[opendtv] Re: Slim pickins in Gainesville
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:06:27 -0500
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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