DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!
Names: Dish Network and LIN Media
Ages: 15, 50
Occupation: media giants
Last Seen: Meridian, CO and Providence, RI
Bee-otched For: screwing over millions of viewers
Ages: 15, 50
Occupation: media giants
Last Seen: Meridian, CO and Providence, RI
Bee-otched For: screwing over millions of viewers
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This is one of the reasons why I can be proud to be a Grand Rapidian: I have two ABC stations.
Ummmm, make that one now.
On Saturday morning, Dish Network lost the feeds of local TV stations owned by the Louisville/Indianapolis/Nashville Media Corporation when the contract to carry their programming expired. LIN's 31 stations have been affected, including Indianapolis CBS station WISH 8, Fox WLUK 11 Green Bay, ABC WTNH 8 New Haven/Hartford, CBS WIVB 4 Buffalo and CBS WPRI 12 in their homebase in Providence.
And yes, NBC WOOD-TV 8 and ABC WOTV 41 here in Grand Rapids.
Right now, Dish has plastered a title card on the affected channels with softcore porn music in the background. The graphic explains that LIN wants to charge Dish a whopping 175% increase to carry their channels and that they're not even returning their calls. However, on WOOD-TV's website (and other LIN sites as well), they explain that Dish is overexaggerating their claim because local TV stations don't charge the rates big networks charge, and that they only charge pennies per day.
This ain't the first time Dish has had disputes with their distributors. Several years ago, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central and other Viacom channels were yanked off due to a similar dispute. Last year, another dispute erupted between them and News Corp regarding the regional Fox Sports Net channels, plus FX and National Geographic Channel.
Oh, and (sadly) I have Dish, and due to circumstances beyond my control, I can't dump them. My rates went up $5 last month.
Of course, losing WOOD and WOTV's no big loss for me. Why? Because I have an antenna. I can get WOOD-TV quite easily, thank you very much. WOTV is a hassle, though, but not to worry. Dish still has WZZM-13.
Bear in mind why Grand Rapids has two ABCs. WOOD-TV signed on as WLAV 7 in 1949 and WWMT 3 (then WKZO) a year later in Kalamazoo. Both stations aired programming all the major networks since WLAV broadcasted exclusively to Grand Rapids while WKZO did the same thing to Kalamazoo. In 1951, WLAV was sold to WOOD radio's owners and it became WOOD-TV, and it moved to channel 8 to alleviate interference from WLS (WBKB)-TV Chicago. In the late 50's, both stations realized that the two towns were too close together to be their own markets, so they both moved their towers equidistant to each other. WOOD moved to Middleville while WKZO moved to Gun Lake. WOOD sided with NBC, WKZO went with CBS and both stations cherry-picked some ABC shows. However, in the early 1960's, a group of investors wanted to start an ABC station in Grand Rapids. Problem was, the only place where they could do it was on the dreaded UHF band since nearby towns such as Chicago, Lansing and Detroit took all of the available slots on the VHF band. But guess what? The nearest channel 13 to Grand Rapids at the time was WKZO owner John Fetzer's WWTV in Cadillac. So, they paid Fetzer to move 13 to 9, which boosted the station's signal further north to Traverse City and WZZM 13 was born. Problem was, there were channel 13s in Toledo and Rockford, Il, so the FCC basically told WZZM that they could broadcast on 13 as long as they were north of town. For many years, WZZM had a translator station in Kalamazoo at channel 12, weak enough to protect WJRT in Flint. In 1964, the FCC ordered all TV sets to have UHF capabilities; one reason why WZZM didn't choose to broadcast on UHF was due to the lack of TV sets with the band at the time. However, in 1971, WUHQ-TV 41 in Battle Creek debuted, serving as a defacto ABC station to Kalamazoo and parts of Lansing. Through the years, ABC has allowed both stations to broadcast their programming, mainly due to WZZM's lack of signal south of Grand Rapids. However, since both stations are must-carry on local cable per FCC rules, we get two ABCs.
Now that I've ruined most of my chances of getting laid in this town with that last, boring-ass statement, let me say this: this is nothing more than big companies fighting like a domestic dispute between parents and the kids are sitting on top of the stairs, holding a teddy bear and crying. To me, losing both stations over Dish Network ain't much, but somehow, this fight will get resolved and our rates will increase. Same 'ol shit.
No wonder why people are dumping their cable.
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