Yakima, WA - HDTV - Page 7

Anyone else noticed KFFX 11.1 broadcasting with a test pattern the last four days. Audio is still there.

They couldn't be ramping up with HD could they? Probably not, but just a thought.

That would be awesome if it was a pre-cursor to HD broadcasting, but for some reason I doubt it. The test pattern has been there since last night, at least that I noticed. They are either testing new equipment or else everyone had the weekend off and some of their hardware took a dump.

Also, KVEW had significantly weakened signal today on their OTA HD feed. I could not tune it in this afternoon. Typically I get a signal strength of 78 but today it was ~48 and could not tune/lock a signal. Hopefully they are installing some hardware to broadcast at higher power.

Well just 4 days or so until MARCH MADNESS begins and I am not seeing any ads or new digital channels or subchannels popping up on my TV yet. So it looks most likely that KIMA/KEPR will wait until May or June to start in HD which to me makes no sense. I would think if you were going to put up HD for anything on CBS that airs every year it would be MARCH MADNESS.

Don't know what is going on down there at the FOX station since I am up in the Yakima area. Maybe there are going to do some kind of widescreen SD thing where the shows are not in HD but are stretched to accomodate widescreen TV's. I have heard this was done on a few FOX stations in other parts of the country anyways.

KAPP/KVEW-HD had what you could call a good night with little breakup or garbage last night after a whole week's worth of breaking up at night. But I am still not going to get my hopes up for now.

I will probably post at least one more quote from the KAPP engineer but I am going to wait until later.

-YakHDTV06

YakHDTV06:

What information do you have that KIMA/KEPR will be in HD in May or June?

so i never ever ever watch GMA and kvew hasnt had any issues Via Charter in Richland, until i turned on GMA this morning. It seems to be breaking up regularly. Ive only been able to watch it from about 7:55-8:15. so it might not be just you, though i havent had any of these other issues with kvew during prime time.

mike

I got the May or June 2006 date from the Jan. 30, 2006 edition of the Yakima Herald Republic for KIMA and I am assuming KEPR will be HD at the same time since they are sister stations. The KIMA station manager was told they would be HD in May by his engineers so he thought it would be more likely in June according to what the reporter quoted.

I don't think KLEW CBS out of Lewiston, ID will be HD though at that same time even though they are sort-of sister station to KIMA and KEPR. It will probably be like the Fisher stations down in the Eugene, OR area where Eugene and Roseburg, OR are HD and the smaller city Coos Bay, OR station isn't.

Even if KIMA/KEPR doesn't go HD by May or June, they will most certainly be HD by early Feb. 2007 because they have next year's Super Bowl. So I wouldn't be worried about whether KIMA/KEPR are going HD. It should happen in less than a year even if they are delays.

About Good Morning America mike, did you see the picture get really "messed up" when they showed the fires somewhere at the beginning of the news? It was really messed up when they showed it both times on the news segment. That is the worst I have seen the picture break up on GMA for a while. Usually it is just a few rows of blocks or something appearing randomly on the screen.

-YakHDTV06

yeah, thats where it was worse, the sound went away and was freeze frame for about 5-10 seconds. It kept doing it for as i was watching, about 20 minutes.

If you got that "garbage" on the screen down in the Tri-Cities I take it that maybe it is a satellite problem instead of the Yakima station's problem. But the breakup at night is quite different from the breakup during Good Morning America. It is like a quarter of the screen is froze up for a second or so. Maybe the breakup at night is a KAPP Yakima station problem then.

-YakHDTV06

I know this doesn't seem relevant to Yakima, WA HDTV forum, but I just feel I should speak out about this. Instead of the FCC fining a Network and its affiliates for airing an episode of a drama with a scene they consider indecent, they should be investigating unfair broadcast arrangements like the Yakima/Tri-Cities FOX situation.

I think it is unfair that a city with less than 18,000 people in Northeast Oregon seems to be the location of the Yakima/Tri-Cities Digital Fox Station. Yakima alone has over 3 times as many people. Even Pasco has like twice as many people as Pendleton, OR and it is the smallest of the 3 Tri-Cities. You can't even get the Pendleton digital FOX station in Yakima even though the FCC mandated that TV stations go all digital.

