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Updates on Telemundo's upcoming affiliates for Alabama?

K

kokoroanime

Almost a few months ago, Gray Television has announced their partner ship with a Spanish-language network, Telemundo to expand affiliates to the Southeast including 4 TV Markets in Alabama. That makes it a game charger for the Hispanic community all over Alabama and will be its first non-religious Spanish-language OTA network.

I have a question, when will the affiliates be up and running?
 
I've been keeping an eye out for any kind of press release or anything from either Telemundo or Gray and it's been dead silent. They are currently simulcasting WBRC on WJMY in Tuscaloosa and WBXA in Birmingham, and those will be the two stations for the Birmingham market. I'm thinking that something may pop up on August 1st, but that's just speculation on my part.

Gray has recently acquired a ton of low power outlets all over the area I keep an eye on:

WMJY-CD Tuscaloosa and WJMY-LD in Demopolis
WBXA-CD in Birmingham (with a pending call sign change to WTBM for Telemundo Birmingham)
W29FP-D in Montgomery
WMJN-LD in Somerville (near Decatur)
W32FV-D in Columbus, GA / Phenix City, AL
W31EP-D in Panama City, FL
K35OX-D in Selma (sale pending)

This covers all the major metros of the state except Mobile. There are a few existing LDTV stations that have either signed on with filler content, or have moved from out of state to serve that city, so one of those may be in the pipeline for Gray to acquire to bring it to the coast. (We currently have TV Azteca and beIn Sports in Spanish on a few low power outlets.)
 
tomservo said:
I've been keeping an eye out for any kind of press release or anything from either Telemundo or Gray and it's been dead silent. They are currently simulcasting WBRC on WJMY in Tuscaloosa and WBXA in Birmingham, and those will be the two stations for the Birmingham market. I'm thinking that something may pop up on August 1st, but that's just speculation on my part.

Gray has recently acquired a ton of low power outlets all over the area I keep an eye on:

WMJY-CD Tuscaloosa and WJMY-LD in Demopolis
WBXA-CD in Birmingham (with a pending call sign change to WTBM for Telemundo Birmingham)
W29FP-D in Montgomery
WMJN-LD in Somerville (near Decatur)
W32FV-D in Columbus, GA / Phenix City, AL
W31EP-D in Panama City, FL
K35OX-D in Selma (sale pending)

This covers all the major metros of the state except Mobile. There are a few existing LDTV stations that have either signed on with filler content, or have moved from out of state to serve that city, so one of those may be in the pipeline for Gray to acquire to bring it to the coast. (We currently have TV Azteca and beIn Sports in Spanish on a few low power outlets.)
Click to expand...
We are still waiting to assure if W31FB-D and WGUD-LD are actually becoming Telemundo affiliates.
 
WGUD-LD! That is the one I couldn't think of.

W31FB-D is owned by some company called Lowcountry 34 Media. I notice it's listed as being on air from one of the towers in Spanish Fort with a pretty big signal, but I have nary a peep from it here in Foley, even with an outdoor antenna. I doubt it's actually on the air.
 
WBXA-CD just became WTMB-CD meaning that Birmingham is getting very closer for a Telemundo Affiliate. We are still waiting on update for both WGUD-LD and W31FB-D.
 
kokoroanime said:
WBXA-CD just became WTMB-CD meaning that Birmingham is getting very closer for a Telemundo Affiliate. We are still waiting on update for both WGUD-LD and W31FB-D.
Click to expand...

WTBM-CD.
 
As of right this moment, Channel 24 Birmingham shows up as WTBM-CD on PSIP on my 2008 Samsung CRT, but 24.1 is still relaying WBRC 6.1.

So I'm curious: are all of these new affiliates going to originate any news or other programming and are they going to operate as a collective "Telemundo Alabama?" And why amass a fleet of purchased LPTVs? Wouldn't it have been easier and more reliable to put Telemundo on an existing full power subchannel if the mission is to get it on the airwaves?
 
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Chad-Stevens said:
As of right this moment, Channel 24 Birmingham shows up as WTBM-CD on PSIP on my 2008 Samsung CRT, but 24.1 is still relaying WBRC 6.1.

So I'm curious: are all of these new affiliates going to originate any news or other programming and are they going to operate as a collective "Telemundo Alabama?" And why amass a fleet of purchased LPTVs? Wouldn't it have been easier and more reliable to put Telemundo on an existing full power subchannel if the mission is to get it on the airwaves?
Click to expand...
Just to update: as of right this second 24.1 is Fox 6, 24.2 is SBN, 24.3 is ShopLC, 24.4 is color bars, 24.5 is Circle. All of which show up on PSIP simply as WTBM-CD.
 
If a station changes call signs but it's not on the air, does it mean anything? šŸ˜‚

I've got my antenna pointed north, looking for signs of life, but still nothing. As I mentioned over on AVS Forum, I've gotten a bit of WFBD and now WGOX-LD this way, so I'm gonna leave it here for a while and see what happens. I've never seen either of those before.
 
Is anyone able to pick up WJMY-CD in Tuscaloosa to see what is happening with its subchannels? It had been carrying Bounce, Quest, Grit TV, Laff and Circle, but I'm wondering if it will be mirroring the lineup on WTBM, with Fox 6 and all.

Meanwhile in Mobile, the launch of WMBP-LD is a bit screwy. They're currently simulcasting WALA Fox 10 on 31-3, and Telemundo on 31-4. Telemundo's picture is a 4:3 center cut of the 16:9 feed of the Atlanta broadcast, so all the text on the edges is getting cut off. Despite being in central Baldwin County, I'm struggling to pick it up with an outdoor antenna. It's only coming in pointed right at Spanish Fort, and only one bar on the signal meter on my TV.
 
I can only assume that Telemundo prohibits its network from being broadcast in less than HD. Why else would Gray be assembling this ragtag band of LPTVs in Alabama and elsewhere?
Otherwise it would only make sense to put it in SD on the next available subchannel (such as 6.7) - which would at least be a more reliable OTA signal and show up immediately in the channel roster on most sets without a rescan - if their audience is more likely to be watching OTA rather than through a subscription.

Oh, and because the world cried out in desperation for more teleshopping: WPXH adds ShopLC on 44.9 Yay...šŸ™„
 
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Latest 24-point-changes. 24.1 is Telemundo, 24.2 is SBN, 24.3 is ShopLC, and 24.4 is nothing but an old-fashioned screensaver that looks like Windows 3.1 and moves about the screen with the message "āš ļø No Signal"
I noticed a vacant 24.5 on Tuesday that was just a blank screen, but that is missing as of yesterday.

20220922_070810.jpg
 
Not to re-animate a zombie, but WTBM is now on Spectrum cable on Channel 6 - which had been vacant for as long as I'd been subscribing, 20 years or more.
Don't know when it happened, but I'm fairly certain it was recent like during the month of February: far too late for the FIFA World Cup, which I suspect was a factor in getting Telemundo on all these OTA signals.
 
Hah. I remember years ago when I lived in Birmingham that channels 6, 10 and 13 were blank back then on TCI.

Down here in Mobile, Gray is still running Telemundo on 34-4, but at least it's 16:9 SD now. Fox 10 is still in HD on 34-3. We seem to be lagging behind everywhere else. Telemundo is now on in Tuscaloosa, Montgomery and Huntsville.

Interestingly, since Telemundo came on, we lost the other Spanish channel, Azteca. It had been on WEDS-LD 29.1. Looks like that's just infomercials now.
 
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