Thursday, April 20, 2006

Some Short TV News Items

ITEM 1: OMW caught former WKYC/3 and "PAX 23 News" reporter John Freiss back on the local airwaves last night. He's apparently doing fill-in work for WOIO/19-WUAB/43's "19 Action News", reminding us of the stint that former WKBN/27 anchor Catherine Bosley did last year. Bosley's now a full-time reporter at "Action News".

ITEM 2: We're not sure why, but WKYC weekend anchor Scott Newell made the trek down to Main and Market, and anchored the station's "Akron/Canton News" on Wednesday (6:30 and 10 PM, Time Warner 23 or 17 or whatever channel it was on). Well, we think it was Wednesday, because we can't get the newscast here in Not Yet Time Warner, Wait Till Late July Land. So, we saw Newell in the station's web video clips out of Akron. We bring it up because we don't recall someone not normally stationed out of the station's downtown Akron bureau doing the newscast. It may mean nothing...

(UPDATE - We're reminded that it's quite possible, through the magic of "green screen" technology, that Newell did the Akron/Canton newscast without leaving the comfort of WKYC/3's downtown Cleveland studios. Remember, the "set" for Akron/Canton News doesn't exist in reality...)

ITEM 3: WKBN/27's digital transmitter, reported below, is still testing over in Youngstown. Tonight, it's not putting a regular enough signal into the OMW World Headquarters...but we assume they are not at full strength...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had no luck pulling in WKBN's HD signal yesterday. I scanned for the channel 4 different times, but had no luck in Cochranton, Pa. as of yet. I even pulled in WNEO's sometimes spotty signal in my area. My guess is that WKBN is not at full strength. What time were you able to pull in their HD signal for the first time? I'll keep trying in the meantime. Any info if they are going to reduce their coverage area permanently. According to the FCC website, it looks like they are lowering their antenna height & class A service area. I would probably be in the class B service area if things change. If that's the case, WFMJ would serve my area better than WKBN. Time will tell.

Anonymous said...

Catherine Bosley is now also a weekend anchor on Channel 19 and Channel 43. She replaced Tiffany Burns weeks before Burns left the two stations. This has been quite a comeback for Bosley at Action News

Anonymous said...

It's not unusual for Scott Newell to do the Akron/Canton News. Scott has been sent down to Main and Market before whenever Eric is sick, or takes a vacation day.

And even though it's a green screen, they still do actually send him down.

And with all due respect to Mr. Newell, his tabloid tv, and movie career, he is his own biggest fan.

Anonymous said...

The following was posted on the AVS Forum Youngstown discussion section:

"I am pleased to formally announce that WKBN-DT (Ch. 41) is on the air at the full power of 700 KW. It has been a grueling past few weeks, but equipment came in and contractors showed up and everything came together on time with many long work days. We do have a couple of minor issues to work out so please bear with us as we work on them, however I do welcome your feedback on signal quality and/or anything else on which you care to comment.

As far as the WYFX HD is concerned, we do have an agreement to provide Armstrong Cable with that signal via fiber and that should be in place in a week or two. WYFX (SD) will also be going up on DIRECTV soon now that we will be able to get a reliable signal to them.

Thanks to everyone for your kind kudos for our hard work. I have an excellent Engineering staff and I will pass it along to them as well."

__________________
Thomas A. Zocolo
Chief Engineer
WKBN-TV 27/WKBN-DT 41/WYFX-LP 62/WFXI-CA 17
Youngstown, Ohio

Anonymous said...

Thomas A. Zocolo - I was finally able to pull in WKBN HD over the weekend in Cochranton, Pa. I was able to pull the station in at between 88 - 92%, the best signal from Youngstown before was WFMJ at 80%. The picture & sound quality for both WKBN & WYFX SD is amazing. Before, I could only watch WFXI 17 out of Mercer, but the analog picture would come in fuzzy. This is a definite upgrade for WYFX. I was reading the FCC website concerning WKBN's HD coverage area. There was a recent application to reduce it's coverage area & antenna height. Is there a possible interference issue with outlying areas of your original coverage area or another reason for the coverage area reduction? Just curious. Tom Lavery, SVRTV. Laveryman@hotmail.com.