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Post by nuwildcats on Nov 14, 2013 19:14:24 GMT -5
Today KBC 41.1 (WOCH) showed up when I rescanned my internet tv but the transmission is breaking up.
There appears to be a shakeup in OTA channels. In addition to 41.1, here's what else I've noticed:
Ch 20.1, 20.2 and 20.3 now each have their own news and international programming schedules.
Ch 61.x comes and goes, 2 of the substations appear to be Taiwanese, the 3rd, Korean, maybe?
Ch 24.3 is now a Muslim station.
Off-topic somewhat: Ch 26.5 is dropped and appears on Ch 9.3 as a movie-only station.
Ch 50.2 movie-only continues to offer some excellent movies. My heavy schedule keeps me from watching and I've now missed not once, but twice William Holden's Picnic and Deborah Kerr's From Here to Eternity. I suspect that Hollywood has released many not-seen-in-years movies from a no-show clause and that's why so many terrific movies are suddenly showing up.
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Post by nuwildcats on Nov 20, 2013 16:54:49 GMT -5
KBC 41.1 was up and running picture-perfect today, and then it wasn't, and then it came back breaking up. It appears they're still working on reception and I expect 41.1's reception to become stable in the near future.
(Not only because of the improvement.) There's new changes as of this a.m. I now get 38.6 HSN and 38.5 QVC which I never programmed in. I learned WBBM 2.1 has been off-air for me, mostly, the last few months because high-rises are messing with transmission of its signal. They're putting up towers(?) in affected areas, and sure enough, rhis a.m. I got 2.1 back.
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Post by nuwildcats on Nov 21, 2013 15:39:24 GMT -5
Even when 41.0 Arirang went off-air, tvguide.com continued to display its hour-by-hour programming. Last night, it jibed with what was on 41.1: non-Korean ethnic programming (Greek, Polish, East Indian), tons of infomercials, Korean news formats, and an 8:30pm daily drama (non-historical opening with ep 18). Although my reception is either great or breaking up, I'm betting others further away from city congestion are getting stable reception.
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Post by ajk on Nov 21, 2013 22:05:23 GMT -5
I'm not getting 41.1 out here in the suburbs. Not even a sign of it. Not yet, at least. But when I rescanned I did get something very interesting: seven digital channels broadcasting on 22. From what I can tell so far, a mix of ethnic and shopping stations. Which may be very relevant to us here because when JP Paulus was still coming here regularly, he mentioned something about knowing somebody who was interesting in setting up an ethnic channel group on 22. I wonder if this is the same thing. P.S. They have a Facebook page, here: www.facebook.com/chicago22TV?ref=streamLooks like they've been on since March--but I never picked them up in previous rescans. No clue what the story is.
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Post by TheBo on Nov 22, 2013 10:26:29 GMT -5
Hmm. I hope for further developments--not that I'll benefit, but it would be nice to know if such a thing would generate sufficient interest in our area.
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Post by nuwildcats on Nov 22, 2013 15:10:09 GMT -5
Bo, I'd rather have AMC and HBO over the gobs of ethnic substations I don't have time to watch anyway. But I gotta pick and choose where money goes.
I usually get 55+ OTA stations when I re-scan, 20 more than what I got last year at this time. So I'm going to have to settle for what I get with OTA, and VOD cable programs.
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Post by nuwildcats on Nov 22, 2013 15:35:57 GMT -5
I'm not getting 41.1 out here in the suburbs. Not even a sign of it. Not yet, at least. But when I rescanned I did get something very interesting: seven digital channels broadcasting on 22. From what I can tell so far, a mix of ethnic and shopping stations. Which may be very relevant to us here because when JP Paulus was still coming here regularly, he mentioned something about knowing somebody who was interesting in setting up an ethnic channel group on 22. I wonder if this is the same thing. P.S. They have a Facebook page, here: www.facebook.com/chicago22TV?ref=streamLooks like they've been on since March--but I never picked them up in previous rescans. No clue what the story is. Thanks for the Ch 22 info, ajk. I don't get Ch 22.xx (nor 13.xxx), but wonder if all the ethnic programming and shopping substations showing up there have been spread throughout Ch 20.xxx (with a designated North American Indian substation), 24.xxx (with a dedicated Muslim substation), 41.1 (w/various ethnic programming) and 38.xx (with two shopping substations) is what I'll be left with in my area. I've bookmarked Ch 22's Facebook page for its info on local Asian events. Thought of ginnycat and others here as I read NY Times' post about rabbit ears' use in improving tv reception now. When KBS pulled out of Chicago as we moved into digital tv, most of us went through suffering and in retrospect, growing pains. Now 4 years later I'm seeing digital's fruits and limitless possibilities in the future.
