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WEIGEL'S WCIU CHICAGO (A UNIQUE STATION)

gregg75

gregg75

I'm trying to figure out (unravel) WCIU in Chicago. Wikipedia and their website says they
started a new sub-channel on Dec. 1, 2010 (The U Too) on 26.5. They also have THIS-TV
26.4 and ME-TOO on 26.3 and ME-TV on 26.2 (this is the one going national) and their
regular independent channel on 26.1.

They have two LOW POWER sisters stations WCCU-CA (channel 48) which I also see listed as
WMEU-TV. Their website says this is a brand new station for Chicago and it will air THE U
TOO also. I guess this covers a part of town WCIU doesn't reach????? Wikipedia also lists a
WWME (channel 23). Somewhat confusing...........much like a puzzle.

What is The U Too on 26.5?
Which ME is on WMEU 48? WCCU-CA must be their "legal" name????? Is this a new station?
Which ME is on WWME 23?
Do channels 48 and 23 have any subs of their own?
 
gregg75 said:
I'm trying to figure out (unravel) WCIU in Chicago. Wikipedia and their website says they
started a new sub-channel on Dec. 1, 2010 (The U Too) on 26.5. They also have THIS-TV
26.4 and ME-TOO on 26.3 and ME-TV on 26.2 (this is the one going national) and their
regular independent channel on 26.1.

They have two LOW POWER sisters stations WCCU-CA (channel 48) which I also see listed as
WMEU-TV. Their website says this is a brand new station for Chicago and it will air THE U
TOO also. I guess this covers a part of town WCIU doesn't reach????? Wikipedia also lists a
WWME (channel 23). Somewhat confusing...........much like a puzzle.

What is The U Too on 26.5?
Which ME is on WMEU 48? WCCU-CA must be their "legal" name????? Is this a new station?
Which ME is on WWME 23?
Do channels 48 and 23 have any subs of their own?
Click to expand...

At the moment, WCIU 26.6 is a simulcast of WCIU 26.1. I'm not sure what all will air on the channel. At least on my digital box, no 26.5 is registering, & I don't need to rescan, as my box doesn't count subchannels as separate channels. If my box detects the physical channel, it automatically detects the subchannels.

WWME-CA 23 is a simulcast of WCIU 26.1. WWME-LD is the digital channel for MeTV, & is mapped to 23.2. MeTV is also available via WCIU 23.1/26.2, & is currently the Classic Comedy channel. It will eventually be the national MeTV, which will be minus shows from the Sony library come this month. WWME-LD currently doesn't have any subchannels, but because 23.1 is mapped from WCIU, WWME-LD is mapped to 23.2.

WMEU-CA 48 is still broadcasting in analog, and is MeToo, the Classic Drama chanel. The call letters were changed to WCUU-CA to reflect a change from MeToo to U Too. The call letters were changed back to WMEU-CA. I don't know if Weigel Broadcasting plans to go thru with placing U Too on 48, or leave it MeToo. There is a digital companion license for RF 32, but so far, Weigel Broadcasting hasn't installed the new antenna or transmitter for 32. MeToo is also available on WCIU 26.3/48.1. I don't know if Weigel has plans to put MeToo on a subchannel to WWME-LD or not. One thing might be known is that MeToo might become the local MeTV. Both comedy & drama are being combined again on December 15th. If WMEU-CA does go thru with carrying the upcoming U Too channel, then MeToo will for the time being be available only via WCIU 26.3/48.1, unless 48.1 is removed from the mapping of WCIU, or becomes a subchannel to WWME-LD.

Sometime in 2012, Weigel Broadcasting must decide if they want to keep WWME-LD on RF 39, or return to 23, & have 23 flash-cut to digital. They also have to decide if they want WMEU-CA on 48 (currently analog & flash-cut to digital), or get RF 32 on the air, & keep that. Once they make a decision on both, then they can get Class A status for both stations (for Class A digital, the suffix is -CD). WMEU-CA had channel 46 as a companion channel, but because WHME-TV South Bend Indiana wants to return to 46, it could create interference if they get it on th air (though WHME-TV so far hasn't retuned to 46 yet), & they decided to go after the channel 32 license that WLS-TV abandoned, after that station decided they wanted to move to channel 44 for their full power channel
 
On one hand that makes a little sense.................and on the other hand it just sounds like a
big ole mess.

