WJET TV to shut off April 17th
Erie-Meadville:We have an updated story regarding WJET TV 24. The station will be permanently shutting off its analog signal on Friday April 17th at 11:35pm following their newscast. Once the station is shut off, work will begin to convert the station from analog 24 to DT 24 which will take up to four days. The work will require a tower crew to remove WJET's current 3 ton analog antenna and replace it with a new 4 ton digital antenna high atop the Jet tower. The work will take both WJET TV 24 (and its low powered digital signal on DT 58) as well as WFXP's (Fox 66) digital signal on DT 22 off the air since both are on Jet's tower. From what I understand, WFXP will leave its analog signal on for over the air viewers as well as cable and Dish Network customers. Jet will be able to feed Time Warner Cable with fiber lines but will be unavailable to Dish Network and other cable companies.
Readers’ Forum
This brings up a nagging question I’ve asked in several venues, but have never had answered — is it safe to assume most (if not all) stations currently broadcasting analog will be installing permanent digital antennae atop their respective towers? If true, this would be important several reasons, primarily because each station’s signal and coverage would then be likely to IMPROVE significantly sometime after the final digital conversion. Right?
I’d think that the stations themselves would be making this more well-known to their viewers, since it would tend to reduce the fear and loathing many have expressed over the possibility of losing OTA signals. I assume the FCC’s maps of predicted coverage for each station are based on final, full-strength digital signals. If so, these maps won’t be reliable or meaningful until AFTER each digital antenna is in its final position and operating at full power!
Richard Emery - April 01, 2009 at 08:41 am
I would have to say that would be the case for most stations but not all. (I’ll focus on Erie since this is Erie related.) Only WJET, WICU and WQLN will have their digital antennas on top of their towers. WFXP has their antenna just below WJET’s antenna while WSEE’s antenna is just below the WICU antenna. Luckily, WICU will be able to use their existing antenna for digital. Higher is better in terms of antenna placement. When WQLN had its antenna problems, a temporary antenna was mounted about halfway up the tower which reduced the viewing area significantly until the permanent antenna was repaired. Some viewers will have reception problems with digital regardless of antenna since digital is not as forgiving as analog reception is. WTAE in Pittsburgh is a great example and they have applied for a low powered repeater digital signal to hopefully correct things there.
Tom Lavery (URL) - April 01, 2009 at 09:56 am
I know of only two stations in southwest Ohio who’ve made a point of informing the public of the upcoming move of a permanent digital antenna, and how this will affect (improve) signal reception. These are Cincinnati’s WCPO-9 and Dayton’s WHIO-7. Pretty much silence from, and about, all the other stations. This absence of reliable information seems awfully dumb to me — counterproductive, to say the least. Why wouldn’t every such station make every effort to tell their viewers this important detail, as part of their ongoing education programs for the upcoming final DTV conversion?
Richard Emery - April 01, 2009 at 10:40 am
There are a number of stations already operating their final facilities, or that won’t be moving to a top-mounted antenna for a long time afte the transition due to lack of available tower crews.
In Dayton, WPTD will be reusing their analog antenna, WBDT has applied to reuse their analog antenna but not received approval (so no point in publicizing it yet), and WKOI will be putting up a new antenna. The rest other than WHIO are staying put (though WKEF just applied to increase power with their current antenna).
In Cincinnati, similar story. WSTR has applied to move the antenna to the top of the tower but has not been approved, and WKRC is recycling their analog antenna. Everyone else besides WCPO is staying put.
Trip Ericson (URL) - April 01, 2009 at 11:37 am