Joined: Feb 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 174 Location: Conyers Karma: 0
Atlanta TV getting LNS « Result #1 on May 17, 2009, 3:40am »
BIG STORY: According to Broadcasting and Cable, it looks like Atlanta is set to establish a content pooling service agreement, similar to that of the FOX/NBC model (Local News Service). WAGA (FOX 5), WXIA (11Alive), and WGCL (CBS Atlanta, channel 46) appear to be the Atlanta stations moving in the direction of pooling video content, in an effort to save money, and relax resources to chase down specialty stories. The 3 stations are set to perform a test run the week of May 18-22... to share video content of sports interviews and news conferences, as well as the possibility of the stations sharing 1 news gathering helicopter. WSB (ABC, channel 2) appears to be the only station opting not to participate, in favor of keeping the "mom-and-pop" roots intact.
FOX and NBC experimented with LNS in late 2008, starting with their respective Philly stations WTXF and WCAU... FOX/NBC model has since expanded LNS to their New York, L.A., Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and DC stations.
Since FOX and NBC debuted the LNS model, many other television stations across the nation have viewed this AP-style approach to Local TV News as an inspired move... as these stations have since established similar LNS agreements, or are working on new LNS agreement.
-- CBS and Tribune moved to join Chicago's existing LNS agreement. It remains to be seen whether or not CBS and Tribune will be joining the existing LNS agreements in New York, L.A., and Dallas-Ft. Worth... as well as KYW joining the existing LNS in Philly. B&C story: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article...._in_Chicago.php
Joined: Feb 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 174 Location: Conyers Karma: 0
FOX 5 News - Now in HD « Result #2 on Mar 16, 2009, 11:02pm »
I don't know if anyone has noticed or not. FOX 5 converted its newscasts to high-definition today (March 16th), during the noon newscast... becoming the last Atlanta television station to offer its broadcasts in HD. Atlanta... like Philly, L.A., and Celeveland becoming the latest U.S. television market to have all English speaking newscasts in HD.
To re-cap: 11Alive (WXIA-TV) was first to convert its newscasts to HD in February, 2006... MyAtl TV (WATL-TV channel 36) newscast was included in the HD conversion in September, 2006.
WSB-TV (Channel 2) became the second Atlanta television news station to convert in September, 2006.
CBS Atlanta (WGCL-TV) became the third station to convert to HD in January, 2009... dropping the "CBS 46" branding to be branded once again as "CBS Atlanta".
The news set and theme music are still the same. The only things different... the new FOX O&O HD graphics, and new animated logo bug.
Joined: Apr 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 121 Location: Central Georgia Karma: 2
Analog TV Shutdown: Macon « Result #3 on Feb 14, 2009, 11:36pm »
Observations of the 2009 conversion to Digital broadcast television from the Macon Georgia market.
As of February 14th, 2009, the US Government agreed to change the official deadline for all US Full power stations to shut off their analog transmitter and broadcast ONLY in Digital from FEBRUARY 17TH, 2009 until JUNE 12TH.
Stations had the option to turn off their analog signals prior to June 12th but had to seek approval from the FCC and follow specific guidelines to alert the public of their intent to turn off their old analog transmitters.
In the Macon market, ALL full power stations will go all digital before the new June deadline.
Three stations will change on the original deadline of February 17th.
WGXA- 24 (FOX) WMGT-41 (NBC) WPGA-58 (ABC)
WMAZ-13 (CBS) will turn off their analog signal a month later on March 16th.
WMUM-29 (PBS) will turn off their analog signal along with other Georgia Public Broadcasting stations on February 17th. Only one GPB station, WABW-14 Pelham Georgia serving Albany will keep their analog signal beyond February 17th due to other stations moving to different channels as reported on the GPB website. A recent article in the Macon Telegraph reported the opposite indicating that Macon's channel 29 would stay on the air.
Christian TV station WGMN turned off their low power analog channel 64 last spring and is only running DIGITAL broadcasting in full power on channel 45 (Id's as ch 64.1)
Low power channels 31 and 50 are both religious stations running with snowy reception in Warner Robins (20 miles south) but clear in Macon. They are not running digital.
Observations from the individual stations in the Macon market.
