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View Full Version : Austin Welcomes CBS-42HD... Austin's First HD Broadcast

bartendress
11-01-07, 05:21 PM
Of course, Austin's stations have been broadcasting digitally (including network HD content) for some time now but, today at 5PM, KEYE CBS-42 put out their first local HD content with their early evening newscast.

Contrats to them for being the first to get it done. Here in Austin they're #3 in the ratings. Perhaps this move will give them a leg up.


Questions:
1) What's your DMA?
2) Who was the first local to go live with HD content?
3) How many locals in your DMA are in HD now?
bt-rtp
11-01-07, 06:24 PM
WRAL-DT, a CBS affiliate serving the Raleigh-Durham, N.C. market on October 28, 1998 launched it's HD transmission. This was the first broadcast station in the US to go HD.

http://www.wrallocaltechwire.com/news/local/story/131705/

These days the local ABC, NBC and FOX affiliates also transmit their network feeds in HD, but their local news is still in SD.
RAD
11-01-07, 06:35 PM
Why did this thread get started in the E* forum (especially since E* doesn't have HD LIL for Austin) and not in the HDTV Programming forum?
bartendress
11-01-07, 07:12 PM
Why did this thread get started in the E* forum (especially since E* doesn't have HD LIL for Austin) and not in the HDTV Programming forum?

Maybe Austin HD customers would find this to be enough motivation to raise new complaints about the lack of Austin HD on the E* birds...

I'll leave it to the moderators to determine whether or not I've initiated a conversation in a forum that is the most appropriate for this discussion.

Thanks for your contribution and efforts to encourage a new topic.
RAD
11-01-07, 07:18 PM
Maybe Austin HD customers would find this to be enough motivation to raise new complaints about the lack of Austin HD on the E* birds...

I'll leave it to the moderators to determine whether or not I've initiated a conversation in a forum that is the most appropriate for this discussion.

Thanks for your contribution and efforts to encourage a new topic.

If that was your motivation of the thread then this would be the place for it but from reading your OP it looked like you were just asking general questions about where local news has gone HD.
Richard King
11-01-07, 07:20 PM
Moved, with redirect in original forum.
bartendress
11-01-07, 07:32 PM
If that was your motivation of the thread then this would be the place for it but from reading your OP it looked like you were just asking general questions about where local news has gone HD.

I was disappointed to learn that E* didn't have Austin LIL HD's when I got set up with Dish. I even told one of the CSR that one of our locals was going to start their news broadcasts in HD. Of course, telling a CSR anything is akin to talking to a fence post... but I digress.

I probably owe E* a 'thank you' as the PQ of the locals OTA is better than I'd ever imagined.

Those questions were merely an after-thought to (potentially) generate some fun discussion and bring to light some interesting trivia.

Ultimately I forgot rule #1 of communications: Know Your Audience... so I guess I need to remember to dumb it down.
bartendress
11-01-07, 07:33 PM
Moved, with redirect in original forum.

Thanks, RK.
zlensman
11-01-07, 08:59 PM
My DMA is Austin, TX, so you know the answer to the other questions.

I watched the KEYE CBS news today at 5pm and I have to say that it is no more compelling in HD than it ever was. The studio looks bright and colorful, but the news is no more interesting and the anchors no more engaging than before. Also, none of the live remotes or graphics are in HD yet. How hard is it to have graphics of the weather in HD? Should just be a software upgrade, but I'm not in the news business.

I read an article about KVOA in Tucson switching to HD (http://www.tvpredictions.com/kvoa070807.htm) for the local news. Their ratings went down. Local news in HD is no guarantee of a larger audience.
bartendress
11-01-07, 09:49 PM
Local news in HD is no guarantee of a larger audience.

Oh I completely agree with this statement and much of your others as well.

I have to admit that I have a bias toward KEYE and, in particular, Judy Maggio. I can't explain why... it's just that I kinda bonded with Judy's style after I arrived here from Columbus, OH a few years ago. I was really shocked the other day when I learned that KEYE is #3...

And I TOTALLY agree with your comments about the weather graphics. I don't understand how they flubbed that! The most graphics-heavy segment of any newscast is the weather... and NONE of it was HD. PLUS... Byron seemed the least-rehearsed, too. He was standing too tight to the green screen and was even the only one to miss their "your watching CBS 42 HD" tag on the cut-aways on the 5pm and 6pm broadcasts.
Richard King
11-02-07, 06:28 AM
Thanks, RK.Anytime, but, you owe me a drink now. :D
RAD
11-02-07, 07:44 AM
I can see staying SD for the live remotes but how about a few HD camcorders for taped field segments. Maybe next years budget will have a few $'s in it for more upgrades for that and the weather computers.

It was rumored that KVUE and KXAN will go HD local news next year, maybe they'll go farther in their conversion efforts.
bartendress
11-02-07, 07:56 PM
I can see staying SD for the live remotes but how about a few HD camcorders for taped field segments. Maybe next years budget will have a few $'s in it for more upgrades for that and the weather computers.

It was rumored that KVUE and KXAN will go HD local news next year, maybe they'll go farther in their conversion efforts.

I agree. There was one segment (an investigative report) on the 10PM program that was shot in the field with an HD camera... so they at least have one.

I suspect they cut some corners to be first, but that novelty will only last so long.

I do find it commendable that a local station in a medium-sized DMA found the wherewithal to do this when we still have national networks doing their news in SD.
RAD
11-02-07, 08:10 PM
I wonder how much of the $'s spent on the upgrades was done while KEYE was a CBS O&O station. I saw an interview with a CBS Engineering VP on HDNet and he said that they wanted to get all their local O&O stations upgraded to HD news. It will be interesting to see how much money the new owners put into future upgrades.
bartendress
11-02-07, 10:48 PM
I wonder how much of the $'s spent on the upgrades was done while KEYE was a CBS O&O station. I saw an interview with a CBS Engineering VP on HDNet and he said that they wanted to get all their local O&O stations upgraded to HD news. It will be interesting to see how much money the new owners put into future upgrades.

Interesting that they'd dump money to expedite getting their O&O's broadcasting HD news when the network itself is lagging behind NBC's pioneering step several months ago. I found an article that sheds a little light on the subject of Evening News and HD (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6489253.html), but they still don't seem to be in a hurry. Being in HD by the time the conventions roll around (8-9 months from now) is far from an aggressive time-line.

Then there's ABC World News Tonight who, based upon my cursory searches, don't seem to indicate they even know what HD is.