Posted on 10/22/2019 3:03:42 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Jim Doherty has had better football Sundays. When the 82-year-old Spring Green retiree and his wife settled in to watch the Green Bay Packers take on the Oakland Raiders last weekend, he tragically encountered a black screen.
“We listened to it,” he said. “I’m sitting there thinking, five touchdowns and we can’t see them.”
Doherty was a victim of a television technology upgrade, one that has proven to be frustrating for viewers who rely on antennas for their reception, and for the television station employees on whom they vent. And the ordeal has been painfully prolonged by foul weather.
The upgrade did not affect cable and satellite viewers.
The reception problems emerged at about 10 a.m. on Friday, when WISC-3, WMSN-47 and WIFS-57 embarked on a project to change their broadcast frequencies.
While WMTV-15, WKOW-27 and WHA-21 public television are maintaining their current frequency, they haven’t escaped the fray. All of them but WMTV, share a 1,314-foot UW-operated tower — known as the Candelabra because of its array of cylindrical broadcast antennas. For the safety of workers, all the stations residing there have to reduce broadcasting power while the work is being done.
Stations are currently broadcasting through antennas located halfway up the tower, at about 500 feet, further reducing their reach.
And that can make tuning into a station a hit-or-miss proposition.
The work involves lifting cranes to move the antennas, which weigh hundreds of pounds. It's a high-wire act that can’t be performed with the pesky winds and stormy conditions that have plagued the area in recent days.
And while many disappointed viewers are in the far reaches of the broadcast area, others, particularly those with indoor antennas, are in the Madison area.
When the work will be completed is an open question. The telephone answering system at WISC-3 prompted callers with questions about the frequency change to press 1, which triggered a message that said in its entirety:
“Thank you for calling News 3 Now. Tower work is being done and reception will be limited until the end of November. We are sorry for the disruption of service.”
Tom Keeler, WISC general manager, didn’t immediately return messages for this story.
Doherty made futile calls to the stations, then connected via email with Tom Allen, regional vice president for WKOW owner Quincy Media, explaining the situation. Allen’s response, Doherty said, “just doesn’t cut it.”
“They obviously weren’t prepared, and they didn’t prepare the public for this,” he said. “When I tried to call the stations to find out what’s going on, I got no help whatsoever.”
'Like the end of the world'
The frequency change was announced on-air well in advance. Station notices explained that on Oct. 18, viewers had to rescan their televisions to reestablish reception. But there were complications. For one, if a television can’t pick up the signal, it can’t lock in the station. So many viewers found themselves missing familiar stations on their channel lineup.
Secondly, some viewers, like Doherty, don’t know how to rescan.
“We have a lot of elderly people,” said a staffer at Town & Country TV & Appliance in Richland Center, where Doherty bought his TV. “They call themselves non-tech people who don’t know how to go into their menu on their TV sets and scan the channels.”
The employee, who didn’t want to be named, said many of the calls to the store have come with a dose of fury.
“You take TV away from people, that’s like the end of the world,” she said. “I’ve had people hang up on me, like it’s my fault.”
The store has made arrangements to send help out to at least 60 people already, and the list is growing.
“We have continual phone calls all day long,” she said.
She said the situation has cut into business because the store can’t install antennas if they can’t pick up a signal.
Bob Goessling, WKOW director of programming and operations, isn’t enjoying the upgrade, either.
“We’re receiving many, many phone calls, as I’m sure all the Madison stations are,” he said. “People in Baraboo and Muscoda and those kind of places in the Wisconsin River valley, I’m getting a lot of calls from those people. I’m getting calls from all the fringes of our broadcast area, and people who have indoor antennas. Because everybody’s operating at reduced power.”
He said some aerial viewers are faring better than others, depending on the proximity to the signal, how many televisions are feeding off the antenna, and whether the viewer has an indoor or outdoor antenna.
“I’m not saying it’s a black art,” he said, “but there are a lot of factors there. They say I got all the stations before and I don’t get them now. I’ve got a whole check list I’ve got to run down to try and diagnose that.”
For many viewers using antennas, bad reception will be part of life until the work is done. And that’s not going to be anytime soon, with estimates ranging from two weeks to a month.
“It’s a big job, and there have to be guys standing on top of the tower to do it,” Goessling said.
That’s leaving viewers like Doherty in the lurch. He thinks viewers should have been told what to expect.
“I just think that they really handled this in a very amateurish way,” he said.
Not that he and his wife watch a lot of television. But come Sunday, he wants to watch the Packers.
“We’re just a typical old Wisconsin couple,” he said. “We don’t have much else going on in our lives, so we fixate on the Packers.”
Just a taste of what’s to come with an EMP situation (or whatever they’re called.)
We’ve gained back a few channels, but are still missing our BINGE-channel with all the cop shows on it. PBS is in and out depending upon which TV you’re watching.
I have a stronger antennae to use, but I’ll wait until the end of November to install it.
Meh. Not the end of the world, but one of those minor inconveniences that send some of us over the edge, LOL!
A few months ago we had something similar in the Florida Panhandle. I recalled one of the stations saying something about rescanning channels.
I did so and got them all back.
Same here around Rochester NY. Rescanned and they all came back.
As a Raider fan, I would have welcomed this occurance...
Wow, I guess people really get upset when they can’t watch reruns of Mork and Mindy.
You think that’s bad? I’m still waiting for MTV to play music videos.
LOL! It ain’t BRAGGIN’ if you can DO IT! Go, Pack! GO!
LOL! I knew y’all would have fun with this.
People complain that they can’t watch free tv. Get cable. I hate cheapskates. I hope they never get back their tv.
If they subscribed to cable, it’s the cable provider who has to make any necessary changes. The over-the-air customers are really dealing with the same issue as if there where heavy thunderstorms or other atmospheric problems. Plus, rescanning the tv is very easy. Most folks can do it if they just follow the menus.
Back when I worked for Time Warner cable, we were plagued with a phenomenon known as “sun outages”. As the sun lined up behind the satellites during the fall and spring, various channels would deteriorate until they just disappeared and about 15 minutes late, they would gradually fade back in as the sun moved positions. Then the sun would move behind a different satellite and other channels would start to go.
When I described this to customers, most concluded I was just lying. One asked me what I was going to do about it. I asked if they wanted me to move the sun or move the satellite.
Local stations don’t have that problem but they do have other antenna-related problems.
Looks like the old style antennas won’t be useful much longer - they sell antennas designed for digital and many have signal boosters so they need to be plugged in to a power source...got one for our local channels as I prepare to dump cable.
We don’t have cable in our area and Satellite is crazy-expensive to have as they have you over a barrel. I don’t watch enough TV to justify it, anyways.
As it is, I pay $79/mo. for satellite internet, which is also just crazy, but I need it for my on-line business.
But, you’re right - if the Socialist areas of our state were denied Trump-Bashing ABC/CBS/NBC 24/7 it MIGHT change hearts and minds! :)
I bought one as I knew this day was coming. I’m going to wait until they finish repairs on the tower and then see how the reception is and install it if need be.
Three days now of 45-50 MPH winds aren’t speeding things along, I’ll bet!
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