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"Cable" TV Report - Brattleboro, VT - 2/8/2011

KML0224

KML0224

I'm presently at the Super 8 Motel on US Route 5/VT Route 9 in Brattleboro, VT (near Exit 3 of I-91). The good news? The TV and the remote don't say "LodgeNet". The bad news? A crappy lineup:

65- Speed
67- NESN
69- FOX News Channel
71- MSNBC
73- Cartoon Network
77- ESPN 2
81- TNT
83- TBS
89- FX
91- CNN
93- HBO 2
101- HBO
103- WCVB-TV (ABC) channel 5 Boston
105- WHDH-TV (NBC) channel 7 Boston
107- ESPN
109- USA
111- Discovery Channel
113- Lifetime
115- WBZ-TV (CBS) channel 4 Boston
117- TLC
119- WFXT-TV (FOX) channel 25 Boston
121- The Weather Channel [with a local 05301 zip code insert]
123- WGBH-TV (PBS) channel 2 Boston [although the channel card said "Family"]
125- CNBC

I'm surprised that WVTA-TV (PBS) channel 41 of Windsor, VT (Vermont Public Television) wasn't on this lineup. I guess it's what we get for having Windham County, VT being on the fringe of the Boston/Worcester TV market. :-\
 
It's amazing that southeastern VT is part of the Boston TV Market, at least 100+ miles away from the city yet Bristol County, only 30 miles away and IN Massachusetts, isn't.

I wonder how many Vermont residents in Windham county watch Boston TV. Unless WMUR covers southeast VT on a regular basis, you never see any news/weather coverage of SE VT from the Boston stations. Maybe if a tornado warning broke out or if the story of the year broke out there, then yeah.
 
Wow. That lineup makes no sense. Was it randomly generated or did someone actually arrange it that way on purpose?
 
Given how it skips every other channel, I would bet they're using consumer-grade TV modulators to do it. I have a device that will take in 4 composite video/RCA audio feeds and output them on four non-consecutive analog channels, either OTA 14-64 or cable 65-125 (but not 95-99).

- Trip
 
I would think the Albany or Springfield stations would be local here. Even Burlington would be more local than Boston.
 
ansky212 said:
I would think the Albany or Springfield stations would be local here. Even Burlington would be more local than Boston.
Click to expand...

I posted something akin to this on the National TV board, but you wouldn't get Springfield channels there (believe it or not). I think at one time they did in Brattleboro (like in the 70s) but no more. What they do get are Boston, NH and a couple of others. What this lineup missed as far as locals that cable subs would get would include:

WCAX Burlington, VT (CBS)
WVTA Windsor, VT (PBS)
WMUR Manchester, NH (ABC)
WENH Durham NH (via Keene repeater) (PBS)
WZMY Derry NH (My)
WLVI Cambridge/Boston (CW)
WSBK Boston
WNNE Hartford, VT (NBC)
WCDC Adams, MA (satellite of WTEN Albany) (ABC)

This 'lineup' lacks all those, plus dozens of popular cable channels. All in all, it's a discouragement from picking that hotel as a place to stay.
 
It's also because I needed something cheap and only know the north end. There's a Holiday Inn nearby, which was an arm and a leg compared to Super 8. The one plus here though? After checking in with the person on duty at the desk, their wi-fi worked very well. It was close to my DSL here in Connecticut and definitely faster than the La Quinta I stayed at in Portland, ME!

The repeater for New Hampshire Public Television would be WEKW-TV (PBS) channel 52 of Keene.

If I stay there again, I'm bringing a mini antenna and hook it up to their TV. I was able to get an analog/digital scan going. However, a paper clip in the Connecticut River Valley isn't going to pull in anything.
 
KML-224 said:
It's also because I needed something cheap and only know the north end. There's a Holiday Inn nearby, which was an arm and a leg compared to Super 8. The one plus here though? After checking in with the person on duty at the desk, their wi-fi worked very well. It was close to my DSL here in Connecticut and definitely faster than the La Quinta I stayed at in Portland, ME!
Click to expand...

