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The 69 News/WFMZ Thread


Mrknowitall526

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  • 2 weeks later...
They just aired 10 minutes of a loop of various religious programming commercials, then Wendy & Rob abruptly came on - no open or anything - and said they had some "technical issues" then 10 seconds later threw it to Ed for the weather.

 

This happens far too often.

It could have been worse.

http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2016/10/24/charlotte-station-cancels-newscast

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They just aired 10 minutes of a loop of various religious programming commercials, then Wendy & Rob abruptly came on - no open or anything - and said they had some "technical issues" then 10 seconds later threw it to Ed for the weather.

 

This happens far too often.

I didn't get to see it tonight...the important question is - even after 10 minutes of religious commercials were they still able to fit in Mr. Dean or Rev. Barnhouse's commentary - we wouldn't want to miss that?

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I didn't get to see it tonight...the important question is - even after 10 minutes of religious commercials were they still able to fit in Mr. Dean or Rev. Barnhouse's commentary - we wouldn't want to miss that?

 

LOL I don't remember if they did or not ... but they didn't even try to shorten it. It still ran about the same time even though it started around 10:15, then the Berks Edition was also delayed.

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  • 3 weeks later...
I just saw a commercial for a WFMZ 40th anniversary special to air on Thanksgiving (11/24) at 6:30 PM.

They have been showing a preview during news programming yesterday and today. It will be fun to see how far they have come in 40 years - from the early days of Newspulse, not to mention 40 years of Kathy Craine; plus some "Where are they now?" on past on-air talent.

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Just moved to the Philly area and caught this station on satellite. It is a fairly respectable news station that seems to serve the rural part of the Philadelphia market. Very much like their 10pm news team.

 

The third largest metropolitan area in Pennsylvania is hardly rural, with a regional population of 820k+.

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The third largest metropolitan area in Pennsylvania is hardly rural, with a regional population of 820k+.

 

Which doesn't include Reading and Berks County, which increases 69's target sub-market to 1.2 million. There's some rural parts, sure. But this is a significant chunk of the Philly DMA. Considering the Glendive DMA exists (and that Baltimore and Washington and all the Southern New England DMAs are packed in so tightly), it's a wonder that the Lehigh Valley and Berks County never got spun off into a DMA of their own.

 

ETA: And of the New York DMA -- western New Jersey (mainly Warren County) is also super-served by 69.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just watched the 40 years special. An hour and a half of everything you wanted to know or didn't need to know about WFMZ. (Commercial free) I think they could have cut a half hour of it. Was interesting though in places. Never realized that the station was launched after NBC and ABC affiliates failed.

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Just watched the 40 years special. An hour and a half of everything you wanted to know or didn't need to know about WFMZ. (Commercial free) I think they could have cut a half hour of it. Was interesting though in places. Never realized that the station was launched after NBC and ABC affiliates failed.

It's on my DVR but I didn't watch it yet! I'll save it for some night this week when there's nothing to watch.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Watching wfmz sunrise now. I must say that I like their reporters and anchors for the most part. Matt Broderick is the only weather person I can watch. And There's a fine line between robotic and professional; Steve Mittman has no personality and the red light green light segment is ridiculous.Dick Dean and the other guy can go on and on with their views on politics, and we're asked if we like quiche!

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
WFMZ sold its broadcasting spectrum in the FCC auction. It'll use the funds to expand into the OTT realm and develop apps for Roku, Apple TV, etc:

 

http://www.wfmz.com/news/lehigh-valley/wfmz-tv-expansion-fueled-by-fcc-auction/451004991

 

PBS 39 also participated.

WFMZ and WLVT are expected to channel share with WBPH 60 (RF 9).

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WFMZ and WLVT are expected to channel share with WBPH 60 (RF 9).

 

Gonna need you to cite your source on that. Why would WFMZ triplex with WBPH and WLVT after they flipped some of the money they made selling their spectrum into buying other spectrum in the Valley AND buying KJWP's spectrum to expand their broadcast footprint south?

 

Isn't WBPH's signal in the VHF band garbage anyway?

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Gonna need you to cite your source on that. Why would WFMZ triplex with WBPH and WLVT after they flipped some of the money they made selling their spectrum into buying other spectrum in the Valley AND buying KJWP's spectrum to expand their broadcast footprint south?

 

Isn't WBPH's signal in the VHF band garbage anyway?

 

It's probably just speculation based on this article.

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It's probably just speculation based on this article.

 

Ty... The meaty parts are behind Fybush's paywall, and while he takes a mean picture of a broadcast tower, I'm pretty meh about paying for his newsletter. Seeing the speculation come from Fybush lends a little bit of credence to it, but still, though, to me that doesn't make sense, considering WFMZ still has KJWP and a low-power transmitter in Philadelphia on RF 45 plus whatever additional spectrum they bought.

 

WFMZ, WBPH, and WLVT are all on WFMZ's tower at South Mountain already, so, yeah, okay, sure. Contours and footprint probably would remain the same. But are there any examples of eight virtual channels (69's 4, 39's 2, and 60's 2) sharing one physical channel anywhere else? Wouldn't there be bandwidth limitations? I don't know enough about this newfangled "H Dee" technology to really know, so someone please educate me, but it doesn't seem like it would work all that well.

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