Info On Local Channels?

[wrestler_498]

I Was Wondering If Anybody Had Any Information On When The Local "Cbs Abc And Fox" Affiliate's Will Become Available For Minot-Bismarck-Dickinson Area? Any Info Would Be Appreciated Thank You

[gor88]

wrestler_498,

According to information in other posts, the Minot-Bismarck-Dickinson, ND ABC, CBS and FOX affiliates are not granting retransmission rights due to some dispute between each station and Dish. In most cases, the station is trying to ask for a considerable amount of money per subscriber.

You should contact the station engineer (or manager, if you can't reach the engineer). Ask him or her WHY their station is refusing retransmission consent to Dish. Tell them that you won't be watching their channel until they make the right decision and give Dish retransmission consent. Do this for all the missing full-power affiliates. For your convenience, the information is listed below.

KXMC-TV CBS13 Minot:
Bob Turneau
Email: bturneau@kxnet.com
Phone: 701-852-2104

KBMY-TV ABC17 Bismarck/ KMCY-TV ABC14 Minot/ ABC42 Dickinson/ ABC44 Williston:
http://www.forumcomm.com/broadcast/kbmy_kmcy_tv.htm
Tony Kruckenberg, Engineer
(701) 223-1700
No email address or station website.

KNDX-TV FOX26 Bismarck / KXND-TV FOX24 Minot:
Name of station engineer unknown
Email: kndx@westdakotafox.com or fox24@ndak.net

[kenglish]

Don't hassle the engineers about it. They have enough to do, and they don't make the decisions.

The engineers CAN help you with reception issues, though.

[gor88]

wrestler_498,

Yes, you should use a COURTEOUS tone with the engineers when you call, but do let them know of your disappointment in their not already granting retransmission consent. If you can reach the station manager, you should talk to him or her first. However, I have found engineers to be easier to reach and less likely to avoid a conversation about retransmission rights.

Admittedly, we have had a problem here with Dish not carrying our UPN affiliate, which is low power, for two years now. Supposedly, we are going to get a high power UPN station this year, but the company is having issues in getting the tower up and configured. Dish refuses to carry it, even though the station is not charging anything for retransmission on it, or the FOX and WB affiliates either. All that information was obtained from the engineer.

However, in your case, the affiliates are high power. Given this, I figure that they want money per subscriber or they are demanding that Dish shut off the distant net channels for the network they are affiliated with for all "grandfathered" distant net subscribers. With the repeaters that ABC and FOX have, and the fact that CBS is a VHF station, signal quality is probably not the issue.

[wrestler_498]

Well I Talked To Someone At My Local Fox Affiliate (KNDX) And They Didn't Have Any Info About The Situation. They Told Me To Call (Dish Network) And They Also Didn't Have Any Info. I'm Mostly Interested In Getting My Local Fox Because Of The Upcoming NFL Season. As Of Right Now I Can Barely Get Any Reception Using My Antenna. Thanks For The Help

[gor88]

Well I Talked To Someone At My Local Fox Affiliate (KNDX) And They Didn't Have Any Info About The Situation. They Told Me To Call (Dish Network) And They Also Didn't Have Any Info. I'm Mostly Interested In Getting My Local Fox Because Of The Upcoming NFL Season. As Of Right Now I Can Barely Get Any Reception Using My Antenna. Thanks For The Help

I would call back ask specifically for the station manager or the engineer if the manager is not available. Other employees of the station may not be aware of retransmission consent. However, the station manager and engineer would both have to know about it by default since they are the ones that work with Dish for carriage.

[gor88]

Also, you may want to contact the executive offices of dish at this email:
ceo@echostar.com

[moedog]

I would bet the problem in Bismark-Minot-etc is this: That market actually consists of sets of stations in four different cities (Williston and Dickinson in addition to Bismark and Minot. So there are four CBS, four NBC, etc. Usually, all of the channels of a particular network and ownership air the the same programs, but at certain times, local news programs are aired on individal stations, and no doubt local commercials. I expect the local broadcast stations are expecting DISH to carry all four of their stations--and its doubtful that would happen. Even so, in the Fargo market DISH did agree to carry WDAY and its repeater KDZL in Devil's Lake, which is surprising since both are in the same state...