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Last places to get PBS OTA (or have none)

In NJ,it appears Cape May County is underserved with no statewide PBS signal over the air.

It's one thing for there to be no ABC, Fox, or CBS reception, but there is NBC signal (via WMGM), and NJN being funded by public state tax funds could offered a signal there too. This would have serviced Atlantic County too. The Waterford Works site of the Camden WNJS was 51 miles away from Wildwood.

Meanwhile, Central NJ had WNJB along with signal coverage from WNJN and WNJT. While that followed the population density better, the goal of NJN was availability through the state. One doesn't need 3 signals of NJN in Central NJ overpowering anything else, and no NJN available by the southern NJ shore.

So WNJB was associated as an NCE license (COL of New Brunswick) which could have been reclassified as a commercial license for Central NJ that has no commercial tv signals. Ch.58 was once WRTV of Asbury Park, a commercial station.
 
On the other hand, there seems to be no shortage of PBS outlets in Cass County, ND. I counted three Prairie Public affiliates receivable within the Leonard area alone.
 
ding12 said:
In NJ,it appears Cape May County is underserved with no statewide PBS signal over the air.

It's one thing for there to be no ABC, Fox, or CBS reception, but there is NBC signal (via WMGM), and NJN being funded by public state tax funds could offered a signal there too. This would have serviced Atlantic County too. The Waterford Works site of the Camden WNJS was 51 miles away from Wildwood.
Click to expand...

tripinva said:
WNJS covers the whole southern half of the state. http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1187203&map=Y
Click to expand...

Furthermore, it's not NJN anymore -- it's NJTV, which replaced NJN last year:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NJTV
 
Small markets in Ohio:

* Lima has, technically, no in-market PBS affiliate. That role is played by nearby WBGU in Bowling Green. A quick look at the FCC's signal map shows that it's probably not that hard to get WBGU over-air in the Lima area, and of course, it's the local PBS affiliate there on cable and satellite.

* Zanesville is a technically one-station TV market - WHIZ/18 (NBC) and gets the rest of its TV from Columbus. But nearby WOUC in Cambridge is basically the local PBS affiliate (full-power repeater for WOUB in Athens, at Ohio University).

* WOUC also serves as the PBS affiliate for the northern end of the Wheeling/Steubenville market. Wheeling itself has what appears to be a digital translator for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. WOUB is considered the local affiliate in the Parkersburg/Marietta market.
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
Small markets in Ohio:

* Lima has, technically, no in-market PBS affiliate. That role is played by nearby WBGU in Bowling Green. A quick look at the FCC's signal map shows that it's probably not that hard to get WBGU over-air in the Lima area, and of course, it's the local PBS affiliate there on cable and satellite.
Click to expand...

I can confirm that - it's indoor-antenna reception there, or at least it was the last time I spent a night in Lima a couple of years ago.
 
Scott Fybush said:
I can confirm that - it's indoor-antenna reception there, or at least it was the last time I spent a night in Lima a couple of years ago.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I haven't made it to Lima since the transition. I didn't have a portable analog TV to try to get WBGU before that...

Confirmed that Dish Network offers WBGU in the Lima locals:

http://uplink.jameslong.name/locallist.html

The program guide for the OTA tuners also has WBGU's subchannels.
 
Dish Network has a Zanesville locals package, including the Columbus ABC, CBS and Fox affiliates, plus WHIZ.

It does not, for some unknown reason, offer WOUC in that package. No, not WOSU instead, but apparently a national PBS feed.

Judging from the maps, there should be no problem picking up WOUC just down I-70.
 
azumanga said:
ding12 said:
In NJ,it appears Cape May County is underserved with no statewide PBS signal over the air.

It's one thing for there to be no ABC, Fox, or CBS reception, but there is NBC signal (via WMGM), and NJN being funded by public state tax funds could offered a signal there too. This would have serviced Atlantic County too. The Waterford Works site of the Camden WNJS was 51 miles away from Wildwood.
Click to expand...

tripinva said:
WNJS covers the whole southern half of the state. http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1187203&map=Y
Click to expand...


