I was in CT over the weekend and noticed WFSB has a subchannel on 3-4 called "WFSB Fairfield County". How long has this been on the air? I noticed the local commercials are different from those on the regular WFSB. Do they produce a separate newscast focused on Fairfield County, otherwise what is the purpose of this channel?
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WFSB Digital Subchannels
- Thread starter ansky212
- Start date
I remember reading about this at the beginning of the month...
The Fairfield Cty. version includes different graphical information (news ticker) and advertising.
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cach...nty&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a
The Fairfield Cty. version includes different graphical information (news ticker) and advertising.
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cach...nty&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a
ansky212 said:
Say it ain't so! I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist, but this strikes me as very shady.
As many of you know, WFSB is on DT-33 right now. WCBS in New York is currently on DT-56, but will move to DT-33 after the transition. I'm not an expert on this, but I took a look at some of the maps from the FCC. It seems to me that WFSB's digital signal is going to take out half of Fairfield County now, ultimately blocking WCBS. Again, I'm not an expert on this, but this is what it seems. If I'm wrong, let me know.
I e-mailed WCBS last year when I found out about this. The engineer at the station was surprised to get my letter, he didn't even know what channel WFSB was on. And he didn't seem to care that they would be blocking out the north-eastern half of Fairfield County.
So, this is all very shady. I had a feeling from the get-go that after gradually losing viewers in Western Mass over the years, WFSB would try to move into Fairfield County since there's much money to be had there. Hence their new "Fairfield County-centric" feed.
I don't know how much influence Meredith had over the FCC's allocation of digital channel numbers, but isn't it ironic that the two CBS stations whose analog signals 2 & 3 overlap now with no interference whatsoever end up on the same digital channel 33 (in Feb '09)?
And isn't it a violation of FCC rules for a Hartford-New Haven market station to block a NYC market station's signal in Fairfield County? Doesn't this violate some form of home-rule? So now someone in Shelton, Monroe, Newtown, etc. will not be able to view a station (WCBS) from their own market. And not that this matters, but it also negatively affects people in New Haven County. Those pulling in the OTA signal will now only have one CBS station instead of two. And what about when WFSB decides to show the Pats instead of a NY team? People using rabbit ears in this part of the state will get ripped off, no more choice.
Maybe I'm the only one ticked off about this. I really hope WCBS ends up staying on DT56 or WFSB ends up changing. It's a huge loss for viewers to end up losing one of those two stations.
Therefore, this doesn't shock me at all that WFSB/Meredith is going to try to take advantage of their new found glory in Fairfield County.
How in the world did the FCC let this happen?
??? :-\I just checked out the link that was posted http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:vKTNyr4dneYJ:www.stamfordadvocate.com/norwalkadvocate/news/ci_10606242+WFSB+Fairfield+County&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us
It said: Last month, the central Connecticut station debuted a special version of Channel 3 that includes updates on school closings, traffic, public transportation and weather in Fairfield County. Klarn "DePalma, WFSB vice president and general manager did not disclose how much the station or its owner, Meredith Corp., spent on the push so far, but the company made "a substantial investment" in marketing, advertising, radio and equipment. Establishing a station would be "a dramatic investment," he said. Neves said WFSB has identified potential sites for a satellite station but hasn't "pulled the trigger on any of them yet."
I would be all for a secondary CBS affiliate in Fairfield County. Or a satellite station located here with our own personalities, logo, etc. just like they have at "CBS3" in Springfield. But I think it would be silly of Channel 3 to try and fool viewers with a second feed of the same stuff, same faces, etc. If viewers want to watch Channel 3 now, they can without a problem, it's on all of the Fairfield County cable line-ups. WFSB already has Fairfield County traffic reports as it is. All the CT stations feature Fairfield County traffic as they browse the state's highways. And how often do they run school closings and delays, maybe no more than 15 days every winter? A secondary feed for all this? It just seems silly.