The bottom line is that this indecency ruling couldn't have come at a worse time for the FCC as I know now how awful the FCC is now after just e-mailing them the other day and getting such a lousy bureacratic response.

-YakHDTV06

I lost my signal from KVEW-42 a few days ago and haven't been able to tune it since. My antenna has not moved, but the signal strength has dropped from the high 70's down to the high 40's, which is not enough to get a lock. Did KVEW reduce their broadcast strength?

Also FOX is really starting to suck since they've had this test pattern on their station for quite a few days. You'd think they would get this fixed...

KIMA CBS is still not broadcasting in HD even though there are only 15 DMA's at most larger than ours that ARE NOT getting the games on CBS in HD either. And there are at least 25 DMA's smaller than ours with CBS stations that ARE getting these games in HD. Oh well. Just thought Fisher might be further along with the HD than they appear to be. At least you would think they could update their Over-the-air digital TV listings to put what Basketball games they are showing during what times for example.

KAPP/KVEW-HD GMA still messes up every so often, especially in the first half hour. It was also breaking up constantly during "American Inventor" last night. KAPP seems to be broadcasting at the same strength up in Yakima but the TV I use just shows 1-5 bars on the strength meter. Does not say what percent that you get the station.

KNDO NBC seems to be pretty good still. I wish they would bring back E-Ring though, but that is the Network's decision to take it off the last several weeks.

KCYU-LP FOX was pretty messed up at times yesterday. Video got what they call "noisy" I believe like when there is a lot of noise and the background is like white. Usually only happens on Analog stations I believe.

-YakHDTV06

It's up now. It doesn't look that bad, but it's still not HD.

Jim

Agree, but in the Tri-Cities KEPR is the larger criminal. I live less than 10 miles from the broadcast tower and I'm only showing in the low 70's for signal strength. Their audio is also messed up...you have to make certain you turn your sound down a few decibles before you watch KEPR.

Watch the local news sometime and as compared to KVEW or KNDU you'll have a hard time with not agreeing that they're a "second rate" station. I asked the FCC to investigate them and FOX a couple of months ago. I received the same bureacratic BS that you did. The only reason why I got a response (at all) was because Doc Hastings office also sent a letter.

I talked to one of KEPR's engineers last year and he said they actually need to move their broadcast tower to the same area as KVEW, KNDU and PBS, but the management doesn't want to spend the money!

On another note....
Does anyone know why KNDU broadcast information doesn't show up on DirecTV's program guide? To have such a high quality picture and not have the programming information seems odd.

Jim

I don't care much for Yakima's CBS affiliate KIMA Local News. They come off very arrogant in their commercials. In fact they kind of lie I believe. They claim something to the effect that they are Yakima News by Yakima People when in fact their "new" morning crew that started a year or two ago are actually from the Tri-Cities KEPR station. The weekend news is also a joint effort by both KIMA & KEPR most likely because I see Tri-Cities news on those broadcasts besides the Yakima news. I remember a few years back when KIMA ran ads suggesting their weekend news was local and the other Yakima stations weekend news broadcasts were from out of town (Tri-Cities most likely). I could go on and on about my dislike for their news but that is probably enough for now.

I think the Yakima CBS affiliate KIMA is also low powered as I only get one out of five bars and the other Yakima digital OTA stations I get 5 bars on the strength graph. I don't have problems with the audio at KIMA other than they are the only ones not in surround yet which is probably long over due since KNDO had it digitally before they went HD. The 3ABN channel in the Yakima area is loud though compared to the other channels even with the feature on my TV that is supposed to make all the channels the same volume turned on.

Is the Fox digital out of Pendleton Widescreen SD now or is it still 4:3 SD? Just curious as I don't get Fox digital up here.

-YakHDTV06

Did some more digging and found that there may be several stations across the country connected by the same company that runs our FOX stations. I will wait to post any more on this so I can verify that this is accurate.

-YakHDTV06

It's 4:3 SD.

There's a HD article on page B8 in today's Tri-City Herald which confirms KEPR's intention to have HD programming by "early summer". Nothing mentioned regarding KFFX's target date for HD. Anyone talked to them lately?

