Anyone have a target rollout date for Columbus, MS locals on D*

gor88 · 05-12-03, 09:43 AM

I was wondering if anyone out there has more specific information as to a planned rollout date for Columbus, MS locals on D*.

My mother has D* and is eagerly awaiting arrival of these channels. Supposedly, these channels will be on the main 101 bird.

The general information I have heard is Q4 this year.

Greg Bimson · 05-12-03, 10:21 AM

That is all there is, so far. Just the general info you said.

pez2002 · 05-12-03, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by gor88
I was wondering if anyone out there has more specific information as to a planned rollout date for Columbus, MS locals on D*.

My mother has D* and is eagerly awaiting arrival of these channels. Supposedly, these channels will be on the main 101 bird.

The general information I have heard is Q4 this year.

Does she Sub to cable to get the locals ???

gor88 · 05-12-03, 06:56 PM

Nope. Had to put outdoor antenna in attic. NBC is clear, CBS is decent, the others are kind of fuzzy.

She only lives in a town of 875 people, so the cable company does not offer a "basic" service. It is one size fits all. $39 for 38 fuzzy channels. They won't bother to upgrade the central equipment.

Now, she at least gets everything else clear as a bell. By January, she should have her locals too.

... and then everything will be well in her world. :-)

openhouse · 05-15-03, 01:09 AM

gor88

Try to call the Local CBS Station in Columbus, MS
when you call them ask to speak with the Stations Engineer.
the local stations begin testing their signal with DirecTV 2-3 months before they launch on DirecTV.
So your Local TV Station should know the date when DirecTV should have the channels.

gor88 · 05-18-03, 04:00 AM

openhouse,

Thanks for the information. I see you are from Chicago. Cool place. Even though I am from Mississippi, all of my close relatives from my father's side of the family live in "Chicagoland".

I emailed engineers of the stations in the Columbus, MS DMA.

One replied back, saying the following:

"We appreciate your e-mail about D* . We don't have an exact date the local stations you mentioned will be on, but I can assure you that we are doing everything we can and D* is moving very rapidly to get this accomplished. It could be done possibly as early as June. WTVA (NBC), WLOV (FOX), WKDH (ABC), WCBI (CBS), and local PBS (probably WMAB) should all be included."

It sounds like Mom's locals will be here before she knows it! I hope this is true, because she is a little envious of me now. I live in the Jackson, MS DMA. We got our locals on May 13th.

It sounds like those of you who are in the Columbus, MS DMA and on D* should be getting your locals sooner, rather than later.

Msguy · 05-22-03, 09:27 PM

I live in North Mississippi and currently receive The Memphis Local Channels on Direc Tv. When I use to have cable I received all the Memphis Channels and also Channel 9 WTVA out of Tupelo, Ms. I wonder if i will be eligible to receive the Columbus Market of Channels along with my Memphis Locals. I am actually Closer to Tupelo than Memphis. This is a big deal because Tupelo has more local coverage of news in my area then Memphis does. But Memphis is ok for General stuff. Weather, World News, That sort of thing.

openhouse · 05-22-03, 09:34 PM

Msguy

Go to DirecTV's Website at

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/LocalChannelsAction.do

and enter your zip code there, and the system will tell you which locals you could receive.

timf · 05-22-03, 09:41 PM

If you currently receive the Memphis locals based on your actual home address (not by "moving" to an address in the Memphis market), then those are the only locals you will ever be able to receive. Some cable companies have agreements to carry local channels from multiple markets, but satellite regulations only allow you to receive them from one city.

(Note: this does not apply to people who receive "distant" locals from New York and LA. That's a different issue.)

gor88 · 05-22-03, 10:05 PM

Msguy,

timf is right. If you get Memphis now, you won't get Columbus-Tupelo stations.

Personally, I would like to see the SHVIA changed so that you would have to take local channels in your DMA BUT you could opt to add other channels in DMA's that border your DMA. In your case, maybe Memphis plus some Tupelo, Jackson, TN, and Huntsville-Florence, AL, for example. We could get a total of 20 local channels (including those in the main DMA) or maybe more!

In my hometown of McComb, the cable company pulled channels from Jackson, MS and Hattiesburg, MS and New Orleans and Baton Rouge, LA. We got all the Jackson affiliates(the proper DMA) and some affiliates in nearby DMA's. Satellite should be the same.

ARKDTVfan · 05-23-03, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by gor88

Personally, I would like to see the SHVIA changed so that you would have to take local channels in your DMA BUT you could opt to add other channels in DMA's that border your DMA.

