Do TV Stations Care About Antenna Viewers?

[@AntennaMan]

📡 Do you have reception problems? Consider a custom antenna recommendation from me at the link below: 👉 www.antennamanpa.com/antenna-recommendations.html

[@robert.mmiller1463]

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[@brianpercival1829]

I will never go back to $120 a month cable bills. More and more people are ditching cable for OTA TV. Quality is excellent, If TV stations want viewers for their advertisements, put more empahsis on OTA TV as that is where the public is going. The faster people cut the cord, less cable viewers, they will add cable channels to OTA broadcsats. They have to or shut down. "Vive La Revolution".

[@generalawareness101]

Know what is happening due to that? More and more expensive Internet because they know people are streaming more for their TV not really doing the OTA as they once did.

[@BudFuddlacker]

Yeah, cut that cord and never watch the big game again. Only non-sports fans talk like you

[@qua7771]

I agree 100%. They have to get viewership somehow, and providers will have to follow market demand. Streaming should be for premium channels only. We shouldn't be paying for channels that are already monetized by commercials.

[@zandig666]

Me neither I get a ton of reliable channels being on the N side of lake Ontario

[@steveparadis2978]

Thanks to information from people like you, I have a very strong impression that cable won't last the decade. Streaming + OTA seems to fill my every need, and those of most viewers, and saves me hundreds of dollars a year. When people finally wake up, the broadcast TV stations who keep their game up will thrive.

[@scottbc31h22]

Maybe. In my area, up until recently, streaming would be nearly impossible since the only affordable option for internet was DSL. And cell service is spotty. The local cable company recently upgraded to fiber optic, so the cable company makes money even if you use the streaming services. A strange quirk with our cable TV: If you subscribe to HD and/or premium channels, you must use their convertor box. They include the local channels, but only the main program. I recently downgraded my service to basic cable with no HD. No cable box needed. Plug directly into my TV. Now, I still get the locals AND I get the second, and third, (and some fourth) sub channels, with my locals.

[@markh.3665]

@@scottbc31h22 They require you to use their box because the HD channels are likely H.264 or HEVC encoded in the digital tier of their system. The basic channels are either still analog or clear QAM modulated and allow your TV tuner to scan for them just like OTA would, but in Cable Mode. Not all TV's have clear QAM tuners, but many do. Cable are not required to carry subchannels unless that is negotiated in the retransmission contract. Many times a station will take less money per viewer in exchange for subchannels to be carried on cable along with primary network, this is a win win, as the cable company can add an SD subchannel easily, and then have less cost per subscriber in doing so.

[@aytviewer2421]

I think that the stations themselves care about their OTA customers, but the station owners likely could give a crap...

[@alvallac2171]

*couldn't

[@aytviewer2421]

@@alvallac2171 thanks!

[@dougbrowning82]

Here in Canada, most of the stations are actually owned by the cable companies. Except for Corus, which is affiliated with Shaw, and a few independents.

[@ninocervini7867]

@@dougbrowning82 Shaw owns Shaw Direct aka Star Choice a satellite tv operator. There are few independent TV stations in Canada. I live in SW Ont. so I can pick up dozens of US stations from different US cities.

[@dougbrowning82]

@@ninocervini7867 Shaw may soon be bought out by Rogers Communications. The two companies have had a non competition agreement since the 1990s. This is why Shaw's Freedom Wireless isn't offered in Manitoba, where Rogers Wireless, Fido, and Chatr are available, and Rogers does not offer TV, home phone, or internet here, while Shaw offers all those services.

[@rexhollingsworth9715]

The stations I have worked at absolutely cared about our OTA viewers. Anyone who had issues were sent to either myself or to our engineering staff (one station's requests were sent directly to our chief engineer) to assist them in getting their signal going. We still communicate OTA maintenance via crawls if possible, and I remember one engineer who would even go to elderly viewer's homes to help with signal issues on his own time. No matter the format, our viewers matter - especially on a local level.

[@MickeytheTorch]

Thank you for your caring. After watching this video, I feel better about the state of things, but there are some stations in my area where they clearly don't care.

[@jgclark45]

I contacted a TV station and told them of my problem and that I had an antenna, they replied with "it's not our problem, contact your cable provider" smh

[@brucegl4298]

@@jgclark45 Call back, and ask to speak to Engineering. SIGH I've had a few conversations with AT&T sales people at Costco or Sam's Club locations when they ask me who is my TV provider. I answer "God," mention that I have an outdoor antenna, and pick up 100+ channels OTA here in Atlanta. They always state "that's great" and I get on with my shopping.

[@randyhome1544]

They don’t care about the commercials. Way too many. I realize they are for profit, but come on.

[@Channel4029]

Absolutely.. If a viewer kept on having issues, we would always go to their house in an attempt to solve it.

[@brianandrews7099]

I am so very tired of huge corporations buying out everything local, sending the cost to consumers through the roof, and not caring about their customers as all. I no longer put up with it for anything discretionary. If the price is too high, the service sucks, and I don’t have to have it, it’s gone and I really never miss it. So far, cable tv, magazine subscriptions, and hard line phone service are history. If solar panels ever get really affordable and dependable, the power company will be next!

[@chrisgraham2904]

When my mother passed a few years ago, we found all her old cable bills back to her first subscription in 1975. The house was in need of a new antenna, which was going to cost about $150 to replace at that time. Instead, parents "bit the bullet" and subscribed to cable for $2.28 per month. LOL

[@Barnabas45]

When cable first came to my town in 1980 it was $8.99 a month which included all the premium movie channels.

[@howardkerr8174]

I got DISH for my parents when my Mom complained about the cable service. It turns out that my sisters who lived in the same town had cable, and thought the service was better. I got mad at DISH when my folks moved and they moved the service but then after the move contacted me for permission to resume the service. I felt that was backwards, but my parents continued with DISH on their own. Reception where I live is very iffy, thanks to being in a fringe area, 60 miles from major cities. Even being 25-30 miles from a smallish city, I don't receive the network affiliate from that direction with my small antenna.

[@lb3406]

Yes I got disgusted with dish and sky angel. I was supposed to have a lifetime service when I paid the price. But sky angel discontinued their service and went online and left their customers in the cold. You reap what you sow. Sky angel is no longer. A was was . I will never have a box or device in my living room. Over the air is the only way I will view TV. Tv is supposed to be free.the comercials are long regardless if on cable or over the air. Then the cable companies are multi billionaires.

[@lb3406]

Cable when it first started was 5 to 8 dollars a month you got local tv without ghost and you got FM radio as well. You should be able to pay for the channels you want and leave the trash with the cable company. TVs have all the capabilities you should not need a box. Cable tv is outdated technology. People need to wise up to their schemes.

[@Barnabas45]

When cable first came to my area in 1980 it was $8.99 a month and that included premium channels!

[@Shootingstarcomics]

I was having trouble with one of my stations after the repack and called the engineer like you suggested in your videos. I don’t know if the station cares but that man sure does. He talked to me for a long time about antenna tv and how excited he is about 3.0 and some other things. He promised to call me anytime there is a change I’d be interested in.

[@CommodoreGreg]

That's awesome!

[@reddykilowatt]

you used have skillz just to watch tv. tuning in uhf channels, horizontal, vertical, hue, tint, brightness, contrast, snow, test patterns, color bars, whacking the side just right. those were the days!

[@YY4Me133]

😊

[@efandmk3382]

Now you turn it on and it has a perfect picture already. I'm not complaining.

