WILL RTV SURVIVE ?

[mysticnitekatt]

I tuned in to RTV's Sunday night airing of "The Comedy Shop" (which originally aired in syndication circa 1978-79), and the show was absolutely dated. The audio was muffled as well.

When RTV still had its Facebook page, it once asked its "friends" whether or not they would like to see "The New Soupy Sales Show" (his 1979 syndicated show) on RTV. The answer by viewers was an astounding "no." At least they listened to their viewers that time.

RTV has had it's Facebook page back for months! http://www.facebook.com/pages/RTV/206821962679738

It replaced the one that was lost when that Facebook glitch deleted a bunch of random pages and groups.

 

[mysticnitekatt]

I wish they would purchase some titles from warner. Mama's Family, Alice, Waltons, etc. They still have a large number of stations and are on FTA satellite as well. The viewers are there if they have watchable material. INSP runs the Waltons along with Highway to Heaven and Our House.....really good shows.

Again,everyone thinks the Warner library is the end all-be-all for classic TV!

Do people really think Tribune,Wegiel and Luken HAVE NOT gone after the Warner Library and for whatever reason didn't make a deal? Wegiel have already airing some WB shows in Chicago no MeToo

 

[tripinva]

Well, Rabbitears.info had listed RTV being replaced on WFMZ by MeTV when in fact they were adding an additional sub-channel.,according to RTV. So sometimes, information can be incorrect.

It was an educated guess based on the fact that almost every other RTV affiliate that added MeTV did a replacement.

However, nowhere at all has WJAR been listed as a MeTV affiliate so far as I can tell; certainly not on the MeTV website. Where is this incorrect information so I can have a look?

- Trip

 

[carolinaradio]

Classic TV is more than just the same classic shows that play over and over again.

Why hasn't CBS Syndication offered MeTV "Our Miss Brooks",or even "Amos and Andy" (Not that Sabin would risk trying to air that!)

I'm not sure, but they can probably pick the shows they get, or they may not be available. Those shows have not aired in so long, that they may be difficult to get to air (remember Antenna TV with Circus Boy, Burns and Allen, etc). Those are not even on DVD to my knowledge, so they probably aren't available/offered.

Again,everyone thinks the Warner library is the end all-be-all for classic TV!

Do people really think Tribune,Wegiel and Luken HAVE NOT gone after the Warner Library and for whatever reason didn't make a deal? Wegiel have already airing some WB shows in Chicago no MeToo

Perhaps they haven't seen a need for it yet. MeTV has plenty of shows for now, and who knows with RTV. Perhaps they want to spend their extra funds on the acquisitions of LPTV/translators instead of spending the money for programming libraries. Antenna TV has other shows they are not airing to rotate in and out. I am pretty sure Warner makes their programming available to broadcast channels. Can anyone confirm? There was mention on here recently about Antenna TV possibly going after their library.

 

[Markxxx]

Yeah.....stuff like Mary Tyler Moore, M*A*S*H, I Love Lucy, Bob Newhart, The Twilight Zone - that's timeless. Police Story, Daniel Boone, I Spy....not so much.

Classic TV is more than just the same classic shows that play over and over again.

Why hasn't CBS Syndication offered MeTV "Our Miss Brooks",or even "Amos and Andy" (Not that Sabin would risk trying to air that!)

I agree Me-TV was like this when it first started. They would change line ups and do Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall schedules. And bring in New old shows

Now for the last year, maybe two years, they haven't seemed to add any new old shows

 

[mysticnitekatt]

Well, Rabbitears.info had listed RTV being replaced on WFMZ by MeTV when in fact they were adding an additional sub-channel.,according to RTV. So sometimes, information can be incorrect.

It was an educated guess based on the fact that almost every other RTV affiliate that added MeTV did a replacement.

However, nowhere at all has WJAR been listed as a MeTV affiliate so far as I can tell; certainly not on the MeTV website. Where is this incorrect information so I can have a look?

- Trip

Well, when the info was posted on RTV's Facebook page that it was reported WFMZ was pulling RTV,they weren't too happy about the mis-information.

