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Unique OTA situations

Mr Tony

Mr Tony

Lets get off the cable train for a bit and talk about over that air or using an antenna to get TV

What situations do you know of out there if you use an antenna that are REALLY unique?

Things I wouldn't consider unique
-an all UHF market (plenty of those out there)
-"short" markets
-markets that have all of the Big 4 Nets but there are major chunks of the DMA that cant get all the Big 4 even with a huge antenna

So whatcha got?
 
Here are some I know just off the top of my head

Bangor Maine you can get the Big 4 + PBS with only a VHF antenna.
NBC 2 is on RF2
CBS 5 is on RF13
ABC 7 is on RF7 (they have FOX HD sub too)
PBS 12 is on RF9

note there is a translator for PBS on RF25 and the ABC has a LP on RF22 with FOX -1 ABC -2 and there is a analog station on UHF. But for the Big 4 & PBS you don't need a UHF antenna
 
Hagerstown Maryland area is in the unique situation that with an outdoor antenna (not even a big one) you get four PBS stations from four different states

WWPB Hagerstown-Maryland PBS
WVPY Front Royal, VA-Virginia PBS
W33CR Chambersburg, PA-Harrisburg PA PBS
W08EE Martinsburg WV, WV PBS
(sad thing...the subs on 3 of the 4 are Create, 2 have V-Me, Harrisburg has no subs)
 
Moorefield, WV has a 5 station translator system. Between the 5 stations you have networks from 4 different areas (3 states and DC)
ABC is from Harrisonburg, VA (they also carry CBS on sub)
FOX is from Washington DC
NBC is from Johnstown/Altoona PA
CBS is from Washington DC
PBS is from West Virginia
 
Wheeling WV/Steubenville, OH market you can get the Big 4 nets & MY with just a VHF antenna

WTRF RF7
7-1 CBS
7-2 MY (SD)
7-3 ABC (SD)

WTOV RF9
9-1 NBC
9-2 FOX
9-3 Me

There is no CW in the market. There is a translator for PBS on UHF and a LP on UHF for ABC & MY in HD.
 
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unclehonkey said:
Here are some I know just off the top of my head

Bangor Maine you can get the Big 4 + PBS with only a VHF antenna.
NBC 2 is on RF2
CBS 5 is on RF13
ABC 7 is on RF7 (they have FOX HD sub too)
PBS 12 is on RF9

note there is a translator for PBS on RF25 and the ABC has a LP on RF22 with FOX -1 ABC -2 and there is a analog station on UHF. But for the Big 4 & PBS you don't need a UHF antenna
Click to expand...

Same thing in central Iowa (Des Moines/Ames):

ABC 5 (WOI Ames) on RF 5 (but also has a UHF translator in Ames on RF 50--but due to repacking/spectrum auction for how much longer)
CBS 8 (KCCI Des Moines) on RF 8
PBS 11 (KDIN DSM--Iowa Public Television) on RF 11
NBC 13 (WHO DSM) on RF 13

BTW, Fox 17 (KDSM) is on RF 16.
 
Tim from Springfield said:
Same thing in central Iowa (Des Moines/Ames):

ABC 5 (WOI Ames) on RF 5 (but also has a UHF translator in Ames on RF 50--but due to repacking/spectrum auction for how much longer)
CBS 8 (KCCI Des Moines) on RF 8
PBS 11 (KDIN DSM--Iowa Public Television) on RF 11
NBC 13 (WHO DSM) on RF 13

BTW, Fox 17 (KDSM) is on RF 16.
Click to expand...
not even close....There are 1/2 dozen stations in Des Moines that are on UHF including FOX & CW. 3 + PBS on VHF? Thats no different than Lincoln, NE (CBS 10, NBC 4/10-2, ABC 8, PBS 12) but Fox is on UHF. Tampa is same way CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS on VHF. But Tampa has a bunch of UHF too ;)

Bangor is unique as you really don't need a UHF antenna. That MeTV station is a low powered analog translator that barely covers Bangor.
 
another unique one
The Big 4 commercial stations in Lima, OH are all owned by same person (Elliott Block)
WLIO 8-1 NBC 8-2 FOX/My
WOHL-CD 35-1 ABC 35-2 CBS

Crazy thing? The news is the same across all 4 stations!