[@reddykilowatt]

@@efandmk3382 where’s the fun in that? 😄

[@JustJaidenism]

@@reddykilowatt The Fun Is In Digital DXing.

[@markh.3665]

Wait till Nextgen or ATSC 3.0 is everywhere, many more channels, better encoding.. ability for moving/mobile reception and HEVC codecs..

[@MrMynameisjonaz]

This is such a weird niche channel. I love it!

[@AntennaMan]

Thanks for supporting it by watching my videos!

[@dampergoldenrod4156]

What is weird and Niche are the satellite radio channels and TV channels that don't have anything that anyone wants to watch or listen to

[@mrchopsticks3]

What's weird about it?

[@dampergoldenrod4156]

@ethan midwelltraditional pay-tv has lost about 30 to 40 million subscribers in the last seven or eight years

[@KieraCameron514]

@@dampergoldenrod4156 Retransmission fees prop up broadcast TV. Overall, cable content is much better than broadcast content. Broadcast channels get money from advertising to folks who receive their signal over the air and retransmission fees. The national channels only get money from cable fees. Yet, overall cable quality is better.

[@powerfantastic01]

I really miss the local independent channels... Those from my childhood are gone such as channel 5 KPHO in Phoenix which was independent until the 90s. Their local productions really made you feel connected unlike major network TV.

[@paulbrower4265]

You get that sort of programming on sub-channels that are effectively broadcasters of reruns that were the fare of independent channels. You surely don't care how you receive them, except that you want them cheaply. If you have more money, you aren't watching much broadcast TV unless you are severely handicapped mentally or physically. With fifty years of TV reruns available, you could get as many as fifteen channels dedicated to reruns (one per main network per decade) before you start looking at FoX, UPN, and CW reruns. Then there are cable-TV and PBS reruns. Then of course... feature films. Broadcasters should recognize that they have a gold-mine for selling ad time. The local independent stations did have low-end advertising (like tote-the-note used car dealerships and rent-to-own emporia), but those independent stations could sell used cars, schlock furniture, and overpriced electronics.

[@nathanlewis5682]

I miss the old days of KTLA 5

[@Shootingstarcomics]

I miss that too. One of our local stations had a show called PM Magazine that came on every night and they’d talk about people and places I knew. Our local news broadcast will sometimes do a five minute segment like that but they go all over the state so it’s not as local. My favorite was the vhf channels that would have local kids on their hosted cartoon shows or Action Theater on weekends and you could call them up and win prizes and stuff.

[@paulbrower4265]

One thing that I remember fondly from the early days of TV from the 1960's was the "clubhouse" programming in the late afternoon in which some local figure (let's say "Captain Carl", "Ranger Rick", "Sailor Sam", "Fisherman Frank"... probably the best-known of the lot is "Sally Star" of Greater Philadelphia who did a little introduction, called attention to someone having a birthday party, and introduced some cartoons... such took little talent, but I could imagine myself having a party atmosphere. Maybe you get to introduce some sports star or entertainer stopping by. That went away in favor first of Mike Douglas (OK, he was good, and I could see some similarities in that the entertainment was more directed at adults -- no cartoons, of course) but, later the tackier sort of talk shows. OK, I miss Phil Donohue, but the sooner that Maury Povich and Jerry Springer retire, the better. One thing that I have noticed missing from the sub-channels is child-friendly programming directed at children. Come on, now... Disney and Warner have plenty of child-friendly cartoons that could be offered as classics for such clubhouse programming. Were I to do this I might take some of the format from, let's say, Johnny Carson.

[@The_slowest_buuurn]

@@nathanlewis5682 Yeah! Remember the Family Film Festival?

[@anthonynelson9136]

I noticed that when watching reruns of older shows on antenna TV that they cut out part of the program so they can fit in more commercials and infomercials. They will also cut out the opening and closing credits.

[@will89687]

The commercial hole keeps growing. A number of cable channels and netlets use time compression too. Notice that opening and closing credits (at least as we understood them during the Golden Age of Television) are largely a thing of the past.

[@danbasta3677]

Noticed that to.

[@dougbrowning82]

Another thing they do when the closing credits are on, is they will shrink the picture to a postage stamp and put other content all around it. It looks like you're watching a KZbin channel, not a TV channel. And there will also be an announcer doing a voice over on the end theme. The original show's content gets lost in the mix.

[@mrchopsticks3]

All syndication does that. There are even videos where you can watch the original program next to the syndication program so you can see where the cuts are.

[@dampergoldenrod4156]

@@dougbrowning82 you should subscribe to TitanTV you can customize the TV listings and look at the name of the episode of the show you're watching and then find all the credits on Wikipedia or IMDb

[@AmitSingh-zn1kz]

Thank you Antennaman, for educating us on these matters, obscure but affecting everyday life. It seems you are well-located in a hilly area where you can draw inferences on the RF power and the pressures of a large metropolitan (Philadelphia) market.

[@2utoday]

Back in the day, the cost of cable TV in Texas where I live was about $20 a month for all the cable channels except the premium channels of Showtime and HBO. That price even included taxes & fees. I was getting close to 100 channels for that $20. The days of those low cable prices are gone with the wind.

[@monkeywkeys3916]

I recall aprox $50 six month intros in 2010.

[@realSamAndrew]

Even Gone With The Wind is gone with the wind.

[@generalawareness101]

@@realSamAndrew Irony is so ironic. :/

[@realSamAndrew]

@@generalawareness101 I know, right?

[@quocdang196]

I used to pay $35 till they got greedy, raise the price slowlyat the same time taking channels away. When it reached $50 I had enough and cancel right before they started to charge for the basic cable box and with a toc that read, even without the cable box, you will be changed for line maintenance fees which was more than the box at the time. Now for me it's a hit and miss for good signal so in my area/state I don't think they care. The government had to step in and tell broadcast station they must provide otc otherwise people will just turn their tv off and not be alerted of any disaster . So our otc is limited at best Edit:. I forgot to mention that the cable company in my state push the issue to have otc ban when the digital switch was taken place.

[@Emacee1701]

It's the FCC that doesn't care about antenna viewers. They first said they were going to get all TV stations off VHF. Apparently, nobody else wanted VHF, so they put kept channels there so cell phone companies could use UHF. That ruined things for people who had gotten UHF antennas. Then the they cluttered up the band with infomercial, shopping and religious channels and forced channels people actually watch to operate at lower power. More reception problems. And the FCC is who allowed stations to charge cable viewers for so-called "free TV." FCC commissioners and senior staff have been on the take since the 1930s.

[@Chordonblue]

Here is the deal, as I see it. There is really no incentive for local stations, owned by corporate conglomerates, to provide good over the air service. There is incentive, however, to get more people to pick up the signal through cable or satellite providers. As with everything else in life, follow the money and that is generally the answer.

