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Worship Network being dropped from Ion TV subchannels

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dave73

I saw this while browsing another board that The Worship Network (found on the subchannel of Ion TV stations) is being dropped from the Ion TV subchannel as of January 31. It has to do with Ion TV being in bankruptcy and their future with them being uncertain. It says on their own website that they're looking for new affilaites. While I don't watch Worship, there are those who do.

What are your thoughts on this? What station or stations do you think might be interested in carrying Worship in your market? In Chicago, I believe if Worship can work out a deal with WJYS, I believe they'd show interest in carrying Worship. WJYS already carry WEDE-CA on PSIP 62.2. Since WJYS is broadcasting in 480i, they won't have any problem with adding another subchannel to their channel. There's no other religious station on the air in Chicago OTA (other than WEDE-CA, which is a Class A station). SO that's why I believe WJYS would the only choice, and has room to add another channel.

http://www.worship.net/article/january-2010-newsletter/
 
Is WJYS's digital signal any better than it's analog? I know that the analog was on a transmitter in south suburban Tinley Park which made the station unviewable from downtown Chicago and north.

Unless their digital signal is better received WJYS remains worthless, as it's not viewable OTA to too many people.
 
Mark said:
Is WJYS's digital signal any better than it's analog? I know that the analog was on a transmitter in south suburban Tinley Park which made the station unviewable from downtown Chicago and north.

Unless their digital signal is better received WJYS remains worthless, as it's not viewable OTA to too many people.
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I heard they haven't removed their null toward Milwaukee yet. They do have a CP to not only increase their power, but aim more of their signal toward Milwaukee. The CP calls for moving the antenna from the west side to the east side of the Sears Tower. When WJYS will complete installing the new antenna is unknown. I forgot who on this board, or another board mentioned that WJYS is still not viewable in the northern suburbs. Since I'm near the COL of Hammond Indiana, I get WJYS, as the signal must cover Hammond. Before June 12th, and for about 2 months after analog was shutoff, WJYS was unwatchable much of the time.
 
On the Milwaukee HDTV board the engineer for Ion station WPXE said it's pretty much because the contract ran out (since it was a remnant of the Bud Paxson days) and that the network wants to add bandwidth for their HD signal; those that ran Worship on .4 and Ion HD had horrible pixelation, which I can attest to when WPXE ran their .1 on 720p experimentally for a few weeks.

I didn't mind the channel because it was pretty much a good example of visual Sominex, but I thought of it more as in the Paxson era more them showing off digital subchannel capabilities than anything serious.
 
mrschimpf said:
On the Milwaukee HDTV board the engineer for Ion station WPXE said it's pretty much because the contract ran out (since it was a remnant of the Bud Paxson days) and that the network wants to add bandwidth for their HD signal; those that ran Worship on .4 and Ion HD had horrible pixelation, which I can attest to when WPXE ran their .1 on 720p experimentally for a few weeks.

I didn't mind the channel because it was pretty much a good example of visual Sominex, but I thought of it more as in the Paxson era more them showing off digital subchannel capabilities than anything serious.
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That happened a lot on WCPX as well after June 12th (not sure before June 12th). It doesn't happen as much as it used to. I don't have an HDTV, and can't tell if any programs are in HD or not. I'm not sure what they're doing wrong that 720p HD runs horribly along side 3 SD subchannels. WTTW has been able to run 3 SD subchannels and have their main channel in 720p. They tried running 3 subchannels with the main channel in 1080i, and that went horribly wrong. That doesn't compare to WLS-TV who runs 7.1 & 7.2 in 720p each & AccuWeather in SD. 7.2 suffers with slight pixelation.

I wonder if WVCY would carry Worship if they came to them to offer their network. That's the only station I can think of in the Milwaukee market that might carry the station, & have room to offer the channel. WWRS doesn't serve the entire market, already runnning 4 subchannels, and is owned by TBN. So I don't see them carrying it.
 
mrschimpf said:
On the Milwaukee HDTV board the engineer for Ion station WPXE said it's pretty much because the contract ran out (since it was a remnant of the Bud Paxson days) and that the network wants to add bandwidth for their HD signal; those that ran Worship on .4 and Ion HD had horrible pixelation, which I can attest to when WPXE ran their .1 on 720p experimentally for a few weeks.

I didn't mind the channel because it was pretty much a good example of visual Sominex, but I thought of it more as in the Paxson era more them showing off digital subchannel capabilities than anything serious.
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So they eliminated it for their HD channel? You mean the Infomercial one?

I guess we better set our DVRs for the Magic Bullet Blender Special and the Dual Action Colon Cleanse infomercial with Klee Irwin now in HD!
 
mime257 said:
So they eliminated it for their HD channel? You mean the Infomercial one?
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Don't quit your day job. ION is programming non-infomercial programming 59 hours/week with more hours expected to be added this fall. That includes their 3 hours of E/I programming from Qubo 3PM-4PM Wednesday-Friday. By Comparison NBC programs its network 123 hour/week not including sports play by play. So Ion is programming non-infomercial programming slightly less than half the number of hours NBC is. FOX only programs 25 hours a week including an NFL Double header on Sundays. So ION has more hours of programming than FOX.
 
