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.
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Bham's ABC 3340 is now on 68.2
- Thread starter rtc
- Start date
U
Unregistered
Guest
What is going to happen to the weather map and the Heartland Network I wonder?
A
Avid Listener
Guest
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.
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.
A
Avid Listener
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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.
U
Unregistered
Guest
So what do you think will be the James Spann 24/7 Weather and the Heartland Network. I would tend to think they might put Heartland on 68.3 (or maybe sister station 17.3), but cut the weather completely or make it cable only. Then again they might cut both of them, or make them both cable only.
U
Unregistered
Guest
May I correct you on something? The digital signal is on channel 36, not 35 (WCBI's digital signal out of Columbus, MS is on 35 however). So maybe it will be ABC 36?
Would this possibly be one of the largest cities in the nation to have a big 3 network on a subchannel?
When the discussion about changes to the board were being discussed I suggested that there should be regional TV boards for areas like the Southeast and the Birmingham and Jackson Tennessee threads could have gone in there. I hope those changes will still happen but maybe just not yet. Until then I don't know what else can be done other than to put topics like this either into a region's radio board all the national TV board.
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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. Perhaps WBMA-LD could be the home for the James Spann weather channel and Heartland since it should be allowed to continue broadcasting under Sinclair ownership. 
As of right this moment 58.2 still has the weather map and 58.3 still has Heartland. Neither of which has migrated to WABM as of yet.
U
Unregistered
Guest
Whcih will sadly make Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Anniston, Alabama the biggest market to have a subchannel of any Big 4 affiliate not only right now, and NOT ONLY IN ALL OF ABC HISTORY, but in ALL OF BROADCASTING HISTORY! DON'T LET SUBCHANNELS BESIDES .1 GET ANY BIG 4 AFFILIATES IN THE TOP 50 MARKETS ANYWHERE! IN TV HISTORY, THERE HAS NEVER been a TV market that had any Big 4 affiliate in a non-.1 subchannel anywhere. From New York to Memphis, there has never been a Big 4 affiliate, which includes NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX that is in a non-.1 subchannel. Of course, any market below Memphis can do this. But NO TOP 50 market has a Big 4 subchannel that is not in .1. Birmingham would be the first, but not because they don't want to, it was by force, because of SINCLAIR AND ALBRITTON. OF COURSE, they could have acquired WJLA, WSET, KATV, and KTUL first and then do the rest of it's stations next. Then Sinclair would have time to arrange Charleston and Birmingham, the markets where a stations serves Sinclair full-time and operated through an LMA. I DON'T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN TO ANY TOP 50 MARKET, BECUASE 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.
A
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And how long has there been "subchannels" for OTA television? The process of changing over to digital didn't start until 1998, and wasn't very far along until they finally made the changeover mandatory in 2007.
Hell, for the vast majority of the history of the world, there was no television at all! For millennia, there were no TV channels anywhere on the face of the entire planet.
Talk about ridiculous hyperbole!
E
E-Cam
Guest
I second on that!
I find it dumb to see something small like the CW and MNTV on bigger coverage than something like ABC. Even ABC gets twice the ratings than probably the CW and MNTV combined. If it was Fox (or even a spanish station like Univision) on a .1 channel with ABC on .2, then I would understand since they are big network like ABC.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
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.
R
Rrrrzzzz419
Guest
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.
Well, Here's how I would have done it.
WABM 68:
68.1 ABC 68.2 My Network TV 68.3 Weather Map
WBMA-LD 58: 58.1 ABC 58.2 My Network TV 58.3 Weather Map
WDBB 17: 17.1 The CW 17.2 Get TV 17.3 ABC
WTTO 21: 21.1 The CW 21.2 Get TV
I would put Heartland on cable only, but I would keep the weather map
on over the air due to how important ABC's 33 40 weather coverage is.
Anyway, Yesterday The article said for western Alabama viewers you can find us on 17.2 today the article just says it's on 68.2.
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