[@MichelleBradley]

Some random thoughts here: (1) In order for a TV station to remain on a cable system, they must either put an acceptable signal in at the cable headend or in the alternate, they must use alternate delivery such as microwave or high speed data link. Cable companies can request that stations that are unable to put a particular station in an area to drop that station from their market, especially if the station declared themselves as "must carry" and is not receiving the retransmission consent fees (the "Broadcast Fee" on the cable bill). (2) We are starting to see a small exodus of VHF low and high stations filing petitions for rulemaking with the FCC to move to UHF. On Channel 6 alone, WRGB in Schenectady NY and the Channel 6 station in Montana have requested a UHF channel instead. The main reason they give is reception problems and the lack of penetration of low band OTA antennas. (3) Early on, some were saying that VHF low and high will be "better" for ATSC3. A part of me thinks that this is the reason why stations are moving off of VHF, so they can put their ATSC3 companion channels down there. The other part of me disagrees with the VHF ATSC3 theory, especially with the many new mobile, portable and internet applications that would be possible with ATSC3. I do personally think that ATSC3 will work better on UHF. (4) We do not use the term "repeater" in the industry. The appropriate word is "translator". Some stations still operate translators which were holdovers from the analog days. Normally, for those types of translators, they can only be filed for during a filing window. There is a new breed of translator called the Digital Replacement Translator (DRT). The DRT is pretty much the digital TV version of the TV Booster. TV Boosters (like FM Boosters) operate on the same channel as the primary station and are engineered to provide a "fill in" service within the primary station's contour. DRTs mostly operate on the same channels, but can go outside of the station's original analog contours with restrictions. Like FM boosters, DRT facilities can be applied for by TV licensees without waiting for a filing window. Japan, the European Broadcast Area and many other nations around the world abandoned VHF television altogether with the conversion to DTV. Of course, in those countries, the regulatory structures are different and there are fewer over the air stations and stations are more likely to share facilities to create a "mux" where all of the stations that serve a particular area broadcast from the same site and with similar power levels. On a channel 6 side note, we are waiting to see what the outcome of an FCC proceeding (MB Docket 03-185) will be where it comes to the FM6 (or so called "franken FM") low power TV stations. The FM6 industry wants to run a hybrid signal that will include a usable digital TV signal of a reduced bandwidth and then insert an analog audio carrier at around 87.7 MHz. Currently, the FCC has ordered all analog low power TV to stop in July, but with this proceeding, we will see if the FM6 stations will get some kind of special rights. Here on the Delmarva Peninsula, our local FM6/Franken-FM has already filed to move to UHF because of the recent changes at WPVI and the fact that the FM6 station can't run a viable digital signal on Channel 6 and co-exist with the mighty PVI. The presence of Channel 6 full-service TV stations impact the ability for some FM broadcast stations to operate on the 88.1~91.9 band because of a federal regulation that was never changed after the conversion to digital (in other words, based on analog theory). The presence of low power TV (including FM6/frankies) do not impact full-service FM stations, but they do impact low power FM (LPFM) broadcast stations and FM translators operating on 88.1~91.9.

[@danielparrish5438]

i was paying $18 a month rebroadcast fee when I cancel cable .... with the money I saved I subscribed to Philo for $20 a month and watch my local channels with my rooftop antenna

[@XMguy]

I’ve been trying to find a service to get just the news channels.

[@Mike-Minion]

@@XMguy check to see if Locast is in your area. very good and cheap.

[@XMguy]

@@Mike-Minion it isn’t

[@kenrickkahn]

I do the same.. Philo TV and Antenna TV is a great combo.. can't complain about it at all..

[@Meatcity-sf8fm]

But it’s free we’re I live.

[@dougn2350]

I recently moved to a new home in the suburbs of St Louis. When looking at potential homes a very important factor was the lot elevation. And that was for two reasons. Lower elevation homes in my area are prone to basement flooding ...and poor OTA tv reception. I chose a great home thats on one the highest lots in my subdivision. I purchased a channel master 35 flatenna for $20 (recommended by Antenna Man) and put it in the attic. I get excellent OTA reception on all 48 channels. Plus the view from my upstairs bedrooms is awesome. I can see for miles.

[@Craig1967]

Thank you once again for a great video. You spoke about the fees TV stations get from rebroadcasting rights, and I never knew that it was so much money! A thought occurred to me - since some stations could care less about over the air TV since that is only 20% of viewers, the advertisers will. Especially the small local businesses. Just a thought. Its all about the money for most of them, and the only exceptions are the engineers that want to do a good job - and most do, but their hands are tied.

[@AntennaMan]

I think TV stations are underestimating the number of over the air viewers in a given market.

[@RarestAce]

@@AntennaMan I fully agree with that. I put up my antenna in Oct 2017 and alot of my neighbors have asked me about it and shortly followed suit. I've also recommended each one of them to view your channel and get a recommendation as well.

[@christopherstuart9190]

@@AntennaMan Do you think RADIO stations care about antenna LISTENERS in this day and age?

[@stuartstuart866]

I personally received a response from two local (Las Vegas) OTA TV stations regarding reception issues. I’m sure there is money to be made from commercials as well as rebroadcast contracts. If the TV market is too small, maybe it’s not worth their time and effort to service those communities

[@qua7771]

My thinking is that the more people that cut the cord, the more OTA broadcasters will have to provide.

[@villumschroeder1255]

The engineers and technicians at the Stations themselves do. The corporations and owners don't.

[@AntennaMan]

That's probably true for some stations but not all of them. Otherwise Comcast owned NBC stations wouldn't have improved their OTA signal after the repack.

[@cpufreak101]

@@AntennaMan another reply mentioned possibility of the FCC stepping in to push such a move to ensure emergency message broadcasting capabilities, is this a possibility?

[@johnrencheck2283]

Kdka out of Pittsburgh just replaced their antanna and was low powered for a day or so now back to 100%

[@pipewrenchlynch937]

Good to find your U tube . As someone who grew up with zero access to Cable thank you for the OTA information .

[@Yoyo81828]

It's cool to see you included WVIR NBC29. I grew up in Charlottesville and lived there from 1997 until 2016. I remember watching NBC 29 via antenna before the switch over to digital. Next time I'm at Carter's mountain apple orchard, I'll keep an eye out for the transmitter.

[@vandwellerhobojoekel5864]

WTXL TV 27 Tallahassee had some tower damage during the first part of 2021 due to storm damage, they was very good at letting their viewers know during all of the repair process and was extremely apologetic about the problems and inconveniences associated with the tower transmissions. Kudos to ABC ch.27 wtxl Tallahassee FL.

[@patrickmartin4996]

Nexstar has KOIN CBS Portland, and they have several translators all over Oregon including here. Nexstar does a good job on taking care of us.

[@AntennaMan]

Nexstar just bought KOIN a few years ago. It took them about a decade to screw up the TV stations in my area.

[@patrickmartin4996]

@@AntennaMan Nexstar and all of the others have a lot of pressure to keep the translators going as they all work together. So we shall see how it goes. I hope they still keep going. I do think in the future most TV stations will be able to be streamed. So the need for a translator may be moot.

[@Snowboi1963]

@@AntennaMan I live in the Fresno, CA market and i cant pick up my NBC, CBS, and CW stations despite being 10 miles from the broadcast towers. Yes i use a small indoor "HD" antenna but can i get some answers. Extra Info: NBC is on UHF channel 24 CBS is on UHF channel 47 CW is on UHF channel 59

[@wildman1111]

Awesome channel! i have internet TV but i still use my antenna channels a lot. Thanks for the tips.

[@zoppie]

I recall there was (maybe still is) an AM station in eastern PA whose broadcast schedule was 24 hours of old-time radio shows. I could never pick them up because their transmitter power was absurdly low. This was because to the ownership being able to transmit OTA was just a formality. They knew that they reached their biggest audience simulcasting online.

[@nortondumont9711]

Do you recall their call letters?

[@lightweight1974]

@@nortondumont9711 WFRAUD

[@zoppie]

@@nortondumont9711 No, sorry, it's been too long.

