Thank you TMJ4

[SRW1000]

I have also sent an email to NBC expressing my frustration.

I doubt that one will get a response.

Scott

[nick3092]

Mr. Wexler,

I find your station's constant dropping HD to standard def due to minor weather issues highly annoying.  You wreck any enjoyment I have of watching NBC's shows on your channel.  You wrecked the Thursday night comedy line up a week ago.  And tonight I was looking forward to The Last Templar, but now you've wrecked it for me.

Thank you for telling me it's cold outside.  It is January, and we are in Wisconsin after all.  I never would have guessed that it's cold outside.  Thank you for letting me know.  I don't think I could have figured it out, despite the fact I have lived in Wisconsin all my life.  Oh, and thank you for letting me know that some pet grooming place, and some karate class was canceled a few weeks ago on that Thursday night I mentioned.  I much prefer you destroy my favorite shows by shrinking them down to standard def so I knew not to take Fluffy to go get a bath.

The fact that you show no respect for your viewers by constantly dropping from HD to SD for unnecessary weather is disturbing.  Without viewers, your station is nothing.  I really hope that you guys get your head out of your rear ends there, and do it soon.  I can only imagine the public outrage that will occur if you do this next Sunday during the super bowl.

-Nick

[milwaukee]

I'm not even watching it, I will just download a HD version of it off bittorrent and watch it. TMJ4 is the WORST local station, what moron there thinks people in Wisconsin need to know it's cold in JANUARY. All of these stations struggle for ad money, they struggle to get people to watch shows..I was looking forward to watching tonight but I wont because it's not in HD.

[AndrewP]

Dear Mr. S. Wexler,

I just let you know that what are you doing to the HD broadcasts in Milwaukee in my word is crime.
Wanted to watch The Last Templar from DVR (was not able to be at home by 8.00) and again got this stupid weather info.
It is stupid, STUPID!
So show went to the wastebasket. Thank you much.
Fortunately, I have OTA HD signal from Chicago, so I will have Super Bowl in HD for sure.
AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE DENY ME TO WATCH IT IN HD!

Very disappointed viewer, Andrew

[leprechaunshawn]

I just started playing The Last Templar from my dvr and lo and behold, TMJ4 is letting me know that its cold outside.  I guess I will stop watching, delete the show, cancel the recording for tomorrow night and take my TV viewing to another network.

I also sent an email to this Wexler character asking for an explanation as to why this is happening.  We'll see what kind of canned response I get.

[WITI6fan]

YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE, WE INTERRUPT THIS THREAD WITH A URGENT SPECIAL MILWAUKEEHDTV.ORG FIRST ALERT STORM TEAM WEATHER WATCH CENTER BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL REPORT!!!:eek::eek:

It is currently 7F with a wind chill of -3F.

That is all.

[Stanley Kritzik]

I'm watching the Winter X-Games on ESPN in HD, and the program has a crawl on it -- also in HD!  So, at least ESPN has figured out how to stay in HD with a crawl.  Well, that's only part of the battle.  The ESPN crawl was not objectionable, because a sports program can tolerate such a thing.  But, for a film, a dramatic program, etc., the last thing the viewer needs is even an HD crawl -- involving something as moronic as ordinary local weather, routine event closings, etc., the sort of stuff TMJ pulls all the time.

When it comes to the Super Bowl, I'm going to watch it some other way, if possible.  TMJ needs to wake up and program responsibly.

Stan

[chamber79]

To give one local station credit, WISN has been practicing with their HD crawler over the past few weeks, but I totally agree with you guys. When you think about it, it would be pretty retarded to see one of their teaser commercials for the 10pm news turn into a weather guy coming on air to say, "Hey everyone. It's cold in January." I kind of miss the good ole days when everything was 4:3 SD and our square TVs. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my 16:9 HD! Now it's just one more thing to annoy the crap out of me. Oh well. I guess I can just forget about NBC whenever there is any even hint of even any possible weather.

[REVM1M]

I had it with this garbage. I just emailed swexler and will not watch WTMJ4 until HD is back. If they do this next Sunday during super bowl, I will be very very mad. I have about 20 people coming to watch it on my 106" screen.

[Bluto]

Count me amongst the disappointed last night.

I agree with Scott.  I'm hoping that TMJ drops out of HD for the SuperBowl this year.  If that happens, the sh*tstorm TMJ will be pounded with will end that practice once and for all.  If I have to watch Pittburgh-AZ in SD to make this right, I'm willing to make that sacrifice.

I just had a thought - if TMJ get pounded with a sh*tstorm, will they drop out of HD to cover it?  

[REVM1M]

I just got email back from Steve Wexler:

We are in the process of installing equipment that will not disrupt our HD service even when we are adding special weather or news information to our broadcasts.  You still may not always agree with our decision to add this information, but at least when we do, it will not interfere with our HD broadcasts.  

Thanks for your comments and for watching TODAY'S TMJ4.  We will certainly take your comments into consideration.

 Steve Wexler
Executive Vice President
Television & Radio Operations

[nick3092]

I just got email back from Steve Wexler:

We are in the process of installing equipment that will not disrupt our HD service even when we are adding special weather or news information to our broadcasts.  You still may not always agree with our decision to add this information, but at least when we do, it will not interfere with our HD broadcasts.  

Thanks for your comments and for watching TODAY'S TMJ4.  We will certainly take your comments into consideration.

 Steve Wexler
Executive Vice President
Television & Radio Operations

I got the exact same e-mail.  I'm sure everyone who e-mailed him got the same e-mail.  It would have been nice if he would have at least said "We will not do this to the Super Bowl."  But we'll see.

[leprechaunshawn]

I also got the same response.

[SRW1000]

That's the same response I got.

Disappointing to see that it's a canned response.  For a little while, I thought that maybe our opinions mattered.

As expected, I didn't receive any response from NBC.

Sigh,

Scott

[SRW1000]

Hey, we made the paper:

    Tim Cuprisin | Inside TV & Radio
Posted Jan. 26, 2009 8:51 p.m

YES, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE: A handful of high-definition TV viewers e-mailed to gripe about Channel 4 posting a wind-chill reading on the screen over the weekend, which didn't allow for HD programming.

No, they don't yet have the technical ability to post such graphics and retain HD. Yes, they will at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Yes, it often gets this cold in January. Yes, they know that at Channel 4.

Yes, viewers have every right to gripe about it. Gripe directly to Channel 4 at //www.todaystmj4.com/about/contact.

No, griping won't change anything as long as weather brings viewers to local newscasts, the money-makers for network affiliates.

And, finally: no, you don't have a constitutional right to have HD pictures on your TV.[/COLOR]

I would have to add that, no we don't have a right to HD, but we don't have to be stuck watching down-converted SD content either.  There are too many options out there to be slighted like this.

I can't see how any reasonable person can conclude that rating will go up by having a superimposed temperature and wind chill graphic.  That's just silly.  But, if we stick to our guns, ratings will go down.

For what it's worth, they seem to be showing The Last Templar in HD tonight.  Even though the temp and wind chill are comparable to what they were yesterday afternoon.  Too bad there's no point in watching part two of a two-part series when we skipped part one.

Scott