WSEE to move in WICU complex June 1st
Erie-Meadville: Definitely a busy week covering Erie TV. According to Saturday's Erie Times-News, Brian Lilly GM of WICU and WSEE has stated that the WSEE's on and off air staff will move up to the WICU studios on State street and begin sharing resources on June 1st. It's up in the air if both stations will continue to air newscasts simultaneously in the morning as well as 6 and 11pm due to lack of room in the WICU building. Both may stagger newscasts and could bring back a 7pm newscast on either WSEE or WICU which had one years ago. Among the shared resources will be reporters covering stories for both stations which means one less reporter will be needed at the same news event. If the newscasts are staggered, you could see anchors sharing newscasts on both stations. Another scenerio is the possibility of a second 10pm newscast in the Erie market, which could air on "WBEP" which is the Lilly owned CW affiliate on WSEE's digital sub channel on 35-2 as well as cable outlets. WBEP currently reairs newscasts from both WICU and WSEE at various times. With the digital channels becoming the norm, WBEP could be a possible outlet for a live 10pm newscast to challenge "Fox 66 News at Ten." News out of the Meadville Tribune this week also reports the plans for WICU's digital signal once the station signs on June 12th on DT 12. The station plans on carrying WICU on 12-1, WBEP on 12-2 and WSEE on 12-3.Readers’ Forum
Amazing! This is the same Brian Lilly who denied to high heaven that a merger was ever going to occur. The same Brian Lilly who said “no job losses” and now the same Brian Lilly is saying “no on air personalities will lose their jobs.”
I think it is time to realize that Mr Lilly has a serious problem in the credibility department.
Oh for the days of Ed Lamb, Mike Csop, Hotline News, 11th Hour News, Bill Knupp, Ned McGrath, Shirley Ramsey, Vance McBryde, Hyle Richmond…......
Tim - April 18, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I think it is stupid to have the digital 12 simulcast the digital 35 (dtv16) signal. They are on the same tower with similar coverage expected. They should decide to move one of the signals inland to like SE Erie County and serve the 2 other counties of the DMA and try to get Northern Venango and Forest County from Pittsburgh DMA. That is an area that can no longer be covered with DTV out of Pittsburgh.
I would also suggest that WSEE increase its small output to as much as the max allowed which is 1 megawatt. Right now WSEE is somewhere around 75K which is NOT able to be viewed even with an amplifier and outdoor roof antenna in much of the Erie DMA.
mark - April 19, 2009 at 10:50 pm
I agree with Mark’s comment. With WICU and WSEE broadcasting the exact same 3 signals from each transmitter, all this gives Erie area viewers is redundant programming. Does the FCC even allow this? Isn’t this wasting valuable air space? The other issue is that Erie off-air viewers have traditionally used a Ch. 12 yagi aimed at the tower on Robison Rd. and a UHF corner reflector aimed at upper Peach St. Since 24, 35, 54, and 66 all originated from towers close to each other, a clear picture could be received by all. Now that 35 has moved to DTV 16 and moved the transmitter antenna to the Robison Rd. tower, everyone’s UHF corner reflector is aimed in the wrong direction to pick up DTV 16. This, added with the fact that WSEE is operating on reduced power, makes it very difficult to pick up. Shouldn’t the FCC be aware of these issues?
John Mazza - April 20, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Well, I’m puzzled as well that they simulcast both signals. (WICU has its own signal on 12.1, WBEP on 12.2, WSEE on 12.3; WSEE on 35.1, WBEP on 35.2, WICU on 35.3) Maybe it’s just to have as a backup plan.
As for the staggered newscasts, I’m surprised that in the Youngstown market that WYTV and WKBN/WYFX hasn’t started having staggered newscasts of their own. WYTV moved into the WKBN/WYFX studios once the LMA went into effect (and NOT seven years after the fact like in Erie), and telling you from seeing them up at Youngstown State University all the time, the cameramen are shared, as they have press passes for all three plus MyYTV. But the newscasts there remain separate. It’ll be interesting to see if the same thing happens there. Of course, with WKBN simulcasting WYFX on 27.2 and with WYTV using three digital subchannels as it is with its main channel, MyYTV, and its weather channel, I don’t expect to see the two stations simulcasting each other like in Erie. However, WYTV needs to increase their power soon, as they have applied for it months ago. Their digital signal is by far the weakest in the area.
The dual simulcasting isn’t unique either: over in the Johnstown/Altoona/State College market, WWCP and WATM each air their own signal in HD on their respective first channel, then their own signal in SD on the second one, then the third channel is the other station in SD. Of course, that market is geographically much bigger than Erie and has the Appalachian Mountains to worry about.
Joe Gerard (URL) - April 20, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Agreements with Canada prevent WSEE-DT from raising power above 200 kW.
Trip Ericson (URL) - April 20, 2009 at 6:41 pm
So if the signal is moved inland then the Canada agreement may be able to be modified to allow increased power. That makes some sense doesn’t it?
mark - April 22, 2009 at 11:32 pm
I doubt the agreement could be modified, but they’d be able to power up by moving away, but the offsetting increase in distance away from Erie would undo any benefit the power hike would provide.
Trip Ericson (URL) - April 23, 2009 at 8:27 pm
I had read somewhere (AVS I believe) that some Canadian stations in less populated areas will simply shut off analog once their digital transition deadline occurs and become more reliant on cable & satellite. This could eventually help with those restrictions if there are not as many Canadian digital stations to interfere with.
Tom Lavery (URL) - April 24, 2009 at 11:14 am
It doesn’t really matter. They have a table of allotments, as do we. In order to modify it, we’d have to start negotiating with Industry Canada to amend the allocation table. I get the impression that nobody really likes negotiating these things. There are a number of stations still trying to get their post-transition channel sorted out due to Canadian coordination issues.
And, of course, the key phrase is “less populated areas.” I doubt London, Ontario is what is meant by that.
Trip Ericson (URL) - April 24, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Actually, in Arctic Canada (which would be the Yukon Territory, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territory, all above 60 degrees latitude north), they are allowed to keep analog on indefinitely due to the areas being so loosely populated that it would be more feasible to keep analog over digital. The more-densely populated southern population of Canada is still switching to digital in 2011 regardless. But to put this into consideration: on the flip side, Mexico won’t be going all-digital until 2022, the latest out of all countries making the DTV transition. Meaning that border cities down there will still be able to get some Mexican stations in analog after June 12th, including CW affiliate XETV from Tijuana (San Diego), MyNetworkTV affiliate XHDTV-TV from Tecate (San Diego), Telemundo affiliate XHAS-TV from Tijuana (San Diego), and Fox affiliate XHRIO-TV from Matamoros (Brownsville, Texas). I wonder if with the advent of digital subchannels if the FCC could revoke these affiliations and grant them to American stations with subchannels to air them on.
Joe Gerard (URL) - April 25, 2009 at 11:05 am
Well at least WSEE could go up to 200kw. WQLN has a pretty solid signal at 200kw and I think it would benefit WSEE to take advantage of going 200kw as well. I wouldn’‘t be surprised to see similar reception problems with WICU on DT 12 at 5.4kw once they convery in June.
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Shon (URL) - April 18, 2012 at 08:51 am
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