Lafayette, LA / Beaumont, TX / Lake Charles, LA - HDTV - Page 267

Remember the "Rappin' Weatherman" on KBTV?? Who got a juicy job in California??
OHHH read on from Ken Hoffman's column in today's Chronicle!!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/7231471.html

(Here's his sign! )

Wow, what a weird story.
I remember seeing the rapping weatherman on channel 4 once.
My wife and I just stared at him in disbelief. We thought it was truly the sign of a number 3 or 4 network trying anything.
Never would have dreamed a # 6 market would buy into that, or that he would go crazy and make demands.

Well, it looks like 12.3 joined the "MY" TV Network.....(same as KTXH 20 in Houston)....no more Family Guy on weeknights!! I am not a fan of "Monk"!........

Watched the Lamar game for a while tonight...AWFUL video!!!! Could stand it for maybe a couple of minutes...then went to something else but went back to check on the score...
YUK!!!! KBMT should have gotten the Lamar stuff for 12.3 but then they would not have the coverage 4.1 does....

I had noticed the other day that the My TV logo had been dropped from the KUMY web page, but I didn't think too much about it at the time. I can't get channel 22 anymore since they rotated the antenna, so I just blew it off. Is MyTV in HD? If so, then that will be a good use of the 36 and 43 HD channels. HD programming on a consistent basis.

BTW, the KUMY web site still carries the RTV logo. sure wish they would go digital...

I am not into football at all, but I did know that KBTV was going to carry the game, so I tuned in for a couple of minutes in the 3rd quarter to what it looked like... You are right, it was pretty bad! But it was on TV, and that is good for Lamar.

I was very surprised when I saw that KBTV was going to be the station that carried Lamar football. I figured that with London's commitment to sports that KBMT would be the logical choice for Lamar. I thought it might well be in HD too, as KBMT has the ability to go HD in the field. I thought it might be a possibility anyway. I wonder how long of a contract KBTV has??? Maybe KBMT can win the contract and take over in a short while.

I noticed tonight that KFDM had a 16 X 9 weather crawl at the bottom of the screen. Maybe they have been doing this for awhile but it is the first time I have noticed that my screen did not shift to 4 X 3 when they put up a message.
They did manage to mess it up with a horrible black text on blue background a few times. My wife and I looked at each other and said "How can anybody read that mess".
They finally got it right after awhile.

If you think the black on blue text was bad...

KBMT 12.2 broke into programming with a "Breaking News" segment in the middle of "The Event"! Geez!

I immediately switched
to KPLC channel 7 who was merely doing a crawl like everybody else and continued to finish the program on that station.

Luckily I recorded "The Event" on KPRC 2 in Houston.
All was fine on channel 2 as well.

KFDM's new weather graphics are HD but being downconverted to SD for news...when CBS network is on the air, its likely possible to inject the crawl at HD and not squeeze the picture down to 4x3 (at least that would be my thought on it)

Don't tell Starfleet but KATC has acquired time shift technology as they have been airing Nightline and Jimmy Kimmel in HD for about 3 weeks. They have also been airing ABC HD promos within their local spot blocks throughout the day.

KATC has aired the following programs in HD recently:
Wheel Of Fortune
Jeopardy (weeknights after Kimmel)
Ellen
WFM (an hour long weekend HD program similar to AFV)
Comedy.tv (Saturday nights @ 11:30)

I saw a noon time Saturday E/I program in HD 2 weeks ago as well.

KATC rolled a flawless HD news scroll last week (the school gun incident).

They have obviously acquired Titan HD TruVu Max (the same as WAFB), but I have not seen anything in HD during their newscasts.

KALB Alexandria has also added a number of HD syndicated programs including:
Access Hollywood
Extra
700 Club
CSI weekend programs (Numbers, Criminal Minds, The Unit, The Closer)
Ellen
They've had Oprah, Jeopardy and Wheel in HD for about 2 years.

I've noticed many new HD programs on both KADN and WNTZ as well including:
Nancy Grace
The Office
How I Met Your Mother
Texas Roadhouse Live
CSI weekend programs
Desperate Housewives
Seinfeld
Everybody Loves Raymond

Thanks for the info on KATC. I had a feeling they would beat KLFY to the punch on HD. Their on-air appearance is much better and looks "hd ready" compared to KLFY. Here in Houston, I saw the local channels convert from SD to HD news and you could see a big difference in the SD quality right before the HD went live.

I'd like to see KATC get a LD or Class A digital for the CW so it could be broadcast in HD.

Technically, this is how I do it:

A computer in the weather center (called "Live Wire") generates a crawl message as HD video. This HD digital video signal is fed into a "Logomotion" device (an HD video keyer) which everything, including our local programs (which are in SD) as well as CBS in HD, must go through to be put on air.

