Why Local TV Stations Don't Mention Antenna TV

In this video I talk about the main reason why most local TV stations don't say a word about free over the air TV. There's little to no information on most TV station websites about how to pick up their channel including the RF channel and what antennas would work. Why are TV stations so tight lipped?
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[@timparr246]

He's so right. They talked about antennas and how to best receive the signal A LOT before cable, but now...nothing, ever.

[@ki5aok]

They do talk about antennas, but only after the cable or satellite provider tells them they are not paying for a retransmission fee increase. Once the cable or satellite company relents, then the TV station goes silent with the free antenna option.

[@sylvainmichaud2262]

Probably to avoid giving Grandpa an aneurysm by letting him know that he could have kept his rabbit ears and watch TV for free.

[@cmtcmt661]

I assure you Grandpa already knows about over-the-air tv. For a a Grandpa like myself who never understood the concept of paying to watch tv commercials. I only had cable long enough to see that it was overpriced and underwhelming. I know I'm giving away age. But I thought it was common knowledge that all you had to do to watch tv was connect an antenna. P.S. Forget TV. KZbin is better.

[@CaptainApathetic]

@@cmtcmt661 a lot of people legitimately thought OTA TV went away during the digital transition, partially bc of intentional confusion.

[@advokatie]

@@cmtcmt661 for me cable was my gateway into cartoons, even stuff from way back when. thankful for that but I definitely agree in general it's really underwhelming. sometimes I miss cable but honestly I think I prefer being able to schedule what I want to watch when I want to watch. I don't really mourn cable, I just miss some of the memories.

[@jamesslick4790]

@@CaptainApathetic The NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) were really the only ones who promoted "antenna TV" with a TON of ads about the conversion, the availability of converter boxes, ETC during the change from analog to digital.

[@jamesslick4790]

That makes ZERO sense. "Grampa" would have grown up with free over the air radio and TV.

[@jimtrue1465]

When NBC decided to no longer affiliate with WHDH-TV in Boston, and instead bought a bunch of low-power TV stations to carry the network, the new NBC Boston website did explain how to get the network over the air. But within a year, they stopped doing that.

[@sped6954]

The last time I had to do a rescan of my TV, there were 44 channels that were being broadcast in my area. Some of them were the same thing, but in a different market, and I deleted them. Next I filtered out the Spanish networks because I don't speak Spanish well enough to know what's going on anyway. Then I filtered out the stations that never broadcast one single show that I like, such as oxygen and lifetime and maybe one or two more, then the home shopping channels. In the end, I was left with 32 stations from which to choose suitable programming. That's a lot of programming 100% free of charge. I remember as a kid, there were like six channels, total. If I didn't like what was on, I got up off my lazy ass, walked over to the TV, and turned the dial one click at a time until I got to 13. The next position was U, which meant a dial under the main dial that went up to 83. With a total of 82 positions on the dials (there was no such thing as channel 1, so the dial started at 2), only six channels to choose from, and nothing of interest on any of them. I spent a lot of time playing outside. Lol... When I read the title of this video, I thought you were talking about Antenna TV, the channel, so I'm thinking to myself "What's wrong with Antenna TV and why is the industry at odds with this one channel? I have to see this one."

[@pokepress]

44/32 is actually pretty comparable to the selection on cable in the 80’s and early 90’s.

[@themagus5906]

@@pokepress In the typical cable selection of about 80 channels, I'll bet the average viewer watches only 15% of the channels available. That's why streaming is becoming so popular among the young. IPTV will be the death of cable eventually, the same way cable killed OTA television. Eventually the internet will supply ALL communications, including phone, TV, music, data, etc. Then all you will need is one cable coming into your home, with a wireless connection for all devices. Next century: broadcast (wireless) transmission of electrical power.

[@dk-bw4gk]

You sound about my age. Had about 6 channels in the 80s. I had Flintstones and Dukes of Hazzard, and then my mom kicked my ass outside.

[@louf7178]

Yes, thinking the same.

[@sped6954]

@@pokepress Interesting. When I was growing up in the 80s, we weren't by any means poor, but cable TV was one of those expenses that my parents couldn't quite justify, so we had OTA. After I moved out and was probably around 15-20 years on my own, I had cable TV once. I'm guessing it was in the late '90s to early '00s, and it was something I couldn't justify keeping either. I had to buy an entire block of like 20 or more channels, just to only watch a few in the entire block. It also didn't help much that I was pretty much never at home to watch TV, and it was cheaper for me to just pay off the ETF and be rid of it after around four months out of the I want to say one year contract. They also nickel and dimed every little thing, right down to renting the equipment to decide the signal. I could have gotten away without the box, but then all I would have been able to watch were the basic cable channels, which consisted of the four local OTA channels and maybe 10 more channels at the most. I went to Walmart and picked up a set of "amplified" rabbit ears for $20, and all these 20 or so years later, I'm still using the same set.

[@RZ350NC]

Proud to say that we have never had cable TV. Antennas are the only way to go. Take care.

[@bloqk16]

Myself an OTA viewer, what I've found peculiar is when a TV station transmitter is having problems, but the TV station itself is unaware of the problem. Over the past five years there's been at least five situations where in the late evening or overnight hours there'll be a glitch with my OTA TV reception with the station going dark. I flip to the station's subchannels, and if they are dark, then it is a strong clue the TV transmitter has problems; or the link from the station to the transmitter site. I'll phone the station, where the overnight news crew will answer the phone. They are surprised to hear about the transmitter problem, as they didn't have a clue of a problem. A short time later I get a call from the station's engineer to inquire about it, as the reception at his house is fine, _since he has cable._ The engineer will ask for my email address. Then over the hours we do text tag where I inform the engineer of what the current reception quality is via a text message, then he'll text me back . . . all the while he and an assistant are trying to resolve the issue with the transmitter. The TV station(s) engineers are appreciative of my assistance to them with resolving the TV transmitting issues. But I seem to be one of the few with OTA reception in the region.

