History Repeats Itself, This Time In Richmond, VA

[Kevin Vahey]

There is a harsh reality with TV today - transmitters are a nuisance
especially in major markets.

The major stations provide cable with a fiber feed and OTA is a complete
afterthought.

The thinking of the sales people is that people watching OTA instead of
cable don't have the income that advertisers want.

To the bean counters, 9/11 proved that transmitters meant little to the
biggest stations. While the NYC stations scrambled to find a new xmtr
location the stations were being fed to cable direct.

In Eastern Mass are there any stations that Comcast actually uses an OTA
signal?











On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 6:37 PM, Laurence Glavin <lglavin@mail.com> wrote:
>
> As we approach the first anniversary of the Great Boston TV Station
Fricasseed Antenna, history has repeated itself, this time in Richmond, VA.
> Atop a tower not far from the Virginia Capital City, sparks began to fly
in the antenna providing over-the-air viewers in that market with
> three of the broadcast television stations in that Metropolitan area. In
Needham, it took five months for the malfunctioning
> antenna to be lowered to the ground, shipped to its manufacturer for
repairs, retuned to its home on Cedar Street and hoisted
> into place. The affected stations, WGBH-TV, WBZ-TV, WCVB, WGBX and WSBK,
operated with reduced power on auxiliary
> antennas (I believe only WGBH-TV applied for an STA until the situation
was fixed; maybe the others had long-ago-authorized
> auxiliary antennas already). Now the Richmond stations will be forced to
do the same or people not on cable of the dish
> may have to watch some of their favorites shows at relatives' or
neighbors' homes or at the nearest pub (and the problem with that is...).
>
> Here's a link to a TV Spy story that also provides a link to the Richmond
Times-Dispatch coverage. Subsequent to the article
> at that paper, at least for now, there's a comment by me that some of you
might quibble about:
>
>
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/antenna-problem-causes-signal-disruption-at-3-richmond-stations_b84779