Good Morning Joe,
I’m in California this morning on business and haven’t been checking your blog as frequently as I do when I’m at home. Therefore I just now noticed the posting from someone who erroneously claims WBOC is misleading people with our informational campaign regarding satellite. I’d like the opportunity to set the record straight for your loyal readers. Neither DirecTV nor Dish Network will uplink the local Salisbury stations. That means folks can’t get WMDT, WBOC or FOX 21 on satellite. So satellite customers will also need a rooftop antenna to pick us up and to get the local information we provide each day. There’s a lot of confusion regarding this issue, and that’s why we’re taking the time to educate folks with an on-air campaign. Your previous writer erroneously claims the satellite companies will carry local programming. That’s just not true. It is illegal (against federal law) for satellite companies which do not offer local stations to import an out-of-market station to people who can receive our free over-the-air signals unless the local station grants a waiver. A ‘waiver’ is a request for us to waive our rights to distribute CBS network programming in our area. If it is determined via a signal strength test that a home on Delmarva cannot receive our free over the air signal, we grant a waiver to that home, and the satellite company then provides that home a feed of the CBS station from New York City. The previous post erroneously accuses us of misleading people and asks us to tell the truth. Our informational campaign is factual. I hear every week from people who’ve chosen to purchase satellite service and only then discover they can’t get local channels and can’t understand why they don’t see ABC or CBS programming. This is a result of national advertising campaigns that claim local channels are available. While they are in most areas, they’re not available on satellite here on Delmarva. Your Salisbury TV stations have invested millions of dollars to provide a high definition broadcast signal to our family, friends and neighbors here on Delmarva. We will continue to invest in technology, people and products to serve the public trust. And we will continue to urge the satellite companies to carry our signal. Until the satellite companies step up to the plate, consumers who choose to write monthly checks to them can still watch us, absolutely FREE, and in high definition, with a rooftop antenna.
Warm Regards to you and your family.
And Merry Christmas Joe.
Craig Jahelka
VP/General Manager
WBOC-TV/FOX 21
Thanks for clearing the air Craig. Enjoy the West Coast and a Merry Christmas to you and your Family as well. Joe
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
43 comments:
how many times can you use the word "erroneously" in a paragraph before you lose the reader's attention?... 3.
dont piss on my leg and tell me it is raining ! This is directly from Directv website.
"DIRECTV is adding local channels in more markets
Today we offer local channels in more than 140 metropolitan TV markets-that's about 94% of the country, with more to come. We are also currently working on launching HD channels in many of these markets and preparing new satellites that will allow us to launch additional markets next year.
Access to local channels
Under federal law, we can provide local channels only within a local television market. For example, we can provide San Francisco stations only in San Francisco and surrounding areas. Federal law requires us to respect the local TV markets boundaries, which are established by Nielsen Media Research."
In other words if you are the only game in town you rule ! It is hard to believe we are in the 6% in the entire country !
Uncle Dennis is still creepy !
My issue with this whole campaign and his statements are with the "rooftop antenna". Won't people need the digital converter after Feb 2009?!?!?! I thought rooftop antennas were history?
It's true, WBOC is losing sooo much money. The stations is littered with advertisment just to keep afloat
I get more confused everyday when it comes to this. I agree that it is very hard to believe that we are in the 6% that can't get local channels. Just like the recently concluded presidental elction one party is not telling the truth!
Being a cable customer, I've fascinated but ignorant of the specifics of this topic...
The VP/GM from WBOC writes: This is a result of national advertising campaigns that claim local channels are available. While they are in most areas, they’re not available on satellite here on Delmarva.
Why aren't local channels available via satellite on Delmarva?
Andy in Dover
Anon 2:52
It's my understanding that the digital converter will plug into the wire coming from the rooftop antenna then plug into the TV - not replace it the rooftop antenna.
wboc is owned by drapper holding and is flush with cash. they are in no danger of going under.
What I am getting sick of is WBOS's holier than thou attitude about satellite sutomers, like we CHOSE satellite over cable in every case.
Well, almost 40% of Wicomico County CANNOT get cable because Comcast refuses to service them. So stop treating us victims of Comcast's monopolistic excesses like we "chose" to get satellite and we're idiots for doing it.
Comcast CHOSE satellite for us when they refused to wire our neighborhoods. There's a company that desrves banruptcy and NO BAILOUT.
The reason we satellite customers cannot get CBS or ABC channels is because of stations like WBOC, which lobby Congress to pass a law forbidding us to do so. They want to ensure that if people want to watch these channels, they must do so from local stations. It's protectionism, pure and simple. These local station owners support making it illegal for you to receive CBS or ABC from DC or New York or Philly. It's ridiculous.