[@threynolds2]

The engineer at my station has an antenna at home. Some stations feed the local companies by a direct feed bypassing the transmitter and some cable companies receive all their signals from the OTA transmission. Maybe in your case, the cable company receives an OTA signal and that's how the engineer knew the transmitter was on the air.

[@totallyfrozen]

It’s inexcusable to me that a TV station not know when their transmitter goes down. I spent many years as a radio DJ, worked on air both AM and FM. I’d keep a Sony Walkman with me so that I could check what was going out. Of course, the main reason for that was the potty breaks. I’d wear it to the restroom so that I could avoid taking too long and having dead air. The TV stations should have an antenna TV running somewhere in a back room so they can immediately notice when they go off air.

[@threynolds2]

@@totallyfrozen where I work we do have an antenna for monitoring our stations. The main monitor I watch has the over-the-air video directly above the program out video. But our transmitter and control room are in the same city. Today many stations are operated in a hub that operates multiple stations in multiple cities. The hub is too far away to monitor the over-the-air signal directly. Some depend on a "confidence feed" that, due to digital encoding and decoding, can be as much as 25-30 seconds behind.

[@TihetrisWeathersby]

I'm glad you brought this up, I watch General Hospital on ABC, and Masterpiece on PBS, I've watch most of these stations. They never mention Antenna.

[@jake78441]

Oh lordy GH oh dear lordy

[@TihetrisWeathersby]

@@jake78441 Not a fan?

[@PC4USE1]

As usual,you are a great resource for the 'newbie" cord cutter. I will see broadcast TV mentioned occasionally in my market,usually on a subchannel. Even then ,it is rare. The last time I heard a TV station mentioning how to use an antenna was in the digital transfer of 2009.

[@davidsradioroom9678]

Every TV owner in the country should watch this!!!

[@pblo702]

One of the things I like about antennas is that you could also filter out channels/stations from unwanted companies/owners and not have to be stuck with them like on pay tv.

[@tcap7917]

I do this with Directv as well as my OTA tv. Out of the 400 channels available I filter down my program guide to less than 60. OTA: Of the 30 channels I get I filter that down to about 15

[@JessicaFEREM]

You should look into parenthal locks on cable providers, if you're gonna use them at least

[@stuarthirsch]

But you still pay for all the channels, including those you filter out.

[@tcap7917]

@@stuarthirsch true but its not ala carte. I dont need to see foreign channels or shopping channels etc

[@KyBrancaccio]

@@tcap7917 it makes it so much easier to channel surf with the up and down button for sure.

[@jeffreykoerber6595]

I have Dish Network and they allow you to connect an antenna to your satellite receiver and drop local channels to save $12/mo. You still get guide information for many of the channels and can DVR them with their receiver and don’t lose them even if Dish has a dispute and takes down a channel. I get many more channels then they would offer and they are very reliable with my attic antenna (a VHF antenna that looks like it was from the 60s combined with a UHF antenna that looks like it was from the 90s).

[@c2jones]

Hulu is now doing that, too, and some televisions (like LG and TCL) actually incorporate the OTA (antenna) channels into their on-board guides.

[@bnstndrd]

Once atsc 3.0 comes out youll be able to link the o.t.a. channels with wifi to interact with the stations.

[@jerrydemas2020]

I own my Dish 722 DVR ,and I am charged a monthly fee to use my owned DVR. I want to drop Dish, but if I do, my DVR becomes inoperable and I can't access my DVR recordings. Any suggestions?

[@bnstndrd]

@@jerrydemas2020 that's a bummer. If you can get local stations in your area with an antenna they'll add that to it and cut 12 bucks a month off your bill.

[@jerrydemas2020]

@@bnstndrd Dish sent me a OTA module that slides into the DVR. I have not payed for locals for many years and can still record the OTA channels. But if I stop my subscription, the DVR stops working I wont be able to transfer the programs to other media because of DMCA.

[@wadebarnett2542]

When a local station kept its signal off cable recently, it did tell the viewers that it was available with an antenna. That standoff lasted just over a year. Years ago, when I was a cable subscriber, the same station withheld its signal. The cable company gave out rabbit ears to subscribers so we could watch that station. I think that standoff lasted three weeks.

[@bwtv147]

We had the same thing here. A local station’s contract with the cable company ended and negotiations for a new contract dragged on. The station was offering free antennas to cable customers who didn’t have one.

[@wadebarnett2542]

@@bwtv147 Last time, when the station was off cable for over a year, neither the station nor the cable company offered rabbit ears.

[@jamesslick4790]

These disputes have happened locally. No station offered antennas, but did remind people of the ability to use one. When I had cable, I still kept my roof antenna because (fun fact!) VHF TV antennas are also excellent FM radio antennas!

[@bwtv147]

@@jamesslick4790 The FM radio broadcast band is between analog TV channels 6 and 7.

[@jamesslick4790]

@@bwtv147 Yep!

[@elultimo102]

I live in a rural area, over 130 air-miles from the nearest city. I was going to contact my local legislator to ask that local channels be required to live-stream their programming to areas outside of OTA antenna range, with commercials (that's only fair). They sometimes run news snippets, so they have the means to stream. I'm only asking about anything a city-dweller could get with rabbit ears---nothing more. The stations could even tailor their commercials by area.

[@InDisskyS131]

They will laugh at you. Local channels don’t have to broadcast, why would they be forced to do that? Imagine if they passed a law saying you were required to shop at a store that’s 100 miles away from your home or saying a lawn care company was required to offer service to people 100 miles away.

[@ghenulo]

It doesn't matter how far you are from a city, but how far you are from a broadcast tower.

[@elultimo102]

@@InDisskyS131 They could still stream commercials. They are passing up a revenue stream from over half the state.

[@elultimo102]

@@ghenulo The main tower is in the center of the city, so it's even more than 130 miles.

[@AlanElBee]

Amen brother. Thanks for calling out the greedies and highlighting those who still show respect for the public.

