James Kenneth "McKay" McManus

Over the last few weeks, fate has continued to remind me that I am not the "young whipper snapper" I like to think I am. More often than not, I will make a comment about something with a reference from years gone by only for the recipient of said comment, who is young enough to be my child, to have a look of puzzlement on their face like, "what are you talking about?" I was once again reminded just last night as I was watching a DVR'ed episode of FOX News Channel's politically incorrect late night comedy panel show parody, "Red Eye."

On the panel of this episode was comedian Joe DeVito, lawyer Brooke Goldstein and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. In discussing the MTV show 'Skins' and how children are not being raised with any kind of moral teaching anymore, in a joking response to a non sequitur comment from host Greg Gutfeld's sidekick Bill Schulz, Governor Huckabee replied "I think Captain Kangaroo is the most dangerous show for kids. Yelling at Grandfather clock to make him wake up! (pause) There are only a handful of people watching who even know what that means." I KNOW! I WATCHED Captain Kangaroo when I was going up in the 60's! The panel had no idea what Governor Huckabee was talking about. That got the laugh. For those who don't know. Grandfather Clock was always asleep. The other characters on the show got a big chuckle from waking him up all the time. Wow! I. Am. Old. To drive the point home further, this morning in perusing the Video On Demand of the DVR, I found the 2003 documentary of the late ABC Sportscaster, Jim McKay. McKay, died in 2008 of natural causes at the age of 86. I had seen this when it first aired on HBO in 2003. It was written and narrated by McKay himself.

McKay was born James Kenneth McManus. He wanted to be a big time newspaper sportswriter. He loved story telling. And while a huge sports fan, he was always more interested in the people behind the box scores and that is what he wanted to write about. If not for a chance offer to be a part of the first TV station in Baltimore, WMAR, we would have never heard of Jim McKay. We might have heard of a newspaper writer named Jim McManus instead. But after a few years at WMAR, opportunity knocked in the form of a new show in New York City and did McManus want to be a part of it. It was basically the same thing he had been doing at WMAR, a little bit of everything on air, just to do it in New York City. One small problem. The show had already been named, "The Real McKay." McManus would have to change his name to match the show. McManus agreed. Hence, "Jim McKay" was born.

During the documentary, it showed how this little known sportswriter became one of the best known sports reporters ever even though he never did a Super Bowl or World Series. But he did host the Kentucky Derby's, Indy 500's and many of the British Open's for ABC.

McKay found himself to be at the center of many historical sporting events. In part thanks to his sports show, "Wide World of Sports" which was the catalyst of the modern day sports reporting on the athletes themselves and not just what they do on the field of competition. It was the show that spawned these classic cultural words that are used today, mostly out of context, Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!

As the old video and film clips played documenting McKay's professional life, it became too apparent that I remembered many of these things as they were originally broadcast. You can't really say broadcast live since international satellite broadcasting didn't really start to happen until the late 60's and only then cost a small fortune and was saved for really truly exceptional events like coronations or the Olympics. Some big event that the coverage could be planned for. Not like now where all you need is a computer, camera and an Internet connection. Many of the events shown are now etched in the cultures collective memory. Jim McKay was there. Sadly, he will be best remembered for his coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympic murders. His finest moment broadcasting. An event he said that haunted him 30 years later. It was that broadcast that truly showed he "had the right stuff." Many of the big names in television news at the time recognized him as being the right man in the right place at the right time for that story. The legendary Peter Jennings, who himself in later years would become a beloved anchorman, stated in an interview, that at the time, he could not do what McKay did on that broadcast. He watched in awe how he guided the viewing audience through that terrible time with such dignity and integrity to get the the story right the first time, knowing that back home in Ohio, a family was wanting to know the fate of their loved one. As Roone Arledge, then ABC Sports President stated, "we all knew we were not reporting for the nation, but the Berger family. We had to get it right the first time." McKay's old friend and former co-host in the early days, Walter Cronkite sent him a telegram while still in Munich congratulating him on the coverage he had done and that it was recognized at the competitors shop. Not ABC, but Jim McKay owned the story as no one reporter in the world could. It was one of the the most important stories of the 20th Century, and Jim McKay is the only name that you remember with it.

