Providence Milestone took place today WLNE-HD

[Kenny Atkinson]

WLNE airs first ever locally produced news program in HD today with The Bristol Fourth of July Parade with the help from Comcast Cable.

 

[KML0224]

Glad to hear. Significant since it's the longest running parade of its type in the United States. Now if they could figure out how to get out of third place?

 

[mgpt6]

And CBS could not do the Pops in HD tonight

 

[alg2468]

WLNE is really working hard to improve their ratings. According to the station, their news ratings have improved since January, but of course the Providence Journal rarely ever does local TV stories like the Boston Globe or Herald. At the rate of improvement with WLNE, I would not be too surprised if they produce Providence's first HD newscast.

 

[KML0224]

Shouldn't they be able to compete on a better footing with WJAR and WPRI, seeing as their digital transmitter will be closer to Providence than the analog one in Tiverton, RI? Will their city of license still be New Bedford, MA?

 

[pqgeorge]

Shouldn't they be able to compete on a better footing with WJAR and WPRI, seeing as their digital transmitter will be closer to Providence than the analog one in Tiverton, RI? Will their city of license still be New Bedford, MA?

Yes, their COL will still be in New Bedford. But since the New Bedford-Providence Market has been "condensed" since the late 1960's, COL is a moot point. Now since all of the major network affiliates' digital transmitter sites are pretty much co-located in Rehoboth, MA (albeit on different towers), there is really no reason for WLNE/49 to not "have a go at it" against WJAR/51 and WPRI/13. And I believe if WLNE wants it, they could keep the Tiverton site as a warm digital standby with a directional antenna to cover the market quite well. Not bad for a station that barely made it for so many years (since 1/1/63) with some less-than-adequate facilities. But they tried their best. Now it's beginning to pay off.