[@peacearchwa5103]

There are a couple of useful indoor AM antennas which I've used. The Terk Indoor AM Advantage antenna and a Radio Shack clone of same. These are non-powered antennas with a very powerful circular pattern. You would tune in the antenna to the frequency which you want to play, and you can fiddle with the fine-tune control until you've locked in the strongest signal. Having said that, AM reception has been increasingly ruined by wi-fi, LCD lightbulbs and other household electronics which create serious household reception interference which didn't exist 30 years ago.

[@RussellBeattie]

My understanding is that MVPD and vMVPD subscriber numbers are both dropping like crazy as cord-cutting becomes more popular and "subscription fatigue" sets in. The retransmission fees, as a result, are plummeting as well. Broadcasters saw this a while ago and are adjusting accordingly. They may have at one time had little interest in decent OTA broadcasts, but that's all changed. This is the reason they're all aggressively adopting ATSC 3.0. Even though it's a costly, voluntary upgrade, the value of addressable advertising is going to bump up their revenues and hopefully offset the loss of fees.

[@monkeywkeys3916]

Yep, every service wants mindless auto-pay access to your financial account. Sirius XM wants to pull $6 a month out of my account? When they refused a yearly payment. I just went and loaded a prepaid card equaling about a year of payments. Cost me $5.95 but it's totally worth it. I don't want people in my account. Because the more I give the number out the higher the probability of fraud. Think they G-A-S? Nope!

[@paxhumana2015]

@@monkeywkeys3916 , they will when a few of their highest-ranking executives get a few...accidents to happen to them.

[@jtradio5817]

Here in my market in Tampa, Florida, pretty much all the stations actually do care about their over the air viewers except for the local PBS affiliate, which is WEDU. I mean the station has such a. Piss poor signal, that my TV literally just ignores them. You mentioned next-door a little bit ago in your video. Next-door actually does care about the over the air if he was here in Tampa, because before they moved to their new channel frequency, I had a heck of a hard time picking them up. But since the move, it’s about 100 times easier for me to get a signal of not just the NBC affiliate that they own, but also for picking up the my network affiliate that they own as well. but if you want a station, that truly cares, let’s give a mad shout out to Dave Lawrence. Dave is the creative services and chief engineer Director over at WMOR, which is my local independent station. Dave told me that the station when it was supposed to move to its new frequency ended up, moving to such a great frequency, that the station actually penetrated parts of the area that it just couldn’t reach before. My aunt in Lakeland Florida, can get them with ease. Now let’s move onto WTOG this soon to be independent station, or shall I say secondary independent station in my market, currently affiliated with the CW. This is one of those stations that is supposed to be dropping the Nettwerk, because nextar wants to put the CW programming on one of their stations, which they plan to do in September. I want to give a big shout out to Tim Stevens, chief engineer of WTOG. I was having issues picking up the CW programming, and Tim actually made sure that they had a message not just on screen, but also a station promo that said for those of you that have trouble picking up the CW 44 over the air, we are planning to increase power, and maybe even move to another frequency within the coming weeks. This was last year. Well, the changeover did take place successfully, and now I can pick up not just channel 40 for the CW, but also all six of their sub channels. You heard me, six. Now there is one other station that I don’t think he really cares about their over the air viewers, and it’s my local ion affiliate, WXPX, channel 66. Their signal is so bad, that if I want to watch anything like Scripps news, or laugh, I’m pretty much out of luck. I did try contacting channel 66 about their signal problems, but there’s really no one to talk to. They just route me to the corporate office. It’s as if they don’t care to speak with me. Now for this comment, I’ve saved the best for last. In Tenna man, you talk about a trash signal, here, I’ll give you a trash signal. It’s WTSP, channel 10, my local, CBS affiliate. I don’t care what antenna I get, I cannot pick them up. I must’ve gone through three, or four different antenna models just to see if I can pick up this channel, And I’ve contacted the engineer, and he suggested I buy some rabbit ears for $11 on Amazon. Which I did. But still, signal problems still persist. It’s almost like they don’t even care, it’s almost like they’re happy with their trash signal, and they don’t care who can pick it up or not. Unfortunately, or should I say fortunately, I found a few work around that will get me most of the CBS programming. I enjoy that channel 10 years. I like wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy, which just happened here on my CBS station, luckily, Pluto TV has channels for both of those shows, including Dr. Phil, and to price is right channels. I know this comment was kind of a drag on, but I wanted to share with you some stations in my area. A lot of them do care about their over the air viewers, but then you have when I called the chosen few that don’t. And there’s really no incentive for them to fix their programming, or their signal, so I don’t watch them. If I want to watch local news in my market, I just watch the competition.

[@mscir]

Cool seeing behind the scenes, great research, thank you.

[@JxT1957]

i live in a big city and now get 60 free channels with crystal clear reception just using set of rabbit ears, my tv already has a built in atsc tuner. what a huge difference from the old days when i was only getting 3 channels. i gave up cable in 2013 and dont miss it a bit.

[@georgelaroche7955]

Again Tyler, another excellent Report! I want you in congress. You are my hero. Love ya!

[@jeaninebunt9739]

My local phone company droped the local cable. Due to this we no longer have cable TV in my town.

[@johnmoyer2849]

Install an outdoor tv antenna.My location zI get over 30 channels

[@dampergoldenrod4156]

- they make more money selling internet service than pay TV because the pay TV channels want too much money from the cable companies and hardly anyone is watching those channels

[@daveshep]

I’m in Vienna, Virginia, 15 miles west of Washington, DC. I have a Channel Master Stealthtenna on my roof, with a Channel Master amplifier. I get almost all of the local stations great over the air. This includes Maryland Public TV in Annapolis, about 50 miles away. But the ABC affiliate in DC, WJLA, is barely reliable and often unwatchable. I have no idea why; it doesn’t seem to have to do with weather. If they’re making it hard for me to watch so that I switch back to cable, then they’re barking up the wrong tree. As you mentioned, Tyler, I just turn off the TV or switch to another channel. I’m done with cable forever! The stations I do receive come in great-and they are FREE!

[@randywheeler1436]

In Central MO KOMU, the NBC and CW affiliate, and KRCG, the CBS station has just received FCC approval to move from VHF to UHF to improve reception in the market.

[@earlfleer2723]

KOMU is also building a new tower. Both stations are also getting ERP increase.

[@generalawareness101]

VHF to UHF means worse reception and the ERP increase is needed to even come close to the footprint they had on VHF.

[@Peersoncasteell]

Wish that KOLR10 would change frequencies along with increased power on KRFTld down here in Southwest Missouri

[@ChristiRich]

Your knowledge has opened my eyes and helped me immensely. Thanks for your help in my better reception!

[@philipferguson814]

WFAA in Dallas is similar. Their 8.1 - 8.4 stations rarely come in. Yet, their 8.8 is crystal clear. Must have something to do with how they broadcast here.

[@2222villawood]

Dallas channel 8 WFAA ABC is VHF.

[@1L6E6VHF]

WFAA is still on a VHF channel, virtual and RF channel 8. 8.8 is on a UHF transmitter, KMPX Decatur, RF Channel 30, and over 1700' up In the air. In other words, 8.8 has almost as much coverage as is legally possible. Only a handful in the whole country have more coverage.

[@jeffd7557]

Great channel .... Great content ..... Very informative ..... Thanks as always Tyler ..... 👍👍👍

[@AntennaMan]

Thanks for watching!

