What is with WQDI-LD Channel 20? For the past several days they seem to be broadcasting a good signal, but all channels are breaking up. Is this some kind of satellite or other trouble at the transmitter? I notice that some of the low power TV stations which broadcast from that short tower just south of downtown Cleveland are often off the air for no reason. I presume that this is some kind of turnkey operation, established primarily to collect carriage fees from the shoppers' networks, but isn't anybody minding the store?
-
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
Channel 20 WQDI-LD TV
- Thread starter radiofollower
- Start date
Ever since the switchover to digital, OTA reception has been crap. I live not too far from a small airport and when planes fly overhead coming in for or taking off my digital signal will break up, no matter what channel I am watching. And sometimes, one day reception on a channel will be fantastic and the next day it could be like the channel never existed. Bring back analog!
I checked about an hour ago and all of WQDI-LD's subchannels display "mode not supported" on my Samsung TV.
Also, sister station WUEK-LD is now airing TeleXitos on their .6 sub, with severe judder.
These two stations, along with WEKA-LD & KONV-LD are owned by HC2 Broadcasting, all of which broadcast from the same tower.
Also, sister station WUEK-LD is now airing TeleXitos on their .6 sub, with severe judder.
These two stations, along with WEKA-LD & KONV-LD are owned by HC2 Broadcasting, all of which broadcast from the same tower.
Join the club. I have the same issues here in Mesa AZ. To add insult to injury, I live in the foothills of a mountain, and am about 130 feet above and 2 miles northeast of the runway of my local airport. That means that planes actually fly below my house as they approach. I'm only 25 miles from the South Mountain towers in Phoenix and when planes fly over (and under), say goodbye to TV for half a minute or so.
The problem, I'm guessing, is a design flaw where the ATSC1 signal has very poor to nonexistent error correction. NextGen is supposed to fix that, but all they talk about is marketing. I need real test results before I invest in a receiver for it.
But if you think analog is coming back... 'tain't happening. The stations need that income from the diginets to survive, to replace the now-tanking carriage fees from cable and satellite. Advertising on one channel just won't work anymore.
Oh yeah, I know. Just wishful thinking on my part.
Yes, they all broadcast from that short tower right south of downtown Cleveland. Like it said, it appears to be a bare bones, turnkey operation. The stations often have some kind of tech problem or are off the air completely. I wonder if the shoppers networks which are paying for the broadcast time realize that their feed is often interrupted by some kind of technical problem. Like I said, who is watching the store?
Is it me or are there too many infomercials on multiple channels in the area?
"No" and "Yes"
My original thinking was DTVAmerica put channels 20 & 41 on the air thinking they could sell them for profit in the near future. At this stage, unlikely as low-powers aren't what we once hoped for. Their selections for sub-channels, once the full powers take them away is next to nothing BUT infomercials.
Weigels purchase of (Now WOCV, Channel 35) is probably the closest we will see to a low-power trying to build itself a decent network of sub-channels. And even at that, only if they can wrestle their owned stations away from the stations that currently carry them. And me? I'm still holding out that they add some local flavor to the main channel.
As for the 3's, 5's and 23's??? Way too many shop at homes. When stations pile on the sub's like these do, does it defeat their own purpose?
Sidenote: WCDN (Channel 53) looks to have added a sub-channel for "Reflections" (53.3). I picked up 53 with no problems when I lived in Parma Heights. 15 years later and now in Parma itself, I can't pick it up at all.
Buzzr was about the only reason to pull in WEKA-LD back in the day (if you were lucky enough to decode their signal), and that brief period in 2017 when COZI was dropped from WEWS 5.2 until WKYC picked them up on 3.3. Everything else is pretty much not worth watching, and the few other interesting networks that they did carry were either very bad when it came to picture quality, or only lasted for so long until being flipped to another network. Really, who whats to watch BeIN Sports on a highly compressed 480i subchannel? Especially when it can be streamed for free on multiple streaming platforms in HD.
