Locals question

[sbturner]

It looks like I am going to miss the dad gum Tallahassee locals DMA by about 7 miles, so I won't be able to get locals. I could get these channels where I work, so if I changed my phone # and address to my work would that work. Or would Dish still know where my Dish was???

[Doug E]

That may be the way for you to go. I would show my work address as the physical address, still give them your home phone # and they should never be the wiser.

[edeclark]

Yes. Similar situation for me but I have 3 'locations'. I'm actually IN a county that is part of the Marquette, MI DMA (Florence Co WI). There are only 2 post offices servicing a 2-county area (Florence & Marinette Co). Some people--in the same county--fall into being serviced by A Marinette Co. PO and others by a Florence Co. PO. My physical address location post office address falls into the latter. However, 2 miles down the road I have relatives who have Marinette Co. addresses. My 3rd address is my mailing address which is a P.O. box in a 3rd county which is also part of the Marquette DMA (Dickinson Co in Michigan). They are re-doing addresses this summer using fire numbers and I might end up with a Marinette Co address but I'm not sure. I'll more than likely put a relative down as my physical address when locals become available. As far as distant locals go I apparently can receive Grade B signals of CBS & NBC according to the FCC (and while we are on letters. Those SOB's!) but CBS is a JOKE. Its a LP transmitter of the Green Bay station and if they think I can get that channel they are smoking crack. NBC is a little better but hardly good quality. I'm grandfathered so far though so I've still got all 4 distant nets. Once Green Bay is available though they might pull one of those 'audits' on me since I'm so close to a new local market and yank my CBS & NBC. I am in a county that no other DMA seems to even WANT. The county to my west is in a different DMA (Rhinelander/Wausau, WI), the county to my east is in a different DMA (Marquette) and the county to the southeast is in yet another DMA (Green Bay) so I'm on the fringe of EVERYTHING. Last time I changed programming and voiced my concerns over losing locals the rep told me I would be a good candidate for a waiver....but haven't we all heard that one?

According to the old 'bsexton' test this is what it comes up with for my 'legal' zip.

8 WDHS IRON MOUNTAIN MI TV LIC 10.633 122.7 84.945 City Grade
12 WJFW-TV RHINELANDER WI TV LIC 49.872 251.3 70.204 Grade B
13 WNMU MARQUETTE MI TV LIC 35.768 29.6 75.431 Grade A
6 WLUC-TV MARQUETTE MI TV LIC 35.060 31.2 66.903 Grade B
3 WJMN-TV ESCANABA MI TV LIC 63.511 74.9 49.211 Grade B

As you can see there isn't much available. Channel 8 isn't even on the air and when it was it was a TBN affiliate. 13 is PBS and it is true, this one is decent with an antenna. 6 is NBC & is passable but 3 which is CBS? Ridiculous to assume I can receive that channel.

Channel 12 is in that DMA to the West that I mentioned. One county west and I'd be in that DMA but most of their channels are located in Wausau (to be added Q3 2003 I think) and not Rhinelander which is much closer.

So how likely is a waiver from NBC & CBS (3 & 6)? The CBS station is actually owned by CBS itself and the NBC is owned by Raycom Media. Anybody receive waivers from CBS or Raycom? I know they both own & operate other stations. The Raycom map shows owned stations from Hawaii to Florida to New York. Even Puerto Rico.

Thanks in advance.