[@John_Schulz]

Excellent Presentation. I learned much. Thank You Kindly.

[@jfwfreo]

I would love to know the history of exactly how this whole "retransmission fee" thing happened and why the cable companies (who presumably wouldn't be happy having to pay to broadcast these over-the-air channels) didn't lobby hard against such things (or if they did what exactly happened)

[@dampergoldenrod4156]

1996 Telecommunications Act

[@HankGrill]

Cable/Sat/streaming have to pay bc they are reselling local OTA station's air product they get for FREE. Its only fair.

[@chakawoowoo]

We're screwed in Alabama since all these changes began taking place. I don't get even half the channels I used to on the same antenna and regularly rescaning to keep up with the repack as it unfolded. Lost every nexstar station which in this area is the main CBS network station and CW station and all the sub channels associated with them which absolutely sucks as those networks have the majority of my favorite programming!!!!

[@Wardell43]

In my area, they seem to be expanding service, For example the local NBC affiliate went from 6.1-6.3 to 6.1-6.6 Others are shifting and growing too. Now, we live in the Hurricane zone and cable is just another thing to lose, but with a generator, tv and antenna, we get back to civilization much quicker. Cable Modems and all rely on power and when the power is gone, you lose your house phone of 35 years and your internet/wifi. So that is when you need a cell phone and an antenna. In recent storms we would also lose cell phone service. Probably over loaded or down for repairs.

[@brucegl4298]

Adding 6.4-6.6 is not expanding OTA for OTA. It means that cable/satellite/streaming providers will have to carry those channels too and pay retrans fees on three additional channels.

[@warrenduree9417]

@@brucegl4298 exactly. And adding more subchannels on the same carrier frequency doesn't really "expand" anything. Usually in most cases the extra subchannels are crap content anyway and only degrade the quality of the main .1 channel. You only have so much data that can be transmitted within the channel's bandwidth, so for every crap content X.6 or X.7 subchannel that gets added, it takes bandwidth and, therefore picture quality, away from the mainstream network content on the X.1 main channel.

[@jeffmcdonald730]

I worked in TV ops and was there for the analog-digital changeover. We absolutely cared about our viewers. Time Warner Cable issued these garbage Motorola set-top boxes that swallowed closed captions and I took some viewer calls on the subject. What was absolutely incredible was how some viewers would not believe that the cable, that they were paying money for to get a better signal, was stomping on our signal and screwing it up. I invited said disgruntled viewers (they liked Perry Mason on MeTV) down to our master control to show them our various, correctly captured streams. Time Warner literally took our signal, sent it via fiber optic to Buffalo NY and back again, with the closed captions as a separate data stream that the STBs would not reassemble correctly. What a nightmare! Good luck getting a TWC engineer to cop to the problem-- they'd have to recall all those non-compliant boxes. It was so much easier when everything was NTSC SD with Line 21 CC.

[@andrew8293]

I didn't know you did a WPVI survey. In my expreince I do not have severe problems with the signal but its kinda unreliable. I can recieve it with 57% signal strength on both my modified indoor antenna (with a cheap amplifer from SatMaximum) and my attic antenna which is the one outdoor one you tell people not to buy xD. But yeah, WPVI is generally unreliable even for me who lives around 25 miles from the broadcast tower.

[@MickeytheTorch]

I moved from Philly to Northern Delaware and have a roof antenna Ralph Kramden would be proud of (with pre-amp). Channels 6, 2 (Me-tv) and 12 (WHYY) sold us out. 6 and 12 I don't miss at all, but I wish all the stations on 2 would reconsider. Some of them seem to be moving to higher frequencies, I'm hoping for the best. This makes me so angry, but I am glad to hear that most stations/companies are doing the right thing.

[@robh.5658]

I enjoy these videos. Hopefully they improve their signals though, so everyone can pick up on them better. It'd be nice for all of those Long Range Outdoor TV Antennas to work better too.

[@davidlayne4147]

I live in Bedford, Virginia which is east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, specifically The Peaks Of Otter. During the days of analog TV, it was quite easy to access channels in the Roanoke Valley, the CBS, NBC and PBS affiliates for my area. And depending on your elevation within the county, you could pick up stations from as far away as Charlottesville and down to Charlotte, NC. But when t he digital transition took place it became impossible to reach any of the Roanoke Valley stations due to mountain interference. You could still pick up the ABC and Fox stations due to their transmitters being on Thaxton Mountain, which runs north of the county and in between the transmitters for CBS, NBC and PBS. I bought one of those expensive 150 mile antennas, hoping that my reception would improve. Sadly, after months of waiting on a customers clearance from China, I got the antenna to no avail. My reception did not improve. The antenna company suggested that it was due to mountains in the area. I did buy another antenna later on which on a clear, warm spring or summer day I can pick up stations from Richmond or from Charlotte in the early morning hours. I live in an apartment which is wired for cable, and I can't hang my antenna high enough to make any difference. To resolve this, I subscribed to Playstation Vue. Even then I could only get ABC or Fox. The streaming service did not add NBC or CBS until months before Playstation dropped their streaming service. I now subscribe to KZbin TV, and I can pick up all of the local channels for my area.

[@rexhollingsworth9715]

I saw one market that had their PBS station cannibalized for its license, since it had a weird grandfathered license that allowed for commercial broadcast. That one was a double whammy, since not only did the PBS station go dark, but so did the tower/the college's TV broadcast program. The local college couldn't afford the tower repairs and upgrades needed, and it was the last PBS station in market, so a sad loss on that day. The buyer used the license to spin up a bunch of syndication channels instead. Definitely not serving the public trust on that one...

[@gregsells8549]

Could it be KNCT in Killeen/Waco?

[@TSGEnt]

OTA is very important to a station. The number of eyes on advertising ensures top dollar for ad space and OTA is valuable to them for reaching people unable to have/refuse to have cable service. I won't double pay for something I can get OTA for free. Cable viewers pay for the cable "service" then get hit with a local station fee just for the privilege to use the cable service for local TV. That is a great recurring revenue for the station and network as a whole. Lastly, OTA still costs the viewer money thru the purchase of advertised goods on those stations. Dog food for example has a bit of a premium because of the ad dollar associated with it. So I believe stations do care because revenue is revenue and they will want all they can get. Just my 2 cents.

[@leegraves101]

I’ve had trouble with my local station reception, but pick up stations 60 miles away with no problem. I put a signal booster on my antenna and it helps a lot. I still have trouble with one local station fading out occasionally but I’ll live with it.

[@steveparadis2978]

Signal booster AND FM filter work well for me. Do you have one?

[@leegraves101]

@@steveparadis2978 I use a Teveles preamp with fm filter combined. It really helps picture quality

[@oldroscoe2590]

I had one channel that was dropping signal. I e-mailed the station wondering if the problem might be at their end? I got a reply the next day from the chief engineer ! They were not having any problems, were broadcasting at 100% and had checked the signal around the state. So I've been working on my end and have the signal up to "good enough" for now, some new F connectors and adjusting the amplifier has made the channel watchable again. My experience with the TV station have been very positive. The engineer even indicated he was willing to come have a look at my situation (150 mile round trip) to determine possible causes of interference. No need for that, I know I'm in a bad location due to trees and high lines and distance.

[@rookmaster7502]

I live in Philadelphia and over the past few years I've been unable to get acceptable reception for channel 6-ABC either, no matter how much I adjust my antenna! Good to finally understand why this is so. 6-ABC used to be one of the strongest signals in the city.