Andy in Dover:
The Feds passed a law saying the top 140 or so markets HAD to be carried by satellite. Salisbury's markety doesn't make teh cut, so they aren't forced to carry Salisbury stations, so they don't.
Just like no government entity is forcing Comcasty to actually provide cable service to all residents in Wicomico County as a part of its legal monopoly, so they don't provide service to almost 40% of the county as a result. And no one will make them.
I have rabbit ears, a converter box and can get 16, 16-1, 16-2, 28. 28-1. 28-2, 28-3, 47-1 and 47-2 and DirecTV (Satellite is not avaliable in my rural area). What is the deal with the rooftop antenna?
I have sattelite (DISH network) and receive my local stations using a small antenna on top of my TV, not a rooftop antenna. As a matter of fact, Dish network came to my house and gave me the antenna. I live in Pocomoke and receive the local signals fine. Maybe the reception in Mr. Jahelka's a--hole is not good, because that is where his head must be if he thinks people will buy his propaganda for his incestuous relationship with Comcast.
Anon 3:42
Why would a local station like WBOC care how I watch their station? You mention Washington being lobbied by people who are paid money to keep folks from watching WBOC on satellite.
If we can watch it on Cable, why not satellite? (or was that your point?)
This is all B.S.
If Craig is telling the truth, tell the community how you have lobbied DirecTv to carry your signal. What have you done? Who have you spoken to? Prove it!
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, what can we, as consumers, do to help out? Power is in the masses. Write letters? Call DirecTv? - Craig.. provide us with a contact or two.
I don't buy any of this at all. WBOC doesn't want to lose viewers - so they don't grant waivers, and they don't aggressively lobby the satellite companies. I'm sorry, but any clearly thinking individual can see that. From a business stand point, the monopoly is good for them.
I urge WBOC to step up to the plate. Talk is cheap. You have a direct line to Joe. Show us what you are actively doing to correct this problem for our community. Until then, it's just a neatly told lie.
(And don't use the commercial as an example, as that's just confusing people even more. It also sounds like WBOC is getting some kick-back from Comcast)
all these posts are very erroneous.
Alice Bavis is hot.
How much do you want to bet that Craig doesnt even know what the call letters WBOC stand for?
anonymous 5:37,
Who gives a sh!t? By the way, he doesn't know your name either because you're anonymous, Idiot.
If someone wants to come back asking why I'm being so harsh, I've been at this long enough to know when an Idiot is just out to pick a fight on here and this individual more than likely works right at WBOC.
The blog post is cleverly worded...
"Neither DirecTV nor Dish Network will uplink the local Salisbury stations"
Of course they will not uplink them because the local stations wants too much cash.
"And we will continue to urge the satellite companies to carry our signal. Until the satellite companies step up to the plate... "
Why does the station not step up to the plate and allow free retransmission of their signal after all they go on to say:
"...consumers who choose to write monthly checks to them can still watch us, absolutely FREE, and in high definition, with a rooftop antenna"
If having a free signal is such a big deal, then why not give it free for satellite and cable?
I have DirecTV, because I decided to dump Comcast. This was mainly due to incessant rate increases being forced upon me by Comcast. When I called them to cancel only then were they willing to reduce the rates. Too late.
As for the local stations, I have a rooftop antenna, and can receive 7 local digital stations on it. Well, 6 useful ones, as one of them is a spanish channel.
Now for the bad news:
FOX-21 is NOT broadcast over the air in High-Definition, as was implied by Craig's letter.
While WBOC does transmit channel 16.1 in Hi-Def, the FOX-21 signal is only available in standard format .... UNLESS ... you subscribe to Comcast.
I understand that there is some sort of direct fiber-optic connection from WBOC's facilities to Comcast so if you have their hi-def package, you can receive FOX-21 in hi-def. But that you have to pay for.
FOX-21 is NOT available in Hi-Def on the "free" over-the-air signals.
Let's see a copy of all correspondence (back and forth) between WBOC and (DirecTV and DishNetwork) where they claim to request the transponder space and are denied. This should either eliminate (or confirm!) all doubt about WBOC being forthright on this issue! I happen to know that there is indeed room for both satellite providers to have WBOC and WMDT carriage in both DTV and HDTV formats. The information is in the public domain!
If they don't have anything to hide, they will produce the documents. If they fail to produce, or claim however, that they are bound by some non-disclosure or other such smoke and mirror tactic, I would seriously hesitate to believe them.
