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WMGM no longer on Directv or Dish

D

ding12

I knew in the beginning of the year that Dish had removed WMGM. I noticed it when I went to a superbowl party at my friends house that had Dish and I was surfing around.

I just checked DirecTV's lineup (via the website), and noticed it is no longer in the Philadelphia lineup either. Even used an Atlantic City zip code. When did DirecTV drop it?

Anyone know why it was removed? I'm assuming it is either the station didn't elect must-carry this cycle or didn't want to continue paying for the costs to send the signal into Philadelphia.

On the station - I noticed on the Comcast in Atlantic City lineup, it is carried on Ch.4 and Ch.247, but with no HD listed on the Ch.247 or on the upper spectrum. I take it the newscasts are not in HD, right?
 
Earlier this year, DirecTV posted a message on the ch 40 slot that WMGM was unavailable due to "technical limitations" and that WMGM plans to return next year. Ch 40 has since been removed from my lineup. WMGM was only broadcasting in SD on D* and the 4x3 aspect ratio was out of whack and never corrected, the picture was squeezed horizontally and everything was slightly slimmer, but I don't know if that had anything to do with it leaving satellite.
 
When I worked in that building the last time (back in the fall of 2001) our chief engineer confided to me that no plans had been made to go digital and that the owner at the time (the late Howard Green) swore he would turn in the license rather than have to build out a digital facility.

As a result, WMGM-DT didn't come into being until after Green's death the following year after his estate sold out to Access.1. It still wasn't HD (even for network) until late in the game, either.

With brand new management now, I have to wonder if the link to DirecTV is finally going to be upgraded, too.
 
Pab Sungenis said:
With brand new management now, I have to wonder if the link to DirecTV is finally going to be upgraded, too.
Click to expand...

When WMGM was on Dish (2009-2011), the PQ was mostly fine and I think better than how it was on DirecTV. Also, I thought Access.1 bought WMGM in 2003?

Western Pacific Broadcast LLC bought the license for WACP:
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/business/florida-company-buys-station-to-broadcast-television-in-atlantic-city/article_13e42cf5-5663-5701-a9c4-e4a69b877c3e.html.

They have not commented on programming for WACP. I wonder if it'd be a good idea to buy out WMGM-TV as well, and merge the two.

The benefit would be a consistent Ch.4 must-carry position that they could assert throughout South Jersey and on DirecTV and Dish. With the AC COL, they could apply for the market modification petition for Ocean County (or atleast the central/southern part) like WMCN did.

Have the newscast from WMGM, but rebranded as "SJ 4", and move the 11pm newscast to 10pm - maybe make it an hour show. Keep 'Judge Judy', 'The Doctors' but add some shows seen elsewhere in the country (such as classic shows like 'Star Trek', 'Roseanne', 'Who's the Boss?', etc. seen in Chicago's MeToo or Houston's KUBE-TV). Would be nice.
 
Is there any update if channel 40 would be back on Directv at all?? Like someone said there was a slate saying it was going to back this year. Maybe I will call the station this week and see if they have news or not.

Chris
 
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