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

[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.

 

[GNASH]

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:

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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​

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

Geoff

 

[Liquidforce88]

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]

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

 

[jrlead]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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.

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]

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]

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.

 

[GNASH]

E-mail from WWMT about HD on Dish...

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.

Below is the text of an e-mail that I just received today, but they seem to be very vague about what the hold up is.

Geoff--​

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​

We are in negotiations with Dish at the present time. This is an ongoing process. There is no resolutin as of yet.​

​

Sincerely,​

Program Coordinator​

NEWSCHANNEL 3/CW7
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​

 

[HobbyTalk]

My understanding is that Freedom wants Dish to also carry CW7 if they want to WWMT in HD.

 

[GRExpert]

Sure would be nice to get this. I can't get a reliable signal from OTA. It drops in and out all the time. Hopefully this happens by March Madness

 

[wkomorow]

WWMT is owned by freedom corporation. Last time I received an email from them, they told me that only a handful of people have complained about no-HD. It is NOT your local station that can make this happen - it is negotiations at a corporate level - between freedom and dish. Freedom:

Freedom Communications
17666 Fitch,
Irvine, Ca., 92614-6022

Our telephone number is
949-253-2300

Our main fax number is
949-474-7675

Email address
info@link.freedom.com

And they are called freedom for a reason:
Freedom Communications, Inc. - Preserving Liberty

 

[GNASH]

WWMT is owned by freedom corporation. Last time I received an email from them, they told me that only a handful of people have complained about no-HD. It is NOT your local station that can make this happen - it is negotiations at a corporate level - between freedom and dish. Freedom:

Freedom Communications
17666 Fitch,
Irvine, Ca., 92614-6022

Our telephone number is
949-253-2300

Our main fax number is
949-474-7675

Email address
info@link.freedom.com

And they are called freedom for a reason:
Freedom Communications, Inc. - Preserving Liberty

After much hunting, I finally got a response from someone at Freedom Communications and it doesn't look good. Here is the response from James Lutton, the VP at WWMT:

===============================================

Mr. Nash…
We have been in a dispute with DISH for the last year. The main issue is compensation.
At this point, either side seems willing to bend. This dispute affects all of our Freedom Stations in six states.
I do not expect an early resolution to this dispute.
Have you considered changing services?
Sincerely,
Jim Lutton
VP - WWMT


=================================================

Geoff

 

[billybgame]

Not good.

If it continues, I may be looking elsewhere. I love my .01 a year Cinemax and all, but the AT & T Uverse seems at least interesting now. Not sure if it's available for me yet, as I have over a year with Dish. But, I'll be finding out.

I want MLB Network, too.

 

[david_jr]

I'm thinking about starting an email campaign with the local affiliate's (CBS 6 WRGB Albany) sponsors just to make sure they are aware that the local is withholding thier advertising from DISH customers. Anyone try this already?

 

[billybgame]

Yeah, it's becoming ridiculous. Soon it'll be yet another March Madness, with no HD. Utterly unacceptable, if you ask me.

It doesn't bother me, as I watch little on CBS. EXCEPT NFL and March Madness and the Masters. For those three alone, though, WE NEED HD!

I might have to get working on my antennae.

 

[dishMIKE]

You can add WLAJ 53 ABC to this list. Mike

 

[david_jr]

Yeah, it's becoming ridiculous. Soon it'll be yet another March Madness, with no HD. Utterly unacceptable, if you ask me.

It doesn't bother me, as I watch little on CBS. EXCEPT NFL and March Madness and the Masters. For those three alone, though, WE NEED HD!

I might have to get working on my antennae.

I have spent a lot of money on antennas and still can only get my OTA reliably about 50% of the time. Any clouds or wind and it breaks up. Wife won't watch it that way. She would rather watch the SD on sat than breaking up HD on OTA. So I really need this on my sat in HD. Our market has the other three majors in HD. Freedom, which owns our CBS, is the only holdout. And they have been holding out for over a year so it must not be hurting them.