WBTS - Home of NBC Boston?

[NowBergen 485]

I doubt NBC cares about a Sinclair owned station that is technically out of market

[JCB4TV 330]

I doubt NBC cares about a Sinclair owned station that is technically out of market

If you're referring to WJAR, they've neen with NBC since radio while NBCU created WBTS because life at WHDH became a living hell to them and were abandoned by WBZ more then 20 years ago.

[mre29 1340]

If you're referring to WJAR, they've neen with NBC since radio while NBCU created WBTS because life at WHDH became a living hell to them and were abandoned by WBZ more then 20 years ago.

 

To be fair, WBZ itself didn't willingly abandon NBC. Westinghouse did that. WBZ was caught in the middle.

[channel99 45]

Checking to see what NBC Boston might do at midnight on 60-5, they may have set a new low in cluelessness. Saturday Night Live was in progress, with no crawl running, and they (or WMFP) pulled the plug at 12:01. No slide directing viewers to rescan - just nothing. The virtual channel is there - with no video and or audio.

[Rusty Muck 4160]

To be fair, WBZ itself didn't willingly abandon NBC. Westinghouse did that. WBZ was caught in the middle.

Yup. Westinghouse was abandoned by ABC with the group-wide affiliation pact with Scripps that gave WJZ the shaft. Thus, Group W went all-in with CBS, to the point they bought the network outright.

 

To say it was "hell" for NBC to be with WHDH is completely disingenuous and easily disproven. NBC left WHDH because they wanted all the revenue from being in a top 10 market.

[jerseyfla 193]

If you're referring to WJAR, they've neen with NBC since radio while NBCU created WBTS because life at WHDH became a living hell to them and were abandoned by WBZ more then 20 years ago.

 

I’m sure there are some people who get both stations. KNTV originally branded themselves “NBC 3” when NBC bought the station and took the affiliation from KRON but that confused some viewers of Sacramento’s KCRA in the northeast parts of the San Francisco Bay Area who get both stations so KNTV went to branding themselves “NBC 11” a year or two later. WBTS could have branded themselves any number other than 4,5,6,7,10 or 12. Maybe 2, 3, 8, 9, or 11 and Comcast could have arranged the channel number change on their cable system since they own the station and the cable system.

[mre29 1340]

Maybe 2, 3, 8, 9, or 11 and Comcast could have arranged the channel number change on their cable system since they own the station and the cable system.

 

Ah, but all five of those channel numbers are taken in one portion of the DMA. On Xfinity in southern NH, 2 and 11 are NHPTV (and 2 used to be WGBH, which NHPTV now schedule-shares with), 8 is WMUR for that mildly annoying technical issue that I can't remember the name of, 9 is Ion but would be a confusing choice because of WMUR.

 

And that doesn't even take into account branding issues. 2 and 9 are taken in-market, and most NH residents likely still associate 11 with NHPTV, while the others are in use in neighboring markets: 3 is used by WFSB in Hartford, its semi-satellite WSHM-LD in Springfield, and WCAX in Burlington; while 8 is also in the Hartford DMA (WTNH), but also Portland (WMTW).

[TheRolyPoly 1843]

I feel like this thread should become the "WBTS - NBC 10 Boston" thread.

[mre29 1340]

I feel like this thread should become the "WBTS - NBC 10 Boston" thread.

 

Nah, it should be the "WBTS - NBC 15 Boston" thread.

[TheRolyPoly 1843]

Nah, it should be the "WBTS - NBC 15 Boston" thread.

 

Except, its WBTS, not WYCN.

[mrschimpf 2050]

Checking to see what NBC Boston might do at midnight on 60-5, they may have set a new low in cluelessness. Saturday Night Live was in progress, with no crawl running, and they (or WMFP) pulled the plug at 12:01.

