Seattle, WA - OTA - Page 315

Yeah, CHAN on RF22 (Global BC), from about 140km away... no, I can't get it reliably, I get it for a few hours every once in a while when the weather conditions is right (eg, very cold and usually at night of course)... Tvfool shows my NM for it at about -8 dB. I'm near the Mill Creek area, and it's not a good spot for LOS to Mt Seymour... Using Tvfool, there are pockets in central Everett (near Boeing) and Stanwood area where you can get good LOS to there... boy, I wished I lived in those areas. heh.

I think opting for MEtv was the most promising thing KVOS ever did since it went on the air...at least now they offer reruns other than I Love Lucy

Yeah, but you can get similar old TV shows on Antenna TV (22.3). heh.

KVOS never did any local programming of note...just reruns, and the reruns offered by MEtv is an improvemnet. I suppose they could have put MEtv on 12.2 and kept 12.1 for their "original" programming...reruns of I Love Lucy

Yes, they did... several years back (5+?) they had local shows, like news report in the morning, weather reports and special programming (similar to Evening Magazine on KING 5 now).

Also they had focused on BC area, then it all/mainly turned back to US local programming.

It was a shame... I enjoyed their local programs when they were in analog KVOS-12 era. heh.

Back prior to 2002, KVOS had a rather large audience in Vancouver and North of the Border. Between losing their long-standing cable channel then being prohibited from selling ads across the Border, KVOS became relegated to just being a Bellingham station again. That small of a TV market simply can't support local news and all the expense that goes with it.

I expect the new owner Michael Dell, will be the first to give up the KVOS-DT channel assignment when spectrum auctions finally hit.

Yeah, I used to see ads for BC shops (local stores), then only saw Wa shop ads... alas...

This may bring back some memories for a few early KVOS viewers. "Men dress up for (insert your holiday here) at Broadway Credit Clothier." or perhaps, "Tonight's Labatts's Million Dollar Movie presents..." Then the CRTC cracked down on placing Canadian ads on US television, and a prime source of revenue for KVOS dried up.

Why did CRTC do that? To discourage BC folks to NOT watch US station but to watch BC stations instead?

I remember when they had "The Bay" commercials .. and Budget Car Rental commercials from BC shops. heh...

What happened is that, first, the Canadian government eliminated the business tax right off for Canadian businesses advertising in US media. Then, second, they permitted Canadian cable systems to cover up commercials from US TV stations with their own commercials. This pretty much killed any revenue US TV stations could get from Canada.

Also, no one has mentioned that at one time KVOS was a CBS network affiliate (in addition to KIRO). The loss of CBS probably hurt them badly as well.

Well, that's ashame.. as it stands KVOS broadcasts MeTV and CoolTV... Not sure how much advertising revenue they get from it...

I guess Bellingham just doesnt have enough population/viewers to support local news/programming anymore... oh well...

At one time the Seattle market had three CBS affiliates. KTNT-11 Tacoma was the CBS affiliate when KIRO-7 finally came to the airwaves in the late 50's. They fought over who would keep CBS, and for a while both stations shared the network. Up north at the border, KVOS-12 Bellingham was providing most of the CBS schedule to tv hungary Canadian viewers and those US viewers in Whatcom, Island, San Juan, and Skagit counties. But as CBUT-2 Vancouver started picking up more and more CBS programming for their slate the need for KVOS to continue with some CBS programming seemed less needed.

I well remember KVOS having an afternoon movie that would break just before the conclusion to air the CBS 15 minute Evening News. When the news concluded, then the movie would continue.

Becoming an independent didn't seem to hurt KVOS. When I was associated with the station (group) between 1988 and 2000, KVOS had great operating margins until Shaw and the Canadian Government got involved. Prior to the changes, Canadian viewers and advertisers were always very supportive of the alternative programming on KVOS.

Looks like KVOS is finished sadly. OTA Broadcasting of Virginia took the keys to KVOS-TV Bellingham on Tuesday, putting 22 employees out of work, with an annual wage loss of $800,000 to the local economy. It may be the end of OTA broadcasting for the once powerhouse station as new owners say they may be interested in selling the on-air frequency at the FCC's next bandwidth auction.


Bellingham Says Goodbye To KVOS

http://kgmi.com/Bellingham-Says-Good...-KVOS/12479283

There was a time, and not that long ago, that buying a station to flip, or not run in the public interest, was against FCC regs. The Van/Vic/Bell market went through agony just a short time back when CHEK-6 Victoria was within hours of being silenced, then brought back from the brink of extinction. KVOS deserves much more than a money hungry owner who states they are only in it out for a quick auction sale. Senator Patty Murry should express her concerns to the FCC and force the owner to keep KVOS alive and providing essential services to Northwest Washington (and Southern British Columbia). If the owner can not agree to do that, then they should be stripped of their license and those of their Seattle and San Franicsco area properties.