[@writerpatrick]

I noticed an improvement in Toronto broadcast after the repack, but that might be because they tend to broadcast from the CN Tower and there might have been an upgrade in the equipment.

[@chrisgraham2904]

We're lucky in Toronto and surrounding area. You should get a minimum of 27 clear stations off the CN Tower.

[@nathanlewis5682]

It's sort of same north of San Francisco. Mount Tamalpais blocked most of the signals from sutro tower. I did get KRON 4 but the others no dice.

[@rockoorbe2002]

Same in El Paso TX. As the name in Spanish implies, we're in a valley that's basically a pass between two mountain ranges, one in the US, one in Mexico. And because in both ranges there's transmission antennas on top of the mountains we get almost 60+ OTA channels, not to mention very clear FM and AM stations from both sides of the border.

[@diycarhome9151]

Where are you roughly. Western New York. Yes the UHF stations from Jan. 2020 to June 2020 where low power to do the Repack. City TV 57.1 (RF44) moved to (RF18) and four other stations did move in the 14 to 36 area. Everything is now done all the moves. I'm in Brantford, Ont. 50 miles SW of the CN Tower Toronto, Ontario.

[@diycarhome9151]

Chris Graham Untrue! Toronto only has 8 OTA channels max. 5.1 CBC 9.1 CTV 19.1 TV Ontario 25.1 CBC - French Radio Canada 40.1 Omni 2 Multicultural 41.1 Global TV 47.1 Omni 1 57.1 City TV I counted 8 channels! Where did you get 26 channels off the CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario Just want to mention for US readers. Toronto does not Multicast on none of those 8 channels. Stations are owned by cable and satellite company's that want you to buy there services. Frankly the CRTC up here is screwed up. Cable and Satellite owners should not be operating OTA stations. Hamilton, Ontario produces another 3 channels. 11.1 CHCH Independent 14.1 Yes TV Religious 35.1 CTV2 Barrie, Ont. Repeater

[@velcroman98]

The local OTA signals carry a different blend of local commercials that are stripped out by cable & satellite so they can sell their own.

[@johnhulse4674]

It's nice to hear Tyler say that the stations do actually care about us. Sometimes I wonder.

[@justusk18s]

I live in Germany. Over here, we have the „Öffentlich-Rechtlichen“ which are the public TV Stations. If you have a TV, you have to pay the „Rundfunkgebühr“ which is a fee for the public tv and radio. It’s 55€ per year, which is about 60$. You can get them OTA or over SAT or via Cable. All of them, except cable are totally free with the public stations. For the private ones, you don’t have to pay in SD but for HD you have to pay about 79€ a year, which is about 90$ for some sort of Card, which you put in each TV and the signal gets encrypted. Im always interested to see, how other countries get their TV services and the US is one of the most expensive ones I’ve ever seen… Oh and most of the People (90%isch) are watching TV over Satellite. We even have dishes on our Caravans.

[@garyb5796]

ABC7 LA is the same way. I get 40% to 50% signal unless it's something special then they bump it up to 70 - 80%. I think it's because they tell the advertisers if you want your commercial to get to more viewers will bump up the signal but it'll cost ya. That's what I think. NBC4 and FOX11 come in strong all the time. I'm using one of those cheap $30.00 motorized antenna mounted to a tripod sitting on my bed in my room with the TV stations being about 30 miles away through hill lands of Los Angeles Calif. I watch your videos all the time Antenna Man Good Show Everytime!

[@villumschroeder1255]

I get KTTV Fox 11, KDOC 56 (which rebroadcasts the local abc7 nightly newscasts) and KCOP 13 myTv all somewhat reliably in Coronado, 117 miles away, with my Stellar Labs 30-2476 VHF antenna. Coming in perfect right now, and it's chilly and overcast out! Haven't been able to get KABC or KCAL at all... (KNBC 4 is RF channel 36).

[@garyb5796]

@@villumschroeder1255 I can get 56 also but I have to change the ant. direction to the north instead of pointing west for ABC. I'm in the valley. Can you get KTLA 5.1 if you can check out 5.4 TBD, Excellent Station!!

[@villumschroeder1255]

@@garyb5796 Yes I can get KTLA (Love watching live police and chopper pursuits) but not with this Stellar Labs VHF unit. At UHF channel 35 that was the easiest one to pull in with my old combo antenna. I just ordered a Televes DATBoss LR UHF Antenna149783. I am hoping to get KNBC 4 and KCBS 2 also, but not going to hold my breath...Probably need some good Tropospheric ducting for that... Interesting you have to change the direction for channel 56. For me they all come from the same heading on Mount Wilson. KTLA has the strongest signal but not by much!

[@jmal]

That's weird, I get ABC7 just fine with little to no signal loss, while I get occasional reception problems with FOX11, and I live ~10 miles away from Mt. Wilson.

[@villumschroeder1255]

@@jmal That is weird. I wonder why.

[@DanDDirges]

This explains why we can get crystal clear radio stations which have a very small radio antenna and many local over the air TV stations have lousy reception.

[@hdtvkeith1604]

I moved into my house in 1992 and cable signal was crap. I put a large VHF/UHF Radio Shack 120 mile antenna in my attic with an amplifier since there were many hills and tress in my LOS. It has worked flawlessly for year, then I went satellite. Almost 2 years ago we cut the cord and do Sling and then got a HDHomeRun device and Channels DVR software and only watch local stations via antenna. PQ is great becasue the cable/sat companies down-rez the signal. Now I get perfect 720/1080 PQ. Looking forward to ATSC 3 and 4K PQ.

[@craigosterberg5045]

Good information. Keep up the great job.

[@jacksonfl]

You do a great job and public service. Thanks for doing this.

[@JackT_Music_on_Vinyl]

Tyler, I'm originally from Phila but spent nearly 30 yrs in Chicago. I agree most TV stations actually did improve their OTA signals. I always assumed the main reason was added HD channels to sell advertising on. But true enough, there are great affiliates and bad ones. O&Os are usually great. Oddly, we cannot get HD2 channels where I now live UNLESS we use my antenna(which I do!) Oddly, the one I have the most trouble with is the CBS affiliate owned by Hearst, on virtual Channel 8. Not a great signal, and the HDs are even worse. Could this be due to them staying on VHF? Probably, based on your review. I always learn from your videos. Thanks!

[@dougn2350]

A lot of people have forgotten that you can get free TV with an antenna.

[@TheMediaHoarder]

Question- what's the deal with low-power stations? I don't think cable even carries all of them, and unless you live within a mile of their transmitters they hardly ever come in- plus most of what they carry is religious networks or 24 hour infomercial channels. If they can't even get out a strong enough signal to reach a lot of people, why are they bothering?

