PBS 45/49 moves some offices to Akron and will change on air identity
Youngstown: Updated news from our friends at "Ohio Media Watch" reports that PBS outlets WNEO 45 (Alliance) and WEAO 49 (Akron) has begun using offices from their new satellite headquarters at the United Building in downtown Akron as of July 1st. While the stations are still located in downtown Kent, the Akron offices & studios will be used for some production & underwriting opportunities. Ironically they join NPR affiliate WKSU 89.7 at the same location with it's separate Akron news bureau. The PBS outlets will also drop the "PBS 45/49" identity this fall with "Western Reserve PBS" to coincide with the new name of the company, "Western Reserve Public Media." The station follows a new trend of over the air stations dropping their station numbers. Another in the area is "Fox 17/62" slowly phasing out that identity for "Fox Youngstown." While some stations are no longer using the numbers on air, others that are going digital next February on another channel position are electing to keep their analog number mapped in order to keep the identity viewers are familiar with after the transition. So far, WKBN DT 41 will stick with 27, WFMJ DT 20 will remain 21 and WYTV DT 36 will hold on to 33.Readers’ Forum
So I take it you remember the email I sent you on the whole “Fox Youngstown” thing, huh? Well, the name changing to “Western Reserve PBS” for WNEO/WEAO makes sense. I think that more of these stations with multiple analog channels are able to go digital with one, stronger signal. (Does WBGN possibly go full-power and eliminate its satellites in the future with digital TV?) And as far as the channel designations go, digital TV’s do have those “virtual channel” numbers, so when you’re changing the channel it can be on your familiar channel number even if its broadcasting on a completely different channel.
Joe Gerard (URL) - June 30, 2008 at 11:39 am
I have caught Fox 17/62 using the new “Fox Youngstown” identity a few times. It’s not clear what WBGN will do once they have to switch to digital in 2012 since they are a low powered station. It will depend on what’s available & if they want to go full powered digital or have low powered digital translators like they do now with analog. It depends on cost & like I said what’s open channel wise up from DT 2-51.
Tom Lavery (URL) - June 30, 2008 at 12:48 pm
There are some misconceptions about the DTV transition here that need clearing up.
First and foremost, there’s no procedure by which an LPTV/Class A license can be “converted” to a full-power license. It’s possible that once the DTV transition is complete, the FCC might reopen petitions to add channels to the Table of Allotments for new full-power signals, but even if that happens, existing LPTV licensees would get no preference for those new channels. They’d have to compete at auction with anyone else who’s interested.
Scott Fybush (URL) - June 30, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I somehow hit “post comment” before I was through – so to continue:
Many stations are struggling with branding issues as part of the DTV conversion. There’s one thing they have no choice about – the “major channel” designation that appears on your over-the-air DTV tuner must be the former analog channel. So if you’re tuned to WNEO-DT, you’ll see “45.1,” and if you’re on WKBN-DT, you’ll see “27.1.” Stations can’t change those virtual channel numbers even if they want to.
So there’s no reason at all for a station to promote its RF channel number. Nobody ever sees it.
The remaining issue, then, is how many viewers a station has over the air vs. cable vs. satellite. If you’re WTAE, and you appear as “4” on all those platforms, it’s a slam-dunk to continue to promote yourself as “Channel 4.” If you’re WKBN and you have a half-century of heritage as “Channel 27,” and viewers accustomed to thinking of you as “Channel 27” even if you appear on cable channel 8, you probably keep on branding as “channel 27.”
But if you’re WNEO/WEAO, appearing on many different channel positions depending on the platform – or if you’re the Youngstown Fox, with a signal that appears on two LPTVs, a DTV subchannel and all over cable – this is a good opportunity to clean up the branding. That’s all that we’re seeing now, and in fact, it’s not even directly attributable solely to the DTV transition. There’s a long history of stations, especially UHFs that appear on multiple cable positions, branding without channel numbers. Just ask my local “Fox Rochester.”
Scott Fybush (URL) - June 30, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Well, one thing that COULD work in WBGN’s advantage if they want to go full-power is the WQEX license. WQED has been trying to sell the station for HOW LONG now? And if you remember with the ill-fated attempt to sell the station to Cornerstone Television—as well as Cornerstone selling their own station, WPCB, to PAX (today’s ION Network)—the FCC did give approval to have WQEX’s license converted to commercial before Cornerstone backed out. Although I have watched WBGN for nearly ten years now (around the time they started operating the satellite stations and started leasing cable TV space), their progrmming is getting better and with them now having nationally-syndicated programming like Martha (which I could personally live without), why WBGN ISN’T full-power by now is intriguing.
Joe Gerard (URL) - July 01, 2008 at 01:23 am
I believe WBGN is preparing to put a digital signal on the air at least in Pittsburgh by year’s end.
If WBGN could get assured fulltime carriage on Comcast (which at least in Westmoreland County it does not at this time, as Kittanning’s Family Life TV also is carried on WBGN’s slot, Channel 21), it would not need a full-power.
As you probably recall, WQED also tried selling Channel 16 to one-time WWSW manager Diane Sutter but that fell through as well.
For what it is worth, Cornerstone backed out because of a condition opponents persuaded the FCC to add to its approval that could have killed off a lot of religious broadcasting in the U.S.
