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WHDH broadcasts on 7. But on the new HDTV linup, shouldn't they map to 5?

G

Garrett

Ok, stay with me on this one.

This is what happens when one is alone with his thoughts.
Once upon a time, Channel 5 in Boston was WHDH TV. Through series of twists, turns and stations sales that would take too long to write out (and I'm way too lazy to do so), Channel 5 is WCVB today, and 7 is WHDH.

So it occured to me. With the new mapping, shouldn't channel 7 have tried to get 5 as their frequency? I know it might be confusing, but if you're going to have the heritage calls, why not have the heritage channel as well?

Like I said, I'm perhaps thinking about this too much...
 
> So it occured to me. With the new mapping, shouldn't channel
> 7 have tried to get 5 as their frequency? I know it might be
> confusing, but if you're going to have the heritage calls,
> why not have the heritage channel as well?

First of all, where mapping is concerned, it's not actually a "frequency" -- it's merely a number assigned on a channel map. The frequency is a measurement of the radio waves.

Secondly, with WHDH off 5 since 1972 and more people associating 7 with WHDH the past several years, chances are WHDH will choose "7" for mapping.
 
> Ok, stay with me on this one.
>
> This is what happens when one is alone with his thoughts.
> Once upon a time, Channel 5 in Boston was WHDH TV. Through
> series of twists, turns and stations sales that would take
> too long to write out (and I'm way too lazy to do so),
> Channel 5 is WCVB today, and 7 is WHDH.
>
> So it occured to me. With the new mapping, shouldn't channel
> 7 have tried to get 5 as their frequency? I know it might be
> confusing, but if you're going to have the heritage calls,
> why not have the heritage channel as well?
>
> Like I said, I'm perhaps thinking about this too much...

Ya think?

The FCC rules for channel mapping say stations have to map to their OWN corresponding analog channel number, and in any event, there's no reason WHDH would want to do otherwise. The "channel 5" branding in Boston belongs to WCVB now, and has for a third of a century. The "channel 7" branding belongs to the present-day WHDH-TV. Why would Sunbeam suddenly want to brand as "channel 5" - someone else's channel in town - when they've put a ton of money into promoting themselves as channel 7 for the last decade?

I don't think one Boston TV viewer in a hundred would still associate "WHDH-TV" with "channel 5." It's been too long, and both WCVB and the present channel 7 have done a good job of promoting their current identities.

The whole idea behind mapping is simply to make the DTV transition as completely transparent as possible to the average viewer. If I see WHDH, the NBC affiliate, on channel 7 now, I'll see it on "channel 7" with my new DTV tuner. It's not meant to rectify ancient history, just to maintain present-day branding into the next era of TV.<P ID="signature">______________
Tower Site Calendar 2006 JUST RELEASED! - <a target="_blank" href=http://www.fybush.com/nerw.html#calendar>www.fybush.com</a></P>
 
The only way I could see WHDH-7 change it's "mapping number" would be if NBC could get all of it's affiliates network-wide to be "mapped" onto the same number.
 
Yeah, I figured I was off on that one...

> The only way I could see WHDH-7 change it's "mapping number"
> would be if NBC could get all of it's affiliates
> network-wide to be "mapped" onto the same number.
>

I knew it was a stretch, was just thinking out loud, that's all...
As for your idea about one network being on the same channel nationwide Joe, it's a great idea, but has as much chance of happening (if not less), as, well, WHDH being mapped to 5, LOL.
 
> The FCC rules for channel mapping say stations have to map
> to their OWN corresponding analog channel number...

I think there's one TV station (Chicago, I hink) that maps their digital signal to channel "1". And that channel was phased out as an actual VHF channel in the 1940s.
 
> I think there's one TV station (Chicago, I hink) that maps
> their digital signal to channel "1". And that channel was
> phased out as an actual VHF channel in the 1940s.

As far as I'm aware, they're now mapping to 26-1. The 1-1 mapping was due to the PSIP encoder being left on defaults, and further violated the ATSC standard.

- Trip<P ID="signature">______________
Visit my website, www.rabbitears.info! It's eventually going to be your one resource for television info! Digital television, histories, and technical information for the entire USA from one source!</P>
 
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