And speaking of the Olympics, McKay's little ABC show, "Wide World of Sports" pretty much single handedly created America's love for ice skating and gymnastics. Back in the day, ABC was a far third place in just about all categories. ABC's Wide World of Sports was an attempt to find a niche within the sports reporting world with little known sports or off the wall sports. Arledge went around the world buying the rights to all kinds of things for pennies on the dollar to air on WWoS. Things like ski jumping, demolition derbies, barrel jumping, rodeos, gymnastics, track and field, just about any kind of off the beaten path sporting event or sports that didn't play on the other networks. McKay was perfectly suited for the job. This was to not only be the box scores, but to know the people of the events. WWoS went to gymnastic events of all kinds, track and field events and such all around the world. It was the 1960 US/USSR Track and Field broadcasts from the Soviet Union that took WWoS from a summer replacement program to a permanent place on ABC's schedule. This was the first broadcast by an American network from the Soviet Union and while the event wasn't available live in the US, ABC did record it on a new invention called "video tape" and flew the tapes back to New York for broadcast a week later. McKay made both sides human, even the Soviets got praise when they did well, something that hadn't been done before and was received with positive viewer reaction. Because of the accomplishments of McKay and WWoS with track and field and gymnastics and ice skating, events that NBC and CBS hardly touched, when ABC got the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the US market, McKay was the natural choice and became known as "Mr Olympics." Even after ABC lost the rights to the Olympics, the public expected McKay to be a part of the broadcast in some way and both CBS and NBC honored him by negotiating with ABC to allow him to be a part of their Olympic broadcasts until his retirement in 2000. You just couldn't have the Olympics without him. In 2008, NBC who had the rights to the games, dedicated the broadcasts to McKay after his death.

To me he will always be THE BEST sportscaster, period. There will never be another Jim McKay and the current crop of sportscasters are all too aware of it having grown up watching him and wanting to do what he did and are in his debt. The ones coming along? They have no idea whose shoulders they are standing on. They should get a clue.

Yeah. I am now officially old.

footnote - Sean McManus, President of CBS News and Sports is McKay's youngest child.

Ancient History

This past week I was struck how those under 30 years old reacted to the 30th Anniversary of the Assassination of John Lennon. Those of my generation clearly remember December 8, 1980 as if it were yesterday. But how does someone who wasn't born process an event like that? When one thinks of 30 years, the first thought is "boy that is a long time." But when you are looking through the lens of life experience thought that time, 30 years can be a long time or just yesterday. But through the lens of someone not even born then, 30 years takes on a completely different tone.

I didn't really watch much of the coverage. Mainly because I am recovering from major abdominal surgery, and I know the ending of the story. But I did watch an updated "Behind the Music" on VH1 Classics on the last years of Lennon's life. The episode starts after what has become known as the "Lost Weekend" where Lennon moved to Los Angeles in the early 70's with Yoko's assistant, May Pang whose job it was to be the "woman" to John, that Yoko couldn't while trying to deal with John's demons. During this year or so of time, John parties, and parties, and parties, and parties and parties some more. Along the way falling in love with May Pang (and May Pang in return), all with Yoko's blessing. At the end of the "Lost Weekend," Lennon realizes he needs to get his life together and that Yoko is the one he truly loves. May Pang is jilted and John goes back to Yoko, a changed man. May Pang remains bitter to this day. A year later Sean is born and this is where the story starts.

It goes through the years of John the househusband and then in 1980 taking the sailing trip to Bermuda where the sail boat is almost destroyed in a storm and from this comes the music for John's last two albums, "Double Fantasy" and the 1984 release, "Milk and Honey." After John publicly resurfaces in 1980 to restart his music career, with actual TV news video, right through the world wide reaction to the assassination. The updated portion is from 2006 where the addition of Strawberry Fields in New York's Central Park is stated as well as the Anthology songs "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" are mentioned.

The thing that struck me was in the interviews with the people in Strawberry Fields. Most people were younger that 30 who had never known John when he was alive. All they knew of him was archival and his music. Many see him as omnipotent. A great thinker. A man before his time. Reverent, almost to the point of religious. My personal opinion is John would be quite appalled at that. John considered himself part of the working class proletariat. He was no better than anyone else, and didn't want to be. He was just a musician speaking his mind through his music. Nothing more, nothing less. Take it or leave it. He is on record saying that anyone who looked for deep inner meaning of his music beyond what was on the surface, was "Daft."