It then had to raise money to pay off Paxson for the improvements made to the Wall transmission site in advance of the “16 for 40” swap.
Pat Cloonan (URL) - July 01, 2008 at 09:58 am
Scott brings up a few good points about problems with LP stations upgrading to full power status. It may be even tougher with less channels available with digital. Joe, I think an even better question is why WPCW did not purchase WQEX with it’s digital signal. It could have ensured that CW programming would have been available in HD well before the digital deadline. Instead, they have to wait until WPXI shuts off it’s analog on 2/18/09 so they can have the actual channel 11. You’d have to ask the WBGN owners as to why they are not full power & if they tried in the past to get a full power station.
Tom Lavery (URL) - July 01, 2008 at 10:03 am
Well, that is a good question about why WPCW didn’t purchase WQEX. The could’ve used it as the main signal while using the channel 19 license as a satellite transmitter to Johnstown/Altoona/State College. There are pros and cons with WBGN being low-powered and with satellite stations—the most obvious con being that it is not under “must-carry” status being low-powered—but on the other hand its combined over-the-air coverage is stronger than some of the full-powered stations. I have to wonder if Comcast and Armstrong Cable are making a killing off of leasing space to WBGN as opposed to the station being full-powered and being covered on “must-carry” rules. I sent them an email, I’ll forward you the response Tom.
Joe Gerard (URL) - July 01, 2008 at 12:12 pm
It may simply be that a full-power OTA signal is no longer essential to financial success for a TV broadcaster. There’s a reason NBC is shedding many of its local O&O stations around the country – even DC and Chicago are said to be on the block for the right price.
In the case of WPCW, they did have cable carriage, and the Pittsburgh market is so heavily cabled that the lack of OTA HD hasn’t made much, if any, difference for them.
As for WBGN, it has full-time carriage on Comcast in Allegheny County, correct? That’s a pretty big chunk of the market right there. Is the $50-100 million they’d have to spend for a full-power OTA signal really worth it just to add another 10 or 20% of potential viewership, especially when they could go digital on their LPTV signals and cover most of the same territory just as well?
Scott Fybush - July 01, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Well, that is a good point with WBGN. Like I said, having one full-powered signal vs. several low-powered signals have their pros and cons, but it also depends on where you live if you get WBGN or not. They actually have to lease channel space just to get on cable, and they’re not available on satellite at all. Plus, it’s not like they have flat deals with Comcast or Armstrong: each municipality has its own separate contract. Only time will tell which route WBGN ends up going, but it’s no secret that the station has been getting stronger every year.
Joe Gerard (URL) - July 02, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I’d have to ask Eric or Jason if WPCW is available in HD on the cable systems there. Then it wouldn’t be as big of a deal since there would be some HD availability with the CW affiliate there. I was just saying that the basically CBS operated station could have been put on the air sooner with HD if they ponied up the bucks for Shop NBC affiliate WQEX. I know that WICU 12 in Erie is in HD on Time Warner Cable. (Maybe it’s a little bit of the late Jack Tirak’s spirit coming through me regarding OTA HD.)
Tom Lavery (URL) - July 02, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Joe – Just curious here but do you work for WBGN? While I always like to stand up for the little guy, I see a lot of passion regarding your passion for this subject. Just curious since I cannot view WBGN.
Tom Lavery (URL) - July 02, 2008 at 6:24 pm
No Tom, I don’t work in broadcasting at all, but I do watch it from time to time as well as a few other people I know that watch it. But I do think that WBGN does get the raw end of the deal with cable carriers having to lease space instead of trying to go to full-power and impliment “must-carry” status.
And we’re going to be getting WPCW in HD on Comcast in New Castle on July 18th as part of Comcast updating the channel lineup. They’re moving some of the basic cable channels to the digital lineup (strangely enough, TV Guide Channel is one of them, though with on-screen guides, I don’t even know why that channel is even still around), as well as adding a few HD channels. New Castle is part of the Pittsburgh DMA even though it’s considerably closer to Youngstown (which doesn’t make sense IMO, but we get stations from both anyways), so the “must-carry” rules apply in New Castle with Pittsburgh, and currently WPCW is the only Pittsburgh station we don’t get in HD—WQEX and WPCB notwithstanding, just among the major affiliates. There are a few lower-end channel spots that are going to be emptied up (TV Guide Channel is being moved from 19 to into the 200’s), combined with the fact that Cleveland’s WUAB was taken off earlier this year, so I’m speculating that they’re making room for either WYFX, WBCB, and MY-YTV (the Youngstown stations not on cable in New Castle, but they can easily be received with an antenna), or if they’re going to move RTN and both of the weather channels for WPXI and WTAE on the basic service (all three are currently on the digital tier, though in the low 100’s). I asked Comcast about it and they currently have no plans on doing either option.
Joe Gerard (URL) - July 03, 2008 at 10:07 am
I just checked the FCC “TV Query” page and this could put the full power vs. low power questions to rest. It looks like Pat has his facts straight regarding WBGN. I noticed two LD applications for WBGN-LP & a translator in New Castle. WBGN would be on channel DT 16, but they would have to wait until WQEX analog shuts down next February. The LD in New Castle is DT 17.
Tom Lavery (URL) - July 10, 2008 at 12:34 pm
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