ZachT

Jay

What happened or was it planned? and welcome to the forum!

1inxs

KGO-TV, VHF 7 has switched to our Auxiliary antenna while our Main Antenna is being replaced at the top of Sutro Tower.

Viewer reception will vary depending on your distance from the transmitting tower.

We will operate from the Auxiliary Antenna through approximately July 15th.

Evening reception will be normal after mid-July, but will vary when we broadcast from our auxillary antenna 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday on days when crews are working on the top of the tower to replace the other 2 large antennas serving other stations.

We expect indoor antenna reception to improve with our new main antenna. Reception will vary until the Sutro antenna project is completed in October 2009.

We apologize for the inconvenience. We appreciate your patience as we work through this antenna transition.

abc7news.com: FAQ: Digital Television Transition

Joel Schectman

Hi I am a reporter with BusinessWeek doing a story on the the digital transition. I would really like to talk to those of you who have been having trouble with their television reception since the transition.

You can email me at commentstojoel@gmail.com

Joel Schectman

PS you can see my last article on the digital transition here.

ZachT

...Joel. Both times it bounced.

ZachT

Why now? KGO-TV has had since Feb. to do this bit of high-wire transmission refocusing.

Again let me mention I'm within direct sight of the tower. Apparently anything between Sutro & the ocean isn't important enough.

Either that or this is all one big Comcast conspiracy :-)

Orrymain

I suspect we'll see more of this. Stations have a vested interest in this digital thing and whether or not it works. IF we can't see their stations, their ratings are going to tank. I've been saying that all along.

Piggie

Orry, good point, but I banking on the cable and satellite networks still supplying 88 to 90 % of the house holds that don't experience these problems.

I absolutely have found no evidence the cable or sat providers lobbied, gave money or otherwise stuck their nose in the DTV Transition. They were more in a position of watching at the hangman's rope was reeled out. All they had to do was watch, then hit the air with ads. They simply are taking advantage of a niche they already had, poor OTA reception. It was actually and I am sure you remember Orry that the original purpose to get cable TV was not to cable networks, but to get locals without an antenna or for those that any antenna gave only a snowy picture. Cable only networks came later. So I see no conspiracy on the cable company's part. They are just using their original niche again.

That said, in smaller markets Dish Network is starting to eat away at cable subscribers. Dish is pulling ahead of DirecTV in having locals in the over 100 market range. Here in Gainesville (an over 100 market) Cable went from about 90% to 60 some percent over the last year here as Dish rolled out Gainesville locals and OTA came on the air. OTA took about 7% of the total they didn't have and Dish took the reaming 20 some percent. I don't have data on how many DirecTV lost but I am sure with Dish getting locals and DirecTV not, they also probably lost 20% of their customers to Dish.

There are also predictions now after the "Hidden Transition" is in full bloom, that OTA could loose up to 5% of the total viewers, about what it grew in the last 4 years because of DTV. Other factors are in play, like people having money again and turning back on pay TV, and Satellite and Cable going full bandwidth MPEG4, living OTA again as an old technology.

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The more I understand, the less I know.

ZachT

Thanks for your perspectives on this guys!

SAFW

I just spent half an hour on the roof fine-tuning the antenna and could not get the slightest hint of signal from KGO. It worked perfectly on Wednesday night, but last night: nada.

I'm in San Mateo, about 20 miles from the transmitting tower, with direct line of sight. Disappointing.