As I sit captive on the second floor of my own home, I have a great deal of time to think. As a child growing up in Erie, there was the common perception (right or wrong) that Erie was always behind any national trend. We seemed to be always in the position of trying to catch up with the rest of the country. But in Broadcasting, Erie kept pace very well:
" WICU was the first station built specifically for television." WICU was first to broadcast network color" WICU first commercial station to transmit in digital" WSEE even broadcast every color event from CBS but more limited than NBC who had RCA as its big brother." WSEE first with live new remote facilities" WSEE first with on-site Doppler Radar" WICU was first to do a local remote colorcast from the old Boston Store. (Purpose was to sell fashions and color TV sets.)" WJET went on the air with a local color film chain and broadcast the first local originated color movie…."The Glen Miller Story" with big fanfare. (Myron Jones never did anything quiet)" Erie stations kept pace with ENG news gathering." WQLN first to service Erie with High Definition television
In the 90's everything changed, thanks to the FCC's decision to expand the number of stations a single owner could own. A feeding frenzy developed across the country. Stations were being bought and sold like a cheap whore except the prices weren't so cheap.
At the same time that stations were being sold for multiples beyond sellers wildest dreams, the government and the FCC were formulating their plans for the first major change in broadcasting since the inception of television.….the move to digital and HD. Operators knew that once they purchased these stations that an investment in new transmitting equipment would not be far behind.
The industry broke into two camps mostly by market size. The first camp was the stations that saw the writing on-the-wall and decided to get ahead of the curve once the standards were set and equipment was available. They provided for the inevitable in their business plan. The second group sought to delay as long as possible the transition and used their lobbying arm, the NAB to help. There was no long range business plan for the significant investment it was going to take. No attempt to educate the consumer on the pending changes that would affect them. Even when finally making "some" move, they answered by putting up very low power digital stations and prayed to the vacuum tube gods that nobody would notice. The strategy was to keep the consumer confused and ignorant.
Quiz Time: Can you place which group the Erie TV stations fell into?
Chapter 2 What didn't happen July 1, 2006.
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3 comments:
Here's the paradox...you have broadcasters who are extremely worried about violating indecency rules to the point of paralysis, and then you have broadcasters who I think will basically delay and delay and risk fines to not have to spend the millions it will take to convert their studio plants to digital. Understand, the stock holders want a profit and dividend every quarter. It kind of hard to do that in a small market when revenues are barely covering operating expenses, let alone to be put to major investment. I'm convinced that the purpose of small market radio and television in this era is to squeeze every penny of cash flow out of the properties in order to shore up spending and investment where it really matters, in the top 50 markets. Whether Erie viewers get what they deserve is inconsequential.
In Meadville we receive WSEE and KDKA (both analog and HD). The analog KDKA blows away the awful WSEE picture, and the HD signal? Wow.
The people of Erie have no idea what they're missing. CBS HD is utterly amazing.
I have to agree with the last post concerning KDKA vs WSEE. I can get KDKA HD in Cochranton as well. I does drop out every once in a while, but I figure that it's the distance, though I am looking into getting a better & higher antenna in the future. In addition to KDKA, WKBN HD is also incredible with a 90% signal. It was also a great idea to carry WYFX on it's secondary channel. While it doesn't carry any HD programs, the picture quality is a lot better than watching it on analog channel 17. Nice to see the Youngstown market thinking ahead. Has the last blogger pulled in WKBN in Meadville?
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