[opendtv] Re: Echostar make or break
- From: "Larry Bloomfield" <Larry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 23:26:08 -0700
John:
On the legal aspects of what you speak, you are right on target and 1005
correct, but I have to disagree with this whole concept and believe it
should be changed. what I'm about to say will be perceived as treason or
heresy by many.
I believe this whole concept we now practice and supported by law, detracts
from the good old Yankee concept of competition. Why should we promise or
guarantee any broadcaster, let alone any business, any market? Households
that wishes to look at any program material should be able to do so! You can
go to a news stand and buy newspapers, which support themselves just like
broadcasters with advertising - local and national. The public and I should
be free to choose whatever station they/I wish to watch no matter where it
is located, just like I can buy a newspaper from anywhere in the country,
let alone anywhere in the world. If the local broadcasters want (my)
allegiance then they don't they give me/us something I/we want to see or
listen to, just like a local newspaper does? I know I'm tilting windmills
and it will probably not happen in my time, but I think it should. :)
--
Larry Bloomfield - KA6UTC
Bloomfield Enterprises, LLC
1980 25th St. - Florence, OR 97439
(541) 902-2424 (My Everything Phone #)
WWW.Tech-Notes.TV
See you on the Tech-Notes
Taste of NAB 2006 Road Show
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 10:58 PM
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Echostar make or break
I'm sorry if I gave you that imression, Barry. I believe you are more
than a bit confused.
Broadcast stations are licensed to cities, not DMAs. I am not aware of a
single market where stations provide news and local event information over
the entire DMA. Indeed, that might not be called local, but regional.
Confused might sound a bit harsh, but the antidote for you not having
coverage across the entire DMA isn't getting local news from a city
hundreds or thousands of miles away: the solution doesn't address your
desires, but seems like you want to punish the stations closest to you.
Did you ever consider that it's hard to maintain a news department, let
alone one with regional coverage, when EchoStar has illegally provided a
good number of people in the market -- unlawfully -- access to distant
signals and robbed stations of the eyeballs, hence revenue, to support
local stations?
You seem to have been spoiled after being unlawfully granted -- for a
while -- access to NY and LA programming. In 1999, using a hijacked
DirecTV box of a friend, I was spoiled watching the news on Washington,
DC's network affiliates. But, they never covered Sheppardstown, WV! (Just
barely in the #6 DMA, and some 175 miles from DC.)
As I write this, I am watching live coverage via Tribune's KTLA of a
high-speed car chase on the Harbor Freeway of a car that carries people
allegedly involved in the armed robbery of a McDonalds. I'm sure that is
much more relevant to you than I. Cox Cable San Diego only provides
KTLA's morning news zoo block, and the 10 P.M. news. Long gone are the
days when we could watch Joe Pyne live on KTTV.
You attest that you want more localism in your TV signal choices. But,
you started off this thread because you said you couldn't acquire the
local stations. How do you know what they offer?
I'd love to see San Diego stations cover Tijuana like the twin city that
it is; heck, I'd settle for them covering San Diego matters like they did
in the 1970's. But, they don't. Television is not a medium of breadth or
depth. And, "news" is where your camera is.
Confusion abounds. This can be a tough "room." And, I'm not being rough.
John Willkie
Barry Brown wrote
You seem to have the impression that I'm anti-local. This is not the case.
I'd be very happy to watch and support local stations if they provided
good local programming involving all parts of my DMA. I'm not wanting an
LPTV to serve my area, but a couple of super stations providing 24/7 local
programming would best serve our entire metro area including my community.
Instead, we have about 8 stations providing network or syndicated
programming and a bit of local programming 3 times a day, covering all the
bad news there is to find.
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