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WJJA to become MeTV

D

dave73

In the Feder column of the Chicago Suntimes, Feder announced that Weigel Broadcasting of Chicago completed their acquisition of WJJA-TV, and plans to bring MeTV to the Milwaukee area.

I would have thought that Weigel would have moved one of their Spanish language stations to the full power station, and put MeTV on the low power station that replaced the Spanish language programming. Maybe it's already on 58's sub-channel.

Brief story found here.
 
Milwaukee's version of Me-TV has been airing over-the-air, since March 1st, on WDJT-s digital sub-channel 58-3. It's also being carried on the major cable systems in the Milwaukee area (Time-Warner Cable & Charter Cable). Both carry it on digital channel 201. It will be nice for Me-TV to have a stand-alone OTA outlet in milwaukee. I have Time-Warner Cable, & wonder if Me-TV will move to WJJA's cable 19 or stay on 201, or could it be yet another service that appears on more than one Time-Warner channel simultaniously.
 
dxer720 said:
Milwaukee's version of Me-TV has been airing over-the-air, since March 1st, on WDJT-s digital sub-channel 58-3. It's also being carried on the major cable systems in the Milwaukee area (Time-Warner Cable & Charter Cable). Both carry it on digital channel 201. It will be nice for Me-TV to have a stand-alone OTA outlet in milwaukee. I have Time-Warner Cable, & wonder if Me-TV will move to WJJA's cable 19 or stay on 201, or could it be yet another service that appears on more than one Time-Warner channel simultaniously.
Click to expand...

It will be on WJJA 49. Hence, it will occupy that station's cable position (Ch. 19).

I'm hoping Weigel will do what they did in Chicago and put "MeToo" on DT 49.2. Perhaps that could show up on Ch. 201. I'm guessing Ch. 63 might find a place on the digital signal, to boost its coverage. Their LPTV coverage isn't bad, though, and they're on cable.

I initially thought they'd consider moving WMLW over to Ch. 49, but given that they have pretty good cable placement in Milwaukee (Ch. 7), that wouldn't be a good move. TW only carries WMLW because of their sports programming, and they do very well for a LPTV outlet. Giving WMLW a full-power stand-alone would make Ch. 41 virtually worthless. In addition, they're on CBS58's DTV subchannel. Putting MeTV on 49 makes sense, and with this station, they can add more subchannels (since it will obviously be in standard definition), and free up space on 58's digital signal to air more HD programming. Good move.
 
While I'm not totally familiar with Milwaukee area TV, but now thinking about it, it gives most of the market MeTV OTA, vs. on one of the low power stations, like Weigel does having MeTV on a low power station in Chicago. Weigel does have MeTV in Chicago on digital subchannel 27.2 for the entire market, and 27.3 for Me Too as well. But Weigel does plan to end those subchannels once they get their new channel assignments after February 2009. I don't know about Milwaukee though.

Now another question does come to mind; is WJJA going to move their digital channel to the tower farm, or stay in Oak Creek on the existing analog tower? If my plans don't get derailed this year, then I would have to learn where all of the stations broadcast once I move up there since I won't have cable TV right away. As for moving up there, that's if I'm granted a job transfer with a big name company I work for.
 
Considering that METV is a virtual clone of RTN (or vice versa if you prefer) I am surprised no other Milwaukee channel has shoved it on their digital subchannel.

I wonder if CBS is going to try to get a lower channel when Oak Hill takes over WITI?
 
Mark said:
Considering that METV is a virtual clone of RTN (or vice versa if you prefer) I am surprised no other Milwaukee channel has shoved it on their digital subchannel.

I wonder if CBS is going to try to get a lower channel when Oak Hill takes over WITI?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing RTN would find a hard time getting into the Milwaukee market, since both they and MeTV share much of the same programming, and MeTV likely has market exclusivity on many of the shows.

As for WITI, I'm sure FOX is locking up longterm affiliation deals before spinning off any stations. They worked hard lining up those VHF stations, and they won't let them go that easy. Plus, being a FOX affiliate is much more appealing in many ways than being a CBS affiliate. Fewer network clears means more money via local and syndicated programming, and more room for running local news, which WITI does a ton of. Plus FOX is delivering ratings as good as or better than CBS, and carries most of the Packers games via FOX.

Sure, CBS is stuck on a high UHF (Ch. 58), but compared to UHF affiliates in places like Atlanta, Austin and Detroit, the station seems to be doing well, albeit with an obviously lower budget. Their newscasts have actually been quite competitive at times with WITI's.
 
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