"Good Day Joe,
I recently stumbled across your SBY News blog and would like you to know that I thoroughly enjoy reading it. The Daily Disappointment, errrr Daily Times is a joke and good only as a fish wrapper. I am seriously considering canceling my subscription.
The reason for my note is to solicit your opinion on a subject that has been troubling my wife and I for a decade. We reside on the east side of Salisbury just southwest of Perdue Stadium. We have satellite TV service but receive WMDT, MPT and WBOC over the air with an outside antenna. We have never had a single problem receiving WBOC or MPT. That being said, WMDT-47's signal is abismal and has gone from bad to worse since the digital upgrade. We've had very poor or no signal at all for a couple of weeks now. Our antenna is pointed directly at the WMDT-47 transmitter as prescribed at www.antennaweb.org.
I have contacted the General Manager at WMDT-47 via email many times over the years. They always blame my equipment for their lack of a signal. I have requested and have been denied a waiver from WMDT to receive the ABC signal from DirecTv due to poor reception several times.
I am just wondering if I am the only one with this problem or if there may be others. Your blog would be a great be a great place to get the word out if there are others. I am sure that WMDT-47 advertisers would love to hear that they are not reaching the audience that they are paying for. Not everybody has cable and many folks do have to receive the signal via antenna.
Thanks for your time and please keep up the good work.
Ed Blackburg"
Dear Ed:
You're not alone. I live in the country and also have satellite service. Our TV used to pick up WMDT and WBOC without rabbit ears and we enjoyed receiving local news until recently. We cannot get WMDT service at all and WBOC comes in like an old 1970's TV and we even attached the rabbit ears. I'll look into this further and see if we can't get a representative from WBOC to respond to this Post.
Joe
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
31 comments:
i also live int the country and get wmdt and wboc via an antenna. my antenna runs through my satellite box which acts as the receiver. when they made the switch i lost their signal. all i had to do was have the receiver search for locals again and it cam back fine.
call your sat company and ask them if you can run the signal through your box. it works great for me
Ed, When you figure this out let us know. I know you and realize you will be on this like a pitbull an a pantleg.
Please know that you aren't alone. This has been an issue with WMDT since their beginning. I can't understand why ABC tolerates this situation. This has to hurt their ratings in our area. I live East of Salisbury. Almost as important as not being able to get the signal, is the attitude of the management at WMDT. They play the blame game and they know darn well it is their problem.
Joe , I have sat service too. Living 45 minutes from town rules out the possibility of me ever receiving a signal if you guys are have trouble. I quess the blog will be it for local updates. One problem, you're not as attractive as the female news anchors.LOL
How can I argue that, it's true. There isn't one woman in that building that isn't absolutely beautiful.
I'm not a big fan of that station, but the digital upgrade has helped much for me. I'm closer to town, on the same side as Mr. Blackburg.
We live right on the Delmar town line, but out of town. We had problems receiving WMDT before, but now that they've gone digital, we receive them well. The signal strength shown on the Digital converter says 80. That's using a UHF ring.
But still I believe the Satelite services should be allowed to provide ALL networks! I'd gladly sign any petition asking for it. I don't believe the local stations should have the right to hold us captive to their marketing. We had Dish Network, but switched to cable because of WBOC and WMDT's ability to hold us captive. Yes, if I was willing to erect a tower and install an antenna system, I could have received WMDT, but like most people on Satelite services, there was no cost effective way to receive ABC & CBS.
Walmart doesn't hold us captive to only being able to buy a certain NAtional brand from them. I can buy Exxon gas from a number of different sources. I should be able to choose my Network Provider as well. The government is providing these stations with a Monopoly! That's just plain wrong. They de-regulate and claim "free market" will control everything, then they pass laws which block free markets!
I am close to perdue stadium and I gave up on 47 a while ago, they suck.
We live in the country and do not have satellite. We never watched 47 because we could rarely get a clear picture with our antenna. However, our DVD player/recorder is digital and we get 7 local channels through that and are now enjoying channel 47 now that they have switched over. Hopefully they will get any technical problems they have fixed soon.
SBYGIRL
I live in Mardela I have a new digital TV and WMDT reception is just as good or better than my direct tv satelite reception and is in high definition with just portable rabbit ears.
fyi
here is a link to your rights on this issue
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/policy/shvera.doc
I'm 30 miles from Salisbury and was receiving WMDT just fine on rabbit ears until the upgrade. I haven't received there signal since. I was told by their engineers that I should be able to get the signal, but I cannot. Guess I will not be watching WMDT anymore.
I live on the west side of town and can see the towers from our field out here on Levin Dashiell Road yet I can not get a good clear signal.
I live in Delmar and have cable through Comcast. I never had any problems with WMDT until they did their switch to digital. Now there are sound problems and every now and then there is a freeze for just a split second. Drives me crazy when I'm trying to watch a program. Then Wednesday night, tried to watch the CMA Awards...it was useless..could not even enjoy it because of all the freezing up and sound problems.
It is not my "equipment"...it is their station...it's the only channel it happens on and like I said..only since their switch to digital.
If this is what digital tv means, I'm not interested!
WMDT.....You have a problem. Fix it or lose people!
The country is collapsing, financially, and you bozos are complainting about TV reception - go figure!!!
