Churning Out One More Item

We missed this earlier in the week - but we're catching it now!

WSTR-TV 64/Cincinnati, which rebranded last week with the old/new moniker of "Star 64", just upped their power to 60 kW, and installed a new antenna custom built for the terrain of the Tri-State.

John Kiesewetter reported Monday that the new antenna is about 72 feet taller, at 902 feet vs. 830 feet. However, the antenna is still located on what's known in local media geek circles as "STAR Tower", aka WSTR's broadcast tower in College Hill on Winton Road. It was custom built for WSTR, so that it can cover the hilly terrain of the area, says John Lawhead, WSTR General Manager.

A note: We can't find the CP allowing WSTR to increase their power in the FCC database. Whether that's because it's another one of those Petitions for Rulemaking, or it's just not in the database, we don't know. But we can't imagine them doing this, without FCC approval. So we're assuming it's just not in the online database yet.

THIS JUST IN: WKRP-TV Picks Up KY Lotto + EXCLUSIVE: New Subchannel for OTA Digital 25!

We've just heard that WKRP-TV (which is a subchannel of WOTH-LP 25/Cincinnati) has picked up the Kentucky Lottery beginning tomorrow at 10:58 PM.

The low power station still has carriage in Northern Kentucky on Insight Cable digital channel 189, but is not on Time Warner Cable in Cincinnati. In the city, it's only available over the air at 25.2 on digital. We're told you can also get it via Cincinnati Bell channel 24 if you subscribe to that service.

Our standard reminder when talking about WKRP-TV: They never officially changed call letters. They were on analog at channel 38 as WBQC-CA, until moving to digital over the summer. The WKRP branding is just that - branding. (25.1 is branded as "The Other Channel".)

And we now have an exclusive scoop: We just spoke with Elliot Block, and he tells us that those viewers who receive the over-air signal can expect to see 25.5 light up next week. We'll have more on that Friday afternoon, but it's not clear what they'll do with the channel.

Currently, the station has 4 digital subchannels. 25.1 is WOTH-LP, 25.2 is WKRP, 25.3 is Retro Television Network, and 25.4 is Jewelry TV. (The last of these airs overnights also, on Insight cable channel 6.)

Battle of Ohio Sparks Rivalry Between Two Talk Powerhouses

You'd have to live under a rock to not know that the yearly Battle of Ohio's first act is this weekend. And now, the talk powerhouses in the two cities with NFL franchises involved are going at it.

News/talk 700 WLW-AM/Cincinnati and sister station 1100 WTAM/Cleveland are going at it online, after Bob Frantz of the Cleveland talker posted a video blasting Bengals fans.

Now, WLW has fired back, with this response posted on the station website lambasting Cleveland Browns fans.

Now, we're an impartial blog when it comes to media. But...not when it comes to our sports teams. Being Cincy-based and Your Tri-State Media Watcher being a Cincinnati-area native, we're Bengals/Reds/Bearcats/Wildcats fans. (Don't ask us to choose between UK and UC if they face off though - it gives us headaches. Heh.) We wonder if WTAM knew what they were in for when they decided to post that attack on the Bengals fans. One could argue they did, since WTAM and WLW are both Clear Channel stations. But WLW tends to be a machine when it comes to stirring up the pot.

I'll be at WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati's Bengals Nation later tonight...and I for one will be interested in seeing who there has seen the video...and what their response is...

(Quick Note 1:15 PM: By the way, the ONLY reason we found out about it, is that 700 newsman Bill Rinehart started following us on our Twitter. We might not have seen it otherwise...)

LOCAL 12 In High-Definition - The Review

We said we would review Local 12 WKRC-TV/Cincinnati's HD launch - and so we are now with this post.

First off, it wasn't without its technical glitches - which we think will be fixed for tonight's 5 PM newscast in 35 minutes. Sometimes the picture broke up - but that's to be expected for the first broadcast. There weren't audio troubles which is good.

As for the look of the graphics... we like them - no wait, we LOVE them. They're sharper, clearer, and easier to see even on a Standard Definition television. Again - highly impressive.

The weather graphics they are now using (and we don't know the source, whether those are done in-house or are a package sent from somewhere else) are extremely well done as well. For a weather geek like yours truly, we imagine those are fun for the PD12 Weather team to play with.

Finally, we didn't get to see a newscast open last night - they went straight to a breaking news alert. We still wonder if they changed that at all. I guess we will see during the 5:00 news tonight...

WKRC's Local 12 News At 11 In HD Tonight!

UPDATE 2: And we wonder now if WKRC-DT2 is also joining in the HD newscasts? The official launch was to be at 11, but... the LOCAL12 News At 10 is going on now on WKRC 12.2 - from their normal studio. Are they using the new technology? And if so - the next question is can they even DO HD news on 12.2 while 12.1 is doing other programming in HD?

We've gotten word that it's going to officially happen today.

WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati will officially go HD tonight for the news at 11.

We know why they chose today to do the conversion. Apparently, according to this update from Kiese, engineers need 12 hours to do the HD conversion. And with the Bengals facing down the Steelers this afternoon at 4:15 PM, today worked best since they're going to pre-empt the 6 PM newscast.

Look for the launch of the new logo as well. We've noticed it's already being rolled out in a few places on the website, such as Local 12's weather page. (UPDATE 10:00 PM: The new

logo has gone live on Local12.com site-wide now, and it looks exactly like our reader sent to us weeks ago. Look for the on-air launch for Local 12 at 11 tonight... we wonder how the newscast open will change.)

FOX19 Trying Something

FOX19 WXIX-TV/Newport has had the idea to copy something "Today" and "Good Morning America" do, by having a band play on Fountain Square.

And John Kiesewetter reports that they're going to test it tomorrow morning at 8 AM. If it works, a summer concert series on the square would start next year.

The band to test the idea? A band being featured as part of the Midpoint Music Festival, named Come On Go With Us.

There's a couple logistical issues however that might prohibit the idea.

For one, as Kiese notes...it'd be kind of difficult to get a satellite feed from the WXIX-TV studios (19 Broadcast Plaza at 635 W. 7th, just outside of the central business district) to Fountain Square and vice versa. That's because of Fountain Square's location downtown. So they'll need a fiber optic feed.

Another issue is that the city had to waive its limitation on amplified music so that Come On Go With Us could play there on the Square. FOX19 has obtained the waiver for this performance.

So we'll see how the logistics work. We'll be in Cincinnati tomorrow morning early, after a quick stop at Newport on the Levee to cover WKRQ-FM 101.9/Cincinnati's Bras Across The Bridge.

No HDTV for Local12...Yet

Well, it was to happen today...but that's not to be.

Local12 VP/GM Les Vann says they've been rehearsing for the last week, but have decided to postpone the launch of HD newscasts. (Maybe they want to be sure they get it right.) It now looks like next week will be the big launch.

Now, we know that we were the first to report it would be this week, last week. As such, we take responsibility for what we wrote.

Our source at the station told us last Wednesday that it would go this weekend. We wrote our post of that day, to report what we knew. We stand by what we wrote. Simple.

Normally, yours truly doesn't feel the need to defend what we wrote. But in this case, we are. Whatever reason WKRC found to delay the HD launch, and we don't necessarily believe it was us, it had to be significant...