Just Some Monday Stuff

There's nothing particularly pressing, right now...we just wanted to clear the Friday deck:

WNEO: We have yet to check in with the folks at Western Reserve PBS, so we're just putting this item up as a placeholder until we're able to get with them for an update on the newly-returned WNEO-DT/45 Alliance signal.

But our own observations - far afield from the WNEO transmitter in Salem - saw the WNEO digital signal lighting up on and off over the weekend, but not quite locking a signal from OMW World Headquarters in the Cleveland TV market.

(As we told our friends on Campus Center Drive, we suppose that's why they have that little WEAO transmitter site in Copley Township, with a full-power signal we have no trouble watching in large parts of the Cleveland market. Heh.)

As soon as we get the update, we'll change this item as well...the delay is ours, as we just contacted them a while ago...

SORT OF RELATED: A note from a reader about Northeast Ohio's other PBS affiliate:

Maybe it is just a freak of Lake effect snow, but I am receiving WVIZ-DT in northern Summit County today after never getting any kind of signal before. Is their new tower now broadcasting?

As far as we know, ideaStream's WVIZ is still broadcasting digitally from its second temporary location, an auxiliary tower at the WKYC transmitter site in the Parma antenna farm, with 10KW of power. (So our answer to our reader is - yes, we guess it's atmospheric conditions helping deliver WVIZ-DT.)

The move has at least provided much of southern Cuyahoga County with a shot at receiving the station...but the entire market will have to wait until WVIZ-DT's full-power post-transition signal lights up - possibly as soon as this month - from the new tower at WKYC's site.

From WVIZ-DT's latest FCC transition update, filed in mid-October (forgive the caps, it came that way):

THE SCHEDULE HAS BEEN MET EXCEPT FOR DELIVERY OF THE TRANSMITTER AND ANTENNA, DELIVERY OF WHICH IS EXPECTED ON OR ABOUT NOVEMBER 15, 2008. TRANSMITTER INSTALLATION AND PROOF ARE NOW ANTICIPATED FOR DECEMBER.

As we've posted here more than once, WVIZ-DT will be able to light up the full-power DT 26 operation on the new WKYC site tower before the February 17, 2009 national transition...since unlike WKYC, it will not have to wait for an analog station to vacate its permanent digital home.

WVIZ will stay on its current RF channel (26), while WKYC can't light up RF channel 17 until WDLI/17 Canton shuts off its analog signal in February.

Until then, both stations are at pre-transition sites. WVIZ-DT's new temporary antenna is somewhat lower than where its permanent antenna will be (121 meters above average terrain, vs. 336 meters)...and as the better-than-expected performance of even WNEO-DT's lower power temporary facility shows, height matters.

And just to further confuse things, with digital PSIP information that rides along with the signal, WKYC will still show up as "Channel 3" on digital tuner boxes, and WVIZ will still show up as "Channel 25"...so those channel numbers (26, 17) will be invisible to the end user, unless they go deep into the menus of their converter boxes or digital tuners.

C'MON CAVS: The early on-court success of the Cleveland Cavaliers has resulted in TV success for Cavs TV rightsholder FOX Sports Ohio.

Though it's been mentioned elsewhere, we first noticed this news Friday in a blog from, of all places, the Los Angeles Times.

The Times passes along word that winning ways and star power (see: "James, LeBron") have fueled TV ratings increases in a number of NBA markets, including right here:

The New Orleans Hornets, coming off of last year's strong showing, are the league leader with a 163% ratings jump. The Cleveland Cavaliers' 109% ratings jump undoubtedly was driven by LeBron James leading the team to an eight-game winning streak.

The numbers come from the folks at Nielsen Media Research, in their primary business of rating television programming. Nielsen's numbers show an average of a 6.2 household rating for the Cavaliers on FSOhio, second among NBA markets nationwide.

(And yes, in something we never got around to posting, it does appear that FOX Sports Net's regional networks have dropped the "Net" in their names - leaving the local outlet as "FOX Sports Ohio". The slimmed down onscreen graphics now identify the team name up at the top right, i.e. "FSCavaliers".)

The L.A. Times blog entry contains the usual dumb comments...the first firing a shot at Northeast Ohio ("what else is there to do in Cleveland?"). Well, apparently, there's so much to do in Los Angeles that people have time to read Internet blogs and make comments about there being nothing to do in Cleveland...