[@dk-bw4gk]

Been a cord cutter for about 20 years and still rocking the DB8 in the attic. I refuse to pay my telephone company to watch ads on my TV.

[@eminence_front6043]

Of course the stations won't mention antennas....it's all about the money.

[@bobh.4580]

This is a really, really informative video and if you're not angry there might be something wrong. I always wondered why they didn't really push the fact that you could get this channel free over the air now it all makes sense.

[@philbiker3]

In many cases the only reason they deliver the signal free OTA is because of antiquated (but still important) FCC regulations.

[@RickPaquin]

@@philbiker3 Any current station can kill their transmitter at anytime and go private with Cable with a microwave link. FCC is not forcing any TV station to keep their OTA license. The choose to hold an OTA license. They know cord cutters are increasing daily.

[@amorales9613]

There should always be free tv. Didn't we pay for and maintain the transmission towers?

[@RickPaquin]

@@amorales9613 Maybe not the tower, but during the last repack the FCC reimbursed most TV stations millions of dollars each for new transmitters AND new top antennas, a significant cost, due to required FCC frequency changes. (you can see this in the FCC public records) The FCC even mandated that some stations, using the same tower, switch frequencies, which allowed them to get reimbursements for their cost as well. But logically, swapping frequencies when 2 stations are on the same tower makes absolutely no sense, so you gotta wonder.... But when the FCC pays the bill for new equipment, no station is going to complain, right? Keep in mind that this reimbursement replaced aged transmitters and antennas with new transmitters and antennas, so, I'd say it was a pretty good deal for stations who got a FREE major upgrade to their transmitter facilities. But WHO really paid the tab? Well, it was really the cell phone companies who paid the FCC to take over a portion of the UHF band. SO, basically the FCC moved those funds collected from the Cell phone companies to the stations for new equipment. Not directly, but it basically works out that way. Now, who pays the Cell phone companies for their FCC charges for those frequencies? YOU DO!! Via your phone bill! So let's review. You paid the Cell phone companies in your high monthly bill to purchase part of the UHF band from the FCC, who then reimbursed TV station costs for new transmitter's and antenna's to acommodate the repacking. So through this fancy money laundering, WE customers ultimately PAID those stations, through our cell phone bills for significant upgrades of their transmitter facilities! Yea, they owe us a nice strong OTA signal!! That's how I see it. Now, what about those stations who were reimbursed for new transmitters and antennas then decided to shut down and sell that new equipment? Ya gotta wonder.....

[@S0nyToprano]

I’m not a boomer or an old Gen Xer (basically a boomer). The death of cable wouldn’t bother me. Why even care when you can just stream everything? Do people really like dealing with more and more commercials for an antiquated business model? Geez people. Enter 2010 and hopefully eventually you’ll meet us in 2022 one day.

[@ocsrc]

The 512 mhz to 602 MHz spectrum is going to be sold for 5G The 178 MHz to 220 MHz is most likely going to be used for ISM like PTC , FEDEX , UPS data links, etc... While 54 MHz to 88 MHz is still available for TV, but, 68 to 88 MHz is being used by ISM Congress is looking to eliminate all OTA TV When I worked for a large Network in the Northeast I found that are signal along with practically every other TV and radio signal was being broadcast on an on published satellite band in the clear There were no publicly available receivers that you could buy to receive this frequency range but with a simple converter and modifying the lnb I was able to use a standard dvb receiver to get every channel in the country I showed this to the owner of the network and within days every channel was scrambled I learned a valuable lesson that day There used to be all of the major networks and most of the cable networks in the clear on c-band for South America and Europe Unfortunately the beam doesn't reach this far north One of the other amazing pieces of information I found when I worked for that Network was that in addition to all of the signals being transmitted via satellite they are also transmitted on the internet and I'm not sure exactly how they do that I learned that one morning when a contractor dug up the fiber optic lines that supplied Time Warner Every single station with the exception of the ones that were being broadcast from the computers at the head end which were all paid advertisement television everything else went off the air The internet carries every single television station They're scrambled using Motorola's encryption At the head end there is an entire underground refrigerated floor that has rack after rack of all of these decoder boxes with the cabling running overhead and a little alphanumeric display window on the front and status lights that are green and the day they dug up the cable all of the boxes went from three green lights to one green and two red and it was a very very bad day I left with a migraine so bad I couldn't see and I passed out in the front seat of my van Thank God I didn't try to drive

[@c2jones]

Interesting read.

[@jcurnutte2007]

That’s what the government wants and people complain about communism I have news for you ITS HERE NOW

[@jcurnutte2007]

And yes TV will still be around but it’s all going to pay TV and you are going to have to either pay the cable company or satellite provider or ISP and streaming providers otherwise all we will have left as far as free broadcasting is old skool AM and FM radio

[@jamesb1221222]

@@jcurnutte2007 Probably only FM in another 20 or so years :(

[@donbest5024]

I have cband ku satellite tv over 4500 channels last time I checked but 75 to 80 precent of these channels are encrypted,still lots of free stuff to watch nbc,cbs,abc,fox,a lot of sub channels metv,cosi tv,h&i,nasa,Newsmax etc,wildfeed sports-you have to resan to find these with luck.

[@alanmiller815]

Local station WDRB Louisville, KY told us multiple times to rescan channels after September 12th.

[@bnstndrd]

Many of the stations in the east Texas area do the same.

[@bc5441]

I hadn’t paid attention to the fact that locals don’t mention antennas, but this makes sense as to why they do not. Most of the sub channels I watch do list channel #/channel on various cable and satellite providers/channel for OTA antenna in their on-air communications.

[@steveurbach3093]

Please do regular PSA reminding your viewers about laws that ALLOW antenna usage.

[@HardRockMaster7577]

Also, a little down the road, when ATSC 3.0 gets going, it will much easier for many to get good reception, even with indoor antennas. ATSC 3.0 will also bring 4K OTA transmissions, with full HD Audio to boot!!