I'd like to find that info about WJAR myself, as well as confirming what Hearst is doing with WMUR Manchester,NH and WCVB Boston,MA regarding Me-TV.

 

[tripinva]

I could rattle off a list of misinformation that has appeared in the past on RTV's own affiliate list, so it should be nothing new to RTV viewers.

WCVB, like WJAR, has never been listed as a MeTV affiliate. Therefore, until either one appears on the affiliate list, it is safe to assume that nothing is happening.

WMUR, however, was listed in the initial "mass" posting and was later removed.

- Trip

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

First off, I'm not Mr.Luken,so don't be a wise guy just because I support RTV.

"Route 66", "Starsky and Hutch" and "Highway to Heaven" are all "mainstream retro" from their respective Decades. "Peter Gunn". "I Spy","Naked City","The Saint" and are all cult-classics with long (3+ seasons or more) runs. Let's not forget "The Riffelman" - one of the most successful half-hour westerns. The show is so good, AMC started running it!

I'm not a "supporter" of Me-TV or Antenna TV. In fact, our local Me-TV station (WOIO 19.2) won't start up for another couple of weeks or so. I get Antenna TV on Local TV LLC's WJW/8.2.

I'm not a fan of the networks, I'm a fan of the shows they have. And quite frankly, aside from maybe "Starsky and Hutch" and "Highway to Heaven", RTV's current library of shows skew a LOT older.

Cult classics or no, those shows were moldy oldies in syndication in the 1970's, even! Then-ABC affiliate WAKC/23 Akron (now ION O&O WVPX) scraped them from the bottom of the syndication barrel in the late 1970s, being a secondary local ABC affiliate without first pick of the major shows.

That's over 30 years ago in third-tier syndication! The only people looking for "Peter Gunn" are well past retirement age.

Meanwhile, Me-TV has the MTM series ("Mary Tyler Moore", "The Bob Newhart Show" and the like), which can be bought TODAY in the DVD TV shows aisle.

Antenna TV has "All in the Family", "Married...with Children" and other shows people under 60 are likely to remember. Antenna does have some moldy oldies ("Hazel", etc.) but they run in selected dayparts, not in prime time.

It's not BAD programming on RTV, it's just programming with little interest to saleable demos in 2011. They were better off with the Universal library, which had at least semi-recent popular retro shows ("The Rockford Files", etc..)

There's almost nothing on the current RTV that I want to watch, certainly not to expend the effort of twisting my antenna to pick up one of the two anemic LPTV local affiliates (29/35). I'm too far north to get the Canton-based RTV affiliates, which at least are digital LP stations now.

The bottom line, for me (in my mid-40s): I'll watch almost nothing on RTV, even if it would become more available for me (the LPTVers have some cable carriage here, but not on my end of the TWC system).

I watch some of the Antenna TV prime-time lineup, and will probably watch more of Me-TV when it lights up here.

Oddly enough, both are riding on the weakest OTA stations in the market, but have TWC system-wide digital cable carriage...which I get via QAM tuning. 8.2 is on the system, and 19.2 is as well (currently running WOIO's "WeatherPlus", they will keep it with the change to Me-TV).

Again, I'm not a "supporter" of any of these networks. If Me-TV loses the MTM stuff and other such programming next week, I won't watch it, either. When RTV had "Rockford", I occasionally made the effort to tune it in.

 

[gregg75]

You've about summed it up Ohio.

RTV in Atlanta has been reduced to a LP station with a 4KW transmitter. On the days
they're actually on the air their signal is only good for about a 10 mile radius. Now that
RTV has virtually nothing I am interested in watching, I've decided I'm not missing all
that much anyway.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

You've about summed it up Ohio.

RTV in Atlanta has been reduced to a LP station with a 4KW transmitter. On the days they're actually on the air their signal is only good for about a 10 mile radius.

RTV here has always been on anemic LPTVers - Media-Com's WAOH-LP/29 Akron-W35AX/35 Cleveland in the northern part of the market, Image Video's WIVM-LP 52 Canton and its simulcasters to the south in the southern part.

