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Topics - mrschimpf

#1
This is the exact reverse of 2013; with about seven months to go on the terrible agreement Steve Wexler 'negotiated' with Time Warner in that summer which pretty much put Journal on the road to ruin and Scripps merger (and WTMJ on channel 2, 83 in Plymouth), Scripps and Time Warner had a much quieter renegotiation and came to terms on a new long-term agreement.

So no drama this August from channel 4 being pulled...that's a small relief.
#2
Milwaukee HDTV Programming / Good news/bad news for WTMJ
Tuesday Jun 16, 2015, 02:01:26 AM
The good news first is that WTMJ has finally added a SAP channel for audio description for regular programming/Spanish play-by-play for sports. This is a few weeks before the FCC's audio description requirements hit the Milwaukee market on July 1st, and WTMJ was the last to add a SAP channel; WDJT and WITI always have had one going back to the analog age, and WISN put theirs online in early 2014. This leaves WMVS/WMVT as the only major stations without DVS (I never knew why), as WVTV and WCGV really aren't affected by any of the FCC requirements.

Of course that great news comes with Scripps adding more lousy subchannel networks to WTMJ; Escape, a 'women's network' which thinks women="big fans of Snapped and Forensic Files reruns and awful crime films even This TV won't touch", and LAFF, a great network for sitcoms, if you enjoyed ABC sitcoms in the 1990's. Right now it looks like one of them will replace Cozi on DT3 (likely Laff), with a DT4 channel added on to make the .1 signal look even worse. :bang: Hopefully with new management comes actually putting these channels on cable (especially Charter), but I'm not holding my breath.
#3
Well that's one way to get the declining newspapers off your books; spin them all off into an existing publishing company, and keep the TV/radio stations to yourselves (the Spelling Bee stays with New Scripps though).

This is definitely a big deal; it's the end of the ancient rivalry between Journal and Hearst that went back to the turn of the century in Milwaukee, but now it sets off so many questions. Scripps is a good broadcasting company and definitely shares Journal's hate of syndicated programming and over-scheduling of local news, so it's definitely a merger of equals rather than anything Sinclair or Nexstar.

But Scripps is also heavy with ABC affiliates, with iron-clad deals in many of their markets that date back to the 1994 affiliate switches. There is an (admittedly questionable) possbility that Scripps could switch TMJ to ABC, setting up the self-admitted 'best ABC affiliate', WISN to go to the Peacock.

Finally though I would hate to be at 4th & State tomorrow; the J-S has always had unqualified journalistic independence (though very monopolistic) and operates as if they've never had to answer to their stockholders. Under new Scripps ownership combined with Journal, that may not happen any longer.

Let the chaos begin.
#4
Milwaukee HDTV Programming / WVTV to get movie subchannel
Monday Jun 23, 2014, 11:33:30 PM
We knew it couldn't last forever, but today Sinclair announced that a digital subchannel movie network run by Sony, getTV will air on 18.2 by the end of the year.

I'm sure these days signal management means we won't even notice any loss in detail for 18.1 (and I can't blame the local guys really since they have to take whatever Hunt Valley throws at them), but if all the people behind digital subchannels think we want are reruns, movies and weather, it's incredibly uncreative.
#5
Milwaukee HDTV Programming / Live Well Network gone by mid-2014
Wednesday Jun 11, 2014, 02:10:50 AM
Apparently running lifestyle programming and infomercials in primetime isn't a good business plan, and ABC will discontinue the network by mid-January 2015, though stations might ditch early.

Of course we have LWN on WTMJ 4.3 in this market, so they'll need to plan to carry something new. Unfortunately (for them at least) every one of the major subchannel networks in the Milwaukee is already associated with Weigel's stations, WITI or with WeatherNation, has a station of their own and cable carriage, so that's going to leave WTMJ with CoziTV (NBC's classic TV service), GetTV (another movie network), or a never-watched outdoors channel, along with Luken's various 'could go out of business any day' networks.