I sure hope they do change the law, I am barely in the Shreveport DMA, yet if I lived in a county about 10 miles to the NE I'd be in the Little Rock DMA which is the is the DMA I'd like to be in. I might try "moving" there when the locals are added later this year

Adam Richey · 05-23-03, 09:07 AM

If you might "move" there for locals, why bother? Shreveport is scheduled to be added as well.

Msguy · 05-24-03, 12:51 AM

Well here is the Kicker about The Columbus DMA. I live in North East Mississippi. As I stated earlier I am eligible and currently receiving the Memphis Locals. Columbus only Really has 1 Channel that being WCBI Channel 4 the CBS Station. Channel 9 WTVA the NBC Affiliate is an hour to the north of Columbus in Tupelo. WKDH Channel 45 is in West Point and So is Fox 27 WLOV. I wish Direc TV would just let me have 1 channel out of all that. That being Channel 9 Out of Tupelo NBC. I probably won't be able to get this channel but That channel Demographically is Closer to me than any channel. Closer than Memphis. I hope they change this SHVIA Or whatever ya'll were talking about.

gor88 · 05-24-03, 02:16 AM

Msguy,

SHVIA refers to the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act. It is a bill that Congress voted into law in 1999. This is the law that allowed DBS companies to offer local channels. Currently, the law only allows the DBS company to offer you local channels within your DMA. There are a lot of us in the DBS world who would love to add neighboring local stations to our locals package. My mom would definitely rather have Memphis, instead of Tupelo. She grew up on WREG-3 and WMC-5 and enjoys the big city newscasts and programs.

Actually, the stations are not as far apart as you would think. WTVA-9 (Tupelo), WLOV-27 (West Point), and WKDH-45(Houston) are all owned by the same company and reside on the exact same tower, which is located 1 mile west of Woodland or about 10 miles south of Houston. WCBI(Columbus) has their tower about 3 miles east of Woodland or 4 miles east of the first tower. Although these stations are licensed to "different" cities, their signals originate from the same general area. I know because I had to aim the outdoor antenna in Mom's attic.

olemiss78 · 05-24-03, 11:19 PM

WREG has been removed from the Tupelo cable system and replaced with the new UPN channel (on WCBI-DT 35-2). MANY people are mad about this, including me. The cable company said there is no chance the WREG will ever return to the Tupelo system even though they said they wanted to retain it. I guess WCBI forced its removal. I live in the Columbus/Tupelo DMA and would rather get Memphis channels. WTVA, WLOV, and WKDH leave there bugs (logos) on the screen nonstop. They don't even remove them during commercials. HOW UNPROFESSIONAL!!!!

Luckily, I will be going to college at Ole Miss (in the Memphis DMA). It will be nice to get the Memphis channels on DirecTV.

Msguy · 05-24-03, 11:25 PM

Memphis channels are cool. Although for more Local News Coverage Tupelo WTVA Channel 9 would be nicer for me to receive here in Corinth at 6 p.m. and at 10 p.m. Other than that National programming from NBC is the same on Channel 9 Tupelo as it is in Memphis WMC Channel 5 NBC.

Greg Bimson · 06-08-03, 09:48 PM

DirecTV issued a press release on Wednesday, June 4, that indicated they will add Huntsville, Alabama, to local service by July 31.

DirecTV has a page on their website that shows where their local receive facilities are. That webpage can be accessed here. I went to see if DirecTV provided the address for the local receive facility for Huntsville. Huntsville had not been added.

The local receive facilities (LRFs) are the place in any given market where DirecTV gathers all the transmissions. From the LRF, DirecTV fibers them back to their broadcasting facilities in either Castle Rock, Colorado, or Los Angeles.

I posted this five days ago at DBSForums.com.

DirecTV's press release for the Huntsville locals mentioned that they would add Des Moines, Wilkes-Barre, Louisville, Tucson, and Shreveport by the end of June. The local receive facilities page did not have any information for Louisville, Tucson, and Shreveport. Surprisingly, Fresno was listed on the local receive facility page. I am thinking DirecTV will be adding this market soon, since the local receive facility is on this page, even before some of the markets that are supposed to be added by June 30.

Well, DirecTV has since added more markets to this page over the past two days. These weren't there when I checked Friday afternoon. Included in this update are the three markets missing, that are to be added by June 30: Louisiville, Tucson, Shreveport.

