Sam Horn

I'm pretty sure WBPH's main channel is actually in 720p! They only produce something like 2.5 programs in house using WFMZ's hand-me-down equipment. They pull feeds that are in HD for the rest of their programming, I think. Doesn't it seem more likely to anyone else that WFMZ takes WBPH out to pasture and puts it out of its misery? A duplex on VHF 9 where WFMZ and WLVT keep their subs strikes me as the scenario that makes the most sense.

I'm pretty sure WBPH's main channel is actually in 720p! They only produce something like 2.5 programs in house using WFMZ's hand-me-down equipment. They pull feeds that are in HD for the rest of their programming, I think. Doesn't it seem more likely to anyone else that WFMZ takes WBPH out to pasture and puts it out of its misery? A duplex on VHF 9 where WFMZ and WLVT keep their subs strikes me as the scenario that makes the most sense.

Ty... The meaty parts are behind Fybush's paywall, and while he takes a mean picture of a broadcast tower, I'm pretty meh about paying for his newsletter. Seeing the speculation come from Fybush lends a little bit of credence to it, but still, though, to me that doesn't make sense, considering WFMZ still has KJWP and a low-power transmitter in Philadelphia on RF 45 plus whatever additional spectrum they bought. WFMZ, WBPH, and WLVT are all on WFMZ's tower at South Mountain already, so, yeah, okay, sure. Contours and footprint probably would remain the same. But are there any examples of eight virtual channels (69's 4, 39's 2, and 60's 2) sharing one physical channel anywhere else? Wouldn't there be bandwidth limitations? I don't know enough about this newfangled "H Dee" technology to really know, so someone please educate me, but it doesn't seem like it would work all that well.

Gonna need you to cite your source on that. Why would WFMZ triplex with WBPH and WLVT after they flipped some of the money they made selling their spectrum into buying other spectrum in the Valley AND buying KJWP's spectrum to expand their broadcast footprint south? Isn't WBPH's signal in the VHF band garbage anyway?

Which doesn't include Reading and Berks County, which increases 69's target sub-market to 1.2 million. There's some rural parts, sure. But this is a significant chunk of the Philly DMA. Considering the Glendive DMA exists (and that Baltimore and Washington and all the Southern New England DMAs are packed in so tightly), it's a wonder that the Lehigh Valley and Berks County never got spun off into a DMA of their own. ETA: And of the New York DMA -- western New Jersey (mainly Warren County) is also super-served by 69.

This is typical of WFMZ -- they've always been first to find creative ways to do the news on a small budget, and then the larger operations start doing the same. I wouldn't be surprised to see bigger-market stations supplement their choppers with drones or replace them entirely in the coming months/years.

As I understand it, they're moving all news operations to the arena, including the primary newsroom.