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Post by nuwildcats on Nov 25, 2013 17:28:11 GMT -5
Posted, in part, under 24.5 and 24.7 as well: Hour-by-hour programming for 24.7 can be found at www.tvguide.com. By registering with your viewing area, you can choose stations to add to your favorites to display their programming. 41.1 is displayed there as 41.0, while 24.5 is not. Nor does channel 22.xx show up as an option, at least in my viewing area. For the last few days, when checking on 41.1's reception, it's either been dark or breaks up. Except that is for the infomercials when the reception is perfect.
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Post by ajk on Jan 13, 2014 23:02:36 GMT -5
Been meaning to get back to this, because I continue to get a full set of channels on WJRK 22 and apparently I'm still the only one.
Did some searching on the Internet to find out more. WJRK is coming from an antenna about a mile away from me in Arlington Heights. Even that close, the signal is just barely strong enough to receive clearly. As best as I can read the technical specifications in their FCC paperwork, the station has a 1400 watt signal, which is very weak. It looks like they may have been sitting on a broadcast license for several years but it was expiring at the end of November so they started broadcasting in November just under the wire, to keep their place. And now they apparently have a seven-year extension; the latest FCC filing says they're approved through November 2021.
So far they haven't done much of anything with most of the channels. 22.1, 22.2 and 22.7 just keep showing infomercials, over and over and over. 22.5 is supposed to be showing a jewelry shopping network called JTV but I don't recall seeing any actual JTV yet, just more infomercials.
22.6 is supposed to be showing something called Sino22, which has a website and claims to be a Chicago-local Chinese station based in Chinatown. The website has a complete broadcast schedule posted, including documentaries and dramas--even a historical drama (well, a time-travel drama...blecch, but it's in the ballpark, at least). But there's nothing showing on 22.6 except a home screen for a digital media player. Weird. Maybe it's still in the wishful-thinking stage.
Two of the subchannels are broadcasting real stuff. 22.3 is a South Asian network called Diya TV, which is also seen in Dallas, Atlanta and parts of California. Indian and Pakistani programming. This is the one interesting channel, because part of the time they show some of those "Bollywood" movies and I don't think those have ever been seen here over the air before. 22.4 is a Hispanic network called TeLe-Romantica; it has a Wikipedia entry that says it runs "telenovelas, movies, series and documentaries" and its main target audience is females 18-35. It's not subtitled.
The FCC applicant is from California. It looks like the applicant is one of the people behind DiyaTV. So that may be what's driving this whole thing--getting Diya on the air here. But the northwest suburbs isn't exactly the center of the area's south Asian community, so maybe this is just a temporary thing while they try to ramp up and look for a more appropriate broadcast location. Anyway, if I find out anything more, I'll post an update.
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Post by ginnycat5 on Jan 16, 2014 17:31:59 GMT -5
Channel 2 hasn't come in for me for months now, or maybe a year. I miss The Big Bang Theory!
There are films on 50.2 and 26.5 and sometimes on 38[point] something. Could be the same film on 26.5 and 23 point something. Sometimes there are films on 5.2, and on 9.3. I use tv listings at Zap2It, and plug in my zipcode. You can customize the list according to your reception, instead of reading through all the programs that you can't get.
The Birdcage (with Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Hank Azaria, Dianne Wiest, Callista Flockheart, Christine Baranski, and Nathan Lane) will be on 11.1 this evening, 9-11pm.