At this point we really don't need 4 HC2 stations here in Cleveland duplicating the same shopping/infomercial networks across multiple channels. There were plans prior to 2020 to move two of them to the WTAM tower in Brecksville, probably to be used as repeaters to better reach Akron, but they eventually got abandoned for whatever reason.
Agreed, but most of their stations outside of Chicago and Milwaukee are just there to carry their networks with no local programming other than the required public affairs for full and Class A stations. Other than Story and Decades, I don't think we'll see any of their other networks move to WOCV, unless the affiliated station decides not to renew their contracts. If Weigel launches another network in the future, WOCV will likely be the launch affiliate for Cleveland.
Fun fact. HC2 almost ended up buying WOCV (W16DO-D) from Media-Com back in 2019, but backed out before the sale closed. Gee, I wonder why?
It all comes down to money. Stations get a cut of the profits from the sales that the shopping networks bring in.
Reflections was added about a month or so ago, though I'm not sure why the label says Brazil.
That's pretty bad that you can't pick them up in Parma, as their transmitter is on the WBNX tower. They have a hard null towards the north, so if you're located there, that could be the problem. Also, being a low power station on the hi-VHF band doesn't help either.
"It all comes down to money. Stations get a cut of the profits from the sales that the shopping networks bring in."
Well, sort of. The shoppers' networks pay the stations to carry them. This is why Cleveland (and just about everyplace else) has a bunch of low power stations carrying mostly shopping networks. Organizations smelled easy money. Get a license. Get an LPTV station on the air with a cheap transmitter, with an antenna often hung on a cell tower. Hook up a satellite feed to pick up the shoppers networks (and maybe a couple of low rent feeds which feature mostly public domain movies and TV shows from beat up prints) Lock the door. Go home and watch the monthly checks roll in. Who cares if anyone is actually watching? Who cares if the picture is substandard? These are designed as money generators from the carriage rentals paid by the shopping networks, pure and simple. My point is that, with so many technical problems like sputtering feeds and LPTV transmitters that seem to go off the air quite often, do the shopping networks realize that they are paying for a cracked-up feed and dead air fairly often?
Well, sort of. The shoppers' networks pay the stations to carry them. This is why Cleveland (and just about everyplace else) has a bunch of low power stations carrying mostly shopping networks. Organizations smelled easy money. Get a license. Get an LPTV station on the air with a cheap transmitter, with an antenna often hung on a cell tower. Hook up a satellite feed to pick up the shoppers networks (and maybe a couple of low rent feeds which feature mostly public domain movies and TV shows from beat up prints) Lock the door. Go home and watch the monthly checks roll in. Who cares if anyone is actually watching? Who cares if the picture is substandard? These are designed as money generators from the carriage rentals paid by the shopping networks, pure and simple. My point is that, with so many technical problems like sputtering feeds and LPTV transmitters that seem to go off the air quite often, do the shopping networks realize that they are paying for a cracked-up feed and dead air fairly often?
Remember it well, trying to pick up Buzzr and Cozi on there. On a GOOD day, I can pick up channel 41, but never 20.
Someplace in the "vault" of old newspaper articles I got off microfilm at the library (Pre-internet/Wikipedia). I have an April, 1981 article where the FCC cut off low-power applications as they were overloaded with them.
In those days, low power seemed promising. However, cable, digital cable, satellite, local sub-channels and everything else turned these stations (somewhat, dare I say) worthless.
IIRC - The Klaus family applied for about six stations and aimed for a local "network" placating Cleveland/Akron locally and probably further into east and western counties. I think I first read of WAX in 1987 and that one (the second of the "network") didn't hit the air until nine years later. Among things, I remember reading of possible High School Football and/or Basketball games that could be different, East, West and South depending on the match-ups. I also recall them mentioning a "Polka Varieties" type show that never materialized. The turn of the century was arriving too soon to keep such old-fashioned methods.