At least the Image Video stations have converted to digital. The Media-Com stations have applications to go digital, but who knows when they'll build them out?

Media-Com owns the notoriously cheap FM talk station in the Akron market (WNIR/100.1 Kent "The Talk of Akron"), and the local joke is that they'll go digital when the Radio Shack across Route 59 from the station starts stocking digital TV transmitters

Meanwhile, the RTV "affiliate" in NYC is a low-VHF LD station that a handful of people can probably receive reliably. In Pittsburgh, when WPXI/11 dropped them for Me-TV, RTV landed on LD station WBGN/59 (RF 16 IIRC)...not a bad LPTVer, but definitely lesser coverage. (Though Verizon FIOS actually replaced the WPXI RTV feed with the WBGN feed, adding Me-TV to another channel.)

Maybe Mr. Luken sees the future coming, and it's setting up his own LPTVers with all of his channels.

 

[Markxxx]

I think there is more than enough room. These retro-channels need only the basic transmission modes. It's like with Google+ launching and trying to replace Facebook. I've looked Google+ over and it's basically so far, like Facebook used to be. A simple cleaner interface.

But there's still room for a bunch of retro channels I think.

 

[silverthree]

According to Me-TV's website they will be adding several shows in the fall including The Rifleman, Peter Gunn and Daniel Boone. Aren't those among the very few shows RTV has left?

http://metvnetwork.com/fall.php

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

They are also adding Star Trek, Batman, Lost in Space, and Mission: Impossible.

Wonder what goes?

 

[carolinaradio]

Nothing, I would think. Some may go on hiatus, though. The deals with CBS and 20th are obviously still active (Star Trek and M:I are CBS, Batman is 20th).

 

[gregg75]

Once again it looks like Me-TV is leading the way. I think Antenna TV just added only one
or two new shows (bummer) I would think Antenna would want to mix things up a bit more
and not let their schedule get STALE. Looks like Me-TV thinks that is the way to go also.
That's the last thing we need, another RTV clone (Antenna) with the same 3 year schedule.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I'm just worried that something I watch and like will go on hiatus.

My biggest Me-TV complaint so far - far too many westerns, particularly in daytime hours. I wouldn't mind seeing all the westerns disappear, or that programming block shrink, though I understand why they do it.

My Me-TV good news - our local affiliate (WOIO 19.2) just lit up a digital fill-in translator in the central/southern part of the market, and I can watch it OTA with no difficulty now.

 

[TomParks]

The way its going MeTV will be the only real player in town. RTV is basically dead and Antenna TV is on its way. I will give RTV/MeTV credit they are available on FTA satellite, while Antenna TV is encrypted. You cant do that and survive. These days you need all the viewers you can get.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

When hooking up my antenna to see how WOIO's new translator was hitting my HDTV downstairs (excellent, after I cleared the scan to get rid of the RF 10 stragglers), I also got our local RTV affiliate on both analog channels...WAOH-LP 29 (heavy static) and W35AX 35 (less static, at least semi-watchable).

RTV is starting to look like the 2011 version of America One, which 29/35 carried before.

 

[Markxxx]

The way its going MeTV will be the only real player in town. RTV is basically dead and Antenna TV is on its way. I will give RTV/MeTV credit they are available on FTA satellite, while Antenna TV is encrypted. You cant do that and survive. These days you need all the viewers you can get.

While I have to agree with you, you have to remember viewers don't mean ratings. Ad rates are set by Nielsen which counts it's viewers. If you have a million extra viewers but Nielsen isn't counting them, your shows aren't worth any more money. Sure they are seen by more people but you can't charge extra for them, because no one is counting them.

So it's not enough to get viewers, you have to get viewers that a ratings service can count

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

The way its going MeTV will be the only real player in town. RTV is basically dead and Antenna TV is on its way.

Antenna TV isn't going away as long as Tribune and Local TV LLC see it as programming for their own stations.