Thread: KNRR Pembina, ND goes silent

due to no money for a digital upgrade....



KNRR/12 (Pembina) has gone silent after the digital transition. The station, a satellite of FOX affiliate KVRR/15 (Fargo), had been operating a low-power digital signal on channel 15 and elected to move digital broadcasts to channel 12 after the transition. However, owner Red River Broadcast Co. says in a filing with the FCC that KNRR has never been profitable, and that fact combined with the recession and the high cost of digital TV facilities means they cannot afford to construct the channel 12 digital facility. Meanwhile, KNRR had to leave channel 15 because that channel is now being used by KGFE (Grand Forks). KNRR has until October 18 to construct the digital channel 12 facility. Channel 12 has a long history: it was originally used by NBC/ABC affiliate KCND, which targeted Winnipeg audiences with a fringe signal. KCND was ultimately discontinued when owner Izzy Asper signed on CKND/9 (Winnipeg) in 1975 to replace KCND. KNRR came on the air a decade later, but strict regulations have prevented KNRR from being carried on Canadian cable systems.

and the FCC document

http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/f...911&q_num=5370

I hate to see that for anybody.

Not good news. sorry to see that.

they resigned back on the air

FOX affiliate KNRR/12 (Pembina) has returned to the air. The Red River Broadcast Co. station, which is a satellite of KVRR/15 (Fargo), left the air in June when full-power analog broadcasting ended. KNRR had previously operated digitally on channel 15 but had to leave that channel to make way for KGFE (Grand Forks). It now broadcasts digitally on channel 12, using the former top-mounted analog antenna, with 4.44kW/427m. Pembina is along the Canadian border, and years ago, the station had tried to appeal to Canadian viewers. However, the station doesn't likely have many viewers across the border now since digital TV signals have not yet signed on in Manitoba. KNRR's U.S. coverage area includes about 25,000 people

The FCC has a rule where a owner can only own one station per a market.

So let's say there is a NBC, ABC, CBS, IND, PBS, ION, CW

With a 6 Mhz spread on any one channel, it allows for the station to transmit one high def signal and two DTV signals.

When a market has a station that cannot support it's self, the FCC will allow one of the other stations to own two network stations at the same time.

What they can do then is broadcast their High Def signal on their regular channel and carry the Fox on one of their sub channels.

It does not cost them anything extra to broadcast the sub channel along side the High Def Signal.

Every station has a mission, that mission - or reason for being on the air is connected to producing so many hours of local television in order to keep their license. One way of meeting their goal is by broadcasting the local news.

When you own the High Def station you can either simulcast the Fox channel with a 5 - 15 second delay with the same newscast or you can broadcast the news for the second channel at a different time of the day.

The problem with broadcasting the second signal is that you have to find sponsors that are willing to pay the bills. From what I have heard, with the way the economy is right now - you have to be pretty thick skinned to want to even work in sales right now because the customers has so many ways of telling you no and where to stick your advertising that most people do not last even a day.

If there is no way to get any sponsorship money out of the businesses in your area, then there is no way to support that station and it must die.

You have to think of the business owner as a pie. There are only so many ways you can slice that pie before there is nothing left. There is only so much in the budget right now for advertising and most times the advertisers are local used car dealers, furniture stores, grocery stores, Walmart, a shyster lawyer who chases ambulances.

Chances are, if you live in Canada, you are not going to drive 100 miles to go to the USA to buy a loave of bread or a gallon of milk or a new sofa. So your target goal has to be customers within a 20 mile radius of your signal.

The way the economy works, you work and make money and then you take your money to the store, garage to get your car fixed, the gas station and all the other places. The money circulates and everyone makes a living. In a bad economy - you tighten your purse strings and make due with what you have and the next guy down the line starves. The used car dealers goes out of business and pretty soon nobody has any money in their pockets.

That's strange, because we have an owner that has at least two, maybe three digital stations right here in Lubbock plus at least 3 low power analog stations.

Not just subchannels, but different frequencies, different channels, analog and digital.

The FCC has a rule where a owner can only own one station per a market.

BUZZ!!!! WRONG ANSWER!!!

Here in Minneapolis we have 2 duopolies of full power stations
Fox & MY Network are owned by the Network (Fox)
ABC & an Independent are owned by Hubbard (hell Hubbard owns all 3 ABC & 3 satellite ABC stations in MN...if the station is ABC and licensed in MN Hubbard owns them)

In Lima, OH the CBS, ABC & Fox are all owned by the same people

boy there is a lot of illegal duopolies then

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The only rule is that the FCC does not allow common ownership of two of the four largest stations in a single market. SO in markets of only 4 or 5 stations, you cant own 2 of them. But there are loopholes.

subchannels there are no rules

O&O - means owned and operated.

A city is a market when there is no other local cities with a transmitter - that has the same affiliate.

