It looks like America's full-power TV broadcasters may get an extra 30 days to help assure a smoother digital TV transition.Broadcasting & Cable Magazine reports that Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed "by unanimous consent" a so-called TV "nightlight bill", which would "would allow broadcasters to continue an analog signal for 30 days past the Feb. 17, 2009 cut-off date".Though the bill reportedly has support of FCC commissioner Kevin Martin, and the support of the White House, B&C … [Read more...]
WNEO Digital Coming Back – Step One
Posted on November 20, 2008 · Leave a Comment
OMW hears that Western Reserve PBS' WNEO-DT/45 Alliance (the operation's Youngstown market facility) is indeed on course to return to the airwaves on Friday.After the Kent-based PBS affiliate shut off the analog channel 45 signal for good on Wednesday morning, station engineers have been busy installing the new digital channel 45 transmitter, and have been testing it off-air into a dummy load.The digital transmitter is being switched today into the now-formerly analog transmission line, and … [Read more...]
WNEO Analog Shutoff
Posted on November 18, 2008 · Leave a Comment
The second Northeast Ohio full-power analog signal to leave the airwaves is about to do so.As scheduled, Western Reserve PBS' WNEO/45 Alliance, the Youngstown market half of the Kent-based public TV operation, will shut down the analog Channel 45 transmitter on Wednesday morning - for good - to prepare for an upgrade to the digital WNEO signal, which will move from digital channel 46 to digital channel 45.OMW hears from our friends at Western Reserve PBS that the analog 45 signal will go dark at … [Read more...]
Less Than 100 Days
Posted on November 11, 2008 · Leave a Comment
"100 days" is a popular measuring stick for a number of things in our modern world.Here, we're not talking about the progress of presidential administrations. We're talking digital TV...as we're less than 100 days from the mid-February day where every full-power TV station in the country will be forced to shut down that old analog transmitter, and solely broadcast its new digital signal.Well, give or take a few stations shutting analog down early...among them, Northeast Ohio's own WNEO/45 … [Read more...]
Monday Is Packed
Posted on November 10, 2008 · Leave a Comment
...full of news, mostly updates to some of our previous items. But they're necessary updates...WKDD MORNINGS: As it turns out, veteran Clear Channel Akron/Canton hot AC WKDD/98.1 morning man Matt Patrick won't be soloing it on the FM side of his broadcast life.After being tipped by a reader who spotted the absence of Patrick co-host Angela Bellios on the station's website, OMW confirmed Friday that the station's morning show will no longer be "Matt and Angela".But there will be a replacement … [Read more...]
Midweek Visit
Posted on November 5, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Just some followup and stuff floating around...WSTB: We hinted at this in our last item, when we reminded readers that general manager Bob Long and his student crew at Streetsboro's WSTB/88.9 wouldn't be around last night to cover Portage County election returns.OMW hears that moves are actually being made to reconstruct the Streetsboro school district-owned station and return it to the airwaves - at some point.As we pointed out shortly after school officials had station computers removed and … [Read more...]
OMW’s First Digital TV Q&A
Posted on September 26, 2008 · Leave a Comment
We went back to read our item about the early analog switchoff of Youngstown market PBS affiliate WNEO/45 Alliance, and...well, we figured some of our readers may have some questions about the digital TV transition.Late on the night of February 17, 2009, just before the clock strikes midnight into the 18th, TV transmitter facilities around America will be very busy places...as every full-power TV station in the nation shuts off its analog transmitter for good. (For the record, as far as we … [Read more...]
WNEO’s Early Change
Posted on September 23, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Northeast Ohio has already seen one full-power analog TV station go dark months before the federally mandated digital transition, though the change has affected only a small part of the Cleveland/Akron (Canton) market. Mansfield local independent station WMFD/68 won approval to go digital-only due to various issues regarding the replacement of its analog facility/antenna. WMFD-DT (RF 12) no longer has an analog 68 sister.In what's no surprise to regular OMW readers, we're not long from the … [Read more...]
And Some More For Tuesday
Posted on September 9, 2008 · Leave a Comment
We're trying to break out of the sports-related items, honest...MOVING TO THE DT: This isn't actually a sports item, though it involved a sporting event.Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19 Shaker Heights/Reserve Square Basement/Cleveland moved CBS' coverage of the men's U.S. Open tennis final off of its main channel Monday, and aired it on its digital subchannel (WOIO-DT 19.2 "WeatherNow").As far as we know, it's the first time WOIO has bounced regularly scheduled CBS programming off the main … [Read more...]