I will now try to explain who owns the local FOX stations. The local Fox stations KCYU-LP and KFFX are both operated by the company "Northwest Broadcasting" it appears. This company operates the following stations:

KCYU-LP DMA # 126 Yakima FOX
KFFX DMA # 126 Tri-Cities, WA/Pendleton, OR FOX
KAYU DMA # 78 Spokane FOX Went HD last November
KMVU DMA # 141 Medford, OR FOX Supposed to HD any day now
WICZ DMA # 156 Binghamton, NY FOX Just went HD this year
WBPN-LP DMA # 156 Binghamton, NY UPN (Not likely HD since it is a subchannel of WICZ on Digital OTA)

After looking up Northwest Broadcasting I found this on a web page for a company known as Alta Communications:

Northwest Broadcasting
Northwest Broadcasting is a television broadcasting company formed in 1995 by Alta Communications and Brian Brady. The Company currently operates four FOX-affiliated stations in Spokane and Yakima, WA, Medford, OR and Binghamton, NY. It also operates a low-power UPN affiliate in Binghamton.


So it appears Northwest Broadcasting is a subsidiary of Alta Communications. The following is from the same web page listing their various subsidiary companies and companies they help finance it appears. Note: Some of the stations or companies were probably sold.



ACME Communications
ACME Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: "ACME") is a company formed by Jamie Kellner and a group of investors to acquire construction permits and underdeveloped television stations in middle-sized markets. Presently, the company owns and operates nine television stations in Salt Lake City, UT, Albuquerque-Santa Fe, NM, Dayton, OH, Knoxville, TN, Green Bay-Appleton, WI, Champaign-Springfield-Decatur, IL, Ft. Myers-Naples, FL, and Madison, WI. All of the Company's stations except one are WB Network affiliates.

Civic Communications
Civic Communications is a television broadcasting company which owns and operates the NBC affiliate stations in Jackson, MS and the ABC affiliates in Tyler, TX and Lufkin, TX. Civic was subsequently sold in 2000 to Cosmos Broadcasting.

Eagle Creek Broadcasting
Eagle Creek Broadcasting is a television broadcasting company formed in 2002 by Alta Communications and Brian Brady. The Company operates two CBS-affiliated stations in Corpus Christi and Laredo, TX.

Grant Television
Alta was the founding investor in Grant Television, a company formed by veteran television entrepreneur Milt Grant to finance the purchase and commercial start-up of WNYO-TV, Channel 49, in Buffalo (WB affiliation). Grant was sold to Sinclair Broadcasting in 2000.

Jackson Television, LLC
Jackson Television is a television broadcasting company created by Tom Galloway, Sheldon Galloway and Alta Communications. The company operates the FOX, WB and UPN affiliates in Jackson, MS

JW Broadcasting
JW Broadcasting is a television platform company formed in May 2003 to acquire under-performing television stations in small to mid-sized markets. The Company's initial acquisition is a triopoly in Columbia - Jefferson City, MO consisting of a FOX affiliate, ABC affiliate and UPN affiliate.






Liberman
LBI Holdings is a Los Angeles based Hispanic Broadcasting company which owns radio and television stations in Los Angeles, CA, Houston, TX , San Diego, CA and Dallas, TX. The Company is one of the largest privately held Hispanic broadcasters in the United States.

Northwest Broadcasting
Northwest Broadcasting is a television broadcasting company formed in 1995 by Alta Communications and Brian Brady. The Company currently operates four FOX-affiliated stations in Spokane and Yakima, WA, Medford, OR and Binghamton, NY. It also operates a low-power UPN affiliate in Binghamton.

Pappas Telecasting
Pappas Telecasting is a television broadcasting company owned and run by Harry Pappas. In January 2002, Alta helped refinance one of its subsidiaries consisting of three stations: WB affiliates in Greensboro, NC and Des Moines, IA and a FOX affiliate in Sioux City, IA.

Peak Media
Peak Media is a television broadcasting company formed in 1998 by Alta Communications, Banc Boston Capital and Larry Marcus. The company operates an ABC and a FOX affiliate in Johnstown-Altoona, PA.