Also newly listed on this page are:

Columbia, South Carolina
Columbus-Tupelo, Mississippi
Ft. Myers, Florida
Spokane, Washington
Tallahassee, Florida

If DirecTV has the space on the current spot-beam satellite, DirecTV 4-S, it wouldn't surprise me to see DirecTV add these markets as soon as feasible.

gor88 · 06-09-03, 06:47 AM

Greg,

Just out of curiosity, do you remember how long it was from the time Jackson, MS was on the LRF list until locals were released May 12th?

Greg Bimson · 06-09-03, 08:50 AM

Sorry, gor88. I do not.

However, keep in mind that DirecTV has mentioned that they will be adding the Huntsville, Alabama market, within 8 weeks, and the address for the local receive facility has not been posted to DirecTV's LRF website.

If Huntsville, which is the 101st announced market, was to be placed into service faster than most of the other announced markets, that means DirecTV must have found space to place this market without impacting prior plans. To me, that means the Huntsville locals are going on the DirecTV 4-S satellite at the normal 101 slot.

If there is room to start serving those markets that DirecTV plans to place at 101, then I would suspect that many of the sites that now have a posted local receive facility will be in service shortly, including Columbus-Tupelo.

I do not work for DirecTV, or in the satellite industry. This is just my opinion on observations from what I have seen DirecTV do over the years.

As a straight out guess, I suspect the next local market we see will be Des Moines. That market has been on the LRF list the longest, and is also the only market I have seen that has assigned channel numbers.

gor88 · 06-09-03, 09:33 AM

Greg,

Thanks for the information. I figured that you are a D* enthusiast who has closely monitored D*'s activities over the years.

Your observations help me greatly. I have sent a follow up email to a station engineer in the Columbus, MS DMA who was courteous enough to reply in the past. He informed me that he was working with D* to get the uplink in place soon, although he didn't have a firm date of release. This was almost 4 weeks ago. I am emailing him today to see if he knows more detailed information now.

If he gives me more information, I will post it here for the benefit of our friends in NE Mississippi.

Inundated · 06-09-03, 01:41 PM

I always wonder what's behind the placement of the LRFs...as far as location.

Cleveland's is right in downtown on Public Square - all the major TV facilities are south of town, most of them in suburban Parma or nearby.

Sacramento is out in West Sac, but that's fine...even though most of the sticks are out in the Delta south of Sacramento.

Roanoke, VA, another market I'm familiar with... is located directly at the WDBJ/7 studios on Hershburger Road north of town.

gor88 · 06-10-03, 08:57 AM

Update on the Columbus-Tupelo-West Point, MS locals.

I got the reply from one of the station engineers in the market. He said the following regarding D* locals:
-----------------
We believe D* will be up the first part of July. However, they have not set an exact date that I am aware of. The equipment is due in this week.
-----------------

It sounds like the channels will be warming up soon, probably around the end of the month.

ARKDTVfan · 06-10-03, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Inundated
I always wonder what's behind the placement of the LRFs...as far as location.

Cleveland's is right in downtown on Public Square - all the major TV facilities are south of town, most of them in suburban Parma or nearby.

Sacramento is out in West Sac, but that's fine...even though most of the sticks are out in the Delta south of Sacramento.

Roanoke, VA, another market I'm familiar with... is located directly at the WDBJ/7 studios on Hershburger Road north of town.

I'm guessing the towers are in the best location to cover the most populated areas, of course the FCC probably has a say so.

Inundated · 06-10-03, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ARKDTVfan
I'm guessing the towers are in the best location to cover the most populated areas, of course the FCC probably has a say so.

In regards to the D* LRFs though... I'm guessing that Cleveland's is on top of a tall building because it was easier to just stick it up there.

Roanoke doesn't really matter... the only "distant" station is WDRL "UPN 24/54", with a tower in Southside VA and an LPTV stick in Roanoke, they had to make some effort to get D* a strong signal.

Msguy · 06-10-03, 08:44 PM

I say that sometime in July Columbus-Tupelo Ms Locals will be on Direc TV. It's been needed for a long time now. It's hard pulling these stations in via a rooftop over the air antenna in Rural Northeast Mississippi. I still am holding out that Direc TV will allow me to get these channels because My local Cable company carries WTVA-Channel 9 NBC out of Tupelo but they don't carry Fox 27 WLOV, WCBI Channel 4 Columbus-CBS, and Channel 45 WKDH West Point Area. Channel 9 would be sufficient for me because they have more local news for my area.