Seems like a lot of stations aren't very happy with their new digital signals. I keep seeing articles
that "this station wants to move to this......and this station wants to upgrade this." I guess
some were not too happy with the digital signal they were delt.
 
gregg75 said:
On one hand that makes a little sense.................and on the other hand it just sounds like a
big ole mess.

Seems like a lot of stations aren't very happy with their new digital signals. I keep seeing articles
that "this station wants to move to this......and this station wants to upgrade this." I guess
some were not too happy with the digital signal they were delt.
Click to expand...

Dave's description may have been a little convoluted, but is also quite accurate. Basically, Weigel has a lot of subchannels to WCIU and augments those with some low power TV signals. Those LPTV signals helped them have an easier time to get cable carriage than they may have had were they limited to only subs. They also increase the OTA signals of those channels. What will happen with the LP signals is a bit up in the air, but the WCIU subchannels are pretty well organized.

At this point, my understanding is that there will be the national feed of MeTV on 26.2, MeToo (which, as Dave said, will become Chicago's own Me - with the likes of Stooge-A-Palooza) on 26.3, This TV on 26.4, and U-Too (likely to serve as an extra platform - or dumping ground - for shows from the main channel) on 26.5. 26.5 used to be utilized as FBT with a lot of foreign language programs, but it now simply rebroadcasts the main WCIU programming for the time being.

Not really a mess - it's actually a fantastic set of channels that we in the Chicago market are offered from the fine folks at Weigel broadcasting. We sure watch them quite a bit in our house and I know (anecdotally) that many others do too. Hopefully that explains things more in brief after Dave's very detailed description.
 
I don't always explain stuff well, but I do my best. I will admit I sometimes put too much detail into my posts. I actually wish another full power signal were available, so that MeTV & MeToo would be on its own channel (like MeTV is in Milwaukee). That way, it would free up some of the bandwidth on WCIU to make the other subchannels look better (This TV), & any HD programming would also look good on the main channel. Yes they have WWME-LD & WMEU-CA, but their signals are limited, and don't cover the entire market. For now, neither Ion Media (WCPX) nor Jovon (WJYS) won't sell their stations. So they're limited to what they currently have.

As for Weigels former channel, FBT, let's see if Polnet picks up the remnants of the programming (what little was left) that used to air on that channel. They already have a dedicated subchannel to their Polvision network. Let's see how long it takes them to get additional programming for the channel.
 
Dave said:
I don't always explain stuff well, but I do my best.
As for Weigels former channel, FBT, let's see if Polnet picks up the remnants of the programming (what little was left) that used to air on that channel. They already have a dedicated subchannel to their Polvision network. Let's see how long it takes them to get additional programming for the channel.
Click to expand...

No Dave you did a great job. It seemed messy 'cause it IS a mess :)

But you got it right.

I wish that Weigel could get another full power TV station as well.

The odd thing is WWME-CA the analog is so CLEAR. It's 99% as clear as a digital station. But the LP stations are hard to get outside the city with rabbit ears and/or silver sensors.

Chicago is hard on DTV 'cause of the buildings
 
So WCIU (the Me's) are giving up some of their shows to Antenna TV. Have you seen what new
shows (the Me's) will be getting? I also saw that on one of the WCIU subs they have "occasional"
sports broadcasts. It must be hard to market these games, when the signal just comes on at
game time.............maybe they tell on the main channel that there is a basketball game going
on tonight on our sub channel.
 
I haven't seen the new schedule yet.

WCIU's main channel will pick up sports from WGN. In fact I've even heard WGN say the game will be on WCIU channel 26, which is a bit odd, but the two stations co-operate.

Both ME-TV and ME-TOO have broadcast local high school sports, especially championship or playoff games. So they advertise them as "Chicago high school playoffs today at 2pm." That way they don't need to say which high school will be in it
 
Dave said:
I don't always explain stuff well, but I do my best. I will admit I sometimes put too much detail into my posts.
Click to expand...

No worries Dave, I was just trying to be helpful as gregg75's post indicated some lingering confusion. As I said before, everything you said was accurate. :)

Like you, I admire Weigel's operation and wish that they could have wider availability. But there's little doubt that the Me and MeToo channels are (by a solid margin) the most watched sub-channels in the Chicago DMA.
 
Just wanted to come back and clarify that I didn't think Dave's answer was a mess, but that the
WCIU and it's low power stations are a mess. WCIU seems good, but the lows are in a mess.
 
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