There's the possibility that TMJ might just give up on 4.3 and put the bandwidth on the pitfully low 4.1 for more HD clarity. Of course this is TMJ so I don't expect that to happen.:bang: Also whatever choice they make, it'll come with the disastrous consequences that came with 4.3 and 4.2 being dumped from Time Warner Cable, along with the Charter snobbery that's going to bite them once they take over the TWC systems, so any network won't be apt to sign on unless that's rectified.
#6
I got the notice in the mail yesterday; Charter is turning off their analog channels and going all-digital in their Wisconsin cluster as of the dates listed above (not sure about FdL or the Waukesha/Walworth communities). Looks like we'll be getting many more HD simulcasts (finally, the Weather Channel and Univision in HD!) which pretty much make it useless to go anywhere below 100, though at the loss of ClearQAM. Thankfully after hearing about their Texas and Michigan conversions I bought an HDHomerun PRIME for my PC with tuning ability, but others might not be so lucky.

They'll be offering one free digital adapter, cable box or CableCard for a year to customers who do need the equipment, since they'll now require boxes with every set.
#7
Latest News / Comcast buying Time Warner Cable
Wednesday Feb 12, 2014, 09:15:53 PM
Anyone who was thinking that Charter was going to snap up TWC like me is shocked tonight...Comcast is laying down $159/share for Time Warner, well above the $130-140/share range Charter was offering.

Announcements of more tomorrow and somehow I don't think this is the final word by far since Charter's aggressive about getting Time Warner, but Comcast, with their one Manitowoc system, would probably get to keep the TWC Wisconsin cluster for sure.
#8
For once, we won't have to worry about losing a station on Time Warner; Tribune and Time Warner have a new carriage agreement. Unlike the last carriage agreement with WITI where they negotiated with their former Fox O&O sisters, this one also includes the Local TV stations like WITI, which with the FCC approval for Trib's purchase coming Friday and final closing before the new year, means Fox is safe for the usual three years locally on TWC. Probably will also include This TV when it inevitably bumps over from 58.3 to 6.3 whenever that exchange happens too.
#9
I didn't even know about this until last night when I tuned past on my cable subchannel section, but the long looping bandwidth waste that was Shorewest TV on 58.4 ended at 5am Monday morning. I weep for the loss of that Beyonce sound-alike music they used on every fourth home presentation, terrible sound and picture, and the same nine PSA's over and over again. It looks like it was mutual as the network still exists at Shorewest.TV, but can be fine tuned to home type, location and price, unlike 58.4.

Of course, the channel couldn't go away to add bandwidth to 58.1 or be moved to 49, 41 or 63. Now we have a 16:9 information channel called TouchVision that I can best describe as...experimental.

Think that channel you see on the TV's at Arby's or WalMart that keeps looping stories and infotainment segments, but designed for younger people than the usual robo-loops like AccuWeather. A bunch of irreverently named segments, chopped up presentations of wire service video and lots and lots of rock music. The only sign it's 58 is a three minute loop of the station's weather computer graphics and skycams at the half-hour mark.

Apparently it's in beta and meant for multi-platforms like tablets and also is on the air in Chicago, also on a Weigel station. I think it's interesting and makes for good background noise, but many others I'm sure won't like it at all and will just keep it on the delete list.
#10
Time for the fun to begin anew, as Journal and Time Warner Cable have until June 30 to come to new terms or TWC customers lose TMJ4, Storm Team 4 TV and the Live Well Network. WGBA (NBC), WACY (My) and WGBA's MeTV subbie in Green Bay are also affected, along with Journal's CBS station in Omaha and their NBC and MyNet stations in Palm Springs north of LA.

TWC says the rate they want is a "200% increase". Going by Journal's FAQ, they want TWC to go from under 30ยข per month per subscriber per station, to under $1.20 per month ps/ps. Wouldn't that be 400%? Meaning that FAQ writer doesn't understand basic math?

