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Spectrum Auction thread

My guesses for Sinclair in Michigan is that WPBN and/or WTOM will return to VHF (WPBN's on RF 47, so they'd be moving anyways)
 
"The results of the auction are not expected to produce any material change in operations..."
But does this leave a ton of Big 4 network viewers out in the cold when Sinclair starts shutting off countless stations? Or do these stations all shift down to VHF? More ch 2-6 opportunities for E-skip season perhaps?
 
Will be interesting to see what, if anything, Sinclair decides to do with their central Illinois stations.

Here in Springfield, Sinclair's WICS-20 (ABC) is RF 42, while satellite station WICD-15 Champaign (ABC) is on RF 41. However, Sinclair also operates via JSA in our market, WRSP-Fox 55 (RF 44) Springfield and its satellite WCCU-27 (RF 26) Champaign, and CW station WBUI-23 (CW; RF 22) Decatur.

I wonder if we could eventually see something like this in the Springfield/Decatur/Champaign market involving Sinclair:

--WICS (new RF TBD) Springfield: 20.1 ABC; 20.2 Fox (former WRSP); 20.3 CW (former WBUI)--with the WICS/WRSP/WBUI netlets likely on the chopping block (or perhaps only one carried on 20.4). Maybe try to move WBUI's RF 22 from Decatur to the WICS tower at Mechanicsburg, IL (between Springfield and Decatur).
--WCCU (RF 26) Champaign: 27.1 Fox; 27.2 ABC (via WICS); 27.3 CW--netlets either dropped or reduced to one (maybe a different .4 channel than WICS)

And in Peoria, I wouldn't be surprised if Sinclair sold WHOI-19.1 (former ABC until moved to Quincy Newspapers' WEEK-25.2 last summer), which now is only a Comet TV affiliate, for spectrum.

Thoughts?
 
Tim from Springfield said:
Will be interesting to see what, if anything, Sinclair decides to do with their central Illinois stations.

Here in Springfield, Sinclair's WICS-20 (ABC) is RF 42, while satellite station WICD-15 Champaign (ABC) is on RF 41. However, Sinclair also operates via JSA in our market, WRSP-Fox 55 (RF 44) Springfield and its satellite WCCU-27 (RF 26) Champaign, and CW station WBUI-23 (CW; RF 22) Decatur.

I wonder if we could eventually see something like this in the Springfield/Decatur/Champaign market involving Sinclair:

--WICS (new RF TBD) Springfield: 20.1 ABC; 20.2 Fox (former WRSP); 20.3 CW (former WBUI)--with the WICS/WRSP/WBUI netlets likely on the chopping block (or perhaps only one carried on 20.4). Maybe try to move WBUI's RF 22 from Decatur to the WICS tower at Mechanicsburg, IL (between Springfield and Decatur).
--WCCU (RF 26) Champaign: 27.1 Fox; 27.2 ABC (via WICS); 27.3 CW--netlets either dropped or reduced to one (maybe a different .4 channel than WICS)

And in Peoria, I wouldn't be surprised if Sinclair sold WHOI-19.1 (former ABC until moved to Quincy Newspapers' WEEK-25.2 last summer), which now is only a Comet TV affiliate, for spectrum.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I actually talked about this in 2015:
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/sho...E-SPECULATION-OTA-shakeup-in-Central-Illinois!
 
WVIA to WNEP's subchannel? This makes no sense. I thought PBS could NOT share a subchannel with a commercial network.
 
WCMU is about to lose a boatload of cable carriage (they're on most cable systems in Oakland, Lapeer, and Livingston counties) with the shutdown of WCMZ. I was thinking if any of their signals would go off the air or move to VHF, it would be WCMW.

For Central Illinois, maybe Sinclair could use WHOI as a diginet station for not just Peoria, but Champaign-Decatur-Springfield as well (Peoria and the latter three are all somewhat close to each other; this would be a major longshot)
 
crainbebo said:
"The results of the auction are not expected to produce any material change in operations..."
But does this leave a ton of Big 4 network viewers out in the cold when Sinclair starts shutting off countless stations? Or do these stations all shift down to VHF? More ch 2-6 opportunities for E-skip season perhaps?
Click to expand...