I noticed that KWPX (33) has a bunch of new subchannels, but they are not watchable. Here are the results of a scan with EyeTV:




Is this some kind of a pay-TV service? It seems like a lot of data for the bandwidth. I'm not seeing anything on the normal subchannels either.

Edit: The -1, -2, -3 subchannels are now working. If I try to view one of the others, the screen says "encrypted".

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1374019

- Trip

Airbox is a subscription service that ION is trying out in "selected" markets. The system uses MPEG-4 compression so the bit rate necessary for good presentation is less than the ATSC standard of MPEG-2.

Hey, I just moved to Ballard or shoreline, whatever this is. with a 65 dollar HD antenna that picked up everything in Portland and nothing here. Any advice please? I'm near the Thriftway (overpriced) and Office Depot like 7 minutes walking distance. Also, ot but why aren't there any Popeyes Fried Chicken here or anywhere in Seattle for that matter? I am regretting this relocation. (hates Starbucks and Subways being all over) Is there any place to get good and spicy fried chicken round these parts?
\\

Snappy sneezer
Sounds like you are out north in the Shoreline lake forest park area? around 205th?
For good Fried chicken try Ezells ,not very close by or Heaven Sent Chicken in north Lake City. Heaven Sent is Ezell Stephens new name since he left Ezells.
Ezell's was the chicken Opra was freaking over a few years back
They have regular and spicy. It is subtle spice.
You will find Popeyes north and south of Seattle but it it is a long drive

Thanks for the chicken info. I will have to journey to these places. I live on 15th NE by a Ballinger Way, I'm brand new here haven't ventured out much yet, unpacking and all. I'm just East of I 5, near it, I think it is I 5. I don't have a car. I am in the NE. I prefer a strong spice but I will take what I can get.

Sneezer
you are in a bad spot for your antenna. You have that big hill that 15th goes up between you and the tv station antenna's.

Do you think I could build a contraption to pull in the signal?
I have a lot of copper wire, several feet of thick copper wire. I'm considering doing something.

First off my my set up:

UHF Antenna -> HDHomerun -> EyeTV

Last night I noticed that Kiro would not come in. I checked it in EyeTV and also in the HDHomeRun config guy utility (physical channel 39). I did some basic stuff like power cycle the HDHomerun unit, rescan and check on multiple computers but nothing worked.

Today it's back to normal like nothing happened.

I'm wondering if anyone else noticed this (this isn't the first time this has happened to me). Or if there is something screwy in my setup. If an OTA signal goes dark do the stations send out a notice to a website or something where I could check status?

Thanks for any help in advance.

Sounds like your setup is the issue. You loose Kiro when atmospheric conditions make the signal weaker in your spot.

numbnu7s
Normally if a TV station goes down, which is rare with all their backup systems, the forums get a lot inquiries. Also, people start calling the station, and will report that here as well. If it happens next time, either call them or post a note here. Some one will usually respond with an answer to that easy check.
Most likely cause could be a number of things. Since only one of your stations dropped, it gets down to reception issues, not usually cabling or connections. If you were right on the very edge of locking in on ch7, or were getting great signal, you could still be seeing good indications on your tuners srength indicator. You just wouldn't know. If you drop just below that threshold, it can simply go black. Not like the old days of analog where you get fuzzy or ghosting pictures to indicate weak signal. It can freeze and stutter, as well when that happens, but you didn't mention that. Try reaiming the antenna, ever so slightly, and see what happens.
If you're still having problems, post cross streets where you are so we can check it out, and what antenna you are using.
Dan

On about the same timeline you mentioned, I started receiving a new signal with blank screens using virtual channels 7-1 and 7-2 (in additional to the main KIRO signal).

I'm now getting blank screens on 51-1 and 51-2 (in addition to KUNS on 51-1).

Maybe there is something up with the Channel 51 translator up on Tiger.

I made an M8 antenna (similar in design to the 'coat-hanger' ones), and now I usually can get almost reliable (80% uptime) signal on RF channels 22 and 20 (CHAN and OMNI) from BC. Truely amazing at about 140km away.

As for Popeye's, there's a location in Renton, that's not too far from Shoreline.

Ive read several years worth of postings and have learned a lot but I'm still looking for some clarification.

I live in Woodinville on the cul de sac of NE 199 St. My current antenna is the cm 4221 mounted on the chimney with the top of the antennae below the top of the chimney and facing Queen Anne. I receive all the networks and Fox adequately but not Ch 9. Most the other stations rate about 60-80 % but ch 9.1 is not found or is found and shows about 1%. Would the 4228 be enough to tune in PBS? There are trees located about 100 yards away but between me and the towers.

I doubt that the 4228 would help. You really need an antenna that covers VHF-HI in addition to UHF, such as the Winegard HD-4400, or separate antennas. When channel 9 went back to VHF I retired my PR-4400 and put my old Radio Shack VHF/UHF antenna back up.