Signed, an Informed Industry Insider
Anon 2:52
It's my understanding that the digital converter will plug into the wire coming from the rooftop antenna then plug into the TV - not replace it the rooftop antenna.
3:29 PM
----------------------------
I believe this is true. You wont need the converter box if you have a newer tv with built in digital reception, but still need the antenna.
Anon 3:42 has the story straight. You have to get a waiver signed by the local channels and they refuse to do it! They are cheating their national advertisers.
This is a sore topic for me!What he DIDNT say is that Directv can and will provide me with a CBS,ABC or CW affiliate,IF the local affiliates allow a waiver but they do not because it WON'T be their station.For example,I would like to have CBS so I can watch "Cold Case" and if WBOC were to permit them to do so,Directv would allow me to pay a couple extra bucks to get a New York CBS feed AND a Los Angelos CBS ( West Coast) feed.But unless WBOC gives them a waiver,I cannot get those channels.Even WITH a digital converter and outdoor antenna,I simply cannot get Salisbury stations where I live,although they (locals) insist that I can!Why should I spend more money on a bigger antenna which will NOT get me a decent signal if I already pay close to $90 a month for a dish?You do the math!The only solution is to just forgo CBS,ABC and CW totally,which I do.All I am missing is a few good shows and alot of loud,obnoxious local car dealer ads.The networks lose viewers.My networks of choice are NBC and FOX,which luckily I still can get on dish.Why pay more?
Also it does not matter how "rural" you are,you can get satellite TV ANYWHERE,unless you live near a black hole in the galaxy.
And while we are on the subject,Verizon and all the cable companies are basically ignorant because there is an entire untapped market in this area for highspeed internet that they do not make the effort to reach.I am just 10 miles from the Verizon switching station,you cannot tell me that they cant upgrade the network and try to add service to unserved areas.I am thisclose to cancelling all my landline services and going with a wireless card for internet and if I have to do that then why bother paying them a monthly bill for a telephone???The 1st telecom company that beats a path to my door will get my patronage.
Honestly people, must you all be so critical of my dad?? (This is his daughter typing.) The satelite companies WON'T carry WBOC, etc. Has he tried to get them to? Of course he has!!
Oh and to Anonymous (yes, there are a very many of them. I'm talking about the one that said 'bet he doesn't even know what WBOC stands for...') he does. It stands for "We're Between the Ocean and the Chesapeake." *ha*
And don't criticize me as well for what I'm saying. I don't like to be criticized. But of course, maybe I've lost your attention because I've used the word 'criticize' three times.
When WBOC starts to cater to the "local" audience I MIGHT watch the station again.The station is based in Salisbury and reports 90% Delaware stories. WMDT is much better in content but lower in quality.
These laws from the FCC have removed consumers right to choose. I have Mediacom after losing my New York and LA feeds from my dish. The reception sucks!! I get better reception from rabbit ears than on the cable I pay good money for. I am considering going back to Dish and forget my local stations. I have written too many letters that have been unanswered to my reps and senators. Just another right being taken away.
3:42 is correct, Congress was lobbied to pass a law so that satelitte companies can't provide any channels that you could get locally with an antenna. Years ago I wrote Congressman Wayne Gilchrest about this. His reply was that this was something that needed to be done and he voted in favor of this law. You can write your congressman like I did, but he was endorsed by Wayne so it's probably not important to him either. Congress doesn't seem to be doing much for the people that elect them to office.
Sounds like to me that WBOC and WMDT are in bed with Comcast since that appears to be the ONLY way you will be able to continue to get their stations next year UNLESS you want to pay for a "converter" box.
More good ole boy network I guess.
I watch WBOC quite a bit and I especially watch them for news (can't stand the low quality of WMDT) but like other people, that may have to change since Comcast wants to change their rates 4 times a year while I continue to LOSE stations available for viewing!
I have heard If I was to install a amplified roof top antenna on top of my house or just buy a amplified antenna for indoor, then I could pick up some Baltimore/Washington stations, anyone else reading this can enlighten me on this?
Another thing If you do have baltimore/washington stations, do you use the Digital converter box?
I live on a road in Western Wicomico County where Comcast doesn't run service down my road. I know in Vienna and Cambridge in Dorchester County if you do have an antenna you can pick up some of those Baltimore/DC stations.
If someone would like to shed some light on this I would appreciate it.