To many of the under 30 crowd, John Lennon is God like. Of course Yoko hasn't tried to dissuaded people of the thought. It helps keep John's memory and causes alive. Something she has stewarded for years oh so carefully creating and shaping and guarding John Lennon's legacy. The question is who will do that when Yoko Ono finally no longer is here to guide that legacy? Julian Lennon from John's first marriage with Cynthia Powell? Doubtful. He hardly knew his father. Sean? No one knows what his thoughts on the subject are. He has never publicly stated. I don't think he has ever publicly stated anything. So who knows?

I see John Lennon through the eyes of someone who remembers Beatlemania from news reports on TV. I remember when Sgt Peppers was release in 1967. I remember the breakup of the Beatles. I remember the Bed-In's for Peace. I remember when "Imagine" was released. I also remember vividly the events and my own feelings of December 8, 1980. John Lennon isn't God like to me. He is a man who died too young and the world was deprived of his creativity. He is a man who entertained me with his music. On occasion made me think about things differently. I don't think John would be disappointed if I just thought of him as a "musician." Who knows, he might have even song a song to me because of that thought.

Imagine THAT!

Imagine - 70 Years

Today would have been the 70th birthday of the founder of the band, The Quarrymen. Who? The Quarrymen? Yes. The Quarrymen of the English port town of Liverpool who would become, The Beatles.

October 9th, 1940, Alfred and Julia Lennon welcomed John Winston Lennon into the world. Alfred, a merchant marine, who would soon depart Julia's and John's world, only to resurface years later after The Beatles made it and John rejecting him outright. Julia, herself a free spirit, soon left John with her sister Mary Smith, better known to the world now as "Auntie Mimi." "Uncle George" and Auntie Mimi raised John and did the best they could for the rebellious child. Julia did resurface in John's life from time to time buying him his first guitar and taught John cords on a banjo hoping John would get it out of his system saying "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it." On July 15, 1958 Julia was struck by a car and killed. John was only 17.

In March 1957 John formed The Quarrymen as a skiffle band, with jazz, blues, folk roots and country influences and then later shifting more towards rock and roll. It was during this time he met Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

As rock and roll became more prevalent, the band went through many names and members with the core remaining Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. By 1960, the band was now known as The Beatles, a play on words for the beat movement of rock and roll and from the "Mersey Beat Scene" the name used to describe the sound coming out of Liverpool and Merseyside England. The grueling Hamburg, German tours progressed over the next two years as the constant 8 to 10 hour stretches of playing in Hamburg's Reperbahn bars created The Beatles sound as the world would come to know. John, not one to sit on his laurels if it meant some mischief learned the "ways of the world" with his free spirit mother and father's genes on full display in Hamburg. But John's love of words blended in with his songwriting began in earnest with Paul in Hamburg as they honed their craft and played the standards of 1950's rock and roll along with standards of the 1930's and 1940's to the sailors and ladies of the night who, along with the beatniks of Hamburg, made up the Reperbahn club scene in the early 1960's.

If not for the now famous chance request of "My Bonnie" by "Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers" at the NEMS Store in Liverpool, and Brian Epstein going to The Cavern Club to hear The Beatles, John Lennon would more than likely have stayed in Liverpool working the blue collar job of the docks or on board ship and music history would have been much different. The general thought is John would have either been in jail or dead by 1970 had there been no Beatles as we know them today. John had been quite a teenage delinquent and was on a road to self destruction with only music saving him. Even in 1963 when George Martin first heard The Beatles, he had little faith this band of four, with Pete Best on drums and not Ringo Starr would amount to much more than a fad band. Thank goodness Sir George was willing to give them a try and Ringo agreed to join.

