-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
WEWS 5.6
- Thread starter vjm
- Start date
WEWS has fired up their 5.6 subchannel, airing QVC.
One of these days I'm going to dial around and see how many actual channels with real programs are on vs. the "dollar-a-holler" crowd and plain old infomercial/shopping channels hawking the same crap day in and day out. Me thinks it's gonna be about 30 percent.
One of these days I'm going to dial around and see how many actual channels with real programs are on vs. the "dollar-a-holler" crowd and plain old infomercial/shopping channels hawking the same crap day in and day out. Me thinks it's gonna be about 30 percent.
WKYC NBC 3:
3.1 - main channel
3.2 - True Crime Network (self explanatory)
3.3 - Cozi TV (classic TV)
3.4 - Quest (reality shows - male centric)
3.5 - Twist (reality shows - female centric)
3.6 - Shop LC (home shopping)
3.7 - QVC 2 (home shopping)
WEWS ABC 5:
5.1 - main channel
5.2 - Grit (westerns)
5.3 - Laff (sitcoms)
5.4 - True Real (reality shows - female centric)
5.5 - HSN (home shopping)
5.6 - QVC (home shopping)
WJW Fox 8:
8.1 - main channel
8.2 - Antenna TV (classic TV)
8.3 - Comet (sci-fi)
8.4 - Charge (action/cop shows)
WDLI Court TV 17:
17.1 - main (and only) channel
WOIO CBS 19:
19.1 - main channel
19.2 - Me Tv (classic TV)
19.3 - Dabl (cooking/DIY shows)
19.4 - Rewind TV (classic TV)
WVPX Ion 23:
23.1 - main channel
23.2 - Grit
23.3 - Newsy (news)
23.4 - Ion Mystery (detective/cop shows...basically an Ion overflow channel these days)
23.5 - Defy (reality shows - male centric)
23.6 - QVC
23.8 - HSN2
WUAB CW 43:
43.1 - main channel
43.2 - Bounce (black centric)
43.3 - Circle (country music/blue collar centric)
WBNX TV 55:
55.1 - main channel
55.2 - Buzzr (game shows)
55.3 - Movies (self explanatory)
55.4 - Heroes & Icons aka H&I (western/cop/sci-fi/superhero shows)
55.5 - Start TV (dramas - female centric)
55.6 - Decades (classic TV)
WQHS Univision 61:
61.1 - main channel
61.2 - Unimas (Spanish)
61.3 - Get TV (classic TV)
61.4 - Ion Mystery
61.5 - Dabl
Those are the main channels (not counting WVIZ PBS 25 or religiously oriented WTCT TV 47 as they wouldn't carry home shopping anyway)
Now it's the low power stations where you'll find a glut of home shopping/infomercial channels, as they are just plug and play, and quick, easy, found money
It looks like a few of TCT's O&O stations carry Shop LC, with at least one carrying Jewelry TV as well. Most everything else that they have affiliation agreements with are already carried on their respective O&O stations here in Cleveland.
WRLM will most likely never add additional subchannels due to their sharing agreement with WEAO. They actually had to give up the ones that they had prior to that, which was a SD version of TCT and TCT Kids, both of which now appear to be defunct. If they ever add new subs, they would have to cut into the bandwidth that's allotted to them, or wait until WEAO buys newer encoders that can efficiently handle additional subchannels.
And don't forget, WGGN is owned by a religious organization, and they carry HSN & Jewelry TV on their subchannels, as well as HSN & QVC on sister station WLLA in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
I often wonder what kind of local ratings a digital main channel pulls in, compared to our "locals" sub-channels.
For instance. Would CW43 be a little concerned if it were overcome in ratings by MeTV???
Somewhere lost in the airwaves (and local media) are Cantons WQDI-LD 20 and WEKA-LD 41...Which since their inception, seemed to pick-up whatever the other stations neglected. Neither of which, I've gotten as much as a blip out of in Parma with my rabbit ears/antenna.
For instance. Would CW43 be a little concerned if it were overcome in ratings by MeTV???
Somewhere lost in the airwaves (and local media) are Cantons WQDI-LD 20 and WEKA-LD 41...Which since their inception, seemed to pick-up whatever the other stations neglected. Neither of which, I've gotten as much as a blip out of in Parma with my rabbit ears/antenna.
I wouldn't be surprised if MeTV, Antenna TV, Rewind TV, Cosi TV, Decades and even Get TV all pull in more ratings than the CW.
Could 5.6 be a placeholder if one of the subchannels moves there from another channel?
The HC2 Broadcasting stations, formerly DTV America, here in Cleveland are all under-powered, share the same goofy pattern, and broadcast from a cell phone tower next to the Innerbelt bridge. (Can be seen in this photo). Granted, they were able to improve their broadcasts after the repack, but in many areas, reception is very spotty, even for viewers located less than 10 miles from the transmitter. My uncle lives in Bedford, and a long time ago, we tried to pull in the HC2 stations with his RCA ANT751 antenna, located in the attic of his two story house. We were only able to receive WEKA-LD at the time, which was spotty at best. Everywhere else resulted in no reception for either station.
As for me, I'm located almost twice as far from their tower, and reception appears to be a bit better with my outdoor antenna about 20 feet off the ground, pointed directly at the Parma tower farm (~22 degrees off from HC2's tower), and that's in front of their southeastern lobe which puts out about 1/3 less overall power. Prior to the repack, WEKA-LD was about the only one that I could receive, and reception was very intermittent depending on the weather. After the repack, reception improved after being relocated to RF 26, and I was able to receive WQDI-LD after they were allowed to increase to 5 kW. WUEK-LD and KONV-LD signed on as well. On a good day, I can receive all 4 HC2 stations, but KONV-LD & WQDI-LD are the weaker ones, being the first to fade out, with WEKA-LD being next, and WUEK-LD being the last.