If you're 30 minutes outside of Salisbury, forget it without a outside antenna that you have to hoist up in the air. I think it's utterly ridiculous that we have to be subjected to watching third/fourth rate network stations like 16 & 47. I know this is a small market and all but the viewer should have a choice. I'm from New York and would love to be able to watch my old NYC Network Affiliates. WBOC better hope some of these car dealers never go belly up. They'll be belly up too because that's the bulk of their advertisers.
I too live by Shorebirds stadium and am unable to get 47. I have Directv and asked for the waiver from 47 and 16 to allow me to get CBS and ABC but have always been denied. I now purchase basic cable just so I can get CBS, ABC and CW. It's not right.
We live so close to the towers that the digital signal bounces all over the place. We did get a converter and run it through the satellite receiver (I think; hubby's the electronics genius, not me) and can get the digital channels now, but I have yet to see these digital channels on anyone's tv that wasn't pixelated at times or frozen. I think there are going to a lot of unhappy people in February.
And as for WMDT and WBOC refusing to let us have a waiver and get ABC and CBS via satellite: Good job biting your nose off to spite your face! We dohn't watch you at all now. We can get our local news faster on SBYnews, and have plenty of national news stations with our satellite.
My name is Jamie Heater and I am an Account Executive with WMDT.
I am sorry to hear that some of you are still having problems receiving our signal. Please give us a call! We have someone here that can answer all your questions. You can reach her at 410-742-4747 ext. 339.
We are receiving very few transition related calls at this point, so she is only here on a part time basis, but please leave her a message, with a daytime phone number and she will get back to you.
Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! A company that cares and is willing to work with you. Thank you Jamie.I hope everyone gets it ironed out but I will say I too have this same problem. We cannot get a signal, period. My Wife and I watch your show,(or used to) every single night.
I believe that some telephone calls and/or emails to WMDT-47 advertisers might stir MDT management into action with their signal transmission issues. One or two individuals in this thread have mentioned the "other" problem that 47 experienced during the digital transition. I am fully aware that rescanning the local channels was necessary to receive the new channel designations. This is NOT the problem. I get a very limited signal or NONE at all. I am happy that some folks have reported as good if not better reception than before but I am not one of the lucky ones. My location has NEVER been able to receive an acceptable 47 signal and they will not do anything about it.
I am also thinking that boycotting 47 advertisers might be another way to get the management moving or giving me my satellite waiver. When advertisers learn the MDT has been selling them a bill of goods in terms of the number of households they reach I don't think they're going to be happy.
In terms of the anonymous post concerning complaining about TV reception when the country is collapsing.....Please, not being able to watch NASCAR races on Sunday is just as bad. Grow up.
Bte52 Hope all is well.Great points, as usual. Bmwm fifty five.
I live on the west side of salisbury and I have direct tv satellite. When WMDT switched to digital at first I was unable to get signal. I called direct tv and they stated that if I get my locals through antenna then I would need to buy the converter box. I went to radio shack and bought a converter box and hooked it in with my receiver as well as my rabbit ears and I havent had any problems seen. 16 & 47 is clear as a bell. It is a pain in the butt to switch from my satellite to get to my local channels but at least I have them now.
Oh by the way, direct tv did want me to purchase through them the local channels for about $1.50 each but Im glad I didnt.
If I were all of you, I'd be grateful. I just this week left a viewer complaint about the noon news broadcast. They have an anchor that can't complete a sentence without making a mistake. Maybe it's not the signal.
I live in Parsonsburg and with a Terk HDTVa Indoor Antenna, I can pick up all the local channels crystal clear with my Directv HD Receiver. Its not small or very discreet, but pointed in the right direction (towards the northwest) it gets the job done better than any other indoor antenna I ever tried. The antenna is at Best Buy for $70 but can be had at Amazon for $36 with free ship and no tax.
I was having problems and called into the station to complain. The girl there called me back the next day and worked with me very patiently for quite awhile- since Im not really technically savvy. She was able to help me get the picture loud and clear and I have not had a problem since. It was great to have a real person call me and she really seemed to care.
I live near Preston and when I rescanned my TV with my new "magic box" to get the digital channels - you know what I got - nothing - not one channel on my TV. I at least wanted to get 16, 22 & 47 to be able to watch local news and weather. I'm not able to watch anything and I have a very large antenna up a tower mounted in concrete behind my garage. What to do??
WBOC and WMDT better open their eyes. We switched from comcast to directtv due to the cost. Times are hard..our main entertainment is TV and despite missing these local channels at first, the important shows can be seen in other ways as most of us know. As one person said "good job biting off your nose to spite your face.I'm sure the sponsors are losing more and more viewers. I think somehow, although they tell us it can't be done, it can be done...but comcast and local networks are in bed together$$$$$$$
I live in Berlin. I have no problem receiving MPT or WBOC but all 3 of WMDT channels (47.1, 47.2, 47.3) are disappointing- picture freezes at an annoying frequency even in clear weather; during inclement weather, it is unwatchable! And the tower for 47 is CLOSER than the other two! Go figure. How about doing something about this?!
I too am not receiving a signal from wmdt and I am very upset though of this
They suck and we deserve better. I get all stations perfect except 47. I have a strong single booster they are just to cheap.
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