For those of us who remember December 8, 1980, the question will usually surface, "Where were you when John Lennon was shot?" Like the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations and most recently 9/11, those events are elevated above all else and are markers in people lives that get relived over and over again. For me Monday December 8, 1980, I was at college. A friend of mine had stayed over Sunday night in the dorms and we had partied pretty hard so we slept in that Monday morning. After class that afternoon, we resumed the party from the night before. By the time the news filtered out from ABC's Monday Night Football where it was first announced, we had been partying many hours. In an instant, our party turned into a wake as we found a TV and turned it on and watched the news updates. After midnight when the TV stations went off the air (GASP! Yep, stations didn't stay on 24/7 like they do now) we went to the radio and started tuning up and down the AM radio band. Every station you heard had either Beatles or John solo music. My suite mate Mike Ivey, made a cassette tape of that night, but I don't think it exists anymore, being erased a short time later because it was too painful to listen to. The wake continued until morning. Sometime during the night, we took a sheet and painted a sign of remembrance to John and flew it out the dorm window. The sheet still exists. I have it somewhere in my things. I saw it a few years back. A picture of the sheet flying out the window was in the year book.

In the early days of John's and Yoko's relation, she really came off as a nasty interloper. But since John's death, she has really been wonderfully giving to the world of John. A few years back she allowed much of John's artwork to tour and pieces to be sold. It came through here. I went. The cheapest pieces were around $1000. I didn't have the money then. I still don't, but I could probably get it now, when I couldn't then. If I ever get that chance again, I will. Not as an investment, even though it will have value and hopefully it will increase, but to own a piece of John. Sentimental. They were small cards with original pen or pencil drawings. I suspect they are all gone now, but if I ever get the chance again, I will take advantage of it.

So at 70 years old what would John Ono Lennon be like? The same he was at 40 upon his death. He would be doing music. Championing causes of world peace. And I suspect global warming as well. Maybe even a Beatles reunion. That was never out of the question. It just never had the time to mature. And still loving Yoko even more (was THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?) and watching Julian and Sean becoming their potential. No doubt he would be mellow but with a rebellious streak, but he would have the wisdom to use that rebellion for good as he was starting to do that the last 5 years of his life as house husband and primary caretaker of Sean while Yoko tamed the business world.

John is missed, not only by his family and friends, but by the people of the world, fans and non fans alike. The music that could have been created over the last 30 years is that never happened, is a crime. The fact that his music of the 20 years of his adult life and the causes are still championed by the proletariat speaks volumes of John's timelessness. The world is a better place for John's contributions and the world is a worse place for what was never done.

The Picture Becomes Clearer

As I said in an earlier post, I didn't have much to say, even though lots had been going on. As Paul Harvey used to say, "And now, the rest of the story." Actually this picture is the culmination of my not having much to say. I will try to explain.

First the set up.

This is Melissa Painter, our weekend anchor I caught in a candid moment of contemplation sitting on our new High Def set waiting for our weekday anchor Neill McNeill to join her for our inaugural High Def newscast. Melissa is a very capable reporter and anchor in her own right. Melissa normally anchors the weekends by herself with sports guys Kevin Connolly and Danny Harnden and Meteorologist Charles Ewing. Management decided that with this newscast being the first newscast in High Def in the market and it being on a Sunday night, it needed to be co-anchored by two people. The media blitz leading up to this had been MASSIVE. We needed to be sure this newscast delivered on all kinds of fronts. I saw Melissa about an hour before the newscast walking down the hall. I said, "You're looking very pretty tonight." She responded with "I put some extra work into it!" as she smiled and winked at me. That is Melissa. She is a warm hearted, fun loving person who enjoys life and it shows in her work. She is a real joy to work with. We are lucky to have her.

Here is Neill McNeill on the left with his regular weekday partner, Julie Luck during rehearsals on the new HD set. Neill is a part of a generation of newsperson that takes his craft seriously. Neill started in the business around 1980. He, like me, grew up watching Walter Cronkite and watching the 1960's on TV, remembers the Moon landings and saw Watergate happen (where the "-gate" comes from in any kind of a political scandal now) before even going to college. Neill has a somewhat dry sense of humor, but is quite funny in his own right. You would never know it watching him on TV, but then, as a reporter, cred is the Holy Grail in this business. Do you want your news from a serious professional, or some laughing buffoon. Me? I want serious. And Neill delivers.

