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Why certain "low-powered" stations are not on Dish Network or DirecTV?

Dish and DirecTV use the same head-end measurement for their channels. It's a WASTE of bandwidth as there are over 1000 Dish and DirecTV channels showing effectively the same programming - the viewer is ocked out of receiving 200 copies of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and others - but the channels are still in use.

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Not true---Dish and Direct use "spot beams" to transmit their local channel service. This means, for example, that Greensboro local channels are transmitted from the satelite to an area only a couple hundred miles in radius around Greensboro. That way, the same bandwidth can be used to transmit locals in other areas of the country. Even so, providing bandwidth for full powered stations has been a problem. There are still a number of smaller markets where local channels are still not available on one or both satelite services---for example Wilmington still does not have locals on Dish---Bluefield WV lacks local service from either. Now, both sat companies have moved on and are trying to provide HD locals for as many major markets as possible---the big 4 are available on both sat services in Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham.
 
What the "dish" services need to do is upgrade their head-ends so stations like
WGSR can get on, since "Time Warner Cable" refuses to put "Star 39" on their
basic cable tier, at least Comcast has them on their systems in places like
Danville, Yanceyville, and Riedsville.
 
Dish and DirecTV's head-ends are located at TWC's Greensboro fiber facilities. It's basically a rack of receivers and muxes that send the signals on to their respective uplink facilities. Both services have provided WFMY, WGHP, WXII and WXLV direct fiber feeds with Over-The-Air back-ups, while the remaining stations are purely Over-The-Air.

The stations that can direct feed to cable and satellite have a better quality (possibility) since the cable and satellite companies don't have to de-modulate NTSC (or ATSC) to baseband video (or serial video). Unfortunately, the smaller stations with their smaller audiences are out of the loop on these perks.
 
Most of the time Dish and DirecTV set up a POP at a local station's studios. In eastern NC the Dish Network POP is at WCTI in New Bern and the DirecTV POP is at WNCT in Greenville.

Besides believing they'd actually put their equipment in a competitor's location, I find it hard to believe TWC would host a POP for them in the first place...
 
Does anyone know where the POPs for Dish and Direct are in Charlotte? Obviously TW recieves fiber feeds for all the commercial stations, including WJZY, WMYT, and WAXN, as well as WTVI. But it seems WUNG and WNSC are recieved OTA, and it shows. In Rock Hill/Fort Mill/Lancaster Sc it is obvious Comporium recieves all its locals over the air--really puts the locals in a poor competitive situation when compared to channels recieved via satelite.
 
Time Warner has several divisions in North Carolina. The fiber facilities in Greensboro on Galimore Dairy Road are located far from their cable operations. Since TW Communications is one of the leading fiber owners in the market, it seems like a no brainer since they provide the fiber-links to the 4 Big Stations as well as the fiber facilities to the Colorado and California uplinks.

The Greensboro is a three city market, with the primary stations located on the outside of each of those cities. Locating the POP at any of the stations could result in additional cost for the fiber runs.
 
That makes a little more sense. I forgot Time Warner Telecom even existed actually. I was thinking you were referring to TWC's RF headend facilities.

All of our stations are uplinked from off-air reception. Must be nice having everyone on fiber :)
 
;D The way I look at it ::) most of those stations don't even deserve to be on the air with their "shoddy and Horsesh*t " programming ...Much less subject the entire world to it via cable and satelite...IMHO! BIG APE!
 
While I agree that some (maybe even most) of the programming is crap, I do believe the cable and satellite companies should let the customer decided if he wants it or not. They all have tons of channels, and free crap is better than another shopping channel! As the viewer, I can decide if I want to delete the channel from my list!
 