[@timstamps5281]

Our family actually had 12-channel cable in the late 1960s in Flint, Michigan, because the TV was in the basement and the house did not have a tower & outdoor antenna. When I visited people who had a tower with antenna on a rotor, I saw they had a whole lot more channels. It was Community Antenna TV then... The cable company just picked out a few channels from cities in Michigan - Flint, Detroit, Saginaw-Bay City-Midland, and a channel with nothing but clocks with time from around the world. They did not add a channel from Canada - people with antennas could get Canadian channels from Windsor and Sarnia.

[@trainmaster0217]

A few weeks a go I called my local TV station to ask why they were off the air. The station representative told me that they were painting the tower and would be off the for antenna users...NOT cable or satellite users. We talked a bit. During our talk I was called a "free loader" because I was getting their signal for free while cable and satellite users pay. He said the future doesn't look good for us antenna users. He explained that it takes a lot of money to keep this station on the air and antenna users don't pay a dime towards their upkeep like cable or satellite users do. I asked him about possible scrambling of their signal and he said that is one possibility. He couldn't, or wouldn't answer my questions about the upcoming ATSC 3.0. He said that's up to the FCC.

[@eosjoe565]

Hmmm... what did they do for the 50-years before being added to cable? One of our local stations went on the air in 1953. It was a loooong time before they were available via cable.

[@robertcs68]

You should of asked them how much companies pay to advertise on their channel....

[@ArtieArchives]

Antenna users aren't freeloaders, the cable companies are. They overcharge us, they skim us, they nickel and dime us. Do yourself a favor and cancel cable and just get internet instead. Cable companies are the worst business in America. They are nearly trillion dollar corporations yet they have the need to commit highway robbery.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@@eosjoe565 Now you see why this is a joke to these companies that the service they initially provided for over 70 years is being shut down.

[@bjs2022]

@@robertcs68 Unless they have a local news program or they run after midnight advertising for products or services they depend solely on retransmission revenue.

[@fmphotooffice5513]

Also remarkable is that stations pay huge electricity bills for running their broadcast transmitters all day and night, and STILL they make more money by ignoring antenna reception. Great video. Regards.

[@MiroBG359]

they're required to maintain facilities by the FCC and its vital in places like South Florida where you're reminded every June 1st to buy a portable TV with antenna

[@fmphotooffice5513]

@@MiroBG359 Agreed, MBG, but it's still a 1000kW plug in the wall. You'd think the bean counters would be screaming every time the electric bill from the transmitter came in the mail.

[@threynolds2]

@@MiroBG359 stations are not "required" to keep the OTA signals on. Without an OTA signal, they aren't a station. I know. I work at a TV station that operates three channel and three transmitters. We never say we wish weren't required to keep the transmitter on. That "required" nonsense is only mentioned in the commercials (that we DO air) for indoor antennas.

[@ghenulo]

@@threynolds2 Unless I misunderstand you, you're just arguing semantics.

[@threynolds2]

@@ghenulo I'm correcting the misinformation about TV stations and their OTA (Over The Air) transmitters. TV stations don't keep it a secret that they can be watched for free.

[@arthouston7361]

If you’re young, you don’t remember this…..but when they first started talking about cable TV, the idea was that your subscription price covered all of the advertising that you would no longer have to view if it was on cable, and then somewhere along the way they quietly stopped saying that….and sure enough, cable TV has even more commercials than over the air TV does …….so the promise was essentially BS from the very beginning.

[@bloqk16]

I recall that era, where the promoters for cable TV heralded it as a new age of TV viewing without commercials.

[@threynolds2]

I was there and they weren't talking about OTA signals. There is no way in the world OTA signals could be rebroadcast without airing the commercials. The "commercial free" broadcasts they were talking about were the new services like HBO and Showtime.

[@jessejames586]

I remember only having a handful of OTA station's available when I was a kid Long before cable. We used a rotator to move the antenna for each station we watched on our b&w tv console. Remotes did not exist. At 11pm, most stations would end broadcast for the day. Damn, I miss those days...

[@SwiftyMcVeigh851]

And they signed off with the National Anthem.

[@d.davis2009]

@@SwiftyMcVeigh851 And signed on also, with Good Morning with the sun rising over the US and the Flag. The times I miss

[@Maaaatttttt]

@@d.davis2009 brings a tear to my eye

[@Maaaatttttt]

@@SwiftyMcVeigh851 Amazing

[@Fiddlesticks62]

Bring back rotary phones & reel to reels.

[@KeganDXer]

Last time I remember hearing about stations' antenna channels was in 2008-2009 before and during the full-power analog TV shutdown to digital only transition. Among the analog stations I could receive running as "nightlights" (instructions on where to find and set up a digital TV converter box), Tulsa stations KOTV 6 (CBS) February-March 2009, KJRH 2 (NBC) June-July 2009, and Oklahoma City station KOCO 5 (ABC) June-July 2009. KOCO the only station I remember mentioning their analog and digital channels. Physical channel 7, virtual channel 5. I could receive KOCO analog "nightlight" after semi-local KFSM 5 Fort Smith (CBS) analog was turned off.

[@bloqk16]

The closest I've seen where a TV station made the viewers aware of OTA reception was from paid Ads for "Mister Antenna," which were run on second subchannels, such as X.2 or X.3 that I viewed on OTA. I'd guess the same channels ran different ad spots when running on cable when the Mr. Antenna spot ran on OTA.

[@jackrussellville]

I know Dish mentions that local channels are available ota every time there's a loss of local station

[@bnstndrd]

Dish also has select SiriusXM stations on their network which is also good.

[@jefferyb304]

The FCC could require local TV stations to announce to viewers they could potentially receive their station for free occasionally throughout the day with the station id.

[@spacemissing]

The FCC is in cahoots with the cable/satellite cabal. What do you think of your idea in that light?

[@jefferyb304]

@@spacemissing Not surprised at all.