Dave said:
I wonder if WVCY would carry Worship if they came to them to offer their network. That's the only station I can think of in the Milwaukee market that might carry the station, & have room to offer the channel. WWRS doesn't serve the entire market, already runnning 4 subchannels, and is owned by TBN. So I don't see them carrying it.[/color]
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I'd say it's highly doubtful as WVCY is a pretty conservative operation which is going to be paying for their new digital transmitter for quite awhile since they went into the digital age really wishing they could've stayed all-analog until the tower tipped down (they were the only Milwaukee broadcaster to kill analog on 2/17 for power bill reasons). They're still running their sole stream on 480i and just two weeks ago finally inched their schedule past midnight to broadcast 24/7, the last in the state to do so. Adding a service like Worship on a station which has mostly must-carry carriage in the market would prove to be unprofitable and likely would not allow many opportunities for fundraising advertisements.
 
mrschimpf said:
Dave said:
I wonder if WVCY would carry Worship if they came to them to offer their network. That's the only station I can think of in the Milwaukee market that might carry the station, & have room to offer the channel. WWRS doesn't serve the entire market, already runnning 4 subchannels, and is owned by TBN. So I don't see them carrying it.[/color]
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I'd say it's highly doubtful as WVCY is a pretty conservative operation which is going to be paying for their new digital transmitter for quite awhile since they went into the digital age really wishing they could've stayed all-analog until the tower tipped down (they were the only Milwaukee broadcaster to kill analog on 2/17 for power bill reasons). They're still running their sole stream on 480i and just two weeks ago finally inched their schedule past midnight to broadcast 24/7, the last in the state to do so. Adding a service like Worship on a station which has mostly must-carry carriage in the market would prove to be unprofitable and likely would not allow many opportunities for fundraising advertisements.
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Makes me wonder why they even went 24/7 if they're supposedly cash strapped. It's one thing if they have the funding to do so, but since they're relying on donations alone might make it worthwhile to just signoff at night. At least they're not paying as much in electricity to operate their digital transmitter. My local PBS station only went 24/7 approximately 5 years ago, and been on the air since 1987.
 
From what I've seen of them VCY is VERY ultra-traditional and won't carry anything even remotely contemporary, so the possibility of them carrying the Worship Network is probably out of the question. Worship's format isn't anything that is going to reach teens, but it's contemporary enough that VCY won't touch it.

The ironic thing is that VCY supposedly stands for the Voice of Christian Youth, but considering their anti-CCM stance they need to change their name. But that's probably another topic for the Religious/CCM board.

Concerning ION's Christian programming, they were definitely better in the early years of PAX when they had CCM and Christian teen oriented programming on Friday and Saturday late nights. Now they're the TV equivalent of dollar a holler "Christian" radio, allowing any crackpot on (Gene/Melissa Scott) that flashes enough money. But then ION doesn't even pretend to be a Christian or family oriented network any more. Now it's anything for a buck. Some of it's good and some bad, but it's definitely not what PAX was intended to be in its beginning.
 
Dave said:
Makes me wonder why they even went 24/7 if they're supposedly cash strapped. It's one thing if they have the funding to do so, but since they're relying on donations alone might make it worthwhile to just signoff at night.
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Arguably, operating 24/7 reduces maintenance costs. If an electronic device is going to fail, it's mostly likely to fail when first turned on. If you never turn it off, you never face that powerup surge.

Since you can now legally put the thing on autopilot with a properly-configured remote control system, there is no increase in labor costs for running it 24/7 either. Really the only impediment is the programming, and if you have enough of your own programming you can run at no cost, it probably makes the most economic sense to just let the thing run.

I don't think they're running on donations alone. WVCY-TV holds a commercial license and can legally charge for airtime. I would bet they're doing so. (though I wouldn't be surprised if donations are helping make ends meet)
 
anotherguy said:
From what I've seen of them VCY is VERY ultra-traditional and won't carry anything even remotely contemporary, so the possibility of them carrying the Worship Network is probably out of the question. Worship's format isn't anything that is going to reach teens, but it's contemporary enough that VCY won't touch it.
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I remember back in 1989 when "The Sunshine Factory" was on there in the afternoon; it's still airing weekdays to this very day! Those cassettes must be the hardiest tapes ever made in television history :D.

I think it's more that their goal was to eventually run 24/7 as everyone else began to, but the transition got in the way and they had to focus on getting the digital up, then running two costly transmitters for five years. Once the analog got turned off they were finally to realize the cost savings of a lower-power digital transmitter and were finally able to budget for 24/7. Also helping is they're covering only 3/4 of their transmission area under an STA so there's more savings right there; they get the big five counties surrounding Milwaukee which really count (especially Waukesha County), while Fond du Lac and Sheboygan counties (where must-carry has never been invoked except for the rural and Plymouth TWC systems where they follow what the home office in Milwaukee wants lineup-wise), Jefferson, and Dodge (WWRS/TBN has that area covered along with FdL) can't get it without an outdoor antenna.
 
New Zoo Revue used to air like clockwork on the old WNEW/Channel 5. Now I find it appears on many broadcast stations in an attempt to use it as "E/I" fare. (They should do the same for "Hot Fudge," which was way better.)

Of course, the best episode of "New Zoo Revue" of all time can be found on YouTube... ;D
 
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