FAUX 6 Responds

[Tom Snyder]

Tom:

WITI is planning on being able to pass through the FOX digital signal (including wide-screen) by the end of the year.  Our digital signal was on the air and  met the FCC deadline.  Currently, our transmitter is located at the station while we prepare our broadcast tower to receive the digital signal.  This is scheduled to be completed next summer.  You can email me back next spring and will be happy to give you and update.

Chuck Steinmetz
WITI - FOX 6
414-586-2200 (ph)
414-357-8937 (fx)



[This message has been edited by Tom Snyder (edited 11-16-2002).]

[Todd Wiedemann]

Ugh. This is disgusting on so many levels, I can't bring myself to comment.

[RRP]

Truly pathetic.

Richard

[Tom Snyder]

 

I can't bring myself to comment.

I had to take a breath, count to 10 and replied:

Chuck STEINMETZ wrote:

> Our digital signal was on the air and  met the FCC deadline.
 
Thanks for your prompt response.

I'm hoping you can help me understand how an 800 watt signal at 125 ft that no one can pick up provides your market with coverage that qualifies as "on the air" and satisfies the FCC requirements.  Despite the fact that your current antenna is the closest to my home of all the Milwaukee digital anteannae (I am only 11 miles away) and I get solid signals from 4, 10, 12, 30 and 58,  I cannot get any signal at all from 6 digital.

Thanks in advance for your help.

- Tom

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Tom Snyder
Milwaukee HDTV Users Group http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org  

[Tom Snyder]

I think I'm getting more email from them this morning than everyone else has gotten here ever...

He replied:

Tom:

The answer is that the FCC requires that we cover our city grade....when we are able to move the antenna to our broacast tower our coverage will improve.

To which I responded:

I'm sure it will. Does the FFC require you to actually measure signal strengths in the field, or does it just require theoretical coverage on paper? At only 125 ft., I'm sure you know that there must be huge holes.

Sorry to be such a bother, but if  I can get these answers, I can post them to our site and possibly keep some of our folks off your back. As you can understand, and probably already know, you guys are taking quite a PR beating there  

----
Tom Snyder
Milwaukee HDTV Users Group http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org  

[StarvingForHDTV]

 

Originally posted by Tom Snyder:
Tom:

WITI is planning on being able to pass through the FOX digital signal (including wide-screen) by the end of the year.

Should I interpret this as:  WITI-DT has never passed me the correct Faux Digital Signal?  Now I wonder what they have been passing on to me during shows like 24.  What a mess.

Starving

[ReesR]

Any idea what Chuck Steinmetz does?

[Kevin Arnold]

This is really strange. Fox owns WITI but drags their feet about really transmitting a useable signal. Thus, Faux 6 cannot transmit Fox's widescreen offerings because of power and equipment problems. The other stations in their market passed them by and left them in the dust including the WVCY, who has no use for a digital signal.

What a way to run a station.

[Tom Snyder]

Chuck Steinmetz is the Vice President and General Manager of the station, promoted from General Sales Manager when Carol Rueppel moved to KMSP/WFTC in Minneapolis. He's a native of Milwaukee and a UW-Eau Claire graduate.

We've continued to communicate this morning.

Here's his latest:

As long as you host a site - you might want to pass along that going forward I will be happy to communicate with viewers regarding these issues, but many people seem to take this so passionately that they write/call in a very non-professional manner.  I understand the passion, but I will not put my employees in a position where they have to deal w/ viewers who write/speak in such a manner - those emails/messages will go unanswered.


I'm still working on my response.. but in the meantime, be nice, or you won't get a reply from them.

[techguy1975]

 

Originally posted by Tom Snyder:
I'm still working on my response.. but in the meantime, be nice, or you won't get a reply from them.

This only further validates the point I made before, in the chat with Tim on Friday.  Put yourself in the enineeers shoes, how would you respond if you got a insulting, mean spirted message?  Would you want to respond to that?

Aside from passing the message on, these people have little power to do anything.  As with any big corporation, any kind of capital expenditure requires a lot of paperwork, time, waiting for budgets, a little luck, and a sacrifice here and there.

In my job, I run a helpdesk, and do phone support.  I have dealt with many angry customers.  The ones who yell the most, especially when its not justified, make my job so much harder, because as much as I'd like to, I cant hang up on them  

Tom displayed an example of a very well written message, that was short, to the point, and was not insulting.  As you can see, it yeilded the desired response.

[Tom Snyder]

 

these people have little power to do anything.

As a VP/GM Chuck Steinmetz is THE GUY who determines when Fox 6 digital goes on the air with a full-power signal. While Fox corporate has an anti-HDTV stance, the fact that WFLD-Digital in Chicago is already on the air indicates that there is local decision involved. Admittedly he wasn't the GM when the FCC mandated the timetable, and may only have been GM since last October, but he's been a part of the management team at WITI long enough to have an impact on their 2002 budget.

 

The ones who yell the most, especially when its not justified, make my job so much harder,

Two questions:

1.) What must a compnay do to provoke a customer to feel a need to yell
2.) And if there are times it's not justifed, when IS it justfied?

 

Tom displayed an example of a very well written message, that was short, to the point, and was not insulting. As you can see, it yeilded the desired response.

Aw, shucks, Bob. You say the kindest things.   I better not let you see the original e-mail I sent that got the first response.  

[Gregg Lengling]

I'm just ranting here, but I'm going to download the specs on the FCC website for the STA that WITI-DT has and plug them into my propagation software package to see if indeed they do meet the terms of their license.  I doubt they do, but I'll give them the benifit of the doubt until I do the math.  In the interest of fairness if I find they do not, I will forward this to WITI directly and ask for a response nicely.  However I and any one of you have the option of filing a complaint with the FCC. The FCC has been going through a digital revolution for the last few years so it's very easy to file a complaint on the web.  I used to file all my FCC license paper work via the US Mail or via my attorney in Washington, but guess what I can't do that anymore, I have to file on the Web.  Kudos to the FCC they are one of 2 govt. agencies I know that actually make good use of the Web. (The other is The State of Wisconsin's Financial Dept., when I file a UCC lien against equipment that I lease to clients I now file on line and guess what it's not the like the DOT where they charge you extra to do it, they actually give you 50% off the filing fee).



------------------
Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
HiDTV Pro 2 computer reciever card
glengling@ameritech.net

[Tom Snyder]

I found it curious that he never answered my question about actual measurements. The reason I asked was that, back in the old days when I worked at an extremely directional AM radio station, we had to take actual measurements to prove to the FCC that we weren't fudging. Didn't matter what you said on your application, and your transmitter readings, while required, still weren't enough.

Do they require that any more?
 

[Gregg Lengling]

AM stations under certain rules have to have regular signal checks.  Most stations nowadays have to have a proof of performance even when the engineering shows proper coverage.  I'm not 100% sure about TV I'll have to check the rules.  When channel 49 went on the air for the first 2 years they didn't have the proper equipment to prove in logs proper operation so I was contracted to do monthly readings...however that didn't include coverage profiles.  I'm pretty sure to change the CP (construction permit) to a real license takes field proofs.  I'll check into it.


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Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
HiDTV Pro 2 computer reciever card
glengling@ameritech.net

[Gregg Lengling]

It's pretty harried the rules regarding this and you would have to find out also what WITI-DT filed with the FCC but here's a link to the rules on DTV coverage and antennas.
 http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=47&PART=73&SECTION=625&YEAR=2001&TYPE=TEXT