Saturday, March 27, 2010

Rochester' TBN Translator K56HW Goes Off Air

As you may know, low power translator stations have not been forced to convert to digital yet. Many translators, especially those owned by local stations (as opposed to satellite networks) have already made the jump to digital.

In the Rochester area, K56HW (56, TBN) and K58GC (58, 3ABN) kept pumping out analog after the transition.

K58GC, being a 3ABN affiliate, will eventually convert to digital but that may be a ways off due to the network's budget.

TBN announced long ago that they would cut their analog translators and in most cases weren't going to bother replacing them with digital translators.

This became reality recently. Some time in the last couple weeks, K56HW went off the air never to be replaced by a digital channel.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Classic Hits 103.9 Becomes Z-Rock

The Post Bulletin is reporting that 103.9 KLCX is switching formats from "Classic Hits 103.9" to "Z-Rock" which is already broadcast on KDZZ 107.7, a low power station east of Rochester. The addition of 103.9 will give Rochester listeners better coverage.

103.9 and 107.7 have frequently changed formats throughout the years. 107.7 used to be "Oldies 107.7" then switched to "Classic Hits 107.7." 103.9 went on the air, duplicating 107.7 in order to give Rochester better coverage, thus the station was known as "Classic Hits 103.9/107.7." On April 1st 2008, 107.7 became "TV 107-7." The whole day, the station played a loop of TV show theme songs. On April 2nd 107.7 became "Z-Rock 107.7" while 103.9 stayed with the classic hits format.

For those unfamiliar with the Rochester dial, the "Classic Hits" format competed among a number other similar stations for listeners, including Laser 101.7 (generic Classic Rock), 89.9 KRPR (wide variety/AOR Classic Rock) and Cool 104.3 (Oldies).

Monday, March 15, 2010

WQOW Adds ThisTV on 18.3

Eau Clare's ABC affiliate added ThisTV to their lineup sometime last week on subchannel 18.3. Their sister station, WXOW in LaCrosse added ThisTV early last month.