KOTV says the FCC requires them to have scroll

[sgrizzle]

Hopefully interactive, on demand, TV will make the whole process obsolete. Kinda like Tivo'ing 45 minutes of weather in Kansas instead of the end of "The Office."

[Ibanez]

I wonder what KOTV's excuse is for having more than a 1/3 of the screen dominated by all the various closings tonight?

Huge area on the left of the screen that says "Closings" then all the actual closings on the bottom. Picture is squeezed up into the top right.

Seriously...if they must put that crap up there, and they are the only station doing it tonight, why not just a simple one line scroll at the bottom?

Thanks for the 4th straight night of ruining any chance of watching an HD program on your station KOTV.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by wavoka

I wonder what KOTV's excuse is for having more than a 1/3 of the screen dominated by all the various closings tonight?

Huge area on the left of the screen that says "Closings" then all the actual closings on the bottom. Picture is squeezed up into the top right.

Seriously...if they must put that crap up there, and they are the only station doing it tonight, why not just a simple one line scroll at the bottom?

Thanks for the 4th straight night of ruining any chance of watching an HD program on your station KOTV.

They want you to buy a bigger TV.

[Ibanez]

Guess they want met to upgrade from a 56 inch to a 100 inch.

[MsProudSooner]

People were discussing this on another board I read.  Here's the text of the FCC rule:

Here is the rule from the FCC:

quote: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As of 1/1/07, two critical new FCC rules regarding DTV subchannels went into effect. The first is that all subchannels must carry all required EAS alerts, which requires additional equipment to do. The second, and more costly, is that for every subchannel you have, regardless of programming...you must add 3 hours of children's programming to your core schedule. As a result, many stations last night dumped many or all of their subchannels. In Oklahoma City, a FOX engineer I know yanked The Tube and their weather subchannel late yesterday afternoon. In other markets, it's very similar.

This stupid rule by the FCC is crimping the ability of stations to do emergency weather on alternate channels, when people are trying to figure out what is happening. Or, the ability to temporarily put programming on a subchannel when, say, a breaking news story interrupts a sports event on the main channel.

For purists, this means you get your bandwidth back. In reality, it greatly limits choice and hurts over-the-air broadcasting.

There are additional rules that went into effect on 1/1/07 that effect subchannels, but they are minimal compared to these two monster new rules.

If you care to let the FCC know how bad a rule this is, they can be contacted at the following email addresses or by calling 1-888-225-5322

Chairman Kevin J. Martin: KJMWEB@fcc.gov
Commissioner Michael J. Copps: Michael.Copps@fcc.gov
Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein: Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov
Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate: dtaylortateweb@fcc.gov
Commissioner Robert McDowell: Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Sangria]

I think the 24 hours of weather to tell us over and over again it was sleeting and freezing rain outside. The only ones who might not have noticed are the "here hold my beer guys" and they don't care anyway.

I think we all knew it was icy out - that didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out either and the "Here hold my beer guys" were going to be driving around in it no matter what the tv says. Besides, those guys are watching stunt videos - not local tv.

I have stopped watching local channels. They think we are all stupid, and a veiw the size of a postage stamp is a real tv turn off.

Ok, this rant is done.

Anyone ready for Spring and a balmy 60 degree day?

[Porky]

What I have heard is they're required to broadcast something if there's a major storm of sorts in their immediate viewing area. Immediate viewing area consist of a 75 mile radius from their station. It can extend farther if an area is without any other TV support but Tulsa does not fall into this bracket.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by Porky

What I have heard is they're required to broadcast something if there's a major storm of sorts in their immediate viewing area. Immediate viewing area consist of a 75 mile radius from their station. It can extend farther if an area is without any other TV support but Tulsa does not fall into this bracket.

Yes and no.
It's in our Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), and then some...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa,_Oklahoma#Tulsa_Metro_Area

[Artiem]

I guess many of you know I work at a TV station, so I'm very interested in reading what people say about this topic. Trust me when I say that many of within the industry get just as sick of the whole weather thing (and people bitching about it) as the viewers. The FCC rule on "must carry" regarding warnings leaves some room for interpretation -- but the long and short of it is if anyone in the DMA is affected by a weather warning, the station is required to notify them. The interpretation comes in figuring out HOW and HOW OFTEN to notify them. Of course weather is king in Oklahoma broadcasting. If you're the number one weather team, chances are you're the #1 station as well. If the viewing habits of people change -- that will as well. As for the infamous "elbow" or closings graphics that take up a lot of screen space, there are 2 options to run closings, an "elbow" or a crawl along the bottom. Problem is that the crawl messes up the aspect ratio and makes people look shorter and fatter. The elbow preserves the aspect ratio and at the same time provides more space for the information -- and for possible sponsorship. Finally, the Cronley article was correct in identifying the problem with broadcasting warnings in HD as mechanical. The only station I know has the equipment to broadcast the warning bug in HD is KJRH, the NBC affiliate. Sadly, NBC didn't have any of the playoff games past the wild card round...