While anything would be an improvement, I would like to see regular network TV digress back and the satelites absorb all the frigging Court Shows and Reality Shows.. Ya Know I think we might be into TV posting now..Sorry! BIG APE
 
The way I look at it most of those stations don't even deserve to be on the air with their "shoddy and Horsesh*t " programming ...Much less subject the entire world to it via cable and satelite...IMHO! BIG APE!
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Hey Ape,

Shouldn't the public decide for itself what it wants to appear on its TV screens? For our own operation, I can tell you that we do air some infomercials, but VERY few and never in prime or fringe. We air preachers, but only on Sundays and Thursday nights...and I'll tell you that the preachers that air here pay WELL for those time slots, especially the weeknight ones.

We do 4 1/2 hours nightly of news and talk, all of it locally-oriented. Granted, not everything we do with our local production is top-of-the-line stuff, but we cover things the other stations barely touch on...if at all. For example, the crew shooting the movie at Chinqua-Penn Plantation held a press conference the other day. The other stations gave them 90 seconds of attention, at most. We gave them 2-3 minutes during the newscasts, and aired the full press conference in prime time.

We have no consultants running our show here, and no network to fill our time. And we make money doing it. We spend as much time making and selling commercials as we do covering events. Everyone gets a check on payday, and they don't bounce. All of this without a dollar going to A. C. Nielsen for a ratings book. I won't say it's all well-received, and we DO ruffle community feathers from time to time. We're not getting super-rich, but we are making money.

The way I figure it, if folks here like what we're doing, maybe people in the entire metro would like to look at us, maybe have their input on our talk shows, and for those who have Dish and DirecTV, finally ditch the switches and rabbit ears they use now to watch us. We probably wouldn't change what we're doing, but having it accessible to a few thousand more people would be nice.

Later....
Matt Smith
WGSR-TV
 
Matt,

I am in north Greensboro with a CM 4228 and 20 db pre-amp on my roof and channel 39 barely changes the look of the snow on my Sony. I would think if you guys want to compete, you will need more signal than what you got to get into at least Greensboro, nothing to say about High Point or Burlington or Winston-Salem.

My question is what market are you trying to cover? The Triad or Southern Virginia? Looks like from a schedule it is Danville and Martinsville. If that is true, the bigger stations aren't interested because those towns aren't in their primary coverage area anyway.
 
Henry County VA is part of the Greensboro ADI, or at least used to be. That would make it of some interest to the Greensboro market stations.
 
GSO could give a flip about Henry County and if Smith's 39 gives all that coverage to local yokal stuff, It's only because they can't sell the time.. I ain't no dummy and I didn't start broadcasting yesterday! BIG APE P.S. Matt, didn't you work for my Uncle..Greeley Hilton one time? I imagine you and Don Matney were great "Friends"
 
Matt, didn't you work for my Uncle..Greeley Hilton one time? I imagine you and Don Matney were great "Friends"
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Ape,

I never worked for those folks. My wife and I lived in Lexington for six years, and we pastored a church full-time our whole time there. I know Don Matney, and do consider him a friend. BTW...do you remember Susan Linn (Norvell)? I DID work for her and her father, D. C. Linn in China Grove briefly. She spoke well of the folks on Radio Drive.

As for covering local stuff, I guess that's what makes us unique. We do local stuff AND sell it very well, thank you. Sometimes you CAN teach an old dog a new thing or two.

Woof y'all....
Matt Smith
WGSR-TV
 
XTalker said:
Henry County VA is part of the Greensboro ADI, or at least used to be. That would make it of some interest to the Greensboro market stations.
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Henry County is in the Roanoke ADI, not the Greensboro ADI. The only VA county which is part of the Triad market is Patrick Co. Only WFMY and WXII are available on cable in Martinsville and Danville.
 
The TV stations give a damn about the ADI. Radio could care less, but it makes a considerable difference for TV. Why do you think it is there? Because Channel 2 requested in many moons ago!
 
I assume WGSR-TV is streaming on a website?, if so, i'm sure those who have
"high-speed" internet access will be interested, especially when your local news
and talk segments air.
 
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