 

It's a timelease; unlike a channel removal or move which requires FCC notice like the WLWC situation, it's the same as if, to compare, KMOV lost their MeTV subchannel to KNLC after Weigel's purchase; KMOV had no obligation to tell people where MeTV moved to (and Weigel didn't expect them to, thus posting on their Facebook and website about the move), and Weigel certainly didn't have to say 'hey, KMOV is carrying Cozi TV as of February 1, watch our competitors!'. It's on WMFP to keep people well-informed, and at worse, NBC just has to put up a 'welp, 60.5 is discontinued you can find us...' message on Facebook. The timelease ended and NBC had no further obligations to WMFP, so it's on that station to put up a 'The channel lease with NBC Boston has ended due to our upcoming spectrum move; find them (xx), WMFP-DT5 Lawrence-Boston' message.

 

Ah, but all five of those channel numbers are taken in one portion of the DMA. On Xfinity in southern NH, 2 and 11 are NHPTV (and 2 used to be WGBH

 

2 is still WGBH over the air, no matter what. That number is all but unclaimable for any Boston station.

[Rusty Muck 4160]

Except, its WBTS, not WYCN.

Dumb question: can a class-A station share the same callsign as a low-power TV station? I didn't think they could...

[Samantha 2876]

Dumb question: can a class-A station share the same callsign as a low-power TV station? I didn't think they could...

 

Yes. KTVW's Flagstaff repeater is a Class A licensed as KTVW-CD.

[TheRolyPoly 1843]

[QUOTE="Myron Falwell, post: 206554, member: 2210"]Dumb question: can a class-A station share the same callsign as a low-power TV station? I didn't think they could...[/QUOTE] @Ramona pretty much answered it. There could be a WBTS-LD and a WBTS-CD, since its differentiated by a low-power digital ([B]LD[/B]) and a Class A digital ([B]CD[/B])

[mre29 1340]

Except, its WBTS, not WYCN.

 

Call letters can be changed.

[channel99 45]

It's a timelease; unlike a channel removal or move which requires FCC notice like the WLWC situation, it's the same as if, to compare, KMOV lost their MeTV subchannel to KNLC after Weigel's purchase; KMOV had no obligation to tell people where MeTV moved to (and Weigel didn't expect them to, thus posting on their Facebook and website about the move), and Weigel certainly didn't have to say 'hey, KMOV is carrying Cozi TV as of February 1, watch our competitors!'. It's on WMFP to keep people well-informed, and at worse, NBC just has to put up a 'welp, 60.5 is discontinued you can find us...' message on Facebook. The timelease ended and NBC had no further obligations to WMFP, so it's on that station to put up a 'The channel lease with NBC Boston has ended due to our upcoming spectrum move; find them (xx), WMFP-DT5 Lawrence-Boston' message.

 

WMFP didn't have to post anything, but NBC Boston knew their deal ran out at midnight on March 31, and could have put a crawl on 60-5 all day Saturday, and perhaps put a slide up at 11:30 PM telling viewers they would need to switch to 15-1, scanning for it if necessary, to continue watching NBC Boston. Instead they let viewers of Saturday Night Live watch their screen suddenly go black half way through the show, most probably not knowing what had happened. Not a bright move on the part of NBC Boston, whether legal or not. The ironic part is that since "NBC 10" has been pounded into viewers heads lately, some of those viewers probably turned to the "real" NBC 10 - WJAR.

[dkipcl 5]

I seriously don't get why NBC has an obsession here with having channel 10. It would've made more sense as 12, 14, or 15.

[Rusty Muck 4160]

WMFP didn't have to post anything, but NBC Boston knew their deal ran out at midnight on March 31, and could have put a crawl on 60-5 all day Saturday, and perhaps put a slide up at 11:30 PM telling viewers they would need to switch to 15-1, scanning for it if necessary, to continue watching NBC Boston. Instead they let viewers of Saturday Night Live watch their screen suddenly go black half way through the show, most probably not knowing what had happened. Not a bright move on the part of NBC Boston, whether legal or not. The ironic part is that since "NBC 10" has been pounded into viewers heads lately, some of those viewers probably turned to the "real" NBC 10 - WJAR.

