Changes in DFW's LPTV market

[JHBrandt]

Having the callsign of K?FW seems to be the kiss of death in this market. KZFW was also off for a few days in a row last month.

KPFW/18 was pretty steady when they were on RF-29. Since the change to RF-18, they've been intermittent. If that station were truly profitable, they'd be hustling to get it back ASAP.

...which brings us to KVFW/38, the Comedy Central of the LPTVs in these parts. On those rare occasions, then they are on, the hijinks of what you see would be apt for Wierd Al's "UHF" movie. The Windows desktop is rather consistent programming fare. If not that, the registration screen for an app's evaluation period having expired is often present. Then, as tested noted, it's a laugh riot to watch someone frantically typing and/or clicking away to launch a video program. And if it's not that, KVFW's feature is a still frame from a crashed Slingbox (of whatever they're using) session.

The business model of KVFW appears to be:

1). Spend a lot of money on engineering studies and consultants to get a Cedar Hill stick.
2). ???
3). PROFIT!

I guess they're still working out the details on step 2, eh?

Are you thinking of the same Sidney Harris cartoon I am? (The caption read, "I think you need to be a bit more explicit here in step 2," or words to that effect.)

KVFW didn't do too badly back in the analog era, despite the snowy picture typical of an analog LP. But the transition to digital seems to have killed them. Their network, Reino Unido, bailed on them and moved to crisp, digital KATA/50.2, and they spent a very long time off the air. By the time they got back on, I'm speculating they'd lost most of their staff (not to mention a reliable ISP) and whoever was left didn't seem to have a clue how to operate the new digital equipment. It's been a tragicomedy of errors ever since.

KPFW and KZFW are owned by the same church. Like most churches I'm guessing profit is a motive but not their sole motive. Anyhow, they seemed to be doing OK until recently. Maybe the slow economy finally caught up with them.

 

[JHBrandt]

After a surprisingly long outage, KPFW/18 is back on.

BTW, here's a link to the "More explicit" cartoon.

 

[JHBrandt]

KJJM may be the next to go

I haven't been paying as close attention as usual, but sometime this week KJJM stopped broadcasting on subchannels 34.2 through 34.4. The subchannels are still "there" but there's no content.

34.1 is all that was left last night, and of course it's moving to 47.2. KJJM could soon go the way of KVFW & KLEG.

Also, I noticed several weeks ago that K31GL is no longer broadcasting on 31.1. (31.2 through 31.5 are all still on.)

Finally, KPFW has swapped 18.2 and 18.4; the former now carries MCTV and the latter is the color bars.

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

Re: KJJM may be the next to go

I haven't been paying as close attention as usual, but sometime this week KJJM stopped broadcasting on subchannels 34.2 through 34.4. The subchannels are still "there" but there's no content.

34.1 is all that was left last night, and of course it's moving to 47.2. KJJM could soon go the way of KVFW & KLEG.

Also, I noticed several weeks ago that K31GL is no longer broadcasting on 31.1. (31.2 through 31.5 are all still on.)

Finally, KPFW has swapped 18.2 and 18.4; the former now carries MCTV and the latter is the color bars.

MAKO's KHPK on 28 ought to be providing some content soon. Trip Ericson informed they filed a license to cover. I just checked and they're on with an 8VSB signal but not yet any content (just null packets) and no PSIP. They're diplexed into K31GL's antenna on the Milton tower in Cedar Hill (behind the fire station on Belt Line).

The 15 kW at 1289' HAAT is very potent here. The null packets are providing some truly scintillating programming.

 

[TexasTom]

Re: KJJM may be the next to go

MAKO's KHPK on 28 ought to be providing some content soon. Trip Ericson informed they filed a license to cover. I just checked and they're on with an 8VSB signal but not yet any content (just null packets) and no PSIP. They're diplexed into K31GL's antenna on the Milton tower in Cedar Hill (behind the fire station on Belt Line).

The 15 kW at 1289' HAAT is very potent here. The null packets are providing some truly scintillating programming.

Chances are that the null packets will be the high point of their programming.

 

[arnoldevns]

Finally put some psip info up there along with color bars.
KHPK-LD are calls on 28.1 through 28.4. Nothing but color bars so far.

 

[JHBrandt]

KHPK's color bars are certainly different from what I've come to expect. At least they're giving us a little variety for now Don't worry, I'm sure the same old infomercials will be back soon enough : But I'm hopeful they can fill at least one subchannel with actual programming

Other recent oddities: 26.3 has been B&W for a few weeks now. 26.1 and 26.2 are OK. (Bad S-Video cable?)

31.2 is now dark as well as 31.1.

KJJM/34 has removed the dark channels 34.2-34.4 from their lineup. 34.1 (simulcast on 47.2) is all that's left.

KVFW/38 has been off the air for a month. At this point I'd be surprised if they came back.

 

[eskipper411]

I think 2011 will be the year when DFW's LPTV market fails.

 

[JHBrandt]

31.2 is back. Looks like it was just a temporary glitch. 31.4 also had a glitch and had to replace RTV with local programming for a few days.

 

[arnoldevns]

Just checking out Trip's excellent website rabbitears.info.. and I see a new network is due to debut on one of the LPTV stations in our area.

