WRNT is still half dead and DX conditions right now

[DJKraze]

This morning I'm experiencing an interesting analog DX event, something I doubt I'll have the same success with after DTV. Normally I lose anything other than the standard locals as I don't consider Boston & Providence as locals, just night time regulars

quick local list OF ANALOG for those who haven't seen it before:
WFSB, WTNH, WUVN, WTXX, WWLP, WEDH, WHPX, WVIT, WHCT, WGGB, WRNT, WRDM, WEDN, WGBY, WCTX, WTIC

At 6am I did a quick check and noticed I was getting a little bit of signals on some of the Boston stations and figured I just missed the bus and that they were gone till tonight again, however, I am tuning around again right now and getting things I didn't expect:

WHDH, WMUR, (Slight) WJAR, WCDC, WUNI, WVTA*, WBPX, each of these is scan-locking except WJAR

I have noticed at times when providence comes in, I can get WJAR over WTNH-DT, I suspect without the DTV channel there, WJAR would be very close to being a regular like it was as I grew up in New Britain and would see it fade in each day about 4pm as out of the 3 main stations at the time, 10 was always the best signal followed by 12, and then 6 which suffered so much FM mess.

* WVTA was funny, as I actually got it at the bottom of the hour and some kids program about a Tugboat just finished (Bob the Builder is on right now) and I figured I was going to get an ID, well, I did, CPTV! at least it looked as though it was CPTV the way they tagged the end of the program as the distributor, THEN Vermont Public TV did an ID, I thought I was seeing something I wouldn't expect (a new outlet for CPTV) if the station were just a tiny bit clearer, I would have been able to make out the bug in the corner, but it's just beyond that.

Something I should have mentioned a while back, WRNT still is out to lunch, except this time no color bars and test tone, just a slight for the FansTV network, and I don't think I can fully blame this outage on WRNT (though the lack of action about it can be). I use TVUNetworks from time to time and the network used to be there, it's gone now and the website for the network appears to be "Under Construction".

The graphic they have up says:

"For more information about Fanz-TV
E-mail [email protected] or visit
www.fanstvnetwork.com"

Might be time for something else? Hey, I know a way to get to a really fast growing niche audience, FUNImation channel or maybe the Anime Network.

 

[KML0224]

I don't get WWLP, WHCT-LP, WRNT-LP, WRDM-LP or WGBY here in New Britain's south end. Consider yourself lucky! As for Windsor, VT and WVTA? I've never picked it up here. Any nights of enhanced UHF reception would bring in WXTV from Paterson, NJ, but never WVTA.

 

[azumanga]

Might be time for something else? Hey, I know a way to get to a really fast growing niche audience, FUNImation channel or maybe the Anime Network.

Won't be the Anime Network -- the regular service ended last year; they're now strictly on-demand.

 

[DJKraze]

Whoops! forgot about that and let it slip out. Yeah, ADV spread its self a bit too thinly plus they have been making all kinds of bad decisions and it's costing them bigtime, plus all the business decisions that have fallen apart recently, the demise of NewType USA, and then PiQ falling flat (what's going to happen to the rest of my subscription I paid for? I still had a long way to go). I kinda hoping some broadcasters could convince them to attempt to revive the Anime Network as a regular service like maybe on the dot 2+ sub channels, I know FUNImation has a few (at least 2 somewhere) but then again ADV is hurting a whole lot and isn't admitting it (at least Dave Williams kept trying to convince the crowd at the panel he did at Anime Boston that they were still very strong and not going anywhere, while not having anywhere near the number of prizes to give away as in previous years, I remember them giving away box sets before, now its a $5 coupon on purchases at the ADV booth in the dealer's room). They aren't the first anime company to have trouble though, and I'm sure they won't be the last. At least they haven't closed up shop yet. Some other recent names come to mind:

Central Park Media - Bankrupt, restructuring, not gone though.
Toei's American label that was being distributed by Geneon USA, they tried but didn't last very long
Geneon USA - They shut down US operations suddenly in November, however, most of the titles they hold have now been transferd to FUNImation for distribution by FUNImation.
Bandai Visual USA, absorbed into the parent company as part of a restructuring, so not dead but not quite the same as it was.

I am of course, skipping over those companies that used to be around in the days of VHS that have vanished long before VHS did.

Not all is entirely bleak though for the anime industry, Kadokawa has opened a US branch and has announced over a dozen titles but doesn't plan on doing it's own distribution, they have yet to announce a distributor for those titles.

This post is starting to sound more like one of my reports on the ConnectiCon forums regarding licensing and screening permissions for the convention than a radio-info post, so let me bring it right back to where I was before (and the reason I came back to this thread right now)


DX conditions right now are not like they were but still not the norm.

Non-local ANALOG (no DX Digital at the moment):

WGBH - in color, but very snowy, audio is clear, some static
WBZ - also in color, but more snowy, audio is perfect
WCVB - B&W, lots of snow both picture and audio, picture is stable and not rolling, but not locked with the bar sitting about 1/3rd down from the top as if a second station is underneath (WNYW?), no side bar noticed
WHDH - Something strong is trashing it, if the other signal wasn't there, I can see that the color is open and the audio is perfect except for a splash of noise on occasion from the other station (WABC?)
WMUR - Fading in and out, when in, picture is B&W but strong and audio is clear, then it does a long sweep fade and is almost gone, but comes back about 2 minutes later
WENH - Some signal is punching through the digital mess of WWLP-DT, not strong enough to watch, audio is just snow, but it definitely them.
(here's the odd part, no WCDC, usually when Boston & Providence are there, so are they)
WFXT - Very snowy, but in color and audio is perfect, but look out, here's a deep fade and it's gone, wait, no, it's back again (fades for about 15 seconds)
WHPX - Yes, I know it's a local but the signal from these guys lately both Analog & Digital has been pretty weak, they look like a DX station, the strongest of all the DX so far, but they don't seem strong enough to be local, is there some work going on at the transmitter???
WUNI - also doing the deep fade thing, but they are out more than they are in fading IN for about 10 seconds and then out again for a minute, at best, very snowy, no color, and audio never fully cleans up, now they just made me a liar and are in color then fades out again.
WVTA - I did a quick band scan before typing this and they were not there, but they are now (Bon Jovi in Concert) decent signal for Vermont, color is opened up and there is a moderate amount of snow as I can't read the bug in the corner, but I can see it there. Audio is ok with some static. Wait, just dropped out, not a deep fade, like someone hit a switch (I'll wait, 25 seconds pass...) it's back like a switch was flipped again, hmm, I think I need to check my connections, that's a bit odd (waits... 2 more minutes) nope, still there, no more audio static.
WUTF - it's there, but not often, similar to WUNI, but far worse

I'm going to miss being able to watch most of these come 02/17/09

 

[DJKraze]

I don't get WWLP, WHCT-LP, WRNT-LP, WRDM-LP or WGBY here in New Britain's south end. Consider yourself lucky! As for Windsor, VT and WVTA? I've never picked it up here. Any nights of enhanced UHF reception would bring in WXTV from Paterson, NJ, but never WVTA.

If you were in the central part or northern, heck, just about anywhere but south, you'd get a good number of the stations I mentioned, as I used to live right across from the NB Boys & Girls club and got tons fo struff, but I'm pretty sure you've seen that post (I don't remember, it's late for me and I'm falling asleep at the keyboard0)