Suddenly, the over-air digital TV scene is as nearly as active in Northeast Ohio as it was in the days before the analog TV shutoff, back on June 12th...A 19 UPGRADE: OMW hears, third-hand, that Raycom Media Cleveland CBS affiliate WOIO/19 has completed an interim digital signal upgrade.We're told that last Wednesday, WOIO's engineers nearly tripled the power coming out of the station's transmission system - with a power level of 9.5 kW. WOIO's digital signal has been pumping out just 3.5 kW … [Read more...]
The Weekend Cleanup Post
As usually happens when we go "on hiatus" here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), media news happens. It's an indisputable Law of OMW...if we push away the keyboard, the flood comes in, and that's already the case this time around.So, though we're still trying to "stay away", let's briefly expand on the two items that we've popped onto our Twitter feed.And again, you don't even have to access our page directly...they show up over there to the left of the main scroll here. Just keep watching that … [Read more...]
Turning Blue, Folks
Especially if you're an adult, there are a few cultural touchstones that are universal in Northeast Ohio...and many of them revolve around local television.At some point, just about everyone in this region has been touched by what you could call the "Ghoulardi Franchise".If you weren't old enough to remember Ernie Anderson's iconic 1960's "Ghoulardi" character on WJW/8 (then the market's CBS affiliate), you certainly knew, and probably watched, his direct successors with late night comedy … [Read more...]
Time Warner Northeast Ohio “Starts Over”
No, our subject header isn't meant to imply that Northeast Ohio's cable TV giant is tearing out the cable and rewiring.The local Time Warner systems are getting ready to mount "Start Over", a new feature for digital cable users that lets them join already started programs "in progress", returning to the beginning of the show they caught in the middle.From a TWC press release:Start Over is enabled by a software upgrade to the existing video on demand (VOD) platform and to the installed base of … [Read more...]
Disjointed, But Here
You may notice that we're trying out some new things, and new ways of updating the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).Just bear with us...as we're testing how these new methods work in practice. For the nonce, you could well see Twitter-style mini-updates in the main OMW stream for a while...like below...HAILING COLUMBUS: OMW hears that the new Central Ohio 102.5 signal, licensed to Baltimore OH, has apparently made its move to the new facility intended on serving the Columbus market.An OMW reader on … [Read more...]
We’re Still Here
A combination of Other Stuff and Life Intervening, along with some Unscheduled Turbulence, has kept us away from the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) for longer than we'd expected.Not all of that has gone away, but for now, we're back...THE ALL HD CAVALIERS: It wasn't that long ago that viewers hoping to see HDTV broadcasts of local sports teams had to sift through a small list of selected games.And the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers were showing as few as 7 games in HD format via Fox Sports Ohio as recently as … [Read more...]
CVNP Gets The TV Treatment
One of Northeast Ohio's most vital natural resources is getting the full TV treatment in a new documentary premiering this weekend on Western Reserve PBS (WNEO/45 Alliance - WEAO/49 Akron)...called "Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park".A description of the show from its website:Discover the story of Ohio’s only national park when Western Reserve PBS presents its new one-hour documentary, Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park.Generations tells the story of the park’s natural wonders … [Read more...]
Si, V-me
No, you're not imagining it if you're an over-air digital TV viewer...the folks at Kent-based public TV outlet Western Reserve PBS have grown another digital subchannel. For now, at least.Now airing on WEAO/49.4 Akron (and we assume WNEO/45.4 Alliance) is "V-me", a Spanish-language channel. We'll let the "V-me" folks explain it in English:V-me (pronounced veh-meh), is the first national Spanish-language television network presented by public television stations. V-me, a 24-hour digital … [Read more...]
Still Have DTV Problems? Talk To The AP
If you're still struggling trying to pick up Northeast Ohio's two VHF-based digital TV outlets - Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 and/or Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19 - an Associated Press writer would like to hear from you.The AP's Peter Svensson says you can E-mail him with your experiences at this address:psvensson-at-ap.orgThat's been slightly munged to try to battle the evil spammers, of course.He's hoping to hear from you before noon Friday, so please feel free to send him a note as soon … [Read more...]
Emmy Fallout
Earlier on OMW, we dutifully posted a link to the list of this year's local Emmy Awards winners, with little comment - aside from a brief mention of the win for "Best Nostalgia Program" involving local radio personality and OMW reader Mike Olszewski ("Radio Daze").That's our normal procedure with awards lists.We don't go through the list, tab "winners and losers", make any further comment about the stations or groups involved, etc. Awards are very subjective, and we usually don't insert … [Read more...]