Gray TV Buying Yet Another Station

- Posted January 9th, 2022 at 1:31pm

I have found out that Gray TV has bought another Middle TN TV station. First, they bought WSMV, then they bought W29FR that's in Lebanon, and THEN after that, they look like they are in the process of buying W15ER. The reason I say that is because there are no FCC filings of them purchasing W15ER, but W15ER is simulcasting all of WSMV's channels just like they are doing with W29FR. NOW, the station they are buying is W29DM in Lewisburg. What they will do with that station. I don't know. I saw where they have filed with the FCC to purchase W29DM. I wonder if they will, for the time being, just simulcast WSMV on that channel as well. Whatever they do, when I find out, I will post it. Until more news breaks, that's all for now.

3 Comments

xmguy

- Posted on January 10th, 2022 at 12:50pm - Edited

After seeing how many repeaters are in Spartanburg, SC, even to the fringes for a station. Makes me mad that Nashville doesn't do the same for the fringes of their main transmitters. I'm all for having translators. But WSMV is only trying to make it easier for UHF users in Nashville proper. I live in McMinnville, 67 miles, and a few mountains away. So I have to have TWO antennas, and they have to be up 16', and 20' respectively, on top of height above sea level of 1000' just to get Tropo for most of the "top 4". Why they couldn't have added translators in Cookeville, or Woodbury is beyond me. I hope 3.0 will fix this in the future. Because the present of OTA looks bleak.

itgrouch

- Posted on January 10th, 2022 at 9:35pm - Edited

The stations seem to not care about OTA users, since they get plenty of cash from cable, satellite, and streaming TV services for carriage fees. But there are more and more people every day ditching those services. And even with all of the major stations broadcasting in ATSC 3.0, only the more expensive TVs have 3.0 tuners. And there are only 2-3 ATSC 3.0 converter boxes available, and those are expensive and cludgy. Unless there is some FCC regulation regarding the main WSMV transmitter moving to UHF, or they are going to focus more on ATSC 3.0 moving forward, I just do not get buying all of these low power stations. There wasn't an issue, for the most part, being able to receive WSMV until they installed their new transmitter in early 2021. There has been numerous complaints since then. My SNR before the transmitter was replaced was 26dB. Since then, it has hovered around 19-22dB. I receive W15ER better than WSMV, with their signal being rock solid at 24dB and no errors.

xmguy

- Posted on January 13th, 2022 at 1:43am

I think there WILL be paid channels on 3.0, there already are. But the main channels won't go paid. There are more avenues to go down on 3.0 that can bring more money too than locking it all down. As for signals. I get WSMV very strong. I do have multi-path often from them. But I think it's gotten better. Here is my RabbitEars graphs. https://www.rabbitears.info/tvdx/signal_graph/10815046/tuner1/WSMV-TV

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