And just a quick word on his weekday co-anchor, Julie Luck since she is pictured here but was not on the first HD newscast. Julie is just a mess! Julie lives life to the fullest and she IS the life of the party on and off camera. Just a fun loving lady. And the viewers just love her too. I like being around her. She is so unpredictable. That is why we like her so much.

So there you have the ending. Being the first station in the market to bring HD news to the viewers. The beginning? Well, that is going to take a while.

Let's start this installment at the beginning of the day the top picture was taken, September 12, 2010. For months we had been installing new HD equipment along side the SD equipment. We had to stay on the air with the old SD equipment while installing all the new HD equipment and it's a logistical nightmare all its own. The equipment racks and control room were busting out of its seams with old and new equipment. We had to have it all installed together to do weeks upon weeks of rehearsals when we were not on the air with news. We had two of everything! You can see in this picture taken during rehearsals, the new HD equipment is toward the back of the picture where 6pm Director Amy Convery is sitting and a corner of the old SD switcher equipment and support equipment in the front of the picture. I am standing at the back wall taking the picture and can only get a small piece of the SD equipment in! TIGHT!

That Sunday we in the engineering department assembled at 8am to start to remove the old SD equipment and to relocate the HD equipment to its permanent location. We had to have everything ready by a 4pm 2 minute news break that airs during the halftime of the second NFL game. We were confident we could get 98% of everything done by then and the remaining 2% by air time (10pm). By 2pm, the only items left to do was remount the headset intercom system box at the new HD switcher and check the video wall monitor to be sure the video matched the locations. Most of the engineering team left while I stayed and finished up the intercom and tested the monitors. At 4pm the 2 minute news break was recorded to the HD server and about 45 minutes later, the first locally produced news program in the market aired. I stayed until the 10pm news was over to be sure everything worked. It did with just little nitpicky items we had either forgotten about or hadn't thought about. It was a big success.

We had most of management on hand for the first HD newscast and a full crew as if this were a full fledged weekday newscast. I saw one of the producers heading for the control room and asked did we have enough news for such a momentousness launch. They laughed and jokingly said, "Well...... we could use another hurricane to fill out the hour!" meaning we already had three hurricanes in the Atlantic, what was one more?

Well, all went according to plan for this madden voyage of our foray into HD news. I think the biggest problem was Neill had some issue with his new HD makeup that was fixed on Monday and life goes on.

More on our journey to get to this point in future posts.

Now here is a YouTube video from that first HD newscast.

9-11-2001

Please take a moment today to remember those killed on 9/11 by purely evil people.

Including the six television transmitter engineers who were working on the 104th & 110th floor of the World Trade Center.

Robert Pattison - WCBS
Isaias Rivera - WCBS
William Steckman - WNBC - WA2ACW
Donald DiFranco - WABC
Steven Jacobson - WPIX - N2SJ
Gerard "Rod" Coppola - WNET - KA2KET

What Time Is It?

For listeners of WWV and WWVH, that isn't a problem. Why you say? WWV and WWVH are US Government time stations. Time stations? What the heck is that?

Long before GPS, actually in the 1920's, electronics needed a time/frequency standard for accurate measurements. Time/frequency radio stations provided (and still do) that service. WWV was the first going on the air in 1920 from Washington, DC. Over the next few years WWV moved around the Washington area before settling in at Beltsville, MD from 1932 to 1966 when the station was relocated to Fort Collins, CO to better serve the lower 48 continental United States. WWV operates on five shortwave frequencies, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz and 20 MHz. WWVH is located on the island of Kauai, HI with four shortwave frequencies of 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz and 15 MHz and serves the Pacific Basin.

So what do you hear on WWV/WWVH? Well with a shortwave radio tuned to WWV/WWVH you hear, clock ticks, varies tones, top of the minute time announcements ("At the tone the time will be 15 hours 32 minutes Universal Coordinated Time - BEEEEP") and at certain minutes of the hour, oceanic weather conditions, solar wind conditions and shortwave propagation conditions are broadcast. And that is about it. But what you can't hear is just as important if not more.

Because WWV/WWVH uses atomic clocks to be sure they are EXACTLY on time, this also allows the transmitters to be EXACTLY on frequency. This also allows a subcarrier to be transmitted with digital information that can be read by computers for all kinds of test and measurement and standards signals and the user knows that it is as accurate as can be made.