There were plans to move two of these stations to the WTAM tower in Brecksville (WQDI & WEKA, I think), probably an attempt to better reach the Akron area. My guess is that the other 2 would have served as repeaters for those stations, or vice versa. Those plans eventually got abandoned, but they would have been non directional at around 5 kW. HC2 almost bought W27EA-D (W16DO-D at the time) in 2019, but later backed out of the deal, probably after they saw Media-Com's outdated equipment, which would have resulted in thousands of dollars to upgrade and replace. Not worth the high asking price that Media-Com wanted for the station.
As for programming, it has gotten to the point where HC2 has been duplicating much of the same networks across all 4 stations, especially Timeless TV & Magnificent Movies Network (MMN). They should probably sell off two of their stations, like WQDI & KONV, the ones with abysmal coverage, and focus on the other two. If they invest in better encoders, they could carry up to 12 subchannels on each station and probably achieve the same picture quality that they do now, perhaps slightly better.
Who knows. I'm predicting that Bounce will replace one of the Grits on either WEWS or WVPX once their contract runs out with WUAB. It's possible that 5.6 and 3.7 maybe reallocated and eventually end up carrying someone's ATSC 1.0 sub after converting to ATSC 3.0.
Interesting...As I completely forgot their tower was located in Cleveland (Not sure if it moved from Canton or elsewhere) as I still pick up nothing in Parma. They obviously lost a few "Glory Channels" in Cozi (When WKYC picked it up a few years back) and Buzzr (Which they quickly dropped after WBNX picked it up on 55.2.) In the DTV days, I couldn't help but feel that DTV was trying to prime these channels for a quick turnaround sale. With their line-ups being so jumpy it was hard to ever really want them higher powered unless they improved the channel choices. If I remember right they were once top heavy with Spanish speaking channels and still are to an extent. Did 6.1 possibly steal the chances of DTV/HC2 becoming an outlet for ALL Spanish programming? Just a thought.
Agreed...I don't really understand the purpose of firing up these two unless they had hoped for more coverage. Again, the channel selections don't really appeal enough to really want them stronger so my antenna could pick them up.
Since every local channel became so "Subchannel happy" and especially with the sales (Scripps, Inyo and Gray in particular) which promote filling their local channels with "same owned" subchannels. This always seems to be a possibility.
WJW, WOIO and WUAB seem to be the only three that really don't add or move what they have frequently. (Three, three and two respectively, for a while now - Plus the main.). In the latter two's case, they also have each other so maybe don't feel the need to overcrowd either of them. (Also, none of the three have a single Shop at Home outlet.)
Yes, DTV America did carry some of the more popular diginets as well. They also carried Decades on WQDI-LD, back when it blasted out a whopping .25 kW of power! Thank goodness WBNX eventually picked them up, as well as Buzzr at the beginning of the year, which was a surprise seeing that it replaced the majority of Ernest Angley's Happy Channel. Prior to that, Buzzr was a bonus for me whenever WEKA-LD came in. WQDI-LD never came in, except for a few nights when there was extreme tropo in the area. For COZI, WEKA-LD aired the network for a brief time in 2017 after WEWS replaced them with Grit. WKYC fortunately picked them up later that fall, replacing their weather radar.
Gray wanted to mainly utilize WTCL-LD for Telemundo, but probably also as another repeater for WOIO's & WUAB's problematic VHF frequency in areas that are prone to CFPL interference along the lake. I'm sure if they wanted to, they could pick up some more networks, though I'm not quite sure which ones Gray has agreements with.
I think back when the DTV America stations initially signed on, many stations still had little interest in affiliating with diginets and/or sacrificing quality with additional subchannels, so DTV was kind of fulfilling that need for additional networks. Now most stations really don't care, especially when these networks pay the station for carriage, along with better encoders that can efficiently handle more subchannels. Parent companies that operate a diginet and a own a station in a given market usually pick up their network upon launch, unless bandwidth is an issue, then some may patiently wait for another diginet's contract to run out, much like what some Sinclair stations just did with MeTV. Right now, all four HC2 stations in Cleveland really have no popular diginets to air, though there are some lesser ones that they could pick up rather than duplicating some of the ones that they already carry. And of course, about half of those subs on each of their stations are going to air some kind of shopping or infomercial network in order to make a profit.
WJW could add more subchannels, but they are currently limited to 4 since they are still using dated encoders from the Fox O&O era. Adding more will take a toll on the quality, where newer encoders can handle another 3 or so SD subs and produce the same if not better quality.
WOIO & WUAB will likely never add more subchannels due to bandwidth limitations, though its amazing that they have as many as they do now. Remember, WOIO shares its frequency with WUAB, so WUAB takes a good chunk out of their available bandwidth. Had WUAB kept its own frequency instead of selling it off due to the repack, both stations combined probably would be offering a wide selection of subchannels. But then someone, maybe WUAB themselves, would have likely been displaced to the interference prone lo-VHF band as a result. Who knows? Maybe Gray would have never bought WTCL, and Telemundo would have ended up as a HD subchannel on either WOIO or WUAB, though I have a feeling that a SD simulcast of 6.1 maybe around the corner, possibly replacing MeTV or Bounce?
WOIO did carry Shop LC for several months after lighting up 19.4 last year. The launch of Rewind TV took its place, and Shop LC moved over to WKYC 3.6.
- Status