What is the deal with local CBS HD in Grand Rapids, Michigan?

billybgame · #1 (**permalink**) 10-07-2008, 08:31 AM

Still no HD on the local CBS affiliate. This is becoming ridiculous, in the middle of football season. It'll probably still be like this come NCAA bball tourney time.

I know CBS had a pissing match with Comcast, too, that took two years. I'm getting a deja vu feeling all over again.

GNASH · #2 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billybgame

Still no HD on the local CBS affiliate. This is becoming ridiculous, in the middle of football season. It'll probably still be like this come NCAA bball tourney time.

I know CBS had a pissing match with Comcast, too, that took two years. I'm getting a deja vu feeling all over again.

Seeing as no one else responded, I will. Back in July I e-mailed 2 e-mail addresses I found (I will PM them to anyone who asks) and got a reply back from one.

Here is the reply:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Geoff--

Thank you for your email.

We are in presently in negotiations with Dish network to carry our channels, and look forward to an agreement in the near future.

Sincerely,

Susan Abraham, Program Coordinator

NEWSCHANNEL 3/CW7

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am also going to send another message and hopefully, we can get a reply (and some action) by applying some pressure.

Geoff

Liquidforce88 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 11:52 AM

The local CBS station is brodcast at this time on channel 2.1. This location caused problems with other channel 2 stations in the area. Thus the FCC told CBS to transmit at a lower power output. In febuary the station will be transmitting on a different channel. I belive this is the main reason that they are not getting retransmitted with Dish at this time.

Where are you located? Depending on where you are a regular antenna can be used to pick up the digital transmition of channel 3.

billybgame · #4 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 12:42 PM

I'm in Ada, just east of Grand Rapids.

jrlead · #5 (**permalink**) 10-08-2008, 09:14 PM

Billybgamw, I live near you. I put an antenna in my garage attic. I pick up all locals with no problem. Nice thing is you can record with the off air which gives you 3 recordings at once

Liquidforce88 · #6 (**permalink**) 10-09-2008, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billybgame

I'm in Ada, just east of Grand Rapids.

Well if you are intrested, I can set you up with a local OTA antenna. Should solve your problem of no channel 3 in HD.

billybgame · #7 (**permalink**) 10-10-2008, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liquidforce88

Well if you are intrested, I can set you up with a local OTA antenna. Should solve your problem of no channel 3 in HD.

There is already an antenna in my attic, from the prior homeowner. I imagine the cable goes behind my HD TV, too.

I was thinking of checking on that, but then Dish gave me the HD locals. Guess I still could.

So, if I hooked up the antenna, and got locals that way, I could DVR three things at once? I guess I understand...TV1, TV2, and whatever input this antenna is on? That may help me, as my wife doesn't like me using her TV to DVR on, and I don't like it when I'm trying to watch Monday Night Football and the Sarah Connor Chronicles starts DVRing on my TV1. So, if could DVR off the antenna feed......

I guess that means I could stop paying dish for HD locals, too, then?

What do I then do with the second dish on my roof

Liquidforce88 · #8 (**permalink**) 10-10-2008, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billybgame

There is already an antenna in my attic, from the prior homeowner. I imagine the cable goes behind my HD TV, too.

I was thinking of checking on that, but then Dish gave me the HD locals. Guess I still could.:

If it is still behind the Tv plug that cable into the antenna in on the recevier. Go into your menu and go to Local Channel setup and scan for your local channels. See what you get. I would not be suprised if channel 3 still does not work with the antenna in the attic, as the signal they are putting out is very week right now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by billybgame

So, if I hooked up the antenna, and got locals that way, I could DVR three things at once? I guess I understand...TV1, TV2, and whatever input this antenna is on? That may help me, as my wife doesn't like me using her TV to DVR on, and I don't like it when I'm trying to watch Monday Night Football and the Sarah Connor Chronicles starts DVRing on my TV1. So, if could DVR off the antenna feed......:

Yes now you have three options to record at once, 2 satellite and one OTA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by billybgame

I guess that means I could stop paying dish for HD locals, too, then?

What do I then do with the second dish on my roof

You are not paying anything extra for HD locals. If you remove the second dish then you lose the ability to record the HD feeds that Dish is sending. That will limit what you can record on local channels.

GNASH · #9 (**permalink**) 10-11-2008, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billybgame

There is already an antenna in my attic, from the prior homeowner. I imagine the cable goes behind my HD TV, too.

I was thinking of checking on that, but then Dish gave me the HD locals. Guess I still could.

So, if I hooked up the antenna, and got locals that way, I could DVR three things at once? I guess I understand...TV1, TV2, and whatever input this antenna is on? That may help me, as my wife doesn't like me using her TV to DVR on, and I don't like it when I'm trying to watch Monday Night Football and the Sarah Connor Chronicles starts DVRing on my TV1. So, if could DVR off the antenna feed......

You will be able to record 3 things as OTA is a separate Digital Tuner
[/quote]I guess that means I could stop paying dish for HD locals, too, then? [/quote]
If you stop paying for locals, you will lose all the guide data (as well as the ability to record from the Satellite, but you could use Manual Timers, but from what I understand that is a pain.

billybgame · #10 (**permalink**) 12-18-2008, 07:26 PM

Any updates on this ridiculousness from other Grand Rapids area people? Are we going to get through the NFL playoffs and into the college basketball tourney, next year, and still not have CBS in HD?

What the hell is the problem? I have an idea it's the local affiliate, but I'm not positive. I sent them an email, to no avail.