[@kreuner11]

@@spacemissing that's corruption, *shrug*

[@JayAngelLatigo]

The FCC actually is taking spectrum for wireless

[@threynolds2]

@@spacemissing the FCC only controls signal broadcast by terrestrial (earth-bound) transmitters. Cable and satellite are NOT under the control of the FCC. I've worked in broadcasting in radio and TV since 1975.

[@RarestAce]

Excellent video as usual. We have a Airtv2/Sling tv setup here at home and it all works great and its nice getting my locals for free. Recently Dish/Sling tv dropped Game Show Network over Sony wanting to significantly raise the rates for that channel. As much as we liked and watched GSN i'm glad Dish/Sling told Sony to go pound sand instead of giving in and raising our monthly bill.

[@jamesklatt]

Maybe they re trying to make up what they losing with the ps5 supply chain disruption

[@RarestAce]

@@jamesklatt Probably that console is having quite the rough time and it doesn't seem like the problems with the PS5 are going to get better any time soon

[@amazingeric97]

I believe more people do need to take a look at Sling TV, Frndly, & Philo. They are low priced live TV streaming services. Too many people want local channels so they subscribe to KZbin TV or Hulu with Live TV which are a much higher price. Sling TV Blue does have some local NBC & Fox affiliates in selected markets. Many people that are young adults do not watch local channels at all.

[@crazycoollady]

I enjoyed watching this video. It was very informative. When I was younger, I used to frequently watch another unknown network called Live Well Network (now called Localish). No one I knew personally had heard about the network, including those who had OTA HDTV. I wonder if it was for similar reasons local stations don't mention Antenna TV.

[@michaelparks7397]

When Comcast started to charge 18.75 for the broadcast tv fee on top of the $22 for limited basic cable that pushed me to finally get the outdoor antenna I needed to receive all my local stations. I have to say that some of my locals do make announcements about rescanning. WHTM recently about rescans for the increased power of the hivhf signal. WGAL also on sub channels like MeTV so viewers can find new channels they added. They do not have anything on their website about the frequency or antenna types you might need or make any type of announcements about it One thing you could do is contact the stations broadcast engineers. I’ve found sometimes they are willing to answer email questions.

[@1956kirk]

Same thing here in Canada. I've been wondering why it's like some kind of well kept secret finding out what stations are transmitting and on what channels where are the rebroadcast channels . I went to all their websites looking for this info and you can't find it. This explains a lot. Reminds me how if you want satellite TV in Canada you were railroaded into purchasing the basic package that had all the CBC, CTV, Global, ect.

[@visaman]

CBC CTV, Global, and, City TV, are "must carry" channels that the cable companies are legally required to carry.

[@arricammarques1955]

OTA = Wipes the floor with ROGERS bandwidth issues! LOL

[@tomshott7826]

Good job explaining this to viewers. I think the real problem is the DVR set up that the cable and satellite providers have. If cable channels (commercial) could rebroadcast on local antenna stations the whole situation would change.

[@patrickwestover4272]

In a good part of Vermont OTA reception is impossible due to terrain

[@bnstndrd]

That bleeds over into portions of New Hampshire as well, huh? These channels should be required to have repeaters spots all over the territory so people can at least get their local channels with an antenna

[@patrickwestover4272]

...and into Northeastern New York

[@bnstndrd]

@@patrickwestover4272 that's not good. 😕

[@GameMasterpg]

Only time I heard a TV network mention a Antenna was the fallout with CBS Vs. Spectrum.

[@EricE549]

if you take requests on topics, you should talk about shows with a long broadcast history moving exclusively to streaming, like "days of our lives" moving to peacock and "dancing with the stars" moving to disney+, and what it could mean for antenna viewers. i think both should be taken as a terrible sign for the future of broadcast TV.

[@jessejames586]

That only forces viewers to torrent the shows like dwts which they used to get on network tv. I hope all these new streaming services crash and burn!

[@michaelparks7397]

I really think there is potential for that plan to backfire on them.

[@RedRider756]

I hope we could at some point get rid of the out-of-date DMCA copyright laws in the U.S. All these companies having their own streaming service sucks, and TV was originally supposed to be free similar how radio is. Thumbs up to OTA free tv, thumbs down to these pay streaming services.

[@EricE549]

@@RedRider756 i agree about the copyright thing, a lot of laws were set in place before the easy-upload way of sharing stuff on the internet, and yet companies just keep finding new ways to screw over creators. it’s incredibly shameful.

[@RedRider756]

@@EricE549 I agree.

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

In Canada cable and satellite companies own most major TV networks, and thus control over the air TV. They have moved to shut down most transmitters outside of major cities, forcing viewers onto cable and paid satellite that they own. OTA Television has not been embraced in Canada the way it has in the US.

[@justinjones6810]

Canada is one to two steps from being a communist country unless they kick out Trudeau

[@ghenulo]

It sounds like you need some indie stations.

[@NorthcoasterHobby]

@@ghenulo I’d love that.

[@MadMan400096]

Anyone else think the whole "retransmission consent" crap should be abolished?

[@haroldfridkis3536]

Agreed!

[@peacearchwa5103]

As you covered, in the years since the 1996 Cable Act, nearly all of your "local" TV stations aren't locally owned anymore. Sad.

[@jamesklatt]

We are the lucky ones that at least one channel is still ‘locally’ owned.

[@eddyalonso7661]

In a sense the retransmission fees have helped fuel the cord cutting. The higher the fees, the higher cable and satellite ended up charging people. I am in a decent location that has most of the channel I want to see OTA. Since I am clise to the border I also get Mexican channels.

[@ClassicGuy57]

I can’t wait to see a future video on explaining the wrongs with the laws passed by Congress affecting OTA TV.

[@williamwelch7]

Thanks again. I've been using an antenna for over ten years!

[@jimmccarville5152]

Awesome sir, thank you for bringing this indo to our attention. And to another note: I'll be getting you that info soon on my pre-amp. It's getting someone to hold the ladder so I can get up to the second story under the eve where the pre-amp is located. I should have that info soon. Thanks again for everything you've been doing to help me get a more reliable and stronger signal.

