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Wyoming TV station wants to come to Wilmington

M

MikefromDelaware

This is a paraphrase of a story that appeared in the Wilmington News Journal's Delawareonline web site. See web site for all the actual story and details.

PMCM notified the FCC Monday of its plans to move KJWY, Channel 2, of Jackson, Wyo., to Wilmington Del. The company also plans to move a Nevada station to Monmouth County, N.J. which would mark the first time in decades that a TV station moved markets, company officials said.
PMCM TV LLC, want to operate the Wilmington station as Channel 2, taking advantage of the departure of many stations in the Delaware-Philadelphia television market from the VHF dial in the digital television transition.
The antenna for the station would be in located Philadelphia, but the programming would be geared toward the residents of the Wilmington region.
PMCM officials have not said what they'd show on the station, but federal regulations would require them to provide programming of local interest. The station would not be affiliated with a major network.
To bring the station to Wilmington, PMCM would be taking advantage of a little-used federal rule that encourages each state to have a full-strength commercial TV station on the VHF dial. As of this week, Delaware has no such station.

This info isn't in the article, I'm adding just to offer some Wilmington TV history. The last commercial TV station in Delaware went dark in 1958 with the departure of WVUE-TV channel 12. WDEL had the first TV station in Delaware in 1949 on channel 7, which was moved to channel 12 due to interference with NYC and Washington's channel 7's. WHYY a non-comm public TV station took over channel 12 in 1963.

See entire article www.delawareonline.com. (The Wilmington News Journal web site)
 
MikefromDelaware said:
This is a paraphrase of a story that appeared in the Wilmington News Journal's Delawareonline web site. See web site for all the actual story and details.

PMCM notified the FCC Monday of its plans to move KJWY, Channel 2, of Jackson, Wyo., to Wilmington Del. The company also plans to move a Nevada station to Monmouth County, N.J. which would mark the first time in decades that a TV station moved markets, company officials said.
PMCM TV LLC, want to operate the Wilmington station as Channel 2, taking advantage of the departure of many stations in the Delaware-Philadelphia television market from the VHF dial in the digital television transition.
The antenna for the station would be in located Philadelphia, but the programming would be geared toward the residents of the Wilmington region.
PMCM officials have not said what they'd show on the station, but federal regulations would require them to provide programming of local interest. The station would not be affiliated with a major network.
To bring the station to Wilmington, PMCM would be taking advantage of a little-used federal rule that encourages each state to have a full-strength commercial TV station on the VHF dial. As of this week, Delaware has no such station.

This info isn't in the article, I'm adding just to offer some Wilmington TV history. The last commercial TV station in Delaware went dark in 1958 with the departure of WVUE-TV channel 12. WDEL had the first TV station in Delaware in 1949 on channel 7, which was moved to channel 12 due to interference with NYC and Washington's channel 7's. WHYY a non-comm public TV station took over channel 12 in 1963.

See entire article www.delawareonline.com. (The Wilmington News Journal web site)
Click to expand...

I'll let Scott Fybush elaborate but basically what's going on here...

Channel 9 in NYC was in trouble in the early 1970s. Their owners were judged guilty of serious misdeeds. Congress passed legislation requiring the FCC to renew for five years the license of any VHF commercial station that agreed to move to a state that had no such station, as long as it was technically feasible, regardless of any other provisions of law. (such as those requiring the revocation of the licenses of owners convicted of serious wrongdoing)

New Jersey and Delaware were the only two such states. NYC and Philadelphia stations were the only ones for which a move to NJ/DE would be technically feasible. Rules at the time required the main studio be in the community of license, so any station wishing to take advantage of the law had to move its studio into the state. NYC channel 9 was the only station interested - I would imagine they really didn't *want* to move but when the alternative is losing your license, you'll move...

Once NYC channel 9 moved, NJ had a commercial VHF and the move was no longer open to anyone else. Nobody in Philadelphia ever expressed interest.

Fast-forward 30 years:
Channel 9 drew DTV channel 38. So New Jersey is back to having no commercial VHF stations. Delaware never got one.

But with the low-band mostly clear, it is now technically feasible to move low-band stations to NJ and DE from places other than NYC/Philadelphia. PMCM seems to be the first entity to recognize this possibility.

The way I read the law (and I am definitely NOT a lawyer), the FCC is *required by law* to grant these applications if they're found technically acceptable. (a reputable engineering firm is involved so I'm pretty confident they *are* technically acceptable) Once these applications are granted, NJ and Delaware will have commercial VHF stations and this loophole won't be open to anyone else.

I did do a quick check and to my knowledge, NJ and Delaware were still the only two states with no commercial VHF after Transition -- even Maryland and the small New England states all have at least one.
 
w9wi said:
I did do a quick check and to my knowledge, NJ and Delaware were still the only two states with no commercial VHF after Transition -- even Maryland and the small New England states all have at least one.
Click to expand...

Is VHF still even a key factor at that point, especially since many stations that were on VHF analog are now on UHF digital (and vice versa)?
 
azumanga said:
w9wi said:
I did do a quick check and to my knowledge, NJ and Delaware were still the only two states with no commercial VHF after Transition -- even Maryland and the small New England states all have at least one.
Click to expand...

Is VHF still even a key factor at that point, especially since many stations that were on VHF analog are now on UHF digital (and vice versa)?
Click to expand...

IMHO no, but that goes both ways. VHF is not an advantage after Transition. But given that the vast majority of viewers are watching on cable/satellite, and many OTA viewers are not in desirable demographics, VHF is not really a disadvantage either, widely-cited reception complaints aside.

A 10kw DTV station on channel 2 transmitting from NYC will get must-carry on cable and satellite on systems covering millions of viewers. If you can get that license for a tiny fraction of the cost of buying an existing must-carry station (your only other choice) you'll be very happy with a low-band VHF channel!