(and yes I know there are spots where all Big 4 are RUN by same folks...ala Yuma. But Lima the stations are owned by same person)
 
LaCrosse, WI has 2 unique things
-There is a NBC translator station in town...but its for an out of market NBC. KTTC Rochester, MN. In Market WEAU (based in Eau Claire) is tough to pick up unless you have an outdoor antenna and even then it can be tough.
-Both the in market ABC (WXOW) and the KTTC translator carry the CW Plus on their -2 station (both in HD too)

(KTTC has had a translator in LaCrosse for decades....also both KTTC and WXOW are owned by same folks)
 
unclehonkey said:
Hagerstown Maryland area is in the unique situation that with an outdoor antenna (not even a big one) you get four PBS stations from four different states

WWPB Hagerstown-Maryland PBS
WVPY Front Royal, VA-Virginia PBS
W33CR Chambersburg, PA-Harrisburg PA PBS
W08EE Martinsburg WV, WV PBS
(sad thing...the subs on 3 of the 4 are Create, 2 have V-Me, Harrisburg has no subs)
Click to expand...

Back in the analog days when I lived in the Hagerstown area just off the Dual Highway ( Route 40 ) using a small antenna at the time I was able to get Washington's WETA & WHUT ( PBS ) and the two non-commercial Northern Virginia outlets WNVC & WNVT as well. On top of that in those days I could easily get most of the channels from the Harrisburg/Lancaster/York/Lebanon market, pretty much all of the Baltimore channels and DC's too and sometimes a few of Philadelphia & Richmond channels as well though with the latter two it was rare though. Red Lion, PA's WGCB and Winchester, Virginia's WAZT/WAZW both pretty much religious stations with some classic TV shows mixed in were regular catches too. Unfortunately I left the area long before the switch to digital so I have no idea first hand what one can pick up at my old house today even though according to many friends of mine who still live in that area and have since "cut the cord" the situation really hasn't changed all that much.
 
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That would be cool to have access to that many stations.

Running a tvfool for that area (outskirts of Hagerstown) it doesnt look like much
The 4 PBS I mentioned
The religious (WAZT)
the 2 Indys there (WHAG and WJAL)

some parts of the area might get 8 out of Harrisburg. Running a location on Dual Hwy SE of downtown shows WHSV Harrisonburg., But with WHAG losing NBC as of July 1st (Comcast/NBC wouldnt renew it) folks complaining on the WHAG facebook page say they don't get any network programming. Now most folks mention WHAG, WJAL, PBS (assume Maryland PBS) and Ion as "all they get".
 
Sault Ste. Marie, ON gets a complete set of American Big Four affiliates OTA (one of very few parts of Canada to have that), but none of them are on cable there.

Also, WLUK (Green Bay FOX), despite being kicked off most Upper Peninsula cable systems a few years ago, still has a translator in Escanaba (Marquette DMA). I am a little surprised the translator wasn't sent to Gray along with WLUC (Marquette NBC [with FOX on .2]) when Sinclair (who owned both WLUC and WLUK) sold WLUC off last year (WLUC has no OTA signal in Escanaba)
 
ftballfan said:
Sault Ste. Marie, ON gets a complete set of American Big Four affiliates OTA (one of very few parts of Canada to have that), but none of them are on cable there.
Click to expand...
Fort Frances, ON is the same way. They can get the Big 4 + PBS of the Duluth, MN stations via the International Falls translator (right across the border) yet on cable they get Detroit.
 
some more uniqueness OTA in Minnesota

-KQDS (FOX) Duluth, MN has 8 translators they own across the coverage area (1 of which is actually outside the Duluth DMA. Its in Western Aitkin County which is the Minneapolis DMA) and all are still analog!

-KSTP (ABC) Minneapolis has 4 owned translators that are still analog. 2 of which are in Bemidji and Brainerd (2 of the bigger towns outside of the Mpls area yet still in the Mpls DMA)

So there are folks in AItkin (our lake house being one of them) who have to rely on 2 analog translators for network programming (ABC & FOX)
 
unclehonkey said:
another unique one
The Big 4 commercial stations in Lima, OH are all owned by same person (Elliott Block)
WLIO 8-1 NBC 8-2 FOX/My
WOHL-CD 35-1 ABC 35-2 CBS

Crazy thing? The news is the same across all 4 stations!

(and yes I know there are spots where all Big 4 are RUN by same folks...ala Yuma. But Lima the stations are owned by same person)
Click to expand...