[@passqualecaiazza7728]

I grew up in the 60's and 70's. I learned early on that the purpose of commercials is to help pay for the programing we get with the antenna. Back in those days TV shows had at least 25 minutes of programming for a 30 minute time slot. Leaving less than 5 minutes in commercials. I respected the reason for commercials. Then came cable TV. You now pay to watch TV with commercials and pay more for commercial free movies. I am sorry if I am paying to watch TV then everything should be commercial free. But, not only are there commercials but way more than before cable. So, no way I pay to watch TV. I started collecting TV shows and movies on DVD when there prices came down. I can careless for most new shows and movies today. I have about 150 television series and more than 300 movies that I rotate and soot's me we'll. Of coarse still watch some TV. My antenna brings in over 100 clear channels. Best results with $35.00 antenna on the roof. But darn more commercials than shows contents on some. Again I get the commercials, but why more than when shows came out years ago. I encourage the antenna, but wish stations could stop destroying shows. When I am on dialysis I watch there TV with over 300 stations. So many commercials I forget what I am watching and in some cases show watching disappears before it is finished. They insert infomercials. So at home mostly watch DVDs. At dialysis take a old notebook, log in as guest to wi-fi signal and watch you tube movies. At least I can control commercials on you tube. Actually sometimes do pretty we'll. Yesterday watched two 1.45hr movies and less than 5 minutes commercials in all, during dialysis. And since logged as guest I pay nothing to watch.

[@TheMediaHoarder]

Didn't know they made so much from retransmission fees. I thought that broadcast stations would care more about antenna viewers since they had fewer channels to compete against. In Sacramento channel 10 recently added a UHF translator on 36 because their main signal is on VHF 10 and even with a decent outdoor antenna simply doesn't come in reliably. There aren't any stations that I would pay for though, I just did without that station until they added the translator. All network TV has been unwatchable since 1998 anyways with the logo bugs ruining the picture.

[@BeingRomans829ed]

Of course, the stations still make a ton of money selling advertising to the tune of 30% of programming time being taken up by commercials. Never mind the fact that stations such as MeTV and Grit chop up their 30 minute and 1 hour old TV shows to make room for the extra commercials. Or they drag out a simple 2 hour movie to 2 hours and 45 minutes or 3 hours to stuff in more commercials. Never mind that they are charging way more per minute of ad time than they were back when the shows first were on the air. They should be satisfied with the per minute ad time price increases and leave the shows intact. Should have no more than 3 or 4 minutes of ad time for a 30 minute show, or match the ad time of the show as originally broadcast.

[@paxhumana2015]

That is why we take over the stations, air the programs, and tell the copyright holders, their lawyers, the polititards that are on the left, right, middle, AND fringe, AND the FCC to collectively pound sand.

[@frederickjohnh]

Interesting to hear you mention the name Brian Dewalt. He was my boss for a few years when I was with TWR on Bonaire.

[@AntennaMan]

He's a great guy!

[@fanboy1015]

i am a baseball fan and i can proudly say that the MLB needs to start showing their games on local tv they were on local tv for a while but, now they are exclusive to cable and that's because teams sold their broadcast rights to cable sports networks, for example the St. louis cardinals were always on my local fox station but, now they are on bally sports Midwest and so are the St. louis blues (an NHL team).

[@TheBrotherDAN]

The CW affiliate (WUPV) in my market of Richmond recently repacked to VHF ch. 8. I contacted the broadcast engineer of its sister station (WWBT-12 NBC) on Monday and he said that he has similar problems recieving the station's signal at his residence in a nearby county even with an outdoor antenna. I hope the ATSC 3.0 testing and broadcasting could fix these bad reception, dark screen and very low signal strength issues.

[@t63421]

Thanks for all the info, greatly appreciated.

[@dedave]

You are spot on about the WPVI situation. The TV station should have never been allowed to stay in Channel 6. The FCC should have moved every channel 6 TV stations to UHF during the repack. This would allow for expansion of the FM band down at the bottom end. This would have improved over the air TV reception for the stations moved and increased options for FM listeners. The reason WPVI didn't want to move is $$$. This way they did not need to purchase a new transmitter or antenna. WPVI has been the most tight fisted operator in American TV, going back to the Triangle Publications days as owners.

[@AntennaMan]

It will hurt them in the long run as more people go to antennas.

[@dedave]

@@AntennaMan The FCC should act in the public interest.

[@davesieg]

Despite the fact that cable and satellite systems must carry a local OTA station, most get their signals via direct fiber optic feeds. Thus a local station's transmitter can be off the air and cable and satellite will still be carrying them. The stations have to care about their OTA signal otherwise cable and satellite needn't carry them, but many just yawn if their transmitter goes off the air. They'll get around to fixing it eventually...

[@bloqk16]

Where I live in Southern Nevada, when there's been OTA transmitting problems with stations, I've found that the station's staff would be unaware of the transmission problem when I've phone them to report the screen going dark. It gets amusing when I'm on the phone with the engineer and he asks me about picture quality and signal strength; as apparently he would be at the transmitter attempting to troubleshoot the problem, where he uses me as a receiving signal station for monitoring purposes.

[@markh.3665]

One thing to add, although stations do get retransmission money, the networks take almost 100% of that cash for themselves. There are contracts between the station and the Cable/Satellite companies that set the price per subscriber, and then there is another contract between the affiliate and the network. Networks are spending a lot more money creating high quality shows, and so they take more and more money from the affiliates every year. Used to be back in the day, the networks paid money to the affiliates to keep their Transmitter signal up and running. This is why smaller stations had huge transmitters and large coverage area's, the power and installation costs were covered by the networks that wanted the reach, that entire model has flipped and now the networks make tons of money from the affiliates through retrans passthrough... NBC affiliate Chief Engineer.

[@MikinessAnalog]

I already knew it had to be the atmosphere causing the changes in reception because at night, you can receive AM radio hundreds to thousands of kilometres away than during the day. This differs depending on the frequency and modulation type (amplitude verses frequency modulation).

[@pauldswiftie13]

NBC 10 is so easy to pick up all you need is a paperclip! Good job NBC!

[@richardwescott6433]

That is because it is an O and O

[@johnpaulmakowski7464]

Another excellent informative video from the antenna man.

[@donreinholz8121]

Thanks Tyler for all that you do.

[@jrs9264]

In what can be described as ironic, Gannett once had its headquarters in Rochester NY, pre USA today era. Yet, their Nexstar division has the worst signal of the big 4 here . They don't have top position on the broadcast tower. They used to be restricted on power and direction ( rf ch 45) as part of a USA-Canada agreement to protect them from canadian station competition. CBC french had a station across the lake on an adjacent channel (44).

[@richellebrittain2127]

Except for buying stations on the open market, Nexstar has nothing to do with Gannett or its broadcast successor Tegna. I know; I understand Nexstar here in Little Rock has one of only two "virtual quadropolies" in the entire country (the other is by Sinclair in Mobile, AL-Pensacola, FL), while Tegna owns one of the other two major stations (Sinclair owns the other).

[@dampergoldenrod4156]

This Byron Allen bought LIGHT TV and shut it down light TV used to have these made-for-tv movies made in the late seventies that you never saw never heard about but were interesting to watch

[@horseathalt7308]

Interesting...the writing for tv was very good back then so there was sone really good made for tv movies ..d1ck move by byron allen

[@dampergoldenrod4156]

@@horseathalt7308 there were all kinds of made-for-tv movies made in the mid-to-late seventies that no one ever heard about which were good movies to watch both then and now

[@peacearchwa5103]

The "retransmission consent" fee disputes between cable/satellite companies and OTA broadcast stations have gotten tremendously worse over the past 15 years. It's an unintended consequence of media-consolidation, which arose from FCC deregulation initiatives of the early 1980s that were supposed to increase competition in the broadcasting marketplace. Up until the early '80s, FCC rules restricted media companies from owning more than 7 TV, 7 FM and 7 AM stations, and other ownership restrictions. Congress' Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 was actually supposed to protect local broadcasting, and protect consumers against being charged extra to view local broadcast channels!

