Media: WEEK is weak
A source who I am choosing to NOT identify tipped me to a problem that many people seem to be having with WEEK.
As we all know by now, WEEK and all local television stations have stopped broadcasting in analog format and switched to digital. As I’ve noted before, WEEK was all over the place in the lead-up to the switch about how people need to make sure that if they didn’t have a digital-ready television, they needed to have a digital converter. As well they should, since WEEK decided to make a buck off the switchover and actually wrapped their announcements around ads for a local store that sells televisions. Niiiiiiice.
So one would think that this station that hectored and frightened so many people into the awful, terrible fate that awaited anyone who was not ready for the digital switchover would, itself, be ready for the digital switchover.
Yeah. One would think.
Do why are so many folks complaining that they suddenly are getting little or no reception on their antenna. The person I spoke to says that they WERE getting DIGITAL reception just fine in her central bluff home — right up until WEEK decided to pull the plug on it’s analog signal. Suddenly, they can’t get WEEK.
She and many others have complained on WEEK’s Website, but they aren’t getting any answers, except that the station is blaming interference from trees that must have spontaneously doubled in size the very instant they stopped analog broadcasting.
But if I know WEEK boss Mark DeSantis — and I do — these complaints will be written off as problems on the user end and not treated as something the station has to fix.
Meanwhile, my friend is learning to live without WEEK.
I wish the local channels would get digital inserters. You know the weather bug or other on-screen information that these stations put on over network programming? They apparently are still using analog inserters to do that, which means they have to take the 16:9 HD digital signal and downconvert it to 4:3 analog to run it through the inserter. So when Jay Leno or David Letterman starts, it pops into low-def while the weather bug is on screen, then pops back into HD after the bug goes off. It’s annoying. Especially during musical numbers. I would think having digital equipment in the program stream would have been part of being “digital ready” at the TV stations.
I this is the company that spent most a a full years lecturing US about digital television. Maybe they ought to take some of that cash their digital conversion sponsor gave them and put it to good use finishing up their own digital conversion.
Honestly, I thought of commenting about this very same thing, but I know from experience that DeSantis never accepts responsibility for the many, many technical glitches that comes out of WEEK.
BTW: Please fix the audio coming out of the WHOI news. I know WEEK doesn’t want to spend any money, but really … it’s bad.
You need to re-run the search for channels function on the digital converter – I lost 25 too. Channel 25 and channel 43 will show up if you re-scan.
Yeah kohlrabi is right, just a short time after the digital switch WEEK ran a series of commercials letting viewers know they were going to have to readjust their signal to get it. Also I live nearly 40 miles from the WEEK signal and I get it just fine through a small flat panel antenna. I think the issue is that some people want to use the cheapest rabbit ear antennas they could find and that’s their prerogative but they shouldn’t expect a decent signal as a result.
I would bet this problem is more a result of user error/stupidity/cheapness than it is with WEEK changing the strength of their signal. I have the ability to view the strength of the signal whenever I change to the channel and it did not change in strength from before the switch to after even at my distance from the source.
People who don’t understand the technology (nor referring to you Billy but the person you talked to) are so quick to point the finger at the provider when really the blame lies with their ignorance.
It has to do with airspace. I don’t know if this is true of the Peoria stations or not, but there are a number of stations around the country that were running their digital signal on one channel but when the digital conversion happens/happened, they moved their transmitter to a new channel.
Digital signals aren’t as forgiving as analog signals. With digital, it’s all or nothing. There’s no slightly fuzzy, in between signal. Trees could actually be a problem. The switchover was in February. Trees are starting to grow and get leaves again.
I’m not sticking up for WEEK, but there could very well be some problems that they have to work out to. For those that can’t recieve it, I would ask what kind of antenna you’re using. If you are using a converter box, you really need an outdoor antenna. Yes, you might be able to get some stations with an indoor antenna, but you’re going to have better luck with a larger outdoor antenna.
I say “always follow the money and who would benefit”….blame…..COMCAST!
Well I don’t think even WEEK’s analog signal could reach me, 350 miles from peoria.
Extremely bad joke aside……… I guess I am just indifferent to who gets what channel anymore. I moved to Missouri 11 years ago. I spent 19 years of my life in Illinois spoiled. Why spoiled? I got 5 free channels of TV out in Tazewell county. Then I decided to move to the most BFE place Missouri has to offer, Dent County. You can’t see shit without cable or dish. Local news, HAH! Our nearest TV station was 130 miles away in Springfield, MO. I was spoiled rotten to not have to pay a cable company in Illinois. I was spoiled because, and on occasion, the news truck would come out to my little Tazewell County town and make us famous for 60 seconds every now and then. Being isolated from knowing what is truly going on has made me appreciate having local television, like I do now living 45 minutes from Kansas City. Point is: If you live close enough to get the channel free, then you are truly local and I miss that.
That being said, sure WEEK will write it off as a TV owner issue and not due to any fault of their own. I hope they can rectify the problem. There are many people I know, and lots of my family still living in Tazewell County that rely on OTA signals to get their television programming.
In a cost savings slash, I cancelled cable last week. I am watching exclusively over the air digital, and the only station I have a slight problem getting is fox 43….the rest come in fine. I am in East Peoria, almost to Washington, and I don’t know where the towers are.