[@kennixox262]

I should also say that your channel is looking better and better. Very professional looking. Keep up that good work.

[@timemerson4162]

Time to put cable out to pasture and move everything to OTA.

[@bnstndrd]

👍

[@kenenglish124]

They've already taken away the spectrum. Remember when we had 83 over the air channels available, between VHF and UHF?

[@kensmith5694]

I remember seeing the local PBS station saying the over the air numbers yesterday.

[@chadmcleish]

Local TV stations are terrible at responding to viewers in my experience. They only care about advertising customers. Strictly money talks in my local market.

[@TravelwithNJSteveandSue]

You are right...ever since we cut the cord and went OTA I have never found any information about antenna service on any local TVs web site. But of note, they must know we are watching since CBS 13 (myrtle beach) added a special repeater channel (13-13) for those that live south of Myrtle Beach. Their main OTA channel 13.1 comes from Florence SC and is hard to pick up if you live south of Myrtle Beach. The newly added channel, 13-13, takes care of it! But I did not find out about it from CBS 13's web site, I found it by accident reading peoples comments on some web site.

[@threynolds2]

if you can't see the 13.1 signal how would see the announcement that they are providing a new 13.13 signal?

[@TravelwithNJSteveandSue]

@@threynolds2 I can see 13.1 75% of the time but there was no accountment of 13.13 as far as I know. I just found it by accident when I was doing a re-scan.

[@threynolds2]

@@TravelwithNJSteveandSue it's possible that 13.13 is on another actual RF frequency (not the same as 13.1) and that's why it took a rescan to find it.

[@raywilson9450]

"Consumer Protection" indeed. And good on WFMZ. They are a local channel for me!

[@SNG_User]

Thanks for your great content, Antenna Man! I have a good setup with my Televes DatBoss Mix up at 30 feet (near Worcester, MA), but I still listen every time you post a new video. You're a great resource for us antenna users. Thanks again.

[@AntennaMan]

Thanks so much for continuing to watch my KZbin videos even though you already cut the cord.

[@jamesharrell8580]

Antenna Man, thank you for letting people know about free over the air reception. I have already saved thousands using this method of getting free local channels. I took great pleasure "cutting the cord" and plann to continue getting free reception until the cable co.'s nose bleeds...

[@wishbonefan]

my PBS station does sometimes mention antenna viewers, but that makes sense because PBS is public broadcasting.

[@Comedy4cast]

Thanks to you and your recommendations, Tyler, I have been enjoying clear local stations on an indoor antenna for several years now! Keep doing what you're doing!

[@DaveGreg100]

I have an antenna. There's nothing I've wanted to watch on broadcast TV except CBS' 48 Hours for years now [and even now rarely... can we say.. gone downhill?]. Whenever the threat of "losing one" of these locals came up, BFD. Do it. No loss in this house. The legacy channels can get bent. Just Sling and an antenna now, an AirTV device if I want to record Svengoolie or something on the "Movies!" channel or an oddball OTA channel. And if the price goes up on Sling, bye! Roku. You Tube. Tubi, Film Rise British, Horror, etc. Vudu, Freevee plenty of other out there. An entire multiple lifetime's worth.

[@bnstndrd]

If sling goes up there's Philo or Frndly TV .

[@DaveGreg100]

@@bnstndrd Ah, yes. I had forgotten those. Thanks

[@bnstndrd]

@@DaveGreg100 you're welcome. I like the fact that Sling has Comet tv on its platform.

[@donbest5024]

60 minutes on cbs is garbage now.

[@bnstndrd]

@@donbest5024 as is most shows now.

[@fcaughli]

I hope everyone realizes that as we go nearly everything is going to be pay, including what comes over the air. They will still probably leave some content fully free, but it will not likely be what you really want. It is obvious to me that they are doing the usual, which is get you used to and hooked. And then here comes charging for it all.

[@kengreene5196]

Once again, it's give to the greedy, not the needy!

[@RobertLewis85]

The only time I see broadcast tv acknowledge antennas is when there's a new 13.5 or some substation and I'll see a few "rescan your channel listing" commercials or pop-ups. Great channel!

[@RickPaquin]

Some are Very quiet and some , such as our CBS affiliate, mention the over the air channel every morning on their newscast. I'm also learning many of my neighbors have cut the cord with antennas pkaced in their attic. Cable subscriptions for TV is on a serious decline in cities with decent signals. We are in a transition period. But I agree with your assessment.

[@buickinvicta288]

This is so timely for me. Thank you. I cut my cord and was hoping for good info.

[@peterflynn2111]

cable should fail like it did here in Australia no one here will pay to watch local tv not stupid enough to ; a good antenna cheaper than subscription anyday also we do not have an icompetent FCC here also not as corrupt as congress here

[@bnstndrd]

👍

[@welovemrp00]

I'm not sure why I love this channel so much. I have had OTA or even cable TV in over 15 years lol

[@lazyhfarm]

Our WCJB TV20 here in Ocala /Gainesville Florida does. They periodically plug their sub frequencies on their main station. Example: Tune into 20.3 for METV at the end of the commercial for the programming by saying the frequency/channel sub number and calling it "Over The Air 20.3". I seldom hear on other locals. FOX 51 will sometimes plug their sub chans, the others are few and far. We get about 48 channels over air here.All from an attic mount. Of course most are sub channels and some are duplicates of affiliates etc. We HAVE NEVER HAD CABLE OR SAT. TV is suppose to be FREE. They figured out a way to scam people by paying for TV when commercials are suppose to fund the programming. Thank you Tyler for keeping the word out there that TV is free, STILL.

[@theda850two]

Great information Tyler, thank you much for doing this.