[@BB-uz4tc]

Tyler you are da man great vid

[@AntennaMan]

Thanks for watching!

[@davehorner8126]

Just found your channel. Thank you for finally answering my question regarding why I can't get 6ABC since digital. I mean I only live in Langhorne, not Wildwood.

[@TheHGN2001]

When the whole digital conversion was happening back in the 2000s, I was living in the Philly area and read some articles about 6abc and their odd decision to return to Channel 6 after the analog shut-off. (They'd been using channel 64, as I recall). One of the reasons that I read that they wanted to remain on channel 6 was the odd analog phenomenon of channel 6 being at the bottom of the FM band. The station used to brag that there were more listeners on the FM radio to their TV station than there were for many regular radio stations. Their Action News was very popular and listeners stuck in traffic could hear their evening newscast on their car radios. Though none of this would be true in the digital era, I read that station officials hoped that by staying on channel 6, they might somehow be able to figure out how to get their audio back on FM. If so, that was probably a bad reason to stick with channel 6. Now, what was once a benefit is a detriment to their reception as many antenna filters filter out interference from the FM band.

[@MichelleBradley]

It was also because Channel 64 was out of the core channels and it was probably simpler (or the only option) to just go back to 6.

[@danlah1303]

Going to be very interesting to see what happens with ATSC 3.0 and the ability to charge for OTA.

[@americanbadass88]

its gonna be hard to convince the public to pay for something that has been FREE since the start of Television. if they do charge it will probably be for on demand stuff or the "4k HD" broadcast of their main network signal. if they do this i'm good with 1080 considering the farther you sit from the TV you lose the whole "4K expierience"

[@damoon2631]

Movie sales will go through the roof. No OTC, no advertisements. They can't stop me from watching dvd's unless they cut my power and I just don't see that happening. Well, I hope.

[@transmitterguy478]

If you don't broadcast you won't receive those surcharges. I work for a public broadcast system and Direct and Dish and cable companies pick us up off-air. not to mention our off-air customers. If our signal is bad for too long they would stop using their signal, so we must keep it good. The airwaves today are packed with lots of crap, wifi, cell signals, lots of other frequencies that can interfere with our signal reception. Plus the new equipment is all computerized and have their own glitches. If you are a broadcaster the FCC says how powerful your signal can be and it must meet certain specs. We just installed new transmitters in May 21, and are still "fine-tuning" them. We transmit on a single frequency network with both transmitters transmitting on the same channel, our lower power transmitter has a delay to control the point of "no signal", usually aimed at a mountain where few people live. Also, the 7gig STL path we use has more congestion in it too, not to mention new buildings, water towers, cell towers, windmills, and trees that have grown much higher, that are now in the way that were not there 50 years ago when we started broadcasting. Internet is unreliable and can be a backup but has a lot of delay of the signal. It is not easy getting a good signal everywhere so everyone can pick it up reliably, and the digital tv signal does not transmit as far, for a reliable received signal, as our old analog signal did, because digital needs a "good signal" or the receiver will pixilate, which pisses people off but would put up with a fuzzy signal before.

[@theajshow]

Yes, they do. Retrans fees are very important to stations these days, but local stations aren't trying to become a basic cable channel.

[@MileHighEAS]

KUSA-Denver (NBC), KTVD-Denver (MNTV--Sister to KUSA), & KCNC-Denver (CBS). Have added power to there signals in recent months because of the re-pack, and all 3 still operate huge translator networks across the rockies west of Denver.

[@Michael_Livingstone]

My favourite was picking up KNRR in Winnipeg. We never had FOX for years and picking it up off the air really depended on the weather. I think a transmission on the border was part of their plan.

[@dougbrowning82]

It was. Just like their predecessor, KCND, Those call letters actually stood for Canada and North Dakota. Back in the Maclennan days, they even had an office in Winnipeg. And they used to run free antenna promotions for their Winnipeg viewers. Unfortunately, cable substitution took away most of their viewership, and they were practically forced to sell the station to the Asper family, who moved the entire operation to Winnipeg, where it became CKND, now Global Winnipeg. KNRR used to be viewable in Winnipeg with a decent antenna. but since the transition to digital, it gets barely past Niverville. And cable carries Fox from Buffalo, instead.

[@Robert-sl7jo]

Quite the contrast in Canada where TV Networks aside from the CBC are owned by Pay TV Companies. They shut down TV transmitters in rural areas throughout Canada cutting many off from OTA TV. OTA TV and TV antennas are not even advertised in Canada. It’s been 10 years since Broadcast TV here converted to Digital HD and we still don’t have sub-channels even though they’re quite common in the U.S.

[@pmscalisi]

Government owned communications. Figures. I wonder how long it will be until that’s true in the US.

[@sandman_7326]

Yeah 6abc is a pain most of the time , Especially on windy days that we been getting a lot of these days .

[@carguy4243]

In my area it is $25.00 plus $16.00 local broadcast fee plus tax a month to watch local channels on cable tv. Not even all local channels are on cable and this is a weird market that lacks many over the air channels in the first place. We have no MY network, no Antenna Tv, no ME tv, no Cozi tv, but I have antenna.

[@InDreamsYourMine]

In central PA, the only station receivable is WPSU.

[@Zickcermacity]

5:55 - The same thing happened with, you guessed it: ABC7 in the NY City Metro area, just after the 2009 transition. After several power increase applications, by 2011 they were ok. ABC is a relatively conservative broadcast organization, both in responding to tech trends and, if you have listened to even 5 minutes of the AM 770 WABC, it shows also in the content on that station.

[@TonyBSyr]

The ABC station in Syracuse New York goes off the air frequently for what they say is maintenance work, but they never mention it on the air. My guess is that the advertisers would want a discount if they knew the signal was not available to over the air viewers. If people experimented, a lot more could watch over the air instead of paying the stations a retransmission fee. In the early days of cable there were no retransmission fees. Congress was bought by the TV companies to allow this charge. You have to assume the ad market isn't very good these days with so many more choices with streaming. In Syracuse they seem to run more lawyer ads than any thing else.

[@KameraShy]

I am old enough to remember that the original idea behind cable was that it would be commercial free. Pay for the subscription each month and watch tv without being harangued by the commercials. But they they got greedy and the commercials started creeping in. To where it all looks just like OTA tv. And the OTA broadcasters are double-dipping, collecting both rebroadcast and commercial ad revenues. But not from me. I don't watch any of it anymore. And further cancelled KZbin TV after the price went to $65 from $30.

[@villumschroeder1255]

Yep. I remember that claim too. Cable companies...the epitome of greed... starting with abusing their status as a legal monopoly to build out... inefficient cable boxes that sucked the electricity of a kilowatt light bulb... inferior picture quality... on and on...

[@AntennaMan]

Yes, broadcasters are double dipping. I try to call them out on it as much as I can.

[@stevejohnson1321]

A lot depends on network, region, and station. For my locale, ion, unimas and univision "fill in" using smaller, non-centralized transmitters. There's even a tower in Hopkinton, RI. Even when you can't get the big metropolitan towers, you can often tune in the Spanish-language station. On the other hand, NBC considered abandoning a swath of antenna viewers in greater Boston. It might have happened too, had senators and other officials not called their bluff. NBC is the only one for which I have no network duplication. There's only one show I watch, so I wouldn't really miss NBC if it went away.

[@95SLE]

It would be interesting to see the trends in advertisement over local TV stations. I would hope that the revenues from advertisement have an upward trend.