WPGA- "ABC Macon": They have been running announcements on the air for weeks specifically telling viewers that their analog broadcasting will end at 12 noon on February 17th. They have included a "DTV Countdown" in every station ID since last summer and now is running a "crawl" message for several minutes every half hour announcing their February 17th end of service on analog channel 58. The crawl is running EXCLUSIVELY on the analog signal and reminds viewers that if they are seeing their message crawl, they need to take action.
Lowell Register, the owner of the WPGA has made it very clear in all interviews that his station is going all digital as planned. But on the WPGA website (www.macon.tv) there could be confusion as on their main page is an article about the digital transition being postponed to June 12th. There is NO mention on the website of WPGA keeping to the February 12th date.
As of 2/14 WPGA-DT can be recieved without problems at my location 15 miles from its transmitter.
WMGT- "Todays MGT" has been running public service announcements during commercial breaks. Rarely have I seen the required "crawl" message about their intent to go digital on the 17th but when it is shown, it is broadcast over both their analog and digital signals. They do mention the DTV transition during every newscast. Little mention of WMGT changing to DTV in February on their website.
An engineer for WMGT proudly said in public interviews that he can't wait to bury their very old analog equipment.
As of 2/14, WMGT's digital signal can be recived on one area of my home. The digital reception is not good at its current power.
WGXA- "Fox 24" has made more announcements about their recent disputes with local cable companies for retransmission agreements than the DTV transition itself. WGXA began requiring fees from ALL local cable companies as of January 1st and had been removed from a few cable companies in a dispute over the carriage fees demanded by WGXA. Announcements on the FOX 24 website also show the stations concerns with local cable companies. Most cable companies had settled during January with a few in far rural areas currently offering FOX programing.
WGXA has announced during their newscasts that the FCC postponed the transition date then after that they always mention that they "intend to cease analog programing on February 17th"
As of 2/14, WGXA-DT is well recieved in most areas. It is the best of the stations in the area at current power levels.
WMUM-29: There may be some confusion about whether they will change on February 17th but their analog signal has always been the strongest in the area, same for their FM station at 89.7. However at current power, their digital station can be difficult to get. It operates on digital channel 7 with channels appearing as 29.1, 29.2 and 29.3 with the different options from Georgia Public Broadcasting. WMUM is the ONLY Macon area station offering substantial programming on their digital subchannels.
WMAZ-13: They were the last to announce a change to digital perhaps waiting on a corporate decision from parent GANNETT and the need to move their very poorly recieved digital channel 4 to the post analog shutdown return to channel 13. Still, in the digital format, channel 13 is low for good digital reception. Also, WMAZ only offers weather radar on a digital subchannel. Many people complaiin about the quality of WMAZ's HDTV reception .
Joined: Feb 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 174 Location: Conyers Karma: 0
News now in HD... "CBS Atlanta" replaces "CBS 46" « Result #4 on Jan 15, 2009, 2:24am »
IT'S OFFICIAL! Meredith has converted WGCL newscasts to high-definition. With the conversion to HD, WGCL has retired its "CBS 46" branding, to once again be branded as "CBS Atlanta".
As of Sunday (January 11th), CBS Atlanta officially joins 11Alive/MyAtl TV and Channel 2 in broadcasting local news in HD. FOX 5 becomes the only Atlanta news station still broadcasting in SD (standard-definition)... and has yet to convert its news to HD.
Joined: Apr 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 121 Location: Central Georgia Karma: 2
WPGA Newscasts cancelled by bankruptcy « Result #6 on Jan 5, 2009, 9:14pm »
As of 7pm on 1/5/09, WPGA was not airing its local news cast "ABC Macon News" but was airing "The Insider" instead followed by regularly scheduled "Entertainment Tonight"
The service who provided the newscasts gave short notice that the newscasts would cease as of last Friday (1/2/09) They filed bankruptcy on December 31st.
WPGA started offering "ABC Macon News" at 7pm and 11pm in July 2007 offering news Monday through Friday only. The 11pm newscasts ended in the fall of 2008 leaving only a 7pm newscast 5 nights per week.
I know the same company (Independent Network News) also provided services for WLTZ in Columbus and WNCF in Montgomery but I could not find any information about their newscasts ending.
News article below from the Macon Telegraph -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Future of Macon TV station’s nightly newscast uncertain By Jennifer Burk - jburk@macon.com Buzz up!