How many people really watched NBC Boston OTA on 60.5? I doubt that there were that many people, especially when 15.1 lit up.

[mrschimpf 2050]

Instead they let viewers of Saturday Night Live watch their screen suddenly go black half way through the show, most probably not knowing what had happened. Not a bright move on the part of NBC Boston, whether legal or not.

 

SNL was a repeat last week, so it's doubtful a lot of people were even watching anyways at that time, be it on 8, cable 10, 15, 60.2 or 60.5. The signal was also 720p bit-limited, so only the 'we can't get anything else' crowd used it as their prime signal source. Most likely the number of viewers of 60.5 once WYCN kicked in was so negligible that WBTS decided there was no need to ticker-annoy the rest of the audience with the discontinuance, and since WMFP is a Sonlife passthrough otherwise they have barebones character generator abilities and decided the annoyance on their end wasn't worth it either.

[rkolsen 1675]

SNL was a repeat last week, so it's doubtful a lot of people were even watching anyways at that time, be it on 8, cable 10, 15, 60.2 or 60.5. The signal was also 720p bit-limited, so only the 'we can't get anything else' crowd used it as their prime signal source. Most likely the number of viewers of 60.5 once WYCN kicked in was so negligible that WBTS decided there was no need to ticker-annoy the rest of the audience with the discontinuance, and since WMFP is a Sonlife passthrough otherwise they have barebones character generator abilities and decided the annoyance on their end wasn't worth it either.

 

Chances are as a major market station they have the ability to run tickets on their different program streams or at the very least I imagine have a separate feed for cable/satellite and OTA - as they have to format convert it anyway. If they don't at the station surely master control in Colorado does. I bet it was mentioned on the 11 as well.

[channel99 45]

How many people really watched NBC Boston OTA on 60.5? I doubt that there were that many people, especially when 15.1 lit up.

 

SNL was a repeat last week, so it's doubtful a lot of people were even watching anyways at that time, be it on 8, cable 10, 15, 60.2 or 60.5. The signal was also 720p bit-limited, so only the 'we can't get anything else' crowd used it as their prime signal source. Most likely the number of viewers of 60.5 once WYCN kicked in was so negligible that WBTS decided there was no need to ticker-annoy the rest of the audience with the discontinuance, and since WMFP is a Sonlife passthrough otherwise they have barebones character generator abilities and decided the annoyance on their end wasn't worth it either.

 

Chances are as a major market station they have the ability to run tickets on their different program streams or at the very least I imagine have a separate feed for cable/satellite and OTA - as they have to format convert it anyway. If they don't at the station surely master control in Colorado does. I bet it was mentioned on the 11 as well.

 

The average non-technical viewer was very likely still watching 60-5 until Saturday, and paid little attention to an occasional mention on the air of scanning for 15-1 when it debuted, and paid little attention to any mentions of 60-5 going away. If it was ch 4 or 5 maybe, but not the multi-numbered "NBC 10". I am sure the viewers survived missing the rest of SNL and may have figured things out on Sunday. But there are probably many OTA-only kitchen sets which still don't get 15-1, even in homes with cable in the den and bedrooms. So if they use that set for morning or evening news, they are now just watching another station. It would have been worthwhile for NBC Boston to put just a little effort into better notification.

[dkipcl 5]

I saw a ticker on 15-1 though like a week ago for a few minutes, saying that this would only affect those watching on 60-5.

So yes they ran a ticker at one point, whether or not it was enough is fair game.

[Carl Youncinator 3]

WMFP is still broadcasting 62.1 on rf 18; how much longer until they channel share with WWDP?

[Rusty Muck 4160]

I don't see any sort of outcry among Bostonians that 60.5 got shut down.

 

If anything, the exact opposite. 15.1 has the same signal that WGBX has, and it's one of - if not - the best signal in the market.

 

Moreover, when NBC made their push for people to rescan for 15.1 back in January, 8.1 and 60.2 were mentioned as the other outlets for "NBC 10 Boston." 60.5 was not.

[mre29 1340]

Don't you mean NBC "10" Boston?