WTRF DT 7 with the power of 3
West Virginia:Yesterday (Sunday), I was actually able to pull in WTRF DT 7 from Wheeling. (It was a tropo event not an e-skip as Scott Fybush stated in the comments section, thanks for the correction.) The long time CBS affiliate is now carrying three major networks with use of their digital sub channels. You can catch CBS HD programming on 7-1, Fox (Fox Ohio Valley) SD on 7-2 and ABC (ABC Ohio Valley) SD on 7-3. In the past, over the air viewers could get CBS on WTRF 7 and NBC on WTOV 9 but had to pull in Pittsburgh area stations for other networks. (WTOV will convert to full powered digital on June 12th.) You will need a converter box or digital TV in order to pull in the new sub channels. From what I saw, it looks like WTRF is trying to fill some network gaps that could not be filled previously. Viewers there can now even enjoy a locally based 10pm newscast on "Fox Ohio Valley."
Readers’ Forum
Actually Tom, they’ve both been on for a while now. Fox Ohio Valley was launched two years ago while ABC Ohio Valley was launched just last summer. I don’t know how you got it in, I live like an hour closer to Wheeling than you do (and I still have another two hours of driving on top of that), and I have an outdoor antenna up. I don’t have it on the roof but on the front porch. Strangely enough, my dad lives ten minutes from Downtown Wheeling in Barton, Ohio, located in a valley surrounded around hills in between Bridgeport and St. Clairsville, but can’t get WTRF in. The valley must be the reason why. The local cable company in Barton isn’t Comcast like it is in surrounding areas but the mom-and-pop operated Pohatan Pointe, which would be outdated in the 1980’s, let alone now in the digital age. He recently signed up for DirecTV and because he lives in Belmont County, OH qualified to get New York & LA locals. I don’t know why he couldn’t get Pittsburgh in (needless to say, neither DirecTV nor Dish Network carry the Wheeling/Steubenville locals), they said if he lived in Jefferson County to the north where Steubenville is in, they would’ve given him Pittsburgh locals. I don’t know why the FCC just groups Wheeling/Steubenville into the Pittsburgh market. Pittsburgh could actually use two more full-powered stations (the nine it has is considered small for a market it’s size), Steubenville is just a half hour drive away and along with neighboring Weirton is increasingly billing itself as a suburb of Pittsburgh, and there are several cities within the Pittsburgh DMA with larger populations than Steubenville (New Castle, Butler, Washington, Latrobe, etc…). Wheeling could make a case to be independent without Steubenville but it couldn’t survive with just one station (although Zanesville, Ohio has in the shadows of Columbus). I’d say have the FCC annex the entire Wheeling/Steubenville market into Pittsburgh, and in exchange give all of Monongalia County, West Virginia (including Morgantown) to the Clarksburg, WV market and all of Lawrence County except Ellwood City to Youngstown.
Joe Gerard (URL) - March 18, 2009 at 04:09 am
Joe – I was just mentioning that it was the first time I could get the digital version of WTRF. It was on an e-skip and probably something I’ll get only get once in a while. The station(s) will probably be new to those who couldn’t pull in the low powered version of digital channel 7. It will probably take some effort for your uncle to get both channel 7 and 9 once WTOV converts on June 12th. Yes, the Wheeling / Steubenville market TV wise is quite small and maybe the 3 digital stations can eventually be added to Directv and Dish Network. However, there would be no hope for HD versions of any network on either satellite service, those would have to be pulled in from Pittsburgh off air.
Tom Lavery (URL) - March 18, 2009 at 05:53 am
Well Tom I just emailed the FCC about an annexation idea. If the two markets were to theoretically merge, there would be some affiliation shake-up, and this is simply my prediction on what could happen. Cox already owns both WPXI and WTOV, but I could see it favoring WPXI and either selling off WTOV to someone like Ion (the former PAX Network) or simply run it as an independent station with a slight emphasis on Steubenville, maybe move the WPXI 10PM news from WPGH to WTOV and end the news share agreement with WPGH. Keep RTN on WTOV-DT2 but replace it on WPXI with Universal Sports.
Clearly WTRF wouldn’t stay affiliated with CBS in a market that has a CBS O&O in KDKA-TV, and with WTAE-TV being one of ABC’s strongest affiliates that network would not switch to WTRF. Fox might be a legitimate possibility, since unlike WPGH it has an established news division and a lower channel designation. I could see WPGH return to its independent roots while WTRF moves the Fox affiliation from WTRF-DT2 to its main channel and convert DT2 to a West Virginia-themed independent. DT3 would drop ABC and be converted into a weather channel, if not shut off altogether.
I still think though that Monongalia County, WV should be reallocated to the Clarksburg, WV market and all of Lawrence County, PA except for Ellwood City (which sits on the border between Lawrence and Beaver County) to Youngstown. Those both need done even if the Pittsburgh and Wheeling/Steubenville markets stay separate.
Joe Gerard (URL) - March 18, 2009 at 3:03 pm
WTOV could even become a CW affiliate if KD got their hands on it and sell off WPCW, which could go to Pax. Heck, they’d be full powered HD once April 16th comes around. Who knows, the consolidation may occur with the rocky times we are in now.
Tom Lavery (URL) - March 19, 2009 at 08:49 am
Tom, I’m quite certain you didn’t get WTRF-DT “on an e-skip.”
As any DXer will tell you, E-skip is a very specific phenomenon that is extremely rare at frequencies above broadcast FM. When it’s happening, usually in summer and usually in early morning or late afternoon, it typically brings in low-band VHF and sometimes FM signals at distances that are rarely less than 500 miles and rarely much more than 1600 miles.
E-skip intense enough to get up to high-band VHF is so exceedingly rare that DXers lucky enough to get in on an opening often remember the dates for the rest of their lives. The last opening I can recall was around 2004, and was bringing channel 7 stations from the deep south into upstate New York. (I was – grrr! – out of town and missed out on the fun!)
What you had was much more likely tropospheric ducting or tropospheric enhancement (“tropo,” for short), which does happen on high-band V and on UHF, and which can enhance reception of stations anywhere from locally out to 600 or 700 miles.
My reception of WPGH and WPXI-DT last October here in Rochester was tropo. (I got WLIO from Lima, Ohio that night, too, and barring a miracle that will probably stand as my all-time UHF analog distance record!)
Scott Fybush - March 19, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Nielsen draws up the DMA assignments, not the FCC — and I don’t see the Wheeling/Steubenville DMA being broken up without a fight. The company that owns WTRF owns 2 other CBS stations in the Mountaineer State.
Wheeling/Steubenville as a separate DMA works to the advantage of WTRF, especially during the NCAA Tournament and football season.
Charles Everett - March 19, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Being a Jefferson county resident and dish subscriber for over ten years a assure you they will not give Us Pittsburgh channels.
I’ve tired for years and have been told no many times
Jason - May 30, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Well now they are on dish SD only of course
Jason - June 03, 2010 at 11:25 pm