Probably duopolies get condensed onto a single station using subchannels.
 
I doubt that any markets will lose an affiliate, but some affiliates may be relegated to subchannels. Cable coverage is unlikely to be impacted.

A lot of PBS stations cashed in on this. All the more reason to cut CPB funding.
 
umfan said:
I doubt that any markets will lose an affiliate, but some affiliates may be relegated to subchannels. Cable coverage is unlikely to be impacted.

A lot of PBS stations cashed in on this. All the more reason to cut CPB funding.
Click to expand...

Any markets that could possibly lose OTA PBS service entirely as a result of the auction? (with cable systems picking up either an out-of-market PBS member affiliate or even the national feed).
 
Flint MI's PBS is going off. Suspect cable will take the feed of WCMU or WTVS once WCMZ ceases operations.
 
crainbebo said:
WVIA to WNEP's subchannel? This makes no sense. I thought PBS could NOT share a subchannel with a commercial network.
Click to expand...

Why not? If WVIA is shutting off its own transmitter and turning it its license, it no longer exists, as far as the FCC is concerned. No reason why it couldn't piggyback on a subchannel of a commercially-licensed transmitter. It might be a problem the other way around, however, since we'd be talking about an educational channel allocation, not commercial.
 
ftballfan said:
WCMU is about to lose a boatload of cable carriage (they're on most cable systems in Oakland, Lapeer, and Livingston counties) with the shutdown of WCMZ. I was thinking if any of their signals would go off the air or move to VHF, it would be WCMW.

For Central Illinois, maybe Sinclair could use WHOI as a diginet station for not just Peoria, but Champaign-Decatur-Springfield as well (Peoria and the latter three are all somewhat close to each other; this would be a major longshot)
Click to expand...

Or Sinclair cashes in on WHOI and takes it off the air (moving Comet TV to WYZZ-43.2). Then unless it's yet another PBS that cashed in on the spectrum auction, Peoria member PBS station WTVP (RF 46, virtual 47) moves to RF 19 using WHOI's old transmitter. Although WAOE (My--RF 39, virtual 59) could be a player for RF 19 if Sinclair cashed in on WHOI.
 
I think the Flint cable systems will just pick up WTVS. WCMU, if it tries to remain as a virtual station might be able to find carriage as a subchannel. Cable systems will want continued access to Sesame Street and Frontline.
 
When I lived in Flint my cable system carried WFUM and WKAR and WTVS.
I don't think there will be any shortage of cable carriage of PBS.

Though in general this thread is revealing that PBS has pretty much committed
suicide with this auction.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
When I lived in Flint my cable system carried WFUM and WKAR and WTVS.
I don't think there will be any shortage of cable carriage of PBS.

Though in general this thread is revealing that PBS has pretty much committed
suicide with this auction.
Click to expand...

Not to the extent of CBC in 2012. In the Flint area, Comcast (as of now) carries WCMZ, WDCQ, and WKAR, while Charter carries WCMZ, WKAR, and WTVS. I wouldn't be completely surprised if WCMU remains on cable at least in Flint as the mothership is a Flint-Saginaw DMA station.
 
KeithE4 said:
Why not? If WVIA is shutting off its own transmitter and turning it its license, it no longer exists, as far as the FCC is concerned. No reason why it couldn't piggyback on a subchannel of a commercially-licensed transmitter. It might be a problem the other way around, however, since we'd be talking about an educational channel allocation, not commercial.
Click to expand...

WVIA will be shutting off its ch41 transmitter, but it is not "turning in its license". It will be licensed to the same channel as WNEP. WNEP & WVIA will divvy up the sub-channels as they see fit. I suspect WVIA will still be identified as "44.1", "44.2", etc and WNEP would be "16.1","16.2" etc. As far as the public is concerned, nothing will really change. (They'll probably just have to rescan.) The FCC has indicated that a mix of non-comm and commerical stations on the same rf channel is OK.
 
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