If you remember seeing the "atomic clocks" of a few years ago, they worked on a very similar system. Instead of using shortwave of WWV or WVVH, they received a special time signal station co-located with WWV, time signal station WWVB. WWVB broadcasts on the Long Wave band below the AM band at 60 kHz. This allows the signal to be more stable and remain receivable longer with more reliability than the shortwave frequencies used by WWV/WWVH. Because the frequency is so low, WWVB doesn't use voice to broadcast information. It broadcasts computer data and these same atomic clocks that WWV/WWVH use are also used on WWVB's signal to keep corrected time and frequency.

In the late 90's NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government agency that runs WWV/WWVH/WWVB, completely rebuilt WWVB and increased its power. WWVB had started at the Ft Collins site in 1963. The station was long overdue for a rebuild. This rebuilding is what spurred the atomic clock craze of the late 90's and early 2000's. You can't as easily find atomic clocks as you once could because of GPS, but they are still out there and there are many reasons where the NIST stations are preferred over GPS, even though GPS provides everything the NIST stations provide. WWVB reception isn't affected by the Sun as WWV/WWVH and GPS is. The 60 kHz receivers are much cheaper than GPS receivers. The data is easier to manipulate and you don't need a clear view of the sky to make it work as with GPS.

When I first went to work at the station in 1992, we had a 1980's model WWV Master Clock receive system at the studio that kept us on time for network and other programming. In the late 90's we upgraded to an early GPS Master Clock system and replaced the aging and ailing WWV Master Clock system. When we installed the new automation system a couple of years ago we had to install a better GPS Master Clock system that offered more features that the automation required. I grabbed the original GPS Master Clock system and moved it to the main transmitter building and it is really nice to have it and what it does. But at the backup transmitter building, it doesn't make sense to spend that kind of money just to tell time, which is all I need there. So two $39 Radio Shack atomic clocks work just fine. Time correction provided by WWVB, Fort Collins, Colorado of course!

Back in the tube days, test equipment at stations were not as stable as they are now and required a known frequency standard to keep the equipment and transmitters within tolerance. Cheapest way to do it? In the rack was a WWV receiver with a test port on it for the standards measurement. We had a WWV receiver at the transmitter for that very purpose. When we rebuilt the transmitter site in 1994, the receiver was finally retired. That old receiver is now in my collection. It still works!

Technically the NIST stations are utility stations because they serve a utilitarian purpose, but they are also fun to listen to. Depending on how the band conditions are, it isn't too unusual to hear WWVH under WWV at times. Since both stations are exactly on the same frequency, there is no interference and you will hear the female WWVH voice announce the time at :45 seconds followed by the WWV male voice announcing the time at :53 seconds as if from a single station. That is how you tell which station you are hearing. WWV/WWVH identify themselves at :00 minutes and :30 minutes.

Other countries have time/standards stations as well. In the US, the easiest one to hear is CHU, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CHU broadcasts on 3 frequencies, 3.33 MHz, 7850 MHz and 14.67 MHz. CHU alternates time announcements every minute with French on the odd minute and English on the even minute with station ID every minute. "CHU, Canada. 15 hours 32 minutes UTC."

For more info on WWV/WWVH/WWVB including pictures go to http://www.nist.gov/physlab/div847/grp40/wwv.cfm. For CHU check out http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/services/inms/time-services/short-wave.html

Digital Transition - One Year Later

June 12th, 2010 makes the first anniversary of the termination of full power analog broadcasting in the United States. So how has the broadcasting world changed in that first year? Actually not that much. Over the air digital television has certainly gone through some teething pains and continues to do so. Some people on the fringe of analog stations can no longer receive those same stations as digital stations. Some stations have had to change digital channels after the transition to improve reception to it viewers. Some stations have had to add low power translator stations to cover the same area they did as analog stations. Over the air viewers are relearning the lessons about antenna reception with digital as their parents and grandparents did in the 50's and 60's before cable and satellite. While we still field reception questions, it really isn't more than what it was in the analog days, believe it or not.