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Post by nuwildcats on Jan 17, 2014 16:37:44 GMT -5
ginnycat, Try re-scanning your TV again. Elsewhere on this website, I wrote about my communication with CBS about no broadcasting and their response back that some places in the Chicagoland area have reception blocked. CBS has been working on putting up, I think it was, screens, in those problem areas, and they expected the problem to be resolved by February or so. If you're still not getting Channel 2.xxx after re-scanning, contact CBS' director of broadcast operations and engineering, Tom Schnecke, at TMSchnecke@cbs.com to report your experience. I left a voice mail from an online post to report CBS transmission problems and Tom called me and assured me CBS knew of the problems and was in the process of working on resolving it. We email back and forth whenever CBS transmission drops on my tv. And it now appears to be holding steady. (If you need a fix of TBBT, re-runs are aired on Ch 50.1.) On my end, near Montrose Harbor, I've re-gained CBS, but lost MBC 24.5. KBS 24.7 is a waste of time to tune in. Having an internet TV, I only get 1-3 minutes of 24.7 before its streamed transmission blows out my tv and I have to wait for it to re-set. If anyone else is having problems with 24.5 and/or 24.7, you can contact MBC's Kent Gustafson at mediaguy@kentdgustafson.com. He was helpful in the past and quick to respond. I just haven't had time to contact him about the now weeks-long lack of MBC transmission. Channel 41.1, on the other hand, I get intermittently. An older Korean woman I met in my neighborhood said she was told the reception for 41.1 is supposed to be stronger in areas with a larger Korean community (like, northwest suburbs). I've set up my favorites and tv carrier at www.tvguide.com (for 24.7 and 41.1; however, 24.5 is not listed) and check in whenever I see 41.1 has a daily drama running. Sometimes, when I don't have transmission on 24.5 or 41.1, I try watching through my dvr and I suddenly get transmission. As I said on another thread, programming for 24.7 is listed with basic info at www.tvguide.com. Example: A Song for You runs 20 mins: "A music request show starring your favorite Korean star. Just upload your story and song request via our Facebook page." Modest info for sure, but a lot more than I would have known on my own. Or, Melody of Love runs 40 min. "Story of young adults who are full of passion for love and their dreams sympathizes with the viewers." Again, modest info, but a lot more than I got through KBS America's online tv schedules. With the recent digital upgrades we all should be getting a lot more stations: old movies and very-old tv reruns on COZI 5.2; old movies and '70s tv reruns on 9.2, and older movies on 9.3 (which switched from the 26.5 THIS station); 26.5 is now a dedicated African-American station, it appears; 38.1 on Sundays and during Xmas has movies but that station breaks up for me too, along the same timeframe as problems with 24.5. Starting last summer, 50.2 has been an excellent movie-only station with never a bit of transmission problems. Now if I can only get the time to sit down and watch one of their premium movies. With problems I'm having, ajk's Arlington Heights station and Ch 13.xx is sure to never come in on my tv, in my current neighborhood at least.
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Post by ajk on Jan 17, 2014 17:26:19 GMT -5
You actually got a response from Kent Gustafson? I contacted him the day after KBS reappeared on the air and never heard back from him. Sent a real nice e-mail and told him about the great opportunity he had to promote 24.5 and 24.7 here in the forum...and he blew me off. Lucky you.
Maybe I'll try again.
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Post by nuwildcats on Jan 17, 2014 20:01:26 GMT -5
You actually got a response from Kent Gustafson? I contacted him the day after KBS reappeared on the air and never heard back from him. Sent a real nice e-mail and told him about the great opportunity he had to promote 24.5 and 24.7 here in the forum...and he blew me off. Lucky you. Maybe I'll try again. Do try again. Flag me if you want his cell or direct work phone. I was pretty shocked when he called me while driving a few months back. Also, before MBC's Open House, Judy Kim sent an email telling me to call her on her cell when 24.5 flatlined for me, and I had posted on their website I assumed MBC had stopped transmitting. During our phone call, she also directed me to Kent to resolve my problems on 24.5 and 24.7. Just haven't had a chance to do it but maybe in the next couple of weeks. I've ended up on hiatus over the holidays from the 5-6 kdramas I was involved with. Good thing, too, because the 2 kdramas I was invested in were huge downers guaranteed to ruin my Christmas holiday!
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Post by ajk on Jan 21, 2014 14:35:19 GMT -5
So I tried sending an e-mail to the address listed on channel 22's FCC application, and the next day I got a very nice response back from the guy who's pulling the strings. He's out in California, like I suspected. Here's part of his response:
"We are definitely looking to add more diverse content to the mix in Chicago. It's actually the mission of Chicago 22, so please spread the word if someone has interest in doing something for their community. It would be terrific to add Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, African-American, Hispanic, Polish, Russian or whatever else is underserved."
And he said that their signal will be moving to the Sears Tower soon (he said "Willis Tower" but the heck with that). Apparently there's been construction work being done on the transmission equipment and it's kept them waiting.
So this could be pretty interesting. We'll have to watch how it develops.
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Post by nuwildcats on Jan 25, 2014 14:15:59 GMT -5
I have to ask myself if the (constant) upgrading of towers is behind the crappy reception I'm getting on 24.5, 24.7 and 38.xx. Really frustrating to never know whether or not I can rely on getting these minor stations, let alone something like channel 22.xx.
Thanks for the update, ajk.
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