Thanks, Jay
The fact that Craig states that the satellite companies do not want to uplink our locals is almost laughable. You can go on any satellite blog (satelliteguys.us or multichannelnews.com) and see that both directv and dish are adding local networks almost weekly. This is because they know that it is a huge way to get subscribers. I believe the last numbers i saw on those sites listed directv as having nearly 85% of the markets and dish having between 75 and 80. Yet we are being spoonfed this bull about them not wanting our local channels?? At least tell us that you negotiated but can not come to an agreement
From the looks at all the post here, its clear that everyones bulls**t meter is going off.
You can tell by the tv ads that the local stations are in bed with the cable company and will continue to lie to us.
Hopefully someone (wink wink Joe) can get to the bottom of this as it is definately a hot topic
We opened up a can of worms here!!
Got some grumpy people out there , have a Merry Christmas!
I will continue to check back on this thread, but until Craig steps up to the plate and provides proof (as a few have asked on here), I'm not going to watch WBOC. I urge Craig to use this forum to spread the truth and to set the record straight. Like many on this blog, I believe it's just clever wording that Craig is using, and that if given the opportunity, DirecTV would pounce on the opportunity to carry more local channels.
No more WBOC until Craig answers some of these allegations.
here are a couple of links showing what locals are available
http://www.dishuser.org/TVMarkets/
or
http://www.dishuser.org/sdlocaldetail.php
the only place in md, del or va that locals are not available is the salisbury market.
so umm, why not?
according to the current Neilson information Salisbury was number 148 in 2008, and will be 144 in 2009 for market size.
shouldn't be too hard to get it carried.
Here are some updated figures that i have found... As of October Dish Network covered 76 markets (about 72 percent of the US, with plans to have 100 markets by the end of the year)
http://www.tvpredictions.com/forum/index.php?entry=entry081023-133022
Here is an actual list of all Markets and when they were added to dish network (you can see salisbury is ranked 143rd out of 210) This link is constantly updated.
http://www.dishuser.org/sdlocalbysize.php
For directv, it seems that they have already hit 100 markets (83 percent) with no plans to stop adding....
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/10/09/directv-now-carrying-hd-locals-in-100-markets/
It also seems that durring its latest merger, directv made an agreement with the government to provide locals to all markets (so how is it possible they do not want the Salisbury Market- Craig, this question is to you!)
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6533759.html
If you check out the sites i have provided (and there are many more), you can clearly see that the satellite broadcasters are trying to serve all of the markets. You will also see that Salisbury is not alone. Many markets have these rinky dink stations that are demanding outragous fees in order to "allow" the satellite companies to uplink their signals. From Craigs letter, we all were shown just how ignorant he thinks his viewers are, but we know whats going on. The big question is what can we actually do about it
FYI - I don't know if this comment was made, but I have DirecTV and you don't need a "Rooftop Antenna" to get the locals. Go to BestBuy and there is an RCA digital/annalog/HD antenna that sits right on your entertainment center/shelve. It costs about $30.00 and just looks like a flat white piece of plastic (about 9"x9"x.5"). It plugs directly into your cable input on your TV and gets excellent picture (even in bad weather). It picks up WBOC, WMDT-HD, Fox21, The CW, PBS, and sometimes I'm even about to pick up Baltimore stations. Here's the BestBuy link for the product:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8939839&st=rca+antenna&lp=9&type=product&cp=1&id=1215217075905
ENJOY, MY FELLOW SATELLITE USERS!
According to those sites the above posters listed, it seems that salisbury is moving up in market size and many smaller markets are already on satellite. Why is this. Something just does not sound right about BOTH satellite companies not wanting the salisbury market area. These are two different companies that operate independently, yet we are told that neither wants this area?? Seems to me that the problem lies with WBOC and WMDT. I guess we will see if they respond to any of the post (not counting the one that said "leave my dady alone")
The only comment I agree with is that Alice Bavis is a hottie.
The tone and wording used by WBOC changed over the years, ever since they made their deals with Comcast.They are bad mouthing satelite which has given me 10 years of great service with only a few minutes out during the worst storms, when the electronics should be off anyway. Comcast was on my speed-dial. I live too far away to get a clear signal and used to have the waiver for Dish for years. Jehelka moves in and denies it, so no CBS for me. If they had a good solid station they could rely on loyal viewers to prefer Wboc, but instead they disenfranchise people like us.Yesterday's comcast internet outage AND simultaneus WBOC web outage should point out how close in bed they are.
I talked to a tech at WBOC a couple of months ago, and he said that they had the "Dish equipment" there, installed and were sending out an uplink. Dish could not use it because an agreement couldn't be reached as to fees. No contract ....no service! I for one will continue to do without CBS and ABC before I "give in" and install another antenna
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