Shockley Communications
Shockley was a Wisconsin based broadcaster that owned broadcast television stations in various markets around Wisconsin and Minnesota. The company was run by Terry Shockley, an experienced broadcaster. The company sold most of its stations to Quincy Newspaper, Inc. in 2000.

Shooting Star Broadcasting
Shooting Star Broadcasting is a television broadcasting company led by Diane Sutter that acquired KTAB-TV, the CBS affiliate in Abilene, Texas, in 1997 and WNDS, an Independent TV station in Derry, New Hampshire (licensed to the Boston market), in 2004. The Company sold KTAB to Nexstar Broadcasting in July 1999.

SJL Communications
SJL Communications is a television broadcasting company formed by Alta Communications and George Lilly to acquire NBC affiliates in Santa Barbara, CA and Erie, PA. The Company sold its Santa Barbara station in 2002 to New Vision Group, and in early 2005 raised additional capital to refinance Alta out of the deal.

Telemundo
Telemundo was the second-most viewed Spanish-language television network in the United States. The network reached over 85% of percent of all Hispanic households in 64 markets. Prior to its sale, Telemundo owned eleven full power television stations in the top twenty US Hispanic markets and a full power station in Puerto Rico. Alta exited this investment in 2002 when Telemundo was acquired by NBC/GE.

TV Station Group
TV Station Group is a television broadcasting company formed in 2000 through a partnership between Alta Communications, Boston Ventures and George Lilly. The Company purchased three CBS affiliates in Johnstown, PA, Binghamton, NY, and Charleston, WV. In March 2002, the Company sold the Charleston station to Cary Communications.


So it looks like KCYU-LP & KFFX are controlled by a bunch of shareholders or executives in a corporate office somewhere back east it appears. I find it troubling to see 2 or 3 different networks in the same area being run by the same company such as in Binghamton, NY and Jackson, MS.

-YakHDTV06

maybe we should sick the KVEW troubleshooter on the FCC RE: this fox issue

Well GMA on KAPP/KVEW-HD channel was somewhat better this morning from 7 - 7:30AM since it was pre-empted by the President's Press Meeting. The KAPP/KVEW-HD problems here in Yakima are about to enter its eighth week now.

Lately I have been monitoring closely the signal strength of the local Yakima digital TV stations and have noticed that KIMA-DT Channel 33 Digital is still only one bar on my TV. Once in a while it shows two bars but not for long usually. I happened to check the strength meter last Saturday night and then noticed it was up to 3 or 4 bars. I thought maybe this was a sign that KIMA CBS was going HD within the next few days or so. Then on Sunday morning it was back down to 1 bar again.

I got to thinking that this was maybe caused by the fact that KAPP ABC was off the air, because I remembered they had already gone off the air for the night when I got the 3 bars on KIMA-DT. So I waited for KAPP ABC to go off the air on Sunday night. Just seconds before KAPP went off the air on Sunday night KIMA-DT's digital signal was showing only 1 bar still. Then I flipped back to KAPP until they went off the air and flipped back to KIMA-DT. And guess what happened?? The digital strength meter for KIMA-DT on the TV jumped back up to 3 bars again!!

So if KAPP is interfering with KIMA-DT's digital signal, which of KAPP's channels are interfering? My guess would be the analog channel 35 signal since it is closest to the digital channel 33 signal of KIMA. KAPP's analog signal is stronger where I am at than most of the other analog stations.

I guess this is a good reason why you wouldn't want both analog and digital signals in the long run.





That's like "The Blind leading the blind" or however that expression goes!!

Here is a link to find out more about Brian Brady who is the CEO of Northwest Broadcasting, the company I mentioned a few posts back that owns and operates KCYU-LP out of Yakima and KFFX out of Pendleton, OR and Tri-Cities, WA as well as a few other stations across the country.

http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/alumni/c...4/monopoly.HTM

As you can probably tell from his alumni interview, it sounds like he is more interested in making a game out of more media acquisitions than to fix the stations this guy and his companies already own. Seems disgusting to me.

