Friday, June 12, 2009

ODTV: Almost Done

At this writing, the end of full-power analog TV in Northeast Ohio is nearly complete.

Only the analog signals of WKYC/3 (NBC), WVIZ/25 (PBS), WNEO/49 (PBS) and WQHS/61 (Univision) remain, and the last three will be gone before midnight tonight. WKYC's "nightlight" DTV information loop will continue through June 26th...the station having taken all entertainment and news programming off of analog 3 at 10 AM.

Over in the Mahoning Valley, only the analog signal of WFMJ/21 (NBC) is still on the air late this Friday night. It plans to pull the analog plug at just before midnight tonight, and will have to do so even if the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings take over four hours to finish Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

UPDATE 10:37 PM 6/12/09: Game 7 is over, with the Pittsburgh Penguins victorious...leaving plenty of time for WFMJ/21 to shut down its analog signal at a minute before midnight, as planned. Ditto for Toledo NBC affiliate WNWO/24, which held off its own switch due to rabid Detroit Red Wings fans. Those fans may be begging for an early switch now.

By the way, OMW hears from our friends at Western Reserve PBS that though Youngstown low-power analog fill-in translator W58AM (Channel 58) is indeed still off the air, the Kent-based PBS operation is planning to return the Youngstown fill-in service via digital channel 44 (58's replacement, W44CR) in the fall of this year.

We'll have a post-mortem and commentary over the weekend, and more information about other Ohio markets (particularly Toledo and Columbus) as it becomes available to us...

1 comment:

idrmrsr said...

I checked here, Cleveland Heights, inside a condo, with a Terk amplified antenna and battery digital TV. I spotted Toledo 24 STILL broadcasting in analogue. Maybe it was the hockey game. You know, with all the big locals out of the way, Canada was coming in nicely...half decent signals from ch 16, 40, 42, and 54 and also I could get WXYZ digital from Detroit! However, WOIO and WJW were NO SHOWS. Grrr. I can't put up an antenna outside here in the condo. Did I say GRRRR. I do have cable so I'm just whining, until the power goes out. For a while I did get a signal on ch 10, from Canada, but not from right in town.