The future of WPGA’s nightly newscast is uncertain after the Iowa-based company that produced the show filed for bankruptcy last week.
“I really don’t believe there will be a newscast on tonight. Our whole infrastructure was based on them,” said Lowell Register, president and CEO of Register Communications Inc., which owns WPGA-TV Channel 58, the Middle Georgia ABC network affiliate.
The news consulting service, Regional News Network Co., doing business as Independent News Network, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Iowa.
An e-mail sent to Register indicated that news would stop at the end of that week, he said.
Register Communications contracted with Independent News Network in July 2007 to begin providing a 7 p.m. nightly newscast WPGA.
While three reporters worked in Macon, they fed the information to anchors based in Iowa. What will happen to those three reporters is uncertain, Register said.
“Obviously if we’re not doing news, we probably won’t be needing a ton of news people,” he said.
Register said the news surprised him, and he has been unable to get in touch with anyone at Independent News Network, despite repeated phone calls.
“I think they’re out of business,” he said.
For more on this story, come back to macon.com and read Tuesday’s Telegraph.
Joined: Apr 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 121 Location: Central Georgia Karma: 2
The current Macon TV market « Result #7 on Nov 26, 2008, 9:45pm »
Recent changes in the Macon market.
WMAZ-13 (CBS)- Dodie Cantell, the general manager for WMAZ has been "promoted" to become the general manager for WTLV & WJXX in Jacksonville Florida. She was selected after the Jacksonville GM accepted a position in Tampa at WTSP-10.
All stations owned by GANNETT.
Also, WMAZ recently changed their graphics and theme music to a Gannett specific news theme package. While the graphics are trendy, the music is just as irritating as the previous package.
-------------------------------------
WPGA-58 "ABC Macon"- New local morning show is a simulcast of a local radio show featuring three very popular locals, former WMAZ-AM and WMAC-AM radio host Kenny B, Former news anchor Liz Jarvis-Fabian and popular Macon Telegraph columninst and editorial editor Charles E Richardson.
WPGA has tried several times to nclude one of Macon's well knowns in a local TV production. Former WMAZ anchor Tina Hicks and former WMGT and WGXA anchor Ron Wildman each anchored failed news efforts for WPGA
WPGA recently dropped its 11pm newscast while keeping its 7pm newscast. ABC Macon does not have any competition at 7pm and their outsourced news product must surely get clobbered in the ratings at 11 with two strong stations, WMAZ and WMGT having newscasts at 11pm.
It is clear that since WMGT re-started their news department in 2004 that the other stations stepped up to improve their product. WMAZ got a "new" set (hand me down from WXIA) and offered new features and has changed their appearance at least twice since 2004 ---------------------------------------------------
WGXA- Fox 24 recently changed their graphics and news theme AND returned WEEKEND newscasts to their schedule. All newscasts are at 10pm, now 7 days per week
----------------------------
DIGITAL TV
WMAZ- has three digital channels , (13.1)Standard,(13.2) High Def and a channel dedicated to 24 hour Doppler weather radar (13.3). Signal quality is the WORST of the local stations. Very difficult to recieve over the air the screen freezes frequently or simply goes black. I don't subscribe to cable but I am told by many who do have cable that the HD picture quality for WMAZ is the worst of the local stations available on cable.
WMUM (Georgia Public Broadcasting) Also has three digital channels, (29.1)Standard,(29.2) "GPB Digital" and (29.3) "GPB Knowledge" with alternate programing. Most people may not even know about the GPB Knowledge as there are no listings for it and there has been no promotion for it. Also, WMUM's reception is about as poor at WMAZ.
Technically, it is considered that Digital stations with channels from 2-13 are considered "weak", the opposite of the old analog signals where UHF channels from 14-83 were the weaker signals to the VHF channel range from 2-13. WMAZ's digital channel is 4 and WMUM's digital channel is 7.
WGXA (FOX), WMGT (NBC), WGNM (TBN) and WPGA (ABC) all have more reliable digital signals. All of them only have ONE digital channel in operation, the only station to not offer High Definition is WGNM. In the case of WGMN, they shut down their old analog signal over a year ago. Their analog was a low power signal, so antenna viewers will get WGMN over the air for the first time via their digital signal.