I also convert the HD video crawl to SD for use on the CW through an SD Logomotion. Any weather crawl you see on KFDM should also show up on the CW at the same time.

That " horrible black text on blue background " was caused by the Live Wire computer going crazy. A reboot fixed that.

BTW: I have a third Logomotion device dedicated to the CBS network, which they can control. So it is possible that CBS will put in a "super" (think morning news time super), while I am putting in a different HD "super" such a weather crawl.

R

Mike or anyone else w/ Dish Network in Beaumont. I am thinking of "moving" to Houston from Austin, however, with my dish currently facing the Western arc, I do not receive nearly the signal quality for a stable signal. The transponder spotbeam maps on Satelliteguys shows the Houston/Beaumont/Austin locals are on a single transponder (IIRC?) on the Eastern arc, which should mean I could easily receive the Houston (or Beaumont) locals. If this is the case, I want to convert my dish to an Eastern arc. I currently have the 1000.2 (?) system (110, 119, 129). What specifically do I need? Does Dish carry a single dish to pick up everything in Houston/Beaumont? Thanks!

Yes, the 1000.2 is used on BOTH Eastern and Western Arc...I have one and I get ALL the Houston locals (SD, mostly on 110 and HD, mostly on 129) All of Beaumont locals are also on both East and West Arcs...The Western Arc is better for us west of the Miss....The Eastern Arc works ok but I feel DISH will push the Texas locals to Western Arc...(supposively they are changing as many as possible in N Texas to Western)
You NEED to tweak on 129.....once you get the 119 set, do NOT mess with the skew.....you may need to tweak elevation to get 129 peaked..I have 100ft of RG6 from the dish to the 722DVR and all my sat signals are 45 or higher....I recently realized I needed a third screw/nut on the skew in the upper right hand quadrant....without it, 129 was LOWER...but added the 3rd bolt and did NOT move the skew, the signals came up to their current levels..
I no longer lose Houston locals as quickly as I did before in a rain

Well I guess the license for KAZP channel 45 expired yesterday. They filed their second application to remain silent on 4-15-10 and it was accepted for filing but never granted. There is a letter in their file warning them that if they do not go back on the air in six months, there license would be revoked. They let a granted 10KW digital Construction Permit expire earlier this year without ever being built also.

They were only on the air for a few days with the analog station right after it was built and they had a great signal over here into Groves. I don't remember if I ever taped the ID or not. I will have to look over my recordings to see if I did or not.

I guess they will make a great trivia question years from now...

Slightly OT:
Just found out Mark Stevens (formerly of Stevens & Pruett on 610 KILT Houston, as Hudson and Harrigan, 790 KULF as themselves, 97.1 KEGL Dallas and 101.1 KLOL Houston) passed away Tuesday from complications of Alzheimer's...LOVED S&P on KULF (They did a daily bit called Star Trots....with Captain James T Shmirk, capt of the starship Refrise, his trusted Lt. Bones and their weird little robot, ACDC as they blasted off to some exotic planet including the home of Zarna, that exacting mistress of the planet Estrogen!) I was often one of commenters who was played back after the bit!!! and later was CE of KEGL (but they were on it when it was an AC/CHR...it was 10 yrs later when I became CE of it and it was under the current rock format but found some leftovers from their stint)...He and Jimmy boy were THE radio gods for 25+ yrs in Texas.....and syndicated to other states at one time...Mark started originally on KFJZ in Fort Worth (KEGL was originally its sister, KFJZ-FM) as "Marky Boy"...The current crop of morning folks (Walton and Johnson, etc) NEVER filled the shoes left by S&P....Jim still lives and owns a gun shop in NW Houston....I have several taped copies of their Star Trots...I need to MP3 them and post them somewhere....they are classics.

I am only getting a 14% signal on 110 TP 4 (Houston MPEG4 spots/western arc), but get great signal on 119 TP 4 (Houston MPEG2 spots/western arc), and 15% on 110 TP 12.. It appears I could easily "move" to Houston and receive the Houston SD channels.. On my own locals in Austin, I get 40 on 129/12 HD, and 71 on 119/5 SD. On 119 TP 20 i'm getting 82, tried peaking it previously but that was about as good as I could get it. One thing I've noticed in having DirecTV and Dish Network, is that my DishNet loses signal a lot quicker than my DirecTV did.

Before I tweaked it, I was only getting a 5% on 110/4.. I may try tweaking a tad more, but may be SOL and have to "move" to Dallas instead.

listened to Stevens & Pruett on 101.1 KLOL every morning during my high school years. There was no one better. They used to send a guy niknamed Boner that had a surfer dude accent to do on location interviews. Great stuff.

