Looks like there have been signal strength problems with WHDH, as well as with other stations nationwide. I sent them a link to my previous post "The Rabbit Ears Report", and they sent back a great explanation of what was going on. Here it is in part:
“WHDH is experiencing signal difficulties following the transition that took place on June 12.
The signal difficulties we are experiencing are a result of post-transition power allocation assigned by the FCC that is not sufficient to maintain the signal strength that we had prior to the transition. We are petitioning the FCC to adjust the technical parameters so that we will be able to improve reception. In the meantime, we will continue to simulcast on Channel 42 (our pre-transition digital channel) so that viewers will be able to receive our signal. We appreciate your patience as we resolve this matter.
Thanks”
Bravo for stepping up and acknowledging problems to your viewers, channel 7, and true to their word, a rescan last night brought back both 7-1 and 7-2.
As a long time technology guy, I know that in any large scale transition there will be unexpected problems. Dealing quickly with those problems and making a “spectacular recovery” is the real measure of success in such a large project.
So, last night’s rescan brought a total reversal of fortune for both 7 and 5, changing my color coded reception chart (black/good, blue/decent, red/difficult) like this:
5-1 WCVB-DT Boston, MA ABC
7-1 WHDH-HD Boston, MA NBC
7-2 WHDH-SD Boston, MA This TV
The rescan also added 9-1, 27-1 and 27-2 to the mix.
There’s a good article about the broadcast power issues on boston.com today, the highlight of which is the “double rescanning” info from the FCC at the very bottom, which recommends that with all the hopping around that the stations are doing right now, you should basically wipe your box by disconnecting the antenna and rescanning, then power cycling it, then hook it back up and do a second rescan.
This is excellent advice that I think I would take a step further by recommending a weekly double rescan until all this shakes out.
Showing posts with label WHDH. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WHDH. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Breaking News, Only On 7...
We've lost our minds!
We’re dumping hometown boy Jay Leno’s new show before it even premieres, and plan to give you an hour of news instead. We're also going to simulcast on our sister station, so if you have picture in a picture, you'll be able to get twice the news!
Our new tag line will be “7News, Whether You Want it or Not!”
What the heck are they thinking? People in the Boston area feel a connection to Jay. He’s an Andover boy, after all, and if there’s one market in the country that he’ll get a good share in, at least initially, this is it. Plus, recent polls done by other Boston news outlets prove that viewers are not happy with this move.
Looking beyond what the viewers think, channel 7 already runs a 10pm newscast on their sister station ch56, which is in 3rd place (read last) in the 10pm news slot. They now plan on "simulcasting" the news on both stations at 10. So, that will give us 4 stations running 10pm news, with 2 being mirror images, and no NBC broadcast.
Regardless of whether you like Leno or not, you have to admit that rebroadcasting a poor quality news show on a second channel, at the same time, in the same market, and expanding it from a half hour to an hour and a half, doesn't make a lot of sense. Who are they hoping to attract, and what are they going to do to fill all this time? They're already repeating the same newscast every half hour in their 4 to 6:30 pm time slot, so we’re probably in for more of the same in this later slot. Oh joy.
Either Ansin is completely incompetent, or he's angling for something we’re not seeing yet. Perhaps he wants NBC to let him show Leno on 56 while he moves the news to 7. It’s highly unlikely that NBC would bite on this, as 56 is a CW affiliate, but you never know. Maybe they just want more local commercial time. Money is tight, and sometimes you use whatever lever you can find.
Why this would be more important to Ansin than actually fixing the news broadcast so that it might attract more than just viewers loyal to NBC programming, is beyond me.
Come to think of it, if he were to follow through on his threat, he'd even lose them...
We’re dumping hometown boy Jay Leno’s new show before it even premieres, and plan to give you an hour of news instead. We're also going to simulcast on our sister station, so if you have picture in a picture, you'll be able to get twice the news!
Our new tag line will be “7News, Whether You Want it or Not!”
What the heck are they thinking? People in the Boston area feel a connection to Jay. He’s an Andover boy, after all, and if there’s one market in the country that he’ll get a good share in, at least initially, this is it. Plus, recent polls done by other Boston news outlets prove that viewers are not happy with this move.
Looking beyond what the viewers think, channel 7 already runs a 10pm newscast on their sister station ch56, which is in 3rd place (read last) in the 10pm news slot. They now plan on "simulcasting" the news on both stations at 10. So, that will give us 4 stations running 10pm news, with 2 being mirror images, and no NBC broadcast.
Regardless of whether you like Leno or not, you have to admit that rebroadcasting a poor quality news show on a second channel, at the same time, in the same market, and expanding it from a half hour to an hour and a half, doesn't make a lot of sense. Who are they hoping to attract, and what are they going to do to fill all this time? They're already repeating the same newscast every half hour in their 4 to 6:30 pm time slot, so we’re probably in for more of the same in this later slot. Oh joy.
Either Ansin is completely incompetent, or he's angling for something we’re not seeing yet. Perhaps he wants NBC to let him show Leno on 56 while he moves the news to 7. It’s highly unlikely that NBC would bite on this, as 56 is a CW affiliate, but you never know. Maybe they just want more local commercial time. Money is tight, and sometimes you use whatever lever you can find.
Why this would be more important to Ansin than actually fixing the news broadcast so that it might attract more than just viewers loyal to NBC programming, is beyond me.
Come to think of it, if he were to follow through on his threat, he'd even lose them...
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