WRTN Community of License

[CommoChief]

Am I missing something or shouldn't a radio/TV station's coverage area actually include its community of license? WRTN LP TV is licensed to Alexandria, but according to the FCC (with a digital tower located on I-24W and a translator located in Lebanon) the signal does not even reach Alexandria. Actually, the signal doesn’t even make it to Watertown.

Are cable companies required to carry LPTV under the "must carry" rule? I don’t think either Comcast or Dekalb Telco (DTC) carries WRTN. (DTC operates their own IPTV channel with local programming for Dekalb, Cannon, and Smith Counties.) It’s probably safe to say you could count the number of people on one hand living in Alexandria who actually knows it is home to a broadcast television station.

 

[Kent]

Are cable companies required to carry LPTV under the "must carry" rule?

No. I believe there are some rules regarding cable carriage of Class A TV stations (our TV engineer friend who regularly posts here could probably correct me if I'm wrong), but LPTV isn't covered. When full-power stations have sister LPTV's, they'll usually require the LPTV's get covered as part of their compensation package from the cable company. Standalones, however, are usually not carried and have no leverage unless it's programming the cable network wants.

 

[w9wi]

- My understanding is that the principal community ("city of license") coverage requirements don't apply to LPTVs.

For full-power stations these requirements are in 73.625 (digital) and 73.685. (analog) Those regulations are *not* among those incorporated by reference in the LPTV rules, and there is no separate similar regulation for LPTV.

There is a suggestion in 74.737 that a site within 8km of the "area intended to be served" is "preferred", but no *requirement* -- and in any case, it's not clear to me that the "area intended to be served" and the city listed in CDBS are the same thing.

- Must-carry is available to LPTVs under VERY limited circumstances. One of those circumstances is that both the station and the cable system must be outside the top 160 markets -- thus disqualifying WRTN. It is not entirely unheardof for cable systems to voluntarily carry LPTVs -- or for a LPTV to lease a channel. (systems with more than 36 channels are *required* to set aside some number of channels for lease by third parties -- they may however levy a reasonable charge for that use) LPTV station WLLC is on cable in Nashville.

The circumstances Kent suggests -- where a LPTV is commonly-owned with a full-power station & LPTV carriage is part of the agreement to carry the full-power station -- are indeed common. Example: Milwaukee, where LPTV stations WYTU and WBME are on cable -- they're co-owned with full-power WMLW and WDJT. There are no examples in Nashville.

 

[soundsandsports]

When what was then channel 6/19 first signed on, they had a phone number on the screen and asked for reception reports, and they encouraged viewers to call Charter in Lebanon to get what was then WKRP-LP onto the lineup...I recieved both sticks clear into Lebanon on OTA without problem...Now the only way to watch WRTN in Lebanon is on Charter channel 21, while the OTA was left in the dust unless you have a giant antenna...

 

[jetfli]

My beef with WRTN is that its group of channels is packed with networks I'd to have the opportunity to view OTA ~ but their signal map is about the size of a pie slice on the wrong side of town. Yet when I've spoken to some folks from other stations in town, no one wants to broadcast any of them as a side channel because WRTN is already doing that.

By the way, has anyone here ever tried to watch a complete movie on THIS? Aaargh!