In a state like Pennsylvania on the western side, you have the Johnstown / Altoona Market, the Pittsburgh market and the Erie Market.

I never said you couldn't own more than one station in a state, I said they let you own one network affiliate per a market - unless there is a situation where no one else wants to own it and then they will give you a special dispensation so you can own more than one.

In television COX Media owns a lot of stations - such as WJAC - (NBC)

In Pittsburgh WTAE (ABC) is owned by Hearst Communications - who is also part owner in the Disney corporation.

When you have a network station being owned by large corporation, even if it looses some money, they can offset the cost of running that one station against the profits of other stations that are making money.

When Fox came along, the other stations were already established and Fox was a side show and often relegated into the UHF band. ? How many people can remember the Fox viewing position on Married with Children.

When DTV came along, the stations that were low powered or already on UHF were protected - where they could remain where they were and not have to be moved for the larger network stations that were going to be moved up into the UHF if space allowed.

Some low powered stations actually sold their UHF channel to the larger stations and moved down into the VHF - where weather and noise is a larger factor, but was cheaper to broadcast with less digital power than if they would have stayed on the UHF frequencies.

As I explained before about the pie and only so many ways to slice up the pie (budget). When you move up into the UHF and your power consumption bill (electricity) goes up as much as 400% and your revenue (income) remains the same, sooner or later, something has to happen or your station goes dark.

Many stations have discontinued their news broadcast, bought local news programs from other local stations or combined their resources to save money on transmitters and repeaters.

One example I can give to you is WWCP (Fox) 8 out of Johnstown PA.
It's sister station WATM - (ABC) is on channel 23. (digital channel 24)
Channel 23 never came in well at my location when it was analog because the transmitter was tilted towards Johnstown and Pittsburgh, because of it's original license application, and I was in the wrong location to receive it.

When the digital transition came along, WATM (ABC) found that their signal could not be received in the Altoona area because the mountain their transmitter was on was too tall to broadcast over. Quote - they found that the signal could not be received in Altoona - 5 miles away! - So basically there was not going to be any ABC network station which could be received in Altoona or State College or even Punxsutawney PA or points north.

So they combined resources and used the Channel 8 WWCP transmitter to transmit the High Def signal to the Johnstown - Pittsburgh market and used the sub channels to transmit the WATM signal into that market on standard definition off the same stick off the same tower.

At the same time, they transmit the WATM signal in High Def on channel 23 (digital channel 24), in the Altoona / State College area - which now comes in with no issues, other then the fact that you have to move the antenna further to the east to receive it better, since UHF is line of sight.
They broadcast the WWCP signal on the sub channel in standard definition (SD) on the same stick on the tower. So neither station has to use more power or more transmitters to cover the same amount of area as before the digital transition other then the addition of some low power translators.

The stations are all hard wired with fiber optic cable directly to the cable and sat dish companies, so there is no over the air issues with the cable and Sat TV transmission of their signals.

Low power stations and translators do not fall under any rules of ownership other then they cannot transmit outside the service contour map area of the original license of the station they serve. " You can't infringe upon other markets with your signal "

When you get into other markets such as Morgantown WV, Steubenville Oh, Youngstown OH, you might have the same network, but they have their own studios in that town that does all the local programming, news, weather etc... Even though you might be able to receive KDKA - (CBS) in those markets with some difficulty, they would not be served by KDKA because they could not serve the mission of the station which is to produce so many hours a week of local programming and kids shows.

Translators do not physically have any personnel working there on a permanent basis, so there is no updates for the PSIP or any other services other then to keep the transmitter running, so you still have the same programming as the home base transmitter, but you have no PSIP information for your program guide or clock or station identification and their signal might be followed by their call signs which might have a letter such as a W and then the number for the translator such as 56 followed by other letters, which means nothing to nobody except the station and the FCC.

You might never even see that unless they shut down their transmitter at the end of the broadcast day - such as does WATM / WWCP when they turn off their repeater near Somerset PA

WWCP is owned by Peak Media, while WATM is owned by Palm Television - they are both owned by the same person or the same corporation - and are ran by the same person, they just have different names on paper to keep the FCC happy. WATM (ABC) uses WJAC's (NBC) personnel and studios to produce their daily news program - which is broadcast with a 2 minute delay.


http://en.allexperts.com/e/w/ww/wwcp-tv.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WATM-TV

can I ask what the hell your posts have to do with KNRR going back on the air?

but since you decided to post a friggin book (again what does it have to do with the topic at hand) but there is a couple points

O&O - means owned and operated.

really???

I never said you couldn't own more than one station in a state, I said they let you own one network affiliate per a market - unless there is a situation where no one else wants to own it and then they will give you a special dispensation so you can own more than one.

uh yes you did. In your first OT post you wrote

The FCC has a rule where a owner can only own one station per a market.

which I already proved you wrong.

but again...lets keep to the topic at hand of KNRR coming back on the air