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DTV in the RGV

XHRIO has always been a weak sister, ever since it signed on the air in, oh what was it, 1979 I think. I was living in a second story apartment in south McAllen at the time and had to hang a $40 RatShack antenna off the ceiling of the bedroom to get decent video from them.

Of course, those were different days. At the time, the McAllen production studio was recording programming on 3/4" tape and sending it across the border at Progreso to the transmitter at Rio Bravo to be played 24 hours later.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.....Valley TV. ;D
 
I was there in '79. It was losing money from day one but was a blast to work at. You never knew what would happen next. I left by the end of the year.

Interesting story-- I came across a 1992 SCT citation fining XHRIO for not having their tower painted orange and white. I remember that coming up when they went on the air 23 YEARS EARLIER.
 
That was the stick at the McAllen studio, right? Wasn't that supposed to be the tower for the STL that was never approved?

I saw that tower a year or so ago....it had rusted, and I think the building was abandoned.

Ahhhh...Charliie Trubb....KRGV, KRIX and KB104....those were days in the RGV!
 
mmnassour said:
That was the stick at the McAllen studio, right? Wasn't that supposed to be the tower for the STL that was never approved?
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No. I was talking about their 1,000-foot transmitter tower in El Control, Tamaulipas. It wasn't painted when I was there in 79 and was citied by the federales for not being painted 23 years later.

BTW-- Televisa recently built a 1,500-foot tower in the area for its channel 7, 9 and 17 and their digital counterparts.
 
Ah, I see, the feds on the other side!

It's amazing how far the RGV has come. When we were down there, 7 and 9 on the other side were nothing more than slaves of XEW in Mexico City and there were barely three net affiliates on the US side. Now, you can't swing a dead cat on either side without hitting a TV tower!

One of the things I noticed on my last trip down there was the large amount of, well, localism, in all the stations. Unlike Austin, there seems to be a lot of local production not only of news/talk shows, but of commercials as well. But if the digital transition will run aground anywhere, it's in the RGV due to the mix of US and Mexican standards as well as the extraordinarily diverse audience.
 
It seems that Televisa has increased their digital signals' power or height or something because without tweaking the antenna one bit I now get channels 7-1 and 9-1. Its been about a week or so. XHAB-TD still pixelates from time to time especially when there's movement in the room. I've also noticed that XERV-TD is now simulcasting the analog ch 9. It was not like this before. Their digital signal didn't have any of the local commercials or the red "9" in the upper right corner.
 
mmnassour said:
What about local IDs at the top of the hour? They don't still ID as XEW, do they? ;D
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No, they ID as XERV 9 Harlingen-McAllen-Brownsville. I don't remember seeing them list Reynosa at all. XHAB plays a little jingle and calls itself "Vallevision".
 
Yea, when I was down there it was XERV-7 in Reynosa and (something else)-9 in Brownsville. Neither had much of a signal. I'm just glad that the folks there finally have a decent selection of OTA signals.
 
KTLM did another test of their digital signal last night from 11-11:30. I used the EZ add feature on my converter box and was surprised to see it pick up not one but two new channels: 40.1 (Telemundo) and 40.2 (color bars). I wonder what they'll be airing on 40.2? Something Spanish? What else is there- Mexicanal?
 
Perhaps, but just because they had bars up it doesn't mean they have programming plans. The Fox station here in Austin has switched on 7-2 a couple of times, but they're just making sure the equipment worked.
 
mmnassour said:
Yea, when I was down there it was XERV-7 in Reynosa and (something else)-9 in Brownsville. Neither had much of a signal.
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Back in the day... XELD was channel 7 licensed to Reynosa. It actually predated 4 & 5 because it got on the air during the freeze. I recall reading an article about some bigwig from WOAI coming to the Valley to run it. It didn't last long after 4 & 5 established themselves. I don't know about 9 but I recall the XERV calls being associated with that channel before its current incarnation. Perhaps 9 was an early Telesistema Mexicano repeater.
 
KVEO turned on channel 23.2 today. It's showing previews of Estrella Tv. Strangely enough they are airing commercials- and so far they've all been in English!
 
One more thing: KRGV is running some promos saying "the way you see the world is about to change". There's a really cool picture of Earth and 9/9/09 above it. I wonder what that's about?
 
silverthree said:
One more thing: KRGV is running some promos saying "the way you see the world is about to change". There's a really cool picture of Earth and 9/9/09 above it. I wonder what that's about?
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Wonder if their newscast is going HD on 9/9/09?
 
That's what I'm thinking too. They mentioned the other day they are working on their set so they are doing the newscasts from the newsroom.
 
Well, that seems kind of obvious, then, they're about to launch the HD. I hope it goes well for them, I know a lot of folks have been putting in a lot of work to get it on the air.
 
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