Certainly the transition to digital over the air television was not 100% painless as some in the government and trade organizations made it out to be. Some viewers have lost stations they grew up with because those stations are no longer on VHF channels and UHF doesn't quite carry as far way out on the fringe while other viewers are now receiving stations they never received before. Of course if you are one of the viewers who lost stations, this whole digital TV thing sucks. If you were one of the viewers who picked up new stations, this digital TV thing is pretty cool. It is all in your perspective.

What we are finding is that viewers with decent outside antennas pick up all the local stations with no problems. Those with inside antennas have problems. Truth is, those viewers always had problems in the analog days but because they could see something, even a noisy static filled signal, they put up with the aggravation of a bad signal. In the digital world, if the signal isn't a certain signal level, a "NO SIGNAL" will be seen on the screen so those viewers see nothing. We have proven time and time again that a UHF screen antenna mounted in a bucket on an apartment porch or balcony will receive more stations and better signals than an indoor antenna. Yet, when you tell people that, they think you are lying to them to just get them off the telephone. We WANT YOU as viewer. Why would we lie about something like that?

I must admit, I always have to suppress a laugh when I get a viewer who tells me, that the problem they are experiencing is with our station only. And just about EVERY caller tells me that. Listen folks, you aren't the first ones to tell me that and that will NOT make me move any faster. Been there. Done that. Got the tee shirt. 99% of the time, after asking several questions, it turns out that we are NOT the only station they are having a problem with. Most of the time, the viewer doesn't realize they have problems on other channels. One such example was a call I got from a little old lady about 15 years ago. She called up complaining she could get all the other channels except us and she wanted us to "fix our problem." After questioning her about her problem, I asked her how old was her TV. She immediately snapped back, "I can guarantee you it isn't MY TV. It is only 20 years old!" Twenty years old? Right. Not your TV. Well it turned out it WAS her TV. The mechanical tuner in this late 1970's model TV (this was before the electronic tuners we have today) had just worn out after 20 years of use. It happens. It is mechanical. She finally admitted after a few more questions she had to rock the channel knob back and forth on ALL stations to get them to come in. Classic mechanical tuner issue. But remember, she only had this problem with OUR station.

I got a call a few months back from a lady who lives about 5 miles from the transmitter complaining she could get all the other stations but couldn't get us and we needed to "fix our problem." (See the pattern?) After asking the usual questions, it sounded like the signal wasn't getting from the antenna to the TV. But no, it was only our station. I recommended some things to do and a few days later, she called me back to say that her son had gone on the roof and found where the coax had become disconnected from the antenna and she now had a perfect signal and thanked me for the information. (I like THOSE calls!)

I can honestly say that 99% of the callers are truly nice people who really want to watch our station and are looking for answers (sometimes miracles) from us. They are just very adamant about it at times. But that last one percent can be so vile and so hateful, we just hang up on them. That is verbal abuse and we are not required to deal with those callers and we don't.

Most of the issues these days deal with antennas and their placement. Lots of bad information out there about antennas and how to install them. A big one we are seeing are people installing two antennas, one pointed to Sauratown Mountain for WXII and WUNL and the other pointed toward north of Randleman where the other stations are located and using a splitter in reverse to combine the two into one to avoid having to use a rotor. On paper, this looks like a great idea. In reality, you have to know you are doing to make this work. The problem is you can introduce multipath (ghosting) in the system. With one antenna pointed in one direction and the other antenna pointed in another direction, the signals of the stations arrive at slightly different times to your receiver causing ghosting since one of the signals has to travel a longer distance by bouncing off of something like a water tank or building and then being received by the other antenna. Your receiver sees the two (or more) signals and is not sure which one to lock and so you don't get any picture at all or it breaks up at best. You have to use special antenna combiners and the length of cable between the antennas and the combiner is critical as well to not have this internal ghosting. You may also need specific channel filters to reduce ghosting or overloading of the receiver. It can get very complicated and you will need expensive test equipment to trouble shoot problems as well to make it work. You are basically creating a small cable headend and they are not simple or cheap things.

I must admit, I have gotten smarter myself as people call and I have to try and troubleshoot their problems over the phone so it has been a win-win as far as I can tell. As time goes by, things will get better. The same thing happened with analog TV. It got better over time. Digital will also. In just 12 months, things have gotten much better and the ratings show it. So hang in there. We are.