[@threynolds2]

I work for a TV station that operates three stations. When we are about to be dropped from cable/satellite our announcements DO include the information that our signals can always be viewed with an antenna. The average viewer doesn't understand the actual RF channel concept. In this city that would further confuse viewers as our .2 and .3 channels, and one .1 channel, are actually broadcast on the other competing stations' transmitters. On two of our transmitters, we are broadcasting the ATSC 3.0 main channels of all the other competing stations in town. BTW, at home I watch TV with an antenna (when I DO watch TV).

[@shakaama]

I'm about 4 times older than you. TV stations used to advertise how powerful they were, seemingly to entice people to watch their station, getting a better picture, better sound, and no disconnection.

[@berfunkle4588]

I'm not a fan of Nexstar owned channel 9 in Syracuse. A while ago, they pulled "MeTV" from their lineup and added "Antenna TV" instead. Apparently, Nexstar owns a stake in "Antenna TV". Makes me mad that they couldn't see fit to host both "MeTV" and "Antenna TV. Both channels are great to watch, and I would have liked to have the option of watching one or the other, depending on what was on.

[@hardkore360]

I watch my Monday night and Sunday football games in HD for free with my antenna in the attic, it's hooked up via coax cable to my smart TV and I can view the channels in a nice menu just like any other "channel guide". It's amazing.

[@checkerboy3469]

Good to know. Now let's talk about station group's mandated news graphics. seriously it's probably a great giveaway as to who owns your local tv station.

[@Anothertominohio]

You are so right. I have had to contact engineering people at two of my local stations to ask them why there are so many "technical" problems with their OTA signals or if they were even aware of the problems. In one case, the picture was about half the size it should have been. I've never seen that problem before. In another case, the METV affiliate would go off the air for 30-45 seconds...totally blackscreen...about twice an hour. Trying to find someone to contact was almost impossible. I attempted to call the CBS affiliate's switchboard but it was not attended. A recording asked me to hit "zero" to speak to someone. When I hit "zero", another recording said that option wasn't available. I resorted to contacting the "public file" contact by email found on their website. By law, they are required (or at least were) to keep records of emails as part of their public file so I thought this would be a good way to get their attention. After experiencing weeks of technical issues with the local OTA METV affiliate....it suddenly became watchable again. I wonder if they were even paying any attention to it to begin with. I can't believe what has happened to local media.

[@rylandtelevision2321]

Where I live, in Huntsville, AL, the local affiliates, even though owned by those big companies, do mention over the air antenna connections, especially on their webpages. CBS WHNT 19 (owned by Nexstar) has a form on their site to fill out if you have signal issues. ABC WAAY TV 31 (owned by Allen Media Broadcasting) has instructions on how to rescan your antenna to pick up the additional channels they broadcast that cable/satellite is not retransmitting. NBC WAFF 48 (owned by Gray Media) has instructions in a news story done about where their signal was recently improved walking people through rescanning their antenna. So, I believe that I am fortunate to have local stations that are providing that information, because I know from friends and family in three other markets that their affiliates are not providing this level of information.

[@jackbarnard7632]

Well I purchased the BIG Televes antenna... NICE !!!! 60 channels Thank I enjoy your posts

[@friesareyummy]

Capitol's stations here in the Raleigh/Durham area, WRAL and WRAZ, provide fantastic signals even in the fringes. I watch both pretty often and travel across the area often so it helps a lot.

[@kelownatechkid]

Hear, hear! Absolutely right!

[@volkswagenginetta]

I work for a major tv provider that was listed in this video. the fee that the customer sees is only a fraction of the actual fee (per person) Local channels know that is going to be usually most of the programming that people care about. a while back one of the comanies we purchased was giving out antennas to customers so that they could view the programming during a cost dispute. If a cable company is handing out antennas it really shows you how severe the alternative was.

[@viazel2796]

I've seen it mentioned on the odd channels 🤔 The major channels 😳... no Thank you so much for sharing 😀 👏🏾

[@phredtoo2]

I was not aware of this information. Thank you so much.

[@bobsoldrecords1503]

The stations in New Mexico have been refreshingly honest about antenna TV. One showing the channels they lease out and their program schedule on their website

[@edwardnash7411]

When I was young in the 60s I use to put up TV towers and Antennas paid good money

[@MrNickb-s500]

Thank you Tyler's for this very valuable information! 😊👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 I'm not real surprised but it my blood boil

[@AmitSingh-zn1kz]

Yes, the $12B number bothers me. Thank you for opening our eyes to this volume and style of business.

[@nickadams2361]

I have cut I few cords in my day, subscribed

[@raymondmartin6737]

So true. Being older. I remember the pre-cable tv days, 40 or so years ago. Very few big stock owners could not care less about us. We gave up cable TV this year, and the landlines too.

[@bnstndrd]

I prefer the stability of landline telephones but they've gone up on their prices to such a degree that it's just not even feasible anymore.

[@raymondmartin6737]

@@bnstndrd Well, we didn't have real land line any more since almost 20 years ago when we obtained VOIP phone service with cable until we just recently gave it up. I agree that the real old land lines were the most reliable.

[@bnstndrd]

@@raymondmartin6737 the phone company still provides regular landline service but the basic service (with no call waiting, caller ID, and etc) is gonna be about 50 bucks or more a month. 😕

[@raymondmartin6737]

@@bnstndrd Yes, not cheap. I first had an add on Caller-ID box on my land line in the 90's.

[@bnstndrd]

@@raymondmartin6737 I remember those.

[@louf7178]

Had an internet outage last week and was glad I had my OATs in use - especially important if it were a more major issue (hurricane, tornado, bombing, etc...) Failsafe implementations should be remembered by lawmakers.

[@Bob-gy6ud]

It was your channel that got me to get a good antenna, great powered splitter, and even an alright pre amp. To get free local channels. With the plethora of knowledge you shared I pulled in 62 channels (55 I saved to watch omitting HSN, church, Spanish channels). It’s funny Austin TX fox7 only hints to OTA by advertising the sub channels. During the NBC greed tantrum with DishNetwork. Dish gave me free an OTA receiver to put OTA through the tuner which allows me to DVR OTA. Being about 50 miles from Austin I had to move the antenna outside you did a video on it and I went from 10 to 25 with the other upgrades brought to 62. I’m thinking on upgrading Clearstream 2Max but 7 is VHF hi and NBC6 is VHF lo ( which is in another market and yet to be picked up by me ) so my options are limited.