Any way you slice it though, this doesn't seem as critical as WISN's dumping last year, which happened during ABC's usual dead season, but with a good news product and their syndicated schedule. NBC is just as dead not counting the Macy's fireworks and golf this time of year, and unlike 12, the loss of constant tabloid news 'repeats', Access Hollywood Live and Alliant Energy Powerhouse doesn't inspire much to spring up and tell Time Warner to agree to things until the Packers preseason comes in August, when something must be in place. It's also unusual for Journal to be so combative about TWC considering how heavy that station sponsors their news and has on-demand content, and how cozy those two are about exclusivity are while keeping Charter, U-verse and dish subscribers from getting their .2 or .3 signals in any way.
#11
Just saw in the last few days that the Sinclair stations are scaling up their widescreen syndicated shows to display in full-screen in 16:9 without the green and blue sidebars and bottom letterboxes, using the Active Format Description #9 code to do so (so that stuff is still there, but just appearing in the "offscreen" section). It does appear right now as zoomed-in 4:3 on the SD cable channels though (at least on Charter).

Still not HD (I know that's not coming at all until the move to Calumet Road), but I'm glad to see they're keeping up somehow, especially when all the cable nets have their HD simulcasts up now. It'll be great once they move to the new studios with all new technology.
#12
I found out tonight through accident since I watch NCIS on WDJT with Descriptive Video Service, then flipped over to WITI later to watch New Girl, that 6 has now enabled their Second Audio Program channel. Right now when WITI isn't in network programming, a voiceover on the SAP audio says this in an endless loop.

QuoteWITI Fox 6 has added a second digital audio channel. The purpose of this channel is to provide audio descriptions of the action taking place during a program, to assist visually challenged people. This service is part of the Accessibility Act, which the FCC is requiring television stations to enforce, effective July 1, 2012. During Fox network programming, 7-9pm weekdays, 6-9pm Sundays, and all Fox Sports broadcasts, the descriptive audio channel will be used as the Spanish audio language channel. It's possible that some TVs will automatically elect the SAP channel. If that happens to your TV, use the remote control to find the audio settings on your television. Once you find the audio channel settings, you will see there are two choices; English and Spanish. Select English. Again, every television set is different. You may have to refer to the instructions that came with the television to find this setting.

Note that the above isn't fully true in regards to Spanish audio; Fox has one DVS program in The Simpsons that carries description, and that was true of Sunday's episode when I checked my recording.

Also, it isn't truly effective until July 2013 for Milwaukee going by this article about the new DVS requirements (Milwaukee is currently Nielsen DMA 34, and the legislation forces the top 25 markets to launch DVS on July 1 this year, then ten more markets each year after that), but I assume Local TV just wanted to get it over with for their stations from their hubs in required cities. So if you suddenly hear a non-ending loop on WITI recordings or DVS or Spanish in network hours, this is why, and also if WTMJ and WISN follow (seems CW and MyNet are excluded from the regulation).

I hope this finally gets WMVS to open up their DVS channel too (never have on their digital signal); for a public television station to not have this feature now is annoying.
#13
Milwaukee HDTV Programming / WCGV/ACC in HD...
Saturday Jan 14, 2012, 11:55:20 PM
Watched the Wake Forest/NC State this afternoon and saw that Channel 24 was carrying the Raycom ACC Network feed in HD. Certainly not anything that's prime in Milwaukee at all (but leagues better than Byron Allen content and infomercials you usually see there at that time), but it seems like a good sign that Sinclair is finally getting more than their networks (and the widescreen high school games) in better than SD quality. Hope their syndicated programs are next.
#14
This is a pretty sad one; Journal sued TheCoolTV for $257k for "non-payment of broadcast operations" (sounds like something involving satellite reception, ad payments and the like), so Journal is done with them and on October 1st, 4.3 becomes another affiliate of the Live Well Network. WGBA in Green Bay is getting MeTV to replace them on 26.2.