There's a Motel 6 just north of exit 3. Don't know how the 6 & 8 compare price-wise.

KML-224 said:
The repeater for New Hampshire Public Television would be WEKW-TV (PBS) channel 52 of Keene.

If I stay there again, I'm bringing a mini antenna and hook it up to their TV. I was able to get an analog/digital scan going. However, a paper clip in the Connecticut River Valley isn't going to pull in anything.
Click to expand...

Good luck pulling in anything OTA on that end of town. WEKW... maybe WCDC and/or WNNE and/or WVTA.
 
BRNout said:
ansky212 said:
I would think the Albany or Springfield stations would be local here. Even Burlington would be more local than Boston.
Click to expand...

... you wouldn't get Springfield channels there (believe it or not). I think at one time they did in Brattleboro (like in the 70s) but no more. ...
Click to expand...

Maybe you're remembering defunct WRLP Greenfield, MA Ch 32, which had translators for Brattleboro and Keene WAY up on the UHF band (above channel 70, IIRC). WRLP was largely a repeater for WWLP Springfield Ch 22 except for a "local" newscast piped in from Provin Mountain in Agawam (the original 22 studio site).
 
I was actually looking at the cable lineups of Brattleboro on Zap2it, and it actually looks like they have two choices. One is Comcast, and the other looks like an old-timey local cable company. It's called Southern VT cable, and it seems like it's very outdated. I think for locals they get stations from Boston and Burlington. But it also looked like they got very few HD channels, 15 at the most. So I'm sure most people would rather have satellite anyways. Did you notice a lot of dishes on people's houses while driving around?
 
Interesting, the local channel lineup seems to be about equal with Comcast; but SVC claims to offer KTLA and WGN. I wonder if that's still the case or if the website needs to be updated.

The few HD channels are shared, perhaps there's an A and a B side to each?
 
The SVCC basic line up is impressive with "locals" from 4-5 distinct areas and superstations from NYC, Chi, and LA. I'd take that system in a minute compared to the crap on our more "advanced" system here in MA.
FWIW there's was (or is) a small motel on RT 5 just N of the Quality Inn can't remember name) that looked like the Bates on the outside but the rooms were OK. It cost more to play golf $40 vs staying in the room which about $30. And they had, if I'm not mistaken, the SVCC cable system.
But that was 4 yrs ago or so.
 
I think that's the America's Best Inn, which does indeed look ratty on the outside.

I'm presently at that Super 8 hotel in Brattleboro again. No changes to the "cable" lineup since I was last here. However the "family" channel I listed before is supposed to be WGBH-TV (PBS) channel 2 of Boston. However, I'm only getting a black screen with audio.

As luck would have it, I stashed my small bat wing indoor antenna in my bag and brought it with me. I was all set to hook it to the TV...except that it's an old 27" Panasonic tube TV circa 2000. Room 125 had the Haier 32" LCD HDTV in it, but not this time. :(
 
You should have requested being switched to a different room, if possible. Tell them that the quality of the TV in the room isn't up to par. ;)
 
KML-224 said:
I think that's the America's Best Inn, which does indeed look ratty on the outside.
Click to expand...

All these years later and things haven't changed. Years ago it was a Days Inn. It was a dump back then. The hallways smelled like urine. And even though it was after check-in time our room still wasn't cleaned. We high-tailed it to the Super 8.
 
Say what you will about the Super 8. Sure, it's nothing fancy. Surprisingly, their wi-fi is actually pretty good, to their credit. However, the Golden Tree network that La Quinta uses in Portland, ME (near Hadlock Field) sucks. Getting this back to TV and cable...room 125 last month had a 32" Haier LCD HDTV while room 122 still had an antique 27" Panasonic tube TV circa 2000. It figures, since I had an RCA batwing indoor antenna with me in my bag. Had it been the LCD television, I would hooked it up and scanned it to see if anything would've come in. Being stuck in the Connecticut River Valley, I would've been lucky with PBS from either Keene, NH or Windsor, VT!
 
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