[@claypyrotech7473]

I have seen the local OTA advertised when a provider is losing a local channel where I live.

[@retched]

I remember when Cablevision (now Altice) and my local WABC7 New York station had a contract dispute before, they were QUICK to mention that affected customers will be able to use an A/B Switch to jump between the cable reception and the antennae reception.

[@stephencaraway537]

I never paid for local channels when I had Dish Network. Made no sense. I've got an antenna outside to receive my local channels FOR FREE!!!!

[@haroldfridkis3536]

Agreed 👍

[@BobDiaz123]

I have a TV Antenna and use Tablo with it. Together the two rock. I use Tablo to record shows I like and watch them when I feel like it. While I don't get the extra channels, like Discovery, Disney, and others like that, I really don't miss them.

[@Choralone422]

Insane retransmission fees will ultimately kill either cable & satellite or the individual stations. It is nuts to see how greedy the industry has become in the past 20 years with those fees. My locals stations do occasionally mention OTA broadcasts but mostly in the context of watching their subcarrier channels.

[@jamesb1221222]

Too bad it's not just this industry, it's every industry these days. Greed is killing everyone.

[@STONE69_]

The Broadcast Companies are packaging their channels on the Internet. Bit by bit Cable will eventually decline.

[@Choralone422]

@@STONE69_ It's already in well into decline. Streaming viewership surpassed cable & satellite this summer.

[@STONE69_]

@@Choralone422 thanks for letting me know this, serves them right. They robbed me for years.

[@williamlancto3655]

Our local PBS has its OTA channels right on its website if you click Where to Watch, right alongside its channel number on Comcast, Spectrum, and Time Warner cable.

[@mikmik9034]

@ the start, Simple, Broadcasters get paid by Cable companies, as well as advertisers. They don't get paid by uses of OTA antennas. users When I cut my Cable, I got over 30 Analog channels, when they changed to Digital I got only 3 strong signals. Many channels (20) came in for about 15 minutes then pixilated and/or froze. Some sounded like they were transmitting audio from underwater. I tried 4 flatpanel digital antennas, and the one I amusing now is the one you hate. Mounted on a pole on my desk. I am 18 miles from a major Broadcast tower Line of sight, I can see the aircraft warning lights, barely get it. 3 Miles behind me is another Broadcast antenna (170 degrees) on a mountain I might be able to see if a house was not in the way. In the Analog days I got NYC (195 miles) 2, 5, and 9. Long Island channel 22. In analog pretty much everey OTA channel in my area.

[@daydreamintonation]

I live in a rural fringe area. When the switch to digital happened, I went from having about 8 dependable channels to 4 (on a good day). Locast was great, but since they got shut down, I'm paying for Hulu with live TV. Such a waste of money-- I wish I had analog TV again!

[@eosjoe565]

One of our local stations here in Harrisburg, WHTM-27 is constantly running commercials telling over-the-air folks to re-scan. I never quite understood why so often. Are they really changing things so frequently?

[@smorris281]

Back in the 90’s, WBRE and WNEP used to list their translator locations and channels right before their news broadcasts, I remember this distinctly. That was when their signals were VHF and they had many of them. We watched these stations using rabbit ears, but now there are no signals in the eastern Pocono’s.

[@AntennaMan]

Fun fact - they all shut down their translators in the Poconos about ten years ago.

[@lynnwatson3064]

Thanks so much. We try to use antenna. We are not in a good area. Also struggle with technology to handle antennas.

[@michaelmcchesney6645]

I live in a 2nd floor apartment in the Bronx. My building does not permit antennas or satellite dishes on the roof or side of the building. I bought a quality indoor/outdoor antenna and have it located in the corner of my living room where there are windows on both sides. I have the antenna hanging from a coat rack. I just think of it as a piece of art. I get really good reception on certain channels, intermittent signals on others and some not at all. I have a Tablo DVR connected to the antenna but rarely use it. I subscribe to KZbin TV because even if I had good reception on all my OTA channels, there are things I want to watch that aren't available on broadcast channels. For instance, I want to watch NY Mets games, so I need SNY. About 25 games a year are broadcast on WPIX. I actually get a much better picture over the air than I get on KZbin. But that was true when I was getting my channels via cable. KZbin TV actually has a great DVR function, but I don't use it for much because I watch most network programs via streaming on Paramount Plus, Hulu, and Peacock. That way I don't even have to be bothered fast forwarding through commercials. Talk about lazy... I was really hoping that I could get all my local channels via an antenna, but I just can't do it where I live. I suppose I could sell my apartment and move somewhere with better reception, but I just don't think it's worth it.

[@haroldalexis4200]

I remember in local TV stations about license renewal & comments of how your station performs & a guide or copies to the viewers what's happened to that ? You're absolutely right about what you said about these greedy obnoxious interfering bureaucratic sellouts that do this to viewers with an Antenna television. I will not support this meaning less networks to view unfortunately but the ones responsible as a result of their poor performance. Great job ANTENNA MAN. 📡.👋👋👍

[@ien2023]

Some of us in area that's hard to get even with outdoor antenna. always stick with outdoor antenna as it's more reliable and you get more channels.

[@Frankjc3rd]

It's funny that he should mention WFMZ. I live in Philadelphia and thanks that are repeater transmissions it shows up in the channel to range digitally. 2.1 is me TV, 2.2 is grit, 2.3 is the mystery channel, 2.4 is heroes and icons, 2.5 is a retro TV, I forget what 2.6 is, 2.7 is History channel IE story, then there's 2.7 2.8 and 2.9. when they originally started digital transmissions the channels went to 2.1 say to 2.6 and in recent years have gone all the way up to .9.