That is allowed in Lima because WOHL is a low power station
 
Yakima/Tri-Cities:
It's practically a UHF island. KNDO-23, KIMA-29, KAPP-35, KCYU-LD 41, KYVE-47. 2 1/2 of the Big 3 stations share news from a Tri-Cities studio. KAPP actually comes from KVEW-42, KNDO actually comes from KNDU-25, and KIMA-29 (mornings/weekends only) comes from KEPR-19. It's a sad situation in general. KAPP has one reporter. KNDO has one reporter. KIMA has about 4 reporters, one anchor and a sports director. No local meteorologist...Mike McCabe, who does wx on KIMA, is prerecorded from KEPR-19, because he's doing live WX at the same time for KEPR's Action News broadcast.
15-20 years ago, everything here was local. KNDO and KAPP had dueling studios at S 24th Ave. Those are gone. KNDO/KAPP would actually feed some of their newscasts to KNDU/KVEW...but it's the exact opposite now.
KIMA is also one of the last stations owned by Sinclair that is not using their current news graphics package. KIMA is using late 2000's era Fisher graphics. The studio is old and tired. Small desk with a bare blue wall and two HDTVs displaying the "KIMA Action News" logo. KNDU upgraded to a nicer set, with an NBC peacock behind the anchors. KAPP/KVEW also upgraded a bit with a nighttime view of the Tri-Cities behind the anchor (Mike Gonzalez). But they use the worst opening announcer ever - David Lee, known for his deep voice used for Westwood One NFL broadcasts and at countless rock stations around the country. Yes, that guy introduces news on a small ABC station in eastern Washington...

As for other notes, we have no My Network TV affiliate in this market. Our PBS station is a satellite of KCTS now. KYVE has no local Yakima programming anymore.
Satellite is mixed with affiliates. Dish Network gets KVEW ABC and KNDU NBC. No KNDO/KAPP. They also get KIMA AND KEPR for CBS. Fox comes from KCYU...not KFFX-11 Tri-Cities. Dish also provides both PBS stations in the market (KYVE-47, and KTNW-31 Tri-Cities).
DirecTV provides KNDO for NBC. I think they get KFFX for Fox, but I can't remember off the top of my head right now.
 
Some oddities about the Ottumwa IA - Kirksville MO market:

1. For years, Ottumwa wasn't actually in the market, even though it had the Ottumwa-Kirksville label. I believe this was because KTVO had a dual city of license as Kirksville-Ottumwa. They ID'd as such all through the 60s and 70s. However, WHO-TV and KCCI-TV of Des Moines operated translators in Ottumwa from about 1963 on (KCRG-TV was the original occupant of KCCI's translator channel until KTVO changed from CBS to ABC in 1968). The translator channels had enough viewership to cause Ottumwa to be part of the Des Moines ADI. This continued until the late 80s when KYOU-TV 15 Ottumwa began getting a toehold with Fox programming. With Both KTVO and KYOU present, that was enough to tip the scale and put Ottumwa back in its home ADI.

2. With the demise of the Ottumwa translators, it's now nearly impossible for anyone to receive an OTA signal from KYOU-TV in many lower lying parts of Ottumwa, including across the street from the KYOU studios! When KYOU built a 1200 ft tower in the early 90s, it was rumored that Fox wanted the station to put a signal into Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. So the tower ended up being 26 miles NE of Ottumwa, which created shadowing in the valley. For many years, KYOU used one of the translators to get the signal into the river valley in Ottumwa. But by the time the translator group threw in the towel about ten years ago, KYOU apparently didn't see fit to buy the translator for itself.

3. Even though there has never been an NBC affiliate in Ottumwa-Kirksville, KYOU has never pursued putting NBC on a sub channel. Several years ago, there was supposed to be a low-power station that was going to affiliate with NBC, but that never came to be and the license for the LPTV on channel 42 was deleted.
 
The Hampton Roads has pointless translators that are there but are not needed except in the northern parts of the market near Delmarva. WAVY has 4 and the main signal covers the area just fine and WVBT has 1 translator just to cover up for one of them in Suffolk that interferes WVBT's main signal. If WAVY shut down the 4 pointless translators (except for the Eastern Shore ones), then WVBT could shut down WNLO-CD and it's main signal could be clearer.
 
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