BTW I would not be surprised to see more VHF-low new-station applications come along once the FCC starts accepting them. For the same reason.
 
This is the same company that ran Vineland's Channel 65 into the ground right before the sale to Home Shopping Network. Not so sure that they're going to be any better at running an independent station now than they were 25 years ago.
 
w9wi said:
Channel 9 in NYC was in trouble in the early 1970s. Their owners were judged guilty of serious misdeeds. Congress passed legislation requiring the FCC to renew for five years the license of any VHF commercial station that agreed to move to a state that had no such station, as long as it was technically feasible, regardless of any other provisions of law. (such as those requiring the revocation of the licenses of owners convicted of serious wrongdoing)

New Jersey and Delaware were the only two such states. NYC and Philadelphia stations were the only ones for which a move to NJ/DE would be technically feasible. Rules at the time required the main studio be in the community of license, so any station wishing to take advantage of the law had to move its studio into the state. NYC channel 9 was the only station interested - I would imagine they really didn't *want* to move but when the alternative is losing your license, you'll move...

Once NYC channel 9 moved, NJ had a commercial VHF and the move was no longer open to anyone else. Nobody in Philadelphia ever expressed interest.
Click to expand...

Gee, and all these years I thought Ch. 9 moving its COL to Secaucus was no more or less than an act of pure gumption by the Garden State, which, if you'll recall, had previously pilfered NYC's NFL and NASL (North American Soccer League) franchises. :mad:

ixnay
 
I always thought it'd be a smart idea for WBPH 60 (VHF 9) to apply for a COL change to Phillipsburg, NJ (given the proximity of the Lehigh Valley and NW NJ) and get North Jersey/New York must-carry rights, and now with WWOR no longer on Ch.9 VHF, WBPH on VHF 9, it's even more favorable to do so. Allentown/Bethlehem is already serviced by WFMZ and WLVT. Phillipsburg has no station.

Getting on systems even if half of the NY market, makes more sense than half of the Philadelphia market.
 
w9wi said:
Once NYC channel 9 moved, NJ had a commercial VHF and the move was no longer open to anyone else. Nobody in Philadelphia ever expressed interest.
Click to expand...

Philadelphia only had a mere 3 VHFs (3, 6 and 10). 12 didn't really count being noncommercial and already attached to Wilmington, DE. It's not like we had 4-7 like every other major metropolitan market, to sacrifice one up. We could have had Ch.8 maybe to Wilmington, DE or some town in South Jersey (Vineland, NJ), as New Haven, CT is 170 miles, the same separation that exists between New York and Baltimore. But, Ch.8 was given away to smaller Lancaster to provide VHF to Central PA. Of course, 3 6 and 10 wouldn't have wanted a Ch.8 co-existing around.
 
Bill_W said:
Does that mean Jackson Hole, WY loses it NBC station?
Click to expand...

Apparently the station is a semi satellite station of KPVI so that market would have KPVI still.

DE VHF station would get great positioning being right around/next to KYW, WPVI WCAU on Fios, Dish and DirecTV.
But programming, I'd think they'd just have infomercials.

If possible, why doesn't it apply for COL change to Dover,DE and maybe they can carry their NBC affiliation into Southern DE, with overlap of CH.10 in Central DE only.

Assuming Wilmington license, Comcast may not like this, and might jerk them around initially and tell them must-carry to Northern and Central Delaware only.
 
Neil Rattigan said:
Moving it to Dover makes sense. Not only does it guarantee coverage to the entire state, it also gives NBC an affiliate in Delmarva.
Click to expand...

Moving it to Dover would not have allowed them to put the transmitter in Roxborough.

The NBC affiliation is a red herring; only the license, not the programming, will be making the move. No matter how much high-minded talk there is about providing "community service" to Delaware and NJ, the goal of this move is very simple: to create new signals in Philadelphia and NYC that can claim cable and satellite must-carry.

Think WMCN or WTVE here, only with a much more favorable channel position.
 
Favorable if you don't care about OTA, that is.

- Trip
 
tripinva said:
Favorable if you don't care about OTA, that is.

- Trip
Click to expand...

In these two markets, VHF-low has a shot at succeeding. Philly residents have to get VHF-low-capable antennas if they're going to be able to see ABC, and in both markets the transmitter sites in question are as centrally-located as you can get.

Don't make the mistake of assuming your situation with WBRA is the end of the story when it comes to VHF-low DTV.
 
I'm not making any assumptions about WBRA. I'm making assumptions based on WBBM.

- Trip
 
tripinva said:
I'm not making any assumptions about WBRA. I'm making assumptions based on WBBM.

- Trip
Click to expand...

Funny thing about WBBM: for all of the complaints about its signal (and having spent some time just a couple of weeks ago with their director of engineering, I got an earful), I had *no* trouble getting their channel 3 DTV to lock and stay locked on my most recent trip to Chicago June 8-9. This was in a reasonably typical urban situation - steel-framed building, 17th floor, away from the window - using the Terk HDTVi antenna, which seems to be the magic bullet for VHF in a lot of situations.

(The same antenna/receiver configuration worked for me in April in Las Vegas to get the DTVs on 2, 7, 9, 11 and 12, which I'd never been able to lock in on previous trips with crappier - but more expensive - indoor antennas. In fact, it locked in KVBC on 2 much more solidly than most of the high-band Vs.)

What does all this have to do with KJWY and KVNV? Not much: the goal here, I'm quite certain, is simply to be able to sell the licenses as "Philadelphia" and "New York" stations at the bottom of the dial, and the actual quality of OTA reception will be beside the point.
 
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