http://www.abc3340.com/story/26506234/use-an-antenna-to-pick-up-abc-3340-important-info-here
No mention of 40.2's fate.
No mention of 40.2's fate.
I bet ABC would demand it move to 68.1.
I bet ABC would demand it move to 68.1.
Here's a good reason why the forums for each market should include both radio and TV. Such a petty issue about one city (though I don't know where the hell Bham is located) hardly belongs in NATIONAL TV.
Birmingham, Alabama. And actually it's a good topic; one of Sinclair's license evasion techniques to keep all the affiiations they acquired with the Allbritton purchase. WCIV in Charleston is also getting the shove onto Sinclair's MyNet station there, WMMP. There the WCIV transmitter is being sold to Sinclair crony/mediocre political commentator Armstrong Williams, but Sinclair takes everything else, including the WCIV calls to WMMP, the programming, the ABC affiliation and the news operation.
If this were in the Birmingham, Alabama section, then no one would have been confused. It's just like referring to Pittsburgh as "The Burgh". Pittsburghers understand that, most non-Pittsburghers don't.
If this truly was a national topic, then the comments indicating why it had national impact should have been in the launch post, not in a subsequent reply.
I'm sure it's for testing/maintenance reasons for now; according to James Spann on his Twitter, 33 and 40's sticks will stay on the air until December at the latest so they'll remain primary until WABM has everything perfected, then a bump to DT1. I'd also expect a possible muddling by Sinclair to switch WABM's PSIP to the actual digital channel 35 and a switch to 'ABC 35' branding; barring that don't expect 'ABC 68' to ever be the branding except to satisfy the PSIP.
Birmingham, Alabama. And actually it's a good topic; one of Sinclair's license evasion techniques to keep all the affiiations they acquired with the Allbritton purchase. WCIV in Charleston is also getting the shove onto Sinclair's MyNet station there, WMMP. There the WCIV transmitter is being sold to Sinclair crony/mediocre political commentator Armstrong Williams, but Sinclair takes everything else, including the WCIV calls to WMMP, the programming, the ABC affiliation and the news operation.
Here's a good reason why the forums for each market should include both radio and TV. Such a petty issue about one city (though I don't know where the hell Bham is located) hardly belongs in NATIONAL TV.
THROUGHOUT ALL TIME, THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A TV STATION THAT IS A BIG 4 affiliate (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX) that is in a subchannel and NOT a main channel.
Here's how I would have done it:
WABM becomes ABC 12 on 68.1 (it's on cable 12 in Birmingham)
MyNet moves to 68.2 and WBMA-LD
I may be wrong about this, but I was under the impression that WBMA-LD, which is the city's official ABC affiliate, would not be affected by any of this since it's a low power station.
Having just sorted out all of this as a sidebar to an article I have written for Clarke Ingram's forthcoming "History of UHF Television" site on channel 37*, that's actually correct.
58 is the actual affiliate; 33 and 40 are operated as satellites. I am fairly certain this is the only case of a LPTV having full-power stations as rebroadcasters.
In light of that, I don't see where it matters a whole lot where the other networks end up. ABC is already "officially" on a LPTV; are digital subchannels any better or worse than that?
(*-You'll have to wait for the site to go live to read how channel 37 works into all this.)
I think I know the answer to the channel 37 part.
But this is also my line of thinking. Birmingham's ABC affiliate has been on a low power station for years, so what does it matter which subchannel hosts the simulcast? It could 68.68 for all anyone cares, as long as it's easy to remember for the 15% who still depend on OTA.
It's all for naught, anyway. I've already been told that once the ducks are lined up, Sinclair is switching -.1 and -.2 around so that ABC is on first and My Network TV is on second. It's just going to be some time before that happens. James Spann seemed to hint that 33 and 40 would remain on air at least until December, which contradicts the information from the sale which required them to go off by the end of September.
The only unanswered question I have at this point is whether ABC will or already is being simulcast on WDBB (PSIP 17). I was told Sinclair was considering adding it to that station (which currently simulcasts WTTO, as if that isn't confusing enough) for the western half of the market.