Boner was same guy as Grego who took Stevens place and did the show with Pruett after Stevens was released from KLOL in 2000...(Mark had thrown a temper tantrum during a staff meeting and the GM canned him on the spot.....probably was the start of the disease which eventually took him). Grego/Boner moved on to Dallas...and iirc did morning drive on the Eagle (97.1 KEGL) or the Bone (93.3)....but he didnt last long there...I listened to S&P on 610KILT when it was Top40 and they were Hudson and Harrigan...then when KILT went country, they moved over to 790 KULF and kicked morning butt there until Gannett came in and bought the station...then notified the staff that the next Monday, they were all gone...and in came John Lander and his Q Morning Zoo...KULF as an AM beat the odds and went from #10 in the overall ratings to #2 or #1 in the 1st book....later they took over 92.9, KYND which became KKBQ FM and simulcasted on both FM and AM stereo (originally using KAHN and later Motorola CQUAM) KYND had moved up to 92.9 from 92.5 due to KSBJ moving from 88.1 to 89.3 to prevent interference to KFDM in the western viewing area...23 FM stations moved freq or downgraded, etc in that big change up!! It allowed 92.1 here to move/upgrade to 92.5 and then 92.1 was licensed in LA! 92.1 had been licensed as a small Class A (3KW) in the far south Houston area doing a Top40/CHR format and the air chain was one of the 1st all digital but it went dark...Now, it is a C0 licensed to the south side of the Houston area owned by Radio One and playing gospel..

I take it you must be closer to Austin....I get all the Houston Spotbeams with at least a 45%.....(especially after securing the dish as mentioned earlier)..
Watching 39 in HD on 110/SP4 and getting a 47....119/SP4 is also same signal level...Problem with DirecTV is the OTA tuner only allows you two markets based on your ZIP. DISH allows you to see anything out there on all OTA channels...(but I have found my TV VHF is more sensitive than the 722's VHF side...on UHF, the 722 wins hands down)

I am in NW Austin, very fringe area of that transponder it appears.. If the same dish works for the eastern arc, I may move it when it cools off again and see what I can get. I don't have the OTA tuner adapter (yet), but will be looking to get it soon since FOX7 is an O&O station, which may be gone come Nov. 1... I just wish that I could get more than a 45% signal on my Austin spotbeam!!

You will likely have to change the skew angle for the Eastern Arc.....but I doubt you will get a better signal from it..OTA adapter??? I am not sure what you mean about that? and whats this about FOX7??? If its an O&O, it wont be gone Nov 1st...

The "maps" show a larger range on that spotbeam, not too sure how accurate it is though. OTA adapter -- for whatever reason, my 722k doesn't have a digital OTA input, so I can't pick anything up OTA via my dish receiver.. Not to mention, need to get me a better antenna, lol.. FOX and DishNet are arguing over prices, and come Nov. 1, FOX O&O stations will be pulled (which Austin's FOX7 is) if they don't reach an agreement.

AHH I see now....you have the 722K....with the DUAL OTA tuner option...I have the regular 722 which has a single OTA tuner buiklt in...the 722K allows one OR two OTAs but one does NOT come with standard setup...
And yeah I knew about DISH and some of the FOX channels like FOXSportsSW, FX and one other...but I didnt miss them.....I still have FOX 26 (a O&O) and 20 (ALSO a FOX O&O but carries MY Network)...I have 2 other FOX sources so it wont affect me if they remove 26 from the Bord...(I have 4.1 and 29.1 local OTA)
The way you worded the original post, I thought maybe 7 was flipping to a different network, etc.....

Another reason I was hoping to "move" to Houston was the many more available channels! I may still try it to see what happens, then I can tweak the dish a bit.

Yep....NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, MY Network (NOT in HD though KTXH does xmit HD), CW and PBS (and they are taking the HD and feeding it in 4x3...so the sides of the screen are chopped off!) plus 51, 55 and 57 and the Spanish channels.....I love having the Houston locals...wish they carried the subchannels...2.2 is THIS network and has a lot of good stuff...

FYI... the 1000.2 is only designed for Western Arc. 1000.4 is the dish for Eastern Arc. The 1000.2 will not be able to deal with the short spacing between 72 and 77 on EA.

I sit corrected! (Zoilberg voice) What? You think I am standing while typing this?? Thought the ,2 would....havent seen a .4...
I do know the folks up in N Texas seem to have DISH pushing them to the Western Arc..but hadnt heard you had to change the dish itself...
Tnx

Well, well, well... KAZP-LP in PA apparently has filed a notice to the FCC stating that they resumed operations on channel 45 on 10-8-10. I haven't seen them back on the air. Has anyone else??? As far as I know, they don't have electricity hooked up to the Xmitter and have to run it off of a generator. At least that's the last I heard...