PBS 45 & 49 Digital/HDTV Update

OMW noted below that local PBS affiliate WNEO/45-WEAO/49 has discontinued its 24/7 feed of PBS HD for now.

We then stumbled upon a message at AVS Forum, a well-recognized audio-visual/home theatre support site, claiming to be from the station itself. (The author did not sign it with a name or title.) For us, it passes the "smell test" and we'll assume that it was indeed posted by someone at the Kent-based public TV station. Here's the message:

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"WNEO-DT and WEAO-DT (45 and 50) have temporarily discontinued our HD service. This is a technical and legal issue. When we have the technical problems resolved (aiming for November 5) we'll return with three channels from midnight until 7pm, and a HD and SD channel from 7pm until midnight.

Channel 1 will be our HD service. Channel 2 will remain as our digital rebroadcast of our analog service. Channel 3 will be our Information & Education service (INFOTV), blending CPB/Annenberg programs with rebroadcasts of PBS prime-time shows and school age kids shows. Channel 4 will be The Ohio Channel, which provides live coverage of the Ohio House and Senate, committee hearings and government issues, along with public affairs programs produced by PBS stations around Ohio.

We're sorry that we've been forced to temporarily drop the HD channel. It will return as quickly as we can resolve our switcher issues."

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We're not sure what the promo about a kids service was, that aired recently on 45/49...since when we were watching, the sound on our over-air digital box was not working...and we just saw the graphics. But perhaps their third channel above would fit some of that bill...

And as expected, it appears that they'll run the HD channel only from 7 PM to midnight, presumably simulcasting whatever HD shows PBS runs in prime-time.

In addition to the PBS HD feed it still carries, Cleveland PBS affiliate WVIZ/25 (DT 26) also carries an audio feed out of Cleveland's radio reading service on a digital subchannel. We haven't seen it, but OMW seems to recall that WVIZ-DT may also carry the "Ohio Channel" mentioned above. Since Adelphia sends down only the PBS HD feed from WVIZ, and since we can't even remotely pick up the anemic temporary over-air feed out of WVIZ, we can't verify this.