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WGSR files for channel 47 DTV

We aren't spending any more $$$ doing our digital conversion this way than if we opted for a less-capable facility. Face it . . . . new transmitters, antenna, digital hardware and software . . . . it's expense that every low power TV station is going to have to pony up eventually if they are going to be visible over the air post-conversion. We're simply using our available resources to maximize our potential viewership, something every TV station that's worth its salt does.

BTW, if you watched us, you would know that our current programming does not stop its reach or concern at the Reidsville city limits, or even the Rockingham county line. This week, we are showing 10 area Christmas parades, all local productions. We will do 90 minutes of local news each day covering our four-county coverage area. We will do 3 1/2 hours each day of in-studio talk shows, with both in-studio guests and telephone calls. We will also produce 7 1/2 hours of religious programming this week. All of this with a staff of 7 individuals.

We do this for two reasons . . . . we love what we do, and we DO make money doing it. The assumption that the expansion of the viewer base will give us room to expand both the staff and the bottom line. At least that's what we're aiming for.

Later . . . .
 
Matt Smith said:
We aren't spending any more $$$ doing our digital conversion this way than if we opted for a less-capable facility. Face it . . . . new transmitters, antenna, digital hardware and software . . . . it's expense that every low power TV station is going to have to pony up eventually if they are going to be visible over the air post-conversion. We're simply using our available resources to maximize our potential viewership, something every TV station that's worth its salt does.
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That makes perfect business sense.

BTW, if you watched us, you would know that our current programming does not stop its reach or concern at the Reidsville city limits, or even the Rockingham county line. This week, we are showing 10 area Christmas parades, all local productions. We will do 90 minutes of local news each day covering our four-county coverage area. We will do 3 1/2 hours each day of in-studio talk shows, with both in-studio guests and telephone calls. We will also produce 7 1/2 hours of religious programming this week. All of this with a staff of 7 individuals.
Click to expand...

No, you are right, I don't watch and not because I think your station is bad, I can't see it. I live in north Greensboro and on channel 39 it is nothing but faint squiggly lines with an occassion burst of sound and that with an antenna and booster on the roof.

We do this for two reasons . . . . we love what we do, and we DO make money doing it. The assumption that the expansion of the viewer base will give us room to expand both the staff and the bottom line. At least that's what we're aiming for.

Later . . . .
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone is attacking you, I certainly am not. I understand that you can't tell us everything you are going to do, that would put you at a disadvantage with your soon to be competitors. I also understand that being a small channel, the big network channels in the area have you beat before you get out of the gate with the number of people they employ and their ability to attract better shows. All I was saying was that if you only planned to keep doing Reidsville news, I know I will not be watching since I have no interest in Reidsville news or programming or Danville or Martinsville for that matter and I suspect others in Greensboro and Winston-Salem wouldn't be either. I don't live there and I don't know anyone who does. It just isn't on my radar. Sorry. I also don't watch channel 48 because there is nothing on that channel I want to watch either and I don't hate them and that is a Greensboro channel. And if you would allow me the opportunity to pass some of my worthless wisdom along as a potential new viewer, if what I have seen on YouTube that your stations news attacks people, I will not be interested in watching that either. There is enought TMZ's and Inside Edition's and other tabloid shows on TV now that I don't watch. Yeah, I am an old fart and I will admit it! Yeah, it sucks being me. ;D
 
I'm amazed that "Star 39" can operate with only 7 staff members!, but they are
getting the job done, and once their power increase takes place in early 2009,
they will be seen more, and they can make room for more jobs.
 
Even though I know Matt from WBUY, I fail; to see what anything about this has to do with Raleigh/GSO Radio!
 
Anybody who can make money delivering TV news and Christmas parades to a town of 20,000 people should get back into radio and show them how to sell ads. There. Now we are back on track.
 
Matt Smith said:
We were never considering the tower you have in mind. Briefly, we gave thought to the idea of buying some land and putting up our own tower in that area, but realized that the WGPX tower would be more efficient and faster to get us on the air.

BTW . . . WJMH still has backup facilities in Reidsville. They're on Business 29 North, just beyond NC 14, where WREV and the former WMMO studios are. The tower's still up there, with the FM antenna mounted at the top.

Later . . . .
Click to expand...
I remember that tower!

Is Earl Burton still in this world?
 
I sometimes wonder why I volunteer to do these things.

I was looking to see what could go on a WFRC disambiguation page on Wikipedia, since the WFRC article is a redirect to Family Radio.

Larry Munson wokred at WFRC in Athens, according to his article. And yet I was living just outside Reidsville and listened often to WFRC in Reidsville at that time. Someone messed up.
 
Earl Burton is, indeed, still among the living. I've chatted with him a couple of times, but he's pretty much hung up the headphones and doesn't "talk shop" with us too often.

Later . . . .
 
Hey Matt,

You guys still going to make February 17th for your new digital station or are you going to wait if Congress postpones the changeover?
 
Barring changes in scheduling, we probably won't make it on Feb. 17th. Everything has been ordered, the lines signed and the contracts scrutinized by the lawyers.

Right now the holdups are in equipment deliveries, scheduling engineers to assemble it and getting a tower crew to put it all up. Once that's done, we'll see how quickly the FCC can turn around an authorization for program testing. It's all not likely to be complete by D-Day, but we're shooting for mid-to-late March.

Of course, a delay in the cutover would help us, but we're not looking for it. Unlike full-power stations, there's no deadline for us. Deadline or not though, with the conversion being well-publicized we know our saving grace in the transition is that we are on cable.

One bright spot in all of this, we anticipate that there will be some people who have never tuned us in that will discover us when we're the only analog signal left on their televisions. Probably not many, but hey...we'll serve them too.

Later . . .
 
The delay does help us a bit.

Later . . . .
 
Well, here's the update . . . .

Tomorrow morning @ 10:00am (give or take) the DTV antenna will be delivered. We will have a tower crew waiting to mount it and install the feedline. That will be the only time we will be able to install on the tower until late May (after sweeps), but it will be enough for starters.

The DTV transmitter is scheduled for delivery in 12 days. Installation and testing should follow a few days after that. At that point we will get some idea where our signal will reach from the new stick.

The rest of the equipment should be delivered in mid-May, just in time for the digital microwave STL to go up. In the meantime we will complete the encoder setup and the studio side of the STL.

If all goes as planned WGSR-LD should be ready for air by the end of May. Gifts of Maalox and fake fingernails will be gratefully accepted. :)

Later . . . .
 
Good news and bad news today . . . .

The good . . . . the antenna arrived today 90 minutes behind schedule but otherwise in good shape. The tower crew was on-site to uncrate it, inventory the parts and assemble the antenna. Aside from one U-Bolt, everything is there.

The bad . . . . 20+ mph winds at the install level on the tower kept the crew off the stick today. They will try it again at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Winds tomorrow are expected to be much less, but temperature at 41F tomorrow morning isn't going to make this a fun climb for them.

Later . . . .
 
Apparently the pace is being picked up on our installation. STL gear has arrived, and will be installed at both studio and transmitter early next week.

That only leaves the encoder on the studio end and the transmitter on the tower end. They're scheduled for delivery in a couple more weeks.

I'll let everyone know when program tests begin.

Later . . . .
 
Update . . . .

After unpacking the hardware for the STL dishes, we discovered that we are missing azimuth brackets for both dishes. We are attempting to have the missing parts sent overnight to the station, so it looks like tomorrow (at least) before we can put this part together.

Later . . . .
 
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