For the record, I don't think any of those "April, 1981" mentioned stations materialized. Bill Cosby and Joe Zingale were one of the groups trying to come up with a network of stations. Also, lots of UAW/Union, Specific Nationality and other types of ideas floated around.
North of Parmatown, it hasn't come in at any time since I moved here.
Reception of all the HC2 stations improved a bit after the repack when they were able to apply for slight power increases. The big problem is the height of their antenna on that tower, and the fact that all 4 stations share the same goofy pattern, some of which could broadcast further in a particular direction without creating interference to a station on the same frequency. Oddly enough, in my experience, all these stations come in better the further away you are from the transmitter. My uncle lives in Bedford, and even though he's much closer and gets a stronger signal then me, he can barely pull in WUEK-LD (strongest one at 7 kW) with an outdoor antenna. I get all 4, pending weather conditions with my outdoor antennas. Prior to the repack, WEKA-LD was an occasional catch. WQDI-LD only came in when the weather was just right, since they were once broadcasting at .25 kW. WUEK-LD signed on a few years after, and KONV-LD signed on after WVPX was repacked from 23 to 22.
That reminded me of the various repeaters that WVIZ once had. There was one in Ashtabula that I believe was taken off the air after the digital transition, or shortly afterwards. There was one licensed to Gates Mills and another one for Berea (?) many years ago. There were probably others as well. The only one that exists today is the one in Thompson serving Eastlake, and now a DRT for East Cleveland.
I'll have to find this video if its still up on YouTube, but in the late 80s, WVIZ produced a program that talked about the history of the Cleveland TV stations. In an interview, it was mentioned that a station licensed to Beachwood on channel 31 was in the process of signing on. Not sure what happened, but it's likely that the owner ran out of money and abandoned the station altogether. My guess is that one of those self supporting towers next to I-271 in Warrensville Heights and Beachwood was originally intended for that station.
WAOH-LP signed on first in Akron, and WAX later signed on in Cleveland in 1996. Digging through their applications, it appears that WAX was originally slated to broadcast from the WTAM tower in Brecksville, which was later changed to broadcast from Parma (the current day WOCV-CD) in 1991. That tower, which is also used for WBNX, WMJI & WCDN, was not built until 1993, suggesting that Media-Com were the ones who built it, with WMJI and later WBNX eventually moving there as well.
Yeah, you're likely in their null. If you are on high ground, your LOS with WJBK in Detroit (also on RF 7) is likely interfering with WCDN. There's been times when WJBK decoded over WCDN where I'm at. Coverage map
All of these shopping networks. Who is watching them? More pointedly, who is buying the (often) trinkets they are selling. ie: diamond rings, stuff to hang around your neck ... etc ...? I'd like to hear from one, just one, .person who has purchased anything from a home shopping network. I know of none, but they must be out there.
They are getting pretty sophisticated. They always sold jewelry, clothes, shoes and electronics (TVs, computers, etc) but the other day I happened to see one station selling "premium steaks". They had a big, juicy steak on a very tight shot which they were carving, with the juices pouring out. In terms of production and presentation, I gotta hand it to them. They know how to light these items just right and get the tight shot right on them to make them as appealing as possible. Having been in the biz, I can tell you that the proper lighting and camera angle can make anything look good on TV, so I wonder how some of this stuff actually looks. And yes, I don't know anyone who has ever bought anything from one of these services, but there must be some. I do see the amount of people currently purchasing on screen, but who knows if that is accurate or just (as some would say) "smart marketing".
Same with all the fast food places who advertise on TV. They make their burgers look sooo good in the commercial, but they never look like that when you buy them.
Always love it when the hosts on HSN or QVC make an Intel Celeron with 4 GB of RAM laptop sound like it's the best thing that you can currently buy. I've also seen numinous electronics on air that just scream cheap.
For what they charge nowadays, they better look like the ones advertised on TV or on the menu.
- Status