Macon is the only market in Georgia where their digital TV stations do not offer additional networks, usually those that were unavailable.
Examples of digital subchannels offering new network options to a market:
ALBANY, where WSWG is a primary CBS affilaite offering MYNetwork TV on its subchannel "WSWG DT2"
WSWG is sister to (and operated by) WCTV in Tallahassee, also a CBS station with MyNetwork on a subchannel.
SAVANNAH's WSAV & AUGUSTA's WRDW each have MyNetwork broadcasting on separate digital subchannels
All of these stations with separate digital subchannels operate and appear as if they were separate television stations even having separate channels on the local cable system.
None of this is offered in the Macon market and while WGXA was supposed to offer MYNetwork on a separate digital sub-channel. This has not happened. The ONLY way anyone gets the MY Network is via subscribing to satalite. I get it through WWOR in New York City via dish network.
Joined: Apr 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 121 Location: Central Georgia Karma: 2
Re: ABC Macon New Morning Show « Result #8 on Nov 26, 2008, 9:06pm »
The ABC Macon Morning show aka:"The Morning Mix" with "Kenny B" (Burgamy) and "Charles E" (Richardson) of the Macon Telegraph is also now simulcast on Three local radio stations. 100.9 on FM and two AM signals, 980 and 1400.
The morning show includes news in a partnership with the Macon Telegraph newspaper and their reporter Liz Fabian, who in the past has anchored TV news on WMAZ-13 (as Liz Jarvis) and WGXA-Fox 24. She has anchored an online newscast via the Macon Telegraph website for the past couple years as well.
The radio stations carry the show from 6 until 10am while the TV simulcast airs from 6-7am.
The AM stations were former Radio Disney affiliates, 980 WPGA based in Perry Georgia (Houston County) and 1400 WNEX based in Macon. The AM stations are now talk radio stations mostly with syndicated programs that were previously heard in this area and removed due to low ratings.
G. Gordon Liddy, Dr. Laura and the "new" Lou Dobbs radio talk show make up the AM stations broadcast day after 10am. Neither AM station has much of a signal outisde of their local county during the day and even less at night.
Joined: Feb 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 174 Location: Conyers Karma: 0
46 welcomes Danielle Knox « Result #9 on Nov 14, 2008, 12:28am »
Among many of the names coming and going from Atlanta television... 46 officially has a new weekend co-anchor, and her name is Danielle Knox.
A native of Berkeley, California, Danielle Knox comes to Atlanta from Miami CBS station, WFOR... where she previously served as anchor and reporter there. She is also the co-host of "The Balancing Act", a morning show, which can be seen exclusively on cable network Lifetime. Knox's Atlanta debut comes more than 7 months following the departure of former CBS 46 weekend co-anchor Cari Champion.
Before WFOR, she also worked at San Francisco cable channel ZDTV, Miami NBC station WTVJ, Connecicut NBC station WVIT, and Monroe, LA NBC station KTVE. Knox is also married, and is the mother of 3 boys.
Joined: Feb 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 174 Location: Conyers Karma: 0
NBCU shuttering Weather Plus « Result #10 on Oct 10, 2008, 12:40am »
NBC-Universal (or NBCU) has made the decision to discontinue Weather Plus by December 31st. Many NBC affiliates, including 11Alive that are currently carrying the digital only all-weahter channel are affected.
The decision to discontinue Weather Plus comes 3 months following the acquisition of The Weather Channel, a cable network based here in Atlanta. NBCU has also received a lot of attention in recent months, with the move to sell ownership of NBC O&O stations in Miami (WTVJ) and Hartford-New Haven (WVIT). NBC is in an attempt to collect money to cover budget misses, due in part to the peacock networks mediocre performance. Mid July, Post-Newsweek won the bid to acquire WTVJ, a pending sale that's been getting a lot of attention. Late September, NBC quietly and temporarily pulled WVIT off the market, amids the struggling economy.
As for NBC affiliates losing the Weather Plus service. Some may opt for a local all-weather or all-news channel, or The Accu-Weather Channel (which competed with NBC Weather Plus)... while some may opt for RTN (Retro Television Network)... some may also opt for LATV (a bilingual music and entertainment network). No word yet on what WXIA 11Alive may be planning post-Weather Plus.
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