power TV stations in other markets. Most "local infomercial" TV stations are on LPTVs. Our market does have far more Full Power TV stations than other markets with similar populations and since we have no use for ethnic or Spanish TV those 4 Fort Walton stations have always struggled to find viable programming, they were never any use to Networks because they lack OTA coverage in Mobile county where about half the population lives.

Oh, there's also the backing and very deep pockets of the Levin Law Firm funding BLAB, so they can afford to do pretty much anything they want. I wouldn't be surprised if a Panama City expansion of BLAB was in the short term plans. What ever happened to that Channel 2 allocation the FCC granted to Apalachicola about 10 years ago? The Montgomery expansion was a bit of a surprise to me though... they probably got a nice deal on the air time from Flinn Broadcasting, the parent company that owns WFBD and WBIF.
 
WPAN is trying to become a 24 7 COZI TV network but it's failing. The TV guide says a show, but it's an infomerical.

-Rob
 
Rob-42 said:
WPAN is trying to become a 24 7 COZI TV network but it's failing. The TV guide says a show, but it's an infomerical.

-Rob
Click to expand...

Yeah, WPAN has had a bit of an identity problem for about 25 years now. At least they've gotten away from being a 24/7 Christian network and never went 24/7 home shopping. Since they lost BLAB programming to WFBD they've spiraled out of control again. They obviously haven't put together a proper schedule for their .1 channel. I believe WPAN is running the full schedule of COZI on 40.2 and ShopNBC on 40.3. It's not clear how they plan to arrange the programming of the main 40.1 channel which is the only important channel since it's the only one carried on cable/satellite/UVerse. I wonder why they chose to get in bed with NBC/Universal?
I'm in Georgia now so I can't turn on the TV to verify the sub channels. I wish WPAN had affiliated with MeTV and WFGX would carry the whole This TV schedule on 35.3 while continuing to show This programming as filler on My 35.1.
 
poledo said:
I wish WPAN had affiliated with MeTV and WFGX would carry the whole This TV schedule on 35.3 while continuing to show This programming as filler on My 35.1.
Click to expand...

^I had a similar wish for WFGX-TV. If it were to come true, the station would most likely broadcast all programming from ThisTV on virtual sub-channel 35-2 unless they have a new deal with the Cool Music Network and showing their programming on 35-2 again.

Why would you want WPAN-TV to affiliate with the Me-TV Network while WKRG-TV is their current affiliate for the Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida TV market? If WPAN-TV had been an affiliate of the Me-TV Network instead of WKRG-TV, fewer people in the broadcast area would have had access to the network's programming due to the location of their transmitter (it is located in Gulf Breeze, Florida, southeast of the transmitter for WKRG-TV near Spanish Fort, Alabama), the transmitter having a smaller coverage area compared to WKRG-TV's transmitter, and the station having fewer cable TV systems retransmitting their programming compared to WKRG-TV (Comcast Cablevision of Mobile does not carry their programming, for example).
 
Mario500 said:
Why would you want WPAN-TV to affiliate with the Me-TV Network while WKRG-TV is their current affiliate for the Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida TV market?
Click to expand...

Because my mind is slipping. I was thinking WKRG was still affiliated with Retro TV... forgot it was Me Gulf Coast now. I still wish WPAN had gone with a classic TV network, maybe Antenna TV? Or whatever that new Sony subnet is called... The TV stations around here have plenty of extra bandwidth, there doesn't appear to be a good reason for all these new subnets to have trouble finding a home on the Gulf Coast. WFBD, WAWD, and WHBR could both easily squeeze in two more streams. WALA and WJTC still don't have a .2. That doesn't even begin to include all the space on LPTV and Class A stations... etc, etc.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom