Is your local news in HD? - Page 56

WTOC11 (CBS affiliate) finally made the jump today to HD in Savannah, Ga, now all we have left is WSAV3 (NBC) without HD news here, since WJCL/WTGS (jointly owned) made the transition last year. Hopefully competition will force WSAV to go HD soon.

Here's the post from the Savannah HDTV thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=2532

Also:

http://www.facebook.com/wtoc11

Other stations now in HD:
WOI-TV - Des Moines, IA (Made switch on 10/8/10; second station behind WHO-HD)
WABI-TV - Bangor, ME (10/11/10; first in Maine)

Added to the Local Over-the-air HDTV News Stations table:
• WOI (ABC) in DMA 72 (Des Moines, IA)
• WTOC (CBS) in DMA 96 (Savannah, GA)
• WABI (CBS) in DMA 154 (Bangor, ME)

WEWS/5 Cleveland (Scripps) does indeed do full HD in the field, both live and recorded.

I'm not sure about WKYC/3 (Gannett) or WJW/8 (Local TV/ex-Fox O&O) as far as field HD goes. Everyone in the market does studio HD news, and at least 16:9 field shots.

WDAF, Fox station in Kansas City started HD news presentation today.

WISN in Milwaukee have switched to 16:9 widescreen SD on October 10.

Added to the Local Over-the-air HDTV News Stations table:
• WDAF (Fox) in DMA 32 (Kansas City, MO)
• wisn (ABC) in DMA 35 (Milwaukee, WI)

WEWS must have the best equipment, because everything is HD on their channel. Taped reports, live shots, ABC News content. Plus All syndicated shows available and even ABC network promos shown day and night(outside network programming) are HD as well. I've even seen more local commercials in HD on WEWS. WKYC is a close second, I've seen some good HD on their newscasts as well as awful looking SD. They have some commercials but NBC promos are smushed windowboxed.

And WOIO, pfffft, they can barely broadcast HD when the network is sending it!!!

Pfffft is correct. Part of the problem is the station's owner, Raycom, seems uninterested in investing in its station duopoly in its northernmost station market. The company had sold off most of its northern market stations to another company four years ago. This might also be the reason why WTOL (Toledo), owned by the same company, has not yet upgraded to even 16:9 widescreen newscasts, let alone HD newscasts. If I were running things at Raycom, I would have exited the Cleveland and Toledo markets entirely by selling off the stations in those markets to a company who can run things correctly. (Probably Scripps for WTOL and maybe Tribune for WOIO/WUAB.)

Add kxrm/Fox 21/Colorado Springs to the list of 16:9 WS SD news.

That being said, the 6:30pm newscast looks like crap - Stand-up table (like you'd see in a bar) in front of a green screen - with a "tech" looking set that looks horrible. Plus nothing says "high quality newscast" like seeing the bad Chromakey edge around folks on the set as they move around... We'll see if 9pm or 6am has a normal set... (They used to...)

That being said - I'm curious if KOAA/NBC is in HD? - their on-screen presentation looks sharp and 1000% better than kxrm. I'll see if I can get an answer before leaving...

Jim

According to this post in the Colorado Springs HDTV thread, yes. (KOAA converted on February 26.)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=6430

In DMA 92 (Colorado Springs, CO):
• kxrm (Fox) added
• KOAA (NBC) changed to upper case

according to Wikipedia,

koco (ABC) in DMA 45 (Oklahoma City) began doing 16:9 widescreen news on October 11.

• koco added to the Local Over-the-air HDTV News Stations table.

Add wnem (CBS) to Flint-Saginaw, MI (DMA 68) for 16:9 SD news.

• wnem added to the Local Over-the-air HDTV News Stations table.

Joined the forum to mention a few stations that can be added to the list. I'm not yet allowed to post links, so I guess I'll footnote my references:

• XRIO (Fox) and KNVO (Univision) in the Brownsville-McAllen, TX DMA started airing HD news a few weeks ago, according the Wikipedia pages for the stations and a press release [1].

• KTVB (NBC) and KBOI (CBS) in the Boise, ID DMA have 16:9 widescreen news. As a reference, I offer a couple posts from a local blog - one [2] referring to KTVB and one [3] referring to KBOI. The videos on KTVB's website are also shown in widescreen and contain an on-screen graphic indicating that a widescreen format.

• KAWB (PBS) of Bemidji, MN and satellite KAWB of Brainerd, MN have aired their newscasts in HD since early 2008 (I live within the viewing range of the stations). Generally they're considered part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul DMA, but their OTA signals only cover the northern part of the market. In addition, the stations can be picked up (and are carried on cable) in some parts of the Fargo-Valley City, ND and Duluth, MN-Superior, WI markets.

Another thing that might be worth noting is that the DMA rankings were recently updated by Nielsen, which has a list [4] on their website.


1. tvnewscheck.com/article/2010/09/28/45661/entravision-launching-hd-news-in-texas

2. chowder.bandrox.org/?p=133

3. chowder.bandrox.org/?p=143

4. en-us.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsen/en_us/documents/pdf/Misc/2010-2011 DMA Ranks.pdf

Thanks, agus0103, for the pointer to the latest Nielsen DMA rankings. They have been incorporated into the Local Over-the-air HDTV News Stations tables.

I can't determine whether the Canadian DMA ranks have changed. Wikipedia's list is unchanged, as is the list at http://www.frandocs.com/DMA-map.htm

In the main table:
XHRIO (Fox) added for Brownsville-McAllen line, DMA 87
ktvb (NBC) and kboi (CBS) added for Boise, DMA 113
KAWB (PBS) added to a second (Bemidji) line for DMA 15 (Mpls-St.Paul)
Noticias HD en Español:
KNVO (Uni) added to a new Brownsville-McAllen line

I've found that according to tvpredictions.com, Shreveport, LA ABC affiliate KTBS started doing news in HD on October 14.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/localhd101510.htm

KTBS has a live stream of its control room (supposedly) where newscasts (I think) are run from.

http://www.ktbs.com/video/25355770/index.html

Also, Shreveport's CBS affiliate, KSLA, started doing local news in HD a day after KTBS (according to Wikipedia; KSLA banners this near the top of its web homepage).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSLA
http://www.ksla.com

I've also found that Fox affiliate WDFX, serving the Dothan, AL area, began doing local news in HD this past spring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDFX-TV

Add WMTV in Madison, WI. They became the second station in the region to switch to HD.
http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/...105053489.html

I hope so...it's 2010 in L.A.

Added to the Local Over-the-air HDTV News Stations table:
• KTBS (ABC) in Shreveport, DMA 83 -- and KSLA (CBS) changed to upper case
• WMTV (NBC) in Madison, DMA 85
• WDFX (Fox) in Dothan, DMA 169

WKRG in Mobile, AL became the second station behind WEAR in Mobile to switch to HD news. It started last night with their 6pm news.

• WKRG (CBS) in DMA 60 (Mobile-Pensacola, AL-FL) added to the Local Over-the-air HDTV News Stations table.

A potential correction:

I'm watching wpbn's 11pm newscast right now, and it definitely isn't 16:9... 4:3 - reading the avsforum's Traverse City/Cadillac forum, there is a comment on no 16:9 in the market (vs. Grand Rapids). Local commercials are in 16:9 HD, but not the current newscast. I'll check tomorrow's newscasts to see if it's a one-off or the norm...

If you're watching on the Internet, keep in mind that 4:3 on the web does not necessarily mean 4:3 over the air or on cable in the local area. (I watched the debut of WGHP's HD newscast on-line, and though it was widescreen, it looked to be SD over the web, though North Carolina Triad area viewers could see it in HD. I also watch the Baltimore version of "It's Academic" on-line, and it is 4:3 on-line, though Baltimore viewers might possibly see it in widescreen HD.)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WPBN) currently says that WPBN "airs its newscasts in 16x9 standard definition widescreen."

This was via HD satellite - regular programming is in HD, but local news was in SD - local commercials during the newscast were in HD, but the studio and remote shots were SD 4:3... Time to remove it from the list... Checking all of the local stations, none have local news in HD or WS...

I often take Wikipedia with a grain of salt...

Jim