June 12th, 2009 marked a big day in the television industry, presumably the biggest since the transition from black and white to color. Stations across the country after decades have now stopped broadcasting in analog and now run digital only.
If I didn’t have cable right now, I’d probably be cheering at this moment. There are plenty of benefits with digital reception. All the years of struggling to get certain channels to come in with those bunny ears, and even missing out on shows because the reception is just too crappy, are now done and over with. Also, it’s really nice to have RTN and seeing Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, The Price Is Right, and the current primetime favorites in HD widescreen. I notice better picture and crisper sound even on an older TV set. It’s like watching the shows on DVD.
From a local perspective, it was interesting to see how the stations handled it here in the Atlanta metro. We had some good coverage from WSB and WXIA with a veteran personality on WSB and the original engineer from WXIA, but I give major props to the Fox affiliate here, WAGA. Not only did they have the original engineer who signed the station on in 1949 to appear to turn the analog signal off; but it was also very cool of them to get the original script used that first day in 1949 and read from it. I do hate how a few stations (WPCH, WGCL, and WATL) apparently did nothing for the actual switch. After this huge campaign, there was no logo or anything in sight with any of those stations before the sign-off. It was back in February, but Georgia Public Broadcasting did an amazing switch using the old traditional sign-off, with "Georgia on My Mind" playing.
After all the campaigning with the commercials, the crawls on the screen, and the news reports, the digital transition is finally done. Here’s to a brand-new era of television!
Showing posts with label wpch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wpch. Show all posts
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
WTBS changing to WPCH: Peachtree TV
Beginning October 1st, locally here in Atlanta, a major change will occur with one of its local stations, WTBS. Back in June, Turner Broadcasting announced that WTBS would change its call letters and logo and become WPCH-TV, Peachtree TV, even with the logo looking like a street sign. The inside joke being that there are many streets in metro Atlanta with the name Peachtree in them (i.e. Peachtree Street, Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, etc.). After all, Georgia is the Peach State. The national feed will not be affected. Cable viewers elsewhere will still get the same old TBS Superstation.
Some of the newer shows to arrive here are some classics, including: All In The Family, The Jeffersons, Sanford & Son, and In The Heat of The Night. Also movies at night, and Atlanta will finally see the new game show Temptation, the revival of the classic $ale of the Century. It shows to have a lot more variety than current TBS' offerings, with them mostly airing the same series multiple times a day.
I have to be honest. About 98 percent of the time I hate channel makeovers like this. Pretty much because whenever they usually occur, the channel declines in value, and starts airing lesser quality programming, or even worse, airing shows that do not fit the purpose of the channel at all. For instance: when GSN went through “the change” for a period of about a year in 2004, they started airing reality shows and tried to wean off the traditional and classic game shows, programming the network was known for… for at least a decade at the time. Then no real complete overhaul was done with SOAPnet, but earlier this year they tried to wean off more of its traditional programming, and added two series that really fit better on another network, let’s say, The-N. And don’t even get me started with MTV, the biggest offender of the bunch. With MTV, I could tolerate, and hell, even enjoy some of the alternate programming they had to offer (The Real World and its sister Real World Road Rules Challenge when they were both still fresh, Remote Control, and I’ve always wanted to see Undressed), but when you’re playing MUCH less music and your network identity for crying out loud is MUSIC TELEVISION, well, then to me, that is a major problem.
But in this case with WPCH, I’m looking forward to the changes. I have to admit though I was worried about how this would all go out in the beginning. But with the channel airing classic sitcoms in the morning and movies at night, instead of rerunning most of their shows to death like the current TBS does now, it really shows signs of the old-school WTBS that I’m used to and have enjoyed for years, despite the unfamiliar settings of the new logo and call letters. There's really more variety being added. Also, Braves’ baseball is staying here locally. Now, I’m not a sports fan by any means, but this is an Atlanta tradition, and I’m glad that this station wants to continue that for its fans. They deserve nothing less.
I'm sure it will be a shock for many viewers here when these changes finally hit the airwaves. After all, this station to Atlanta viewers has been known as WTBS 17/TBS Superstation since 1979. Here's hoping it works out alright. This is definitely a change I'm waiting for.
Some of the newer shows to arrive here are some classics, including: All In The Family, The Jeffersons, Sanford & Son, and In The Heat of The Night. Also movies at night, and Atlanta will finally see the new game show Temptation, the revival of the classic $ale of the Century. It shows to have a lot more variety than current TBS' offerings, with them mostly airing the same series multiple times a day.
I have to be honest. About 98 percent of the time I hate channel makeovers like this. Pretty much because whenever they usually occur, the channel declines in value, and starts airing lesser quality programming, or even worse, airing shows that do not fit the purpose of the channel at all. For instance: when GSN went through “the change” for a period of about a year in 2004, they started airing reality shows and tried to wean off the traditional and classic game shows, programming the network was known for… for at least a decade at the time. Then no real complete overhaul was done with SOAPnet, but earlier this year they tried to wean off more of its traditional programming, and added two series that really fit better on another network, let’s say, The-N. And don’t even get me started with MTV, the biggest offender of the bunch. With MTV, I could tolerate, and hell, even enjoy some of the alternate programming they had to offer (The Real World and its sister Real World Road Rules Challenge when they were both still fresh, Remote Control, and I’ve always wanted to see Undressed), but when you’re playing MUCH less music and your network identity for crying out loud is MUSIC TELEVISION, well, then to me, that is a major problem.
But in this case with WPCH, I’m looking forward to the changes. I have to admit though I was worried about how this would all go out in the beginning. But with the channel airing classic sitcoms in the morning and movies at night, instead of rerunning most of their shows to death like the current TBS does now, it really shows signs of the old-school WTBS that I’m used to and have enjoyed for years, despite the unfamiliar settings of the new logo and call letters. There's really more variety being added. Also, Braves’ baseball is staying here locally. Now, I’m not a sports fan by any means, but this is an Atlanta tradition, and I’m glad that this station wants to continue that for its fans. They deserve nothing less.
I'm sure it will be a shock for many viewers here when these changes finally hit the airwaves. After all, this station to Atlanta viewers has been known as WTBS 17/TBS Superstation since 1979. Here's hoping it works out alright. This is definitely a change I'm waiting for.
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