Some horse-themed network known as Pegasus TV will debute June 20th on KODF-LD 26.3

Looking at his network grid, here are the networks we're missing in this area:
MeTv
The Cool TV
The Country Network
Bounce TV
Untamed Sports TV
Tuff
A1
PBJ
My Family TV

Also 4 Public TV sub-channels:
PBS Create
PBS Kids
Vme
MHz

 

[LibertyNT]

I could see K31GL picking up TheCoolTV and plopping it on 31.1
Shoot K31GL could go totally classic and put MeTV on 31.2

31.1 TheCoolTV
31.2 MeTV
31.3 HOT TV (History of Television)
31.4 RTV

Now that would be cool!

 

[Megapsycle]

I could see K31GL picking up TheCoolTV and plopping it on 31.1
Shoot K31GL could go totally classic and put MeTV on 31.2

31.1 TheCoolTV
31.2 MeTV
31.3 HOT TV (History of Television)
31.4 RTV

Now that would be cool!

That would make entirely too much sense! Imagine.. someone actually optimizing 4 channels all with popular programming! Wow what a concept!

 

[JHBrandt]

Some horse-themed network known as Pegasus TV will debute June 20th on KODF-LD 26.3

I just hope they get the S-video cable fixed by then so we can watch it in color!

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

I could see K31GL picking up TheCoolTV and plopping it on 31.1
Shoot K31GL could go totally classic and put MeTV on 31.2

31.1 TheCoolTV
31.2 MeTV
31.3 HOT TV (History of Television)
31.4 RTV

Now that would be cool!

That would make entirely too much sense! Imagine.. someone actually optimizing 4 channels all with popular programming! Wow what a concept!

Brokered time is the MAKO business model. They don't have to deal with popularity -- just sell the subchannel's stream to whoever wants to be on the TeeVee machine!

Long ago, I worked at a radio station like that. We were the joke of the market, never showed in Arbitron and probably had zero listeners at most times. It made (and still makes) a ton of money. And we employees had a compensation package that was head and shoulders above what the guys across town at the prestigious stations were getting.

By the way, Sun Records (Sam Phillips and Memphis Recording Service) used that model successfully for quite a while. Many of the early acts from the region paid to have a record cut, including Elvis Presley's first two recordings.

 

[LibertyNT]

Whoever is renting 31.3 and 31.4 are cool in my book!

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

Whoever is renting 31.3 and 31.4 are cool in my book!

Being the wet blanket in this thread, I've noticed that the local ads for area small businesses have dropped off considerably on both 31-3 and 31-4. When HOT and RTV launched a few months ago, there were quite a few local spots. Now, it seems to be mostly PI (per inquiry) and national PSAs. That seems to be a red flag about the viability of whomever is leasing those streams from MAKO. Their webpage (http://www.channel31four.com/) has only 6 ads in rotation. Ouch.

I really hope I'm wrong that they they're making a tidy profit since I do enjoy many of the classics and even some of the clinkers.

When I visit Chicago, the Weigel stations (MeTV and MeToo) are bumper-to-bumper with advertising from small businesses that are priced out of WBBM, WLS, WGN, WMAQ and the other big boys (and even the main WCIU channel, "The U"). They must have some aggressive street fighters up there to haul in the dollars.

 

[JHBrandt]

I get the impression TheCoolTV has a strong preference for full-power stations and that's why they left K31GL. But even if I'm right, they could still cut a deal with KFWD for 52.2.

I think the big problem the LPs have is that they're invisible to most potential viewers. There are plenty of good antennas that will pull them in even out in the 'burbs, but the cheap rabbit-ears-plus-loop indoor antennas most folks have just won't get the job done unless they live within 10 miles or so of Cedar Hill. And for the most part, they aren't on cable either.

One thing that would really help 31.3 and 31.4 would be an EPG so viewers could see what's available. For RTV at least, that should be trivial since it's a national network. But that's probably up to K31GL, not to the folks leasing those channels.

If the HOT TV/RTV folks are running into trouble, maybe they could shop around for a better spot on the dial. I'd guess that KLEG might be getting rather desperate for some programming by now and would be willing to give them a pretty good deal

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

If the HOT TV/RTV folks are running into trouble, maybe they could shop around for a better spot on the dial. I'd guess that KLEG might be getting rather desperate for some programming by now and would be willing to give them a pretty good deal

That static slide promoting KAZD has been on KLEG (complete with snow...really) since the week before the Super Bowl!

The FCC database shows that KLEG is licensed as a Class A television station. Doesn't that mean E/I programming is mandated? If so, do they break away from the slide to meet that requirement for all two of us who watch it?

 

[JHBrandt]

... (complete with snow...really) ...

I don't know what that interference is. Unlike the white noise we're all familiar with from the analog era, it actually has a pattern to it. It's very close to the NTSC color subcarrier frequency of 3.58 MHz, which plays havoc with anyone who tunes to KLEG with an old TV and a converter box. (Try it!) That makes me think it's some kind of artifact of multiple digital-to-analog conversions.

Even when they had Azteca programming, KLEG had sub-par PQ. Probably the same issue. I originally suspected them of receiving the Azteca broadcast from 50.3 with a cheap converter box and re-digitizing it for broadcast, but the slide with the interference is still there even though 50.3 has long since moved on, so who knows?

 

[AlanB]

slightly off topic: does anyone know what FIOS is showing in place of KLEG on channel 24? It seems to be informericals, but is listed as KLEG in the program guide.