Because of TMJ's ridiculous policy of keeping their subchannels exclusive to Time Warner and not doing anything at all with Charter I only can see TheCoolTV on antenna, so I never really saw it that much, but I never had any complaints about it at all. I really hope Cool is able to survive if they're having problems with cash flow, and hopefully because Sinclair airs it in every market WCGV is quick to pick them right back up.

As for Live Well...I already have HGTV, and Live Well is no HGTV :rolleyes:. Pray that WTMJ doesn't pull a WLS and throws their signal on in 720p. It's seriously not needed.
#15
A new network for mainly African-American audiences which starts in late September

Can't say there's anything to complain about here at all...it's only on WBME, which still has enough room for a couple more subchannels and it should still be 100 times better than RTV (trust me, when WITI dumped it, they did it at the right time), plus it seems to have an actual purpose. At least it isn't yet another weather subchannel. The only concern I have is what's holding up MeToo Milwaukee at this point (maybe the master control upgrade?).
#16
Sinclair began to launch this network (which consists of all country videos) in September 2010 on their stations under subchannels, and it looks like it was launched today on 24.2 where the Tube was for a few short months in 2006.

Looks pretty good so far; on a 720p signal so degradation isn't an issue like it would be on 18 with 1080i, and now if you're a music fan you have TheCoolTV on 4.3, this, and the MPTV Jazz and Classical channels to take care of your music needs without Music Choice or if you need to (shudder)...MTV and CMT.

I also have to say they did a great job last week with the high school game in widescreen; seems like they've been doing great things to recover from the big flood a few months back.
#17
Pretty well about the most non-chalant introduction to 16:9 news ever; Kathy and Toya said they hope that everyone enjoys the screen completely filled and moved on with the newscast. Nothing about HD, but judging from the video quality of some of the news clips in the last couple of weeks (it seems like the quality is much lower than usual, like YouTube quality) and the fact some of the HD syndie shows have aired in SD lately they're working off some backup unit while they get their HD equipment up and running.

At least they were upfront that it's widescreen and they're not going with TMJ's 'we're HD...but only in the studio' strategy.
#18
I've been having problems with recording an entire show on WITI during primetime or sports because of the way they structure the transition from the Fox feed, to local commercials, and back to Fox. It seems to blank out the DVR (Charter's MOXI) and thinks the channel went off the air, and then it returns after awhile, but not after missing a few minutes of recording.

I don't understand what's going on, and why it's only Fox 6 that has this problem, since the other station just can seamlessly go from network to local without a problem, but WITI jutters in and out. If anyone can confirm this happens on Time Warner/TIVO/Dish, I would feel a little more reassured. The last thing I want to do is literally downgrade to the joke Motorola/TV Guide considers a DVR to fix the problem.
#19
Milwaukee HDTV Programming / CBS58 HD making actual progress
Monday Mar 15, 2010, 03:26:08 AM
Did anyone notice tonight during the NCAA Selection show the ticker on the top of the screen promoting their tournament challenge and the This TV multicast? And how it was in 16:9 and the screen wasn't cut down to 4:3 like it has been in the past?



Hopefully this leads to progress as far as the station getting their syndicated shows in HD, but it's a good sign.
#20
Milwaukee HDTV Programming / WTMJ 4.2 switches to AccuWeather
Tuesday Dec 22, 2009, 01:59:36 AM
It took WTMJ long enough (a year after) and after the old WeatherPlus subchannel now known as Storm Team 4 TV had become a joke without any programming besides the recorded forecast and uninformative conditions loop which is the only thing the local systems could ever provide, but 4.2 has switched from that zombie system to Local AccuWeather, which is also seen on subchannels for WLS in Chicago and WMTV in Madison.

Apparently it's still in testing; the AccuWeather system around the video rebooted back to an XP desktop a couple times. But it's certainly alot better than the old system and loop of the same six background songs you had to listen to every time you watched 4.2.

Now if they can only knock off this whole Time Warner exclusivity nonsense and get it onto Charter. I still prefer the locally-run weather subchannel from WBAY in Green Bay which is incredibly in-depth on anything you could ever ask for, but it's good that WTMJ finally has national weather programming again.