-YakHDTV06

That impressive, welcome to the forum! What kind of array do you have? Im assuming you are at max power output, whatever that may be?

I envy you. I wish I could pull in FOX, WB, UPN, etc. digital stations from Seattle, Spokane, or Portland. So what strength are you getting KREM CBS out of Spokane when you get it? Do you get the WB channel in Spokane run by the same company as KREM on digital channel 36 I believe?

As for getting KIMA out of Yakima, I wouldn't probably bother with it because it will be full power by July most likely and KEPR will probably go full power about the same time I would assume.

-YakHDTV06

Just notcied today that channel 799 is up, but there is no description of what channel it is and there are only test bars up. Hopefully this is UniversalHD!

Dont have 799, but i have 793 back which is the INHD ppv channel, with no data at all. I called Charter last week as they had the logo for INHD an everything, i wanted more info. ESPECIALLY since they had NHL Center Ice HD games listed! Ofcourse our wonderful Charter CSR's had NO CLUE what the channel was since they had no information on it.....would be nice to get more hockey in HD


,

HD Prime Time shows on Sat. & Sun. looked pretty good. But I did notice a lot of garbage during certain non-HD shows like the Horse Racing Sat. afternoon. And there was no HD for Good Morning America on Sat. and Sun. Even the NBA game was not in HD for all but 30 seconds of the first quarter. They announced shortly before the game switched to HD that it was available in HD. I take it the engineering person fell asleep or isn't aware of all the shows in HD.

-YakHDTV06

dont wanna jump to conclusions here, but if we dont have a reasonable FOX digital signal by July 1, maybe we ought to see about getting Doc Hastings office involved? The FCC is one giant red tape entrenched fiasco, maybe his office can rattle some chains.

Hi everyone. New member. I am in Moxee, WA and hungry for info on local HD. Right now I am wondering about Charter's new HD channel at 799. My hope is for FoxSportsNW which is HD on Comcast and I am hoping for Mariners games.

I went on vacation for several days to get away from our BELOW average market only to come back and see EVERY single local over-the-air channel in the Yakima area DROPPING the ball or showing NO signs of improvement. The following is just since Saturday the 8th of April:

KIMA-DT (CBS) - No improvement in signal strength, no HD, and no subchannels yet.

KCYU-LP Analog (FOX) - No improvement in signal, still not digital yet. Also kind of noisy during a comedy on Sunday night.

KVEW-HD (ABC) - Just switched back to KAPP-HD today which is Monday the 10th of April even though nothing has been fixed. Still has garbage on the screen during GMA in the mornings. Still has regular picture breakup at least on Sunday night. Also forgot to turn on HD during most of Grey's Anatomy on Sunday night.

KYVE-HD (PBS) - Been pretty reliable the last few months. However, on Saturday night during an HD aquarium show the picture was breaking up quite often similar to KVEW-HD's primetime breakups.

NOW FOR THE WORST OF ALL:

SURPRISE!!! KNDO-HD (NBC) - This station just completely dropped the ball since I returned. HD wasn't turned on for most of the shows Saturday and Sunday. Also dropped the ball on their local talent show "GIMME THE MIKE" by cutting off the end of the show and going into DATELINE NBC so we don't know who won this week!! KNDO-HD has gone from first to worst. Anyone know why the HD isn't getting turned on??

-YakHDTV06

Just when KNDO-HD was the worst in my opinion for the first time since I started getting digital TV, KAPP-HD finds new ways to become the worst again. Last night the picture breakup happens at a less frequent occurance. However, it appears to be affecting both HD & SD digital channels now and the sound seems to get muted for a fraction of a second during some of the picture breakups.

Then during GMA this morning they forget to turn on the HD for the first 10 minutes. The "garbage" appears not to be happening now, but the picture breakup with the muted sound like last night's happens every so often during the show. Then they leave the big KAPP logo on the bottom center of the screen of their HD channel from like 8AM until almost 9AM or maybe later.

Then around 9:30AM this morning KAPP-HD was off the air for a few minutes and came back on with the same picture breakup problems as before. So it appears they are working on the problem but still aren't able to fix it like nearly 2.5 months later.

-YakHDTV06