[opendtv] Re: Slim pickins in Gainesville

At 12:16 PM -0500 11/29/06, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:

Anything marked TX, that is not also marked as being LD or LP with their
call sign, shows up as translator. There appear to be at least 11 of
these, within that radius. Some are new. Clicking on the "facility ID"
to the right gives you more detail.

And many are, or will be, transmitting a reasonable amount of power.
Even up to 150 KW ERP. What are these guys for? They are owned by
companies like Equity Broadcasting, Pegasus Broadcast, Budd
Broadcasting, WGFL License Corporation, etc.
The data base is misleading. Several of the stations listed as TX are actually LPTV stations.
As for the rest, Harvey Budd is an entrepreneur who has been trying to make a few bucks offering transmission facilities in the Alachua county area. He was the original license holder for several of the local stations, then got into a partnership with Pegasus. Pegasus was operating channel 53 - WGFL - as an independent (UPN I believe) until WJXT in Jacksonville chose not to renew its affiliation with CBS. When this happened Channel 53 was successful in getting the CBS affiliation for Gainesville. In the end WGFL purchased most of the assets from Budd and Pegasus. They moved the UPN content to a LPTV channel - I think it is now carrying CW. Several of these LP stations are carrying specialty content such as Christian programming. The University also operates an LPTV channel on campus which is also carried on cable.
I know of no efforts in the works to add additional programming content for this market. Some of the TX allocations may have be filed for in anticipation of expanding the coverage area around Gainesville for WGFL. 

There is NO anticipation that we will get an NBC affiliate in the future.
This is a CABLE market (93% penetration) , and the rural areas around here have significant numbers of satellite subscribers. 

But all of this does not change the fundamentals of my original comments.
Even IF I could get 6 or 7 different networks via OTA, they would be delivering stuff I rarely watch, other than a few football games. I would not get the channels that we do watch regularly, like Fox News, Food Network, HGTV, The Learning Channel, Discovery, and ESPN.
This latest "discussion" is centered around my comment that i have no choice but to subscribe to a multi-channel service, and that they do not offer any choice, in terms of the cost - they are all about the same price.
Broadcasters have NEVER been concerned with "choice." Their goal has been, and continues to be, to try to get you to watch THEIR programming, which frankly has sucked for the most part for two decades. 

Regards
Craig


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