Michael Freimuth, Stamford's economic development director, said the move by Channel 3 could signal a recognition of "a shift of the corporate center of the state." "There is an economic growth here and also a population growth," Freimuth said. "It perhaps is indicative of those larger economic and demographic shifts." Having a Fairfield County news station with roots in Hartford could help the county by relieving some of the "upstate and downstate tensions," he said.
What tensions? ??? : Although I don't know how WFSB thinks it's going to be able to socially engineer the demographic and cultural divides that exist in this state. Kind of nutty if you ask me. Again, unless this is the 1st step in creating a new and autonomous station headquartered here with our own personalities like they have in Springfield, this just seems like a money-making gimick for WFSB, trying to score on Fairfield County ad revenue. I'll be the first one to admit, it's a huge, untapped market here. Whoever has the guts to come in and give Fairfield County their own "real station" could end up with a gold mine. It'd be great if they tried to buy WSAH and turn it into a "CBS43 Fairfield County." Otherwise, viewers aren't stupid - a "Fairfield County news station with roots in Hartford" is still a Hartford station, and it's already on the line-up here. They're going to need to do more to impress people in Fairfield County than just a few school closings, local ads/news-ticker, traffic and weather maps.
P.S. I wonder if the Fairfield County feed will show NY sports teams over New England?
It said: Last month, the central Connecticut station debuted a special version of Channel 3 that includes updates on school closings, traffic, public transportation and weather in Fairfield County. Klarn "DePalma, WFSB vice president and general manager did not disclose how much the station or its owner, Meredith Corp., spent on the push so far, but the company made "a substantial investment" in marketing, advertising, radio and equipment. Establishing a station would be "a dramatic investment," he said. Neves said WFSB has identified potential sites for a satellite station but hasn't "pulled the trigger on any of them yet."
I would be all for a secondary CBS affiliate in Fairfield County. Or a satellite station located here with our own personalities, logo, etc. just like they have at "CBS3" in Springfield. But I think it would be silly of Channel 3 to try and fool viewers with a second feed of the same stuff, same faces, etc. If viewers want to watch Channel 3 now, they can without a problem, it's on all of the Fairfield County cable line-ups. WFSB already has Fairfield County traffic reports as it is. All the CT stations feature Fairfield County traffic as they browse the state's highways. And how often do they run school closings and delays, maybe no more than 15 days every winter? A secondary feed for all this? It just seems silly.
Michael Freimuth, Stamford's economic development director, said the move by Channel 3 could signal a recognition of "a shift of the corporate center of the state." "There is an economic growth here and also a population growth," Freimuth said. "It perhaps is indicative of those larger economic and demographic shifts." Having a Fairfield County news station with roots in Hartford could help the county by relieving some of the "upstate and downstate tensions," he said.
What tensions? ???
: Although I don't know how WFSB thinks it's going to be able to socially engineer the demographic and cultural divides that exist in this state. Kind of nutty if you ask me. Again, unless this is the 1st step in creating a new and autonomous station headquartered here with our own personalities like they have in Springfield, this just seems like a money-making gimick for WFSB, trying to score on Fairfield County ad revenue. I'll be the first one to admit, it's a huge, untapped market here. Whoever has the guts to come in and give Fairfield County their own "real station" could end up with a gold mine. It'd be great if they tried to buy WSAH and turn it into a "CBS43 Fairfield County." Otherwise, viewers aren't stupid - a "Fairfield County news station with roots in Hartford" is still a Hartford station, and it's already on the line-up here. They're going to need to do more to impress people in Fairfield County than just a few school closings, local ads/news-ticker, traffic and weather maps.P.S. I wonder if the Fairfield County feed will show NY sports teams over New England?
oldschooltv said:
Ive never heard of any sort of "home rule" or anything against the law about blocking a NYC stations Fairfield County signal...
ansky212 said:
I think it probably is!
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