WTAE leads the channel repack
July 14, 2018
On August 24 at 10:00 a.m. WTAE-TV (4) will switch their main digital transmitting frequency from channel 51 to channel 27. Over the air viewers will need to plan to do a rescan of their channel guides. It will still appear as virtual channel 4.1 and 4.2. IT looks as though digital channel 22 will remain for the repeater signal that feeds virtuals 4.3 and 4.4 from the WQED tower in Oakland to neighborhoods that don’t receive the main signal from Buena Vista (Elizabeth Township).
Nearly one-thousand television stations across the country are expected to move to new frequencies by June 2020. The move is a result of the FCC’s recent incentive auction to make additional airwaves available for wireless internet services. WTAE is the first in the market to make the change.
So what does this mean for those of us who receive WPCW (19) from their RF 27 transmitter? I presume they will move before WTAE moves since this is the same frequency?
Given that WPCW’s “27” is a repeater up in Jennerstown might have something to do with it. Repeaters may not be protected? Not sure.
I actually just found out from a fellow viewer from AVSForum that WPCW is moving their repeater to channel 30. This makes more sense now.
What happened to virtual channels 69.1, 69.2 and 69.3 – ThisTV, GetTV and RetroTV? Woke up one morning and they were gone. Are they part of the channel swaps?