Furthermore, it's not NJN anymore -- it's NJTV, which replaced NJN last year:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NJTV
Click to expand...


For most of its existance, and how it started etc., it was NJN.
 
http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1187203&map=Y
ding12 said:
Looks like less than a Grade A signal in Cape May County. I'd be curious if there is an area WNJB covers that WNJN and WNJT couldn't cover.
Click to expand...

To clarify, the term Grade A or B isn't used anymore. However, it looks like for most of Cape May County, WNJS's signal would require an outdoor antenna just like it did in analog.

The old NJN service in analog could be picked up almost anywhere in NJ with an indoor antenna with the exception of Cape May County, and many areas got 2-3 signals of the same signal. My opinion is the entity (NJN or now NJTV) just needs 3 stations. But, if they are going with 4 for the state, WNJS could have transmitted in Vineland or somewhere further south to cover the state in the equivalent of a Grade A manner for the entire area. Northern Burlington County would have fallen anyways in the equivalent of "Grade A" for WNJT.
 
Why would it have mattered? In those areas, WMGM was really the only local signal anyway; if you wanted the full complement of networks to watch, you had an outdoor antenna to watch Philly anyway, and WNJS being closer than Philadelphia would have one of the stronger signals that outdoor antenna would have received.

In any event, areas on my map with yellow can receive TV stations with an indoor antenna with some amount of adjustment, and it looks like most of Cape May county should have a usable signal. Wildwood and Cape May look to be the only areas where an outdoor antenna would be truly required.

- Trip
 
There aren't really any dead places for PBS in South Carolina, since almost every corner of the state (even the most rural parts) have a station. The PBS for Greenwood, WNEH, was the last station to sign on their network, in September of 1984.

They could get service though before that from WNTV in Greenville. A lot of the western part of NC too far from WUNF in Asheville didn't get digital OTA PBS until 2010 when WUNW in Canton signed on.
 
Didn't Canton have a translator before WUNW signed on?

- Trip
 
tripinva said:
Didn't Canton have a translator before WUNW signed on?

- Trip
Click to expand...

Don't have my database handy but...

They have a digital translator at Canton, W28EE-D. However, it appears UNC feels they need both W28EE and WUNW -- they're at different sites -- and W28EE filed for its license-to-cover *the next day* after WUNW's.

I'm just about certain they did have an *analog* translator before WUNW came on.
 
Much of northern Missouri is without an OTA source for PBS. KCPT Kansas City is common on cable. KMOS Sedalia, WQEC Quincy, and Iowa Public TV are also on some cable systems. In the early 90's several cable systems even carried KRMA from Denver.

The organization that runs WQEC, WMEC, and WSEC had a permit more than 20 years ago for channel 21 from LaPlata (between Kirksville and Macon), but it was never built. Truman State holds a permit for a digital LPTV on channel 43, but it's not clear what they are planning to do with it.

Like many of these areas without OTA PBS, the low population probably doesn't support the construction of a viewer-supported full power TV station, especially since many households can receive PBS through a cable or satellite provider.
 
Mark said:
I thought with digital TV there is no such thing as a grade A or grade b coverage. Is this right?
Click to expand...

It's perfect or it's not there. Pixellation and sound dropouts are the same as "not there."
 
EJM said:
It took me some time to find the thread, but this topic was pretty much covered recently in http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=212894.0.
Click to expand...

I see Scott Fybush even mentioned our Ohio examples, which I mentioned upthread - Lima (WBGU Bowling Green nearby, but not in market) and Zanesville (WOUC Cambridge nearby, but not in market).

Has anyone done a "markets with more than one PBS affiliate" thread yet? We have several here in Ohio, including in the Cleveland market...
 
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