Finally, Answers to the WOTH question...UPDATED 12:00 AM 6/8

LATEST UPDATE Midnight 6/8/09: We have been informed by Rich that, apparently, there's a technical issue on the WOTH/WCPO tower, with regards to the line that feeds the WOTH antenna.

No timeline on restoration.

What follows is a post on the AV Science Forum from 3:36 PM today from someone calling themselves ShaneWKRP, who we believe works for Block Broadcasting as an engineer:

Just a heads-up, everyone. The problem with digital channel 25 has been isolated. It's not an easy one, though. Our transmitter's in as good shape as ever, but there is an issue with the line that feeds our antenna. Problems located up on the tower are always a tough fix, so bear with us please.

Thanks to Nitewatchman, 513Tech, Thorax, and everyone else for all the kind words and input. You guys are our eyes and ears in the field and we really appreciate it!

UPDATE: Rich sends word today that indeed, the station that appeared yesterday WAS indeed WAVE-DT/TV 3 out of its city of license of Louisville, KY.

If you are receiving the WAVE 3 signal on your converters, please email us at tristatemediawatch@gmail.com.

Original item follows...


We just received word from Rich Emery about WOTH-LD 25 (RF 47), and its recent problems.

We're hearing that WOTH's digital transmitter had to be taken down, and is expected to go back up in a few days...

And in a related note: Rich tells us that this morning, something appeared on his digital converter, registering as 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3.

His guess (and it sounds dead on from here) is that the station that appeared is WAVE-TV/DT 3/Louisville, Kentucky, which is broadcasting on RF Channel 47.

Hmmmm, wait a minute, we see a connection here.

WOTH-LD is ALSO licensed to...you guessed it, RF 47!

That could explain why WOTH had to take its transmitter down...because WAVE 3 is causing interference with WOTH 25...

Either way, hopefully they get that worked out!

BREAKING: 1160 To Conservative Talk

Well, they fooled us here at Tri-State Media Watch for SURE!

Following a week or so of stunting on 1160AM, which seemed to indicate that it would flip to Christian (and we believe the stunting will continue until the talk switch is flipped, either that or it will go silent for the next 11 days, which we can't see them doing), the station is now WQRT-AM 1160/Florence...and it's about to be...a conservative talk station!

That's right.

The station now will have a conservative talk lineup beginning June 15, according to John Kiesewetter @ the Enquirer.

Here is the currently expected lineup (minus the 4-6am slot, which isn't filled right now):

6-9 am.: Washington Times
9 am-noon: Laura Ingraham
noon-2 pm: Neil Boortz
2-5 pm: Dave Ramsey
5-8 pm: Dr. Laura Schlessinger
8-10 pm: Jerry Doyle
10 pm-1 a.m.: Rusty Humphries
1-4 a.m.; Phil Hendrie

Quick update re: WCPO-DT

NOTE: This item will be posted to TSDTW in the morning, as soon as Your Tri-State Media Watcher wakes up, mainly because there's more to it than we'll be able to tell you tonight, without going crosseyed.

We know now what WCPO-TV/DT 9 (RF 10) is about to do when the analog shutdown commences next week.

As we told you on TSDTW a week ago, WCPO plans to be the very first full-power commercial station to shut off their analog transmitter, doing so just after midnight the morning of June 12.

Now, we know why.

That's because they aren't fully on their post-transition facility.

More details in the morning...and we think this may be part of why WBQC-CA 38 and WOTH-LP 25/Cincinnati are having troubles viewing the station now. It turns out, those transmitters are...ta-da...mounted to the WCPO-TV/DT tower in Walnut Hills.

Again, more in the morning, on our companion blog Tri-State DTV Watch...

2 Stories While We Were Out

EDIT 12:35 AM 6/3: There goes the hiatus idea...LOL.

By the way, after two days to think about the personal situation, we're back - and we're only planning one more day off tomorrow...I am going to be tweeting to my personal twitter tomorrow, so if something breaks and we hear it, we'll tweet it there.

The personal twitter is at twitter.com/jeremy_moses23.

And by the way, reading the AllAccess bulletin, we're hearing 40 people are out over at R&R. Truly a sad day for that publication, made more so by that piece of news. We'll have more about this tomorrow night, we're sure.

We were out in Northgate, so we didn't find out about these until just before 11...but the first is the one we really want to get to, because it is a blockbuster...

Radio And Records Gone!: If you're above age, say, 25, you know who we're talking about.

Radio and Records magazine, owned by the people at Nielsen, was the premier trade mag for those in the radio industry from about 1975 up to 1995 or so.

Then this little thing we call the "internet" came along. Oh sure, R&R built its own website, but then these things we here at TSMW (and our friends at OMW) call "blogs" became all the rage. (This is in no way meant as a slam toward our good friends in the Akron/Cleveland area; we here at TSMW were inspired by them to begin this effort here nearly 7 months ago!)

And of course, there's the factor of sites like AllAccess, which we get information from for some reports when we hear about it. (Our friends at OMW use them a lot more, but, being new to that, we haven't figured it all out yet.)

Anyway, to the meat of this report...

Radio and Records closed today after 36 years in business. In fact, it literally shut up shop online, minutes after OMW posted their report at 4:35 PM! We got the bulletin through AllAccess at 1:30 PM but, unfortunately, were already out the door and headed northward.

Of course, R&R is another casualty of the downturn in the media/advertising industry...so of course we're sad to see it go.

WOTH Problems?: We had a tip from Max Abel in North College Hill that WOTH-LP 25/Cincinnati isn't working digitally, or at least wasn't this afternoon.

We're forwarding this on to WOTH engineers to diagnose the trouble for Mr. Abel...but we'd like to know if the problem is more widespread than just there.

We think it could also be related to work on the WCPO-TV/DT tower, which is where WOTH's antenna is, but we'd like to make sure.

If you've been receiving WOTH's digital signal, email us at tristatemediawatch@gmail.com. We'd love to know if you've experienced this, too...but again, we're going to do some independent checking, too...

A Couple Midday DTV items...

We have word about a newly-scheduled DTV test for tomorrow, per WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati.

The details are at Tri-State DTV Watch.

Taking the hiatus early.

Indeed, due to my mental state, it's impossible to concentrate on media stuff right now.

Further updates as to my personal situation will be at Personal Thoughts and Observations.

Link is at right.

That is all.

FD-Day for WDJO?

Earlier this weekend, we speculated that WDJO-AM 1160/Florence would flip to all Christian "by Monday".

Monday is here, making this "FD-Day" or Flip Decision Day...and well, it sounds like they haven't totally pulled the trigger. But they may at any time today, unless the way the station had been over the weekend, is how it will always be. We don't guess they're going to want to re-run the pharma ad every 60-90 minutes indefinitely, so we still look for the flip today.

We'll be tuned in off and on throughout the day.

By the way, if you go to www.oldies1160.com and click on the listen live link, you'll definitely get a different broadcast there, than you do on WDJO on the regular dial...at this writing, they are doing the "Dusty Rhodes Morning Magazine", which is the same broadcast being heard on 1480AM WCIN/Cincinnati at the moment...