The Return Of Winter Sporadic E's

So-called "short skip" or Sporadic E's reception of Band I VHF channels (mostly 2, and 3) this past weekend and early this week. The secondary season for Sporadic E reception is generally during before and after the Winter Solstice. The screenshot above from from the Televista-owned Mexican TV network Canal Cinco (5) on a channel 2 UNid relayer. Although a few ATSC (digital) stations are know to be operating in Mexico, nearly all terrestrial TV broadcasting is still in analog.

This past weekend saw the return of Sporadic E's reception of Mexican, Canadian, and Cuban television in Southeast Arkansas. Although the Cubans were observed earlier this week, the dominant stations come from Mexico and the large remenant of Canadian TV broadcasters still operating analog. These Canadian analog stations are mainly from rural areas which were made exempt from the "Mandatory Market" requirements last Summer.

And since Sporadic E's are "bidirectional", there was a logging from Arkansas in Canada. No, KARK has long quit broadcasting on channel 4 but a low power digital station in Clarksville AR -- K04RA-D (PSIP 32-n) transmitting on channel 4-- was logged by WTFDA member William Hepburn. Congrats to him for getting Arkansas his DTV log. (My only DTV log on low VHF from Arkansas was KETS-DT when the AETN flagship station operated pre-transition on digital channel 5).

I didn't attempt to DX any digital stations via E's but did pull in a few in analog. Enough talk, its on to the screenshots. Enjoy.

KCABMI

KCABMI ("I'm back" spelled backwards)

I'm Back from the SOPA/PIPA Internet blackout. On Tuesday evening at 11pm CT (midnight ET), I blocked public access to SEARK Media And DX Report in support of the protests against the proposed SOPA and PIPA acts now before the US House and Senate. Although the entire Internet did not take part in the protest (Twitter and Facebook were business as usual), many other sites either blacked out or had certain changes to their site layout.

If you have contacted your member of Congress, please do so and urge them to oppose these bills that will destroy legal free-expression on the Internet and do nothing to combat real Piracy and other illicit activity.

SMDXR Closing For January 18 In Support Of Protests Against SOPA

At 11pm (Central Time/ 0500 UT) this evening, give or take a few minutes Southeast Arkansas Media And DX Report will "blackout" in support of protests against SOPA. Therefore those reading this after the fact will realize what has happened. To my readers running across this post this evening, please understand my reasons. I will have more concerning this in a few days.

Fritze
Editor, SMDXR.

ABC's Work It Gets The Pink Slip

There are fails, then there are epic fails. ABC's mid-season replacement sitcom Work It is such an epic fail. Panned by critics and many LGBT groups, the sitcom staring two unemployed men whom pose as women to gain employment was given the high heel boot off the ABC schedule per several sources yesterday.

As a public service, I only watched the first episode and kinda expected a bad show but it was in all honestly much worse. And I had to watch that episode online since local ABC affiliate KATV tape delayed the show until early AM (overnight) the next day due to a Razorback men's basketball game. KATV's only in-pattern airing of this show was on Tuesday January 10th (which I DID NOT watch).

SMDXR will not be mourning the loss of Work It from the ABC schedule. Work It should have never been hired in the first place.

Another Soap Opera Headed To The Gallows: One Life To Life (ABC)

With one ABC soap gone in recent months (All My Children), another is taking its trip up to the gallows. ABC's remaining SDTV (albeit in 16x9 screen format) soap, One Life To Live will have its last episode broadcast tomorrow on Friday the 13th. A macabre ending date for a dying program genre.

When OLTL leaves the air, the only soaps remaining will be CBS's The Young And The Restless, NBC's The Days Of Our Lives, ABC's General Hospital, and CBS's The Bold And The Beautiful. Much has been made of the the reasons for the demise of the soap: changing audience tastes, explosion of digital cable/satellite channels, the aging of the audience, decreased time to devote to a daily soap, and fewer "homemakers". Soaps were also very slow to adopt HDTV--for years only The Young And The Restless broadcast in 16x9 and HDTV, and many "classic soaps" such as As The World Turns never broadcast a second in HD.

Although I'm no fan of soaps, I will say this. Those shows had staying power. I don't see those talk shows staying around for 30-40 years.

Preemption Season Begans On KATV: SEC Men's Basketball Trumps ABC Sitcoms

Its the silly season on KATV once again on Wednesday nights as the Little Rock ABC affiliate bumps the 7-9pm (usually a few minutes after 9pm) ABC schedule for syndicated SEC Network men's basketball. Its been that way for years and if KATV has its way it will be for years to come.

For the past several years the games broadcast on KATV have been a source of irritation for viewers (especially HDTV) of such programs as Lost. But with KATV getting HD recording equipment and also the rise of ABC posting shows online the next day its been a somewhat easier pill to swallow. Still, DVR's have to be manually set for the odd start times early in the AM if one wants to view the programming on their DVRs and TV's.

If the University of Arkansas men's basketball team has a decent showing, the complaints won't be as deafening as they were during the late 00's as hardcore Lost fans in Central Arkansas had to settle for SDTV recordings of the show at odd start times, often viewers could never get the show recorded on their DVRs. However, last night seemed like a continuation of the recent "bad old days" of Hog BB, as the team lost (yet again) at Ole Miss's "Tad Pad" (Tad Smith Coliseum).

Morning TV: CBS Fights Back Again, 30 Years After Captain Kangaroo's Forced Exile

CBS (via KTHV RF12/11-1 Little Rock AR) yesterday morning debuted yet another attempt at morning TV news. CBS This Morning, debuted with a trio of anchors with former PBS talk show host Charlie Rose, ex CBS The Early Show co-anchor Erica Hill and new tri-anchor Gayle King (yes, that Gayle King). For 30 Years, CBS has been in full battle with the other two old-line broadcast networks for ratings but have mostly fallen short.

FM News: North Central Arkansas Gets ESPN Radio Affiliate; Silent Station on 105.7MHz Reactivates

A couple of FM Radio items from last week that I noticed via Radio-info (dot) com, then confirmed by bandscanning.

KBCN-FM 104.3 Marshall AR flipped from its nearly two decade old country music format to sports talk. KBCN is the newest ESPN Radio affiliate in Arkansas and also broadcasts much of the network's schedule ("Mike And Mike In The Morning", "The Herd", etc) as opposed to KABZ Little Rock which treats ESPN Radio content as overnight and weekend filler between games, infomercials and local sports talk. KBCN can be heard well into parts of Central Arkansas in the car and even here via favorable conditions on an outdoor FM antenna. Much of KBCN advertising as a ESPN Radio affiliate as was the case during its country music era is from Harrison AR businesses.

Meanwhile a former hot A/C station that went silent a year ago is back on the air. KHAN 105.7 (formerly KFNV) Kensett AR has returned to the airwaves targeting the Searcy AR area with a country music version of the "Variety Hits" radio format. "Hank 105.7 FM" is running jockless and during a bandscan last week was playing some forgotten oldies from the late 1970's-1980's I've not heard since KSSN played them as new songs. KFNV can potentially be heard in the northern fringes of the Little Rock metro area via the car radio, but its doubtful the station will gain many listeners from KMJX 105.1 "The Wolf" which of course blankets Central Arkansas with a "classic country" (sort-of) format.