Last year we lost the local CBS station, (WFMY Greensboro NC), their tower took a direct lighting strike. Cable, Sat and internet was still was online, but us OTA guys had to wait weeks for them to order parts, get them delivered and installed before they came back on the air.

Enough of us complained they let us log on to their internet feed for free until they got their tower rebuilt. :)

I had a friend look, and somehow she found the info that I couldn't: Lightning hit them Tuesday night and PBS also, but PBS got their signal back up fairly quickly. Channel 8 just came back on sometime between noon and 5 pm tonight.

As mentioned in my previous post, I searched all over channel 8's website but never found any mention of it. That seems pretty dumb, I wonder why they wouldn't post it?

At any rate, thanks to all that replied. :D

This tells us several important lessons. Broadcast television stations
frequently have issues which affect reception. They are not in any big
hurry to get their OTA signal back for viewers. They often don't even
inform viewers of any issues they are having. Finally, when reception
is lost or problematic on one channel, don't always assume it is YOUR
system!!!!!!

Joe's advice about not assuming it's your end having the problem is sound.

But some stations are better than others regarding information. Yet the suggestion to check BOTH their website and their Facebook is solid.

In my state, a transmitter fire a month ago at the unoccupied building at the base of the tower for WWTV 9.x and WFQX 32.x still has them hindered:

https://www.rbr.com/northern-michiga...nsmitter-fire/

They've been doing good to have news article postings on their website and updating the "Reception Troubleshooting" instructions provided there.

But, they did put more information on their Facebook page than what was passed along on the main website. Luckily someone on a different TV forum pasted this up, since I myself am not a Facebook user:

~~~~~~~~~~

Channel 9: We are currently running about 75% of our normal power on a “loaned” broadcast transmitter. It is broadcasting CBS on 9.1, Local 32/Fox on 9.2, MeTV on 9.3, and the CW on 9.4.

Channel 10: Our broadcast channels on 10 (Goetzville) are currently running at full power with normal broadcast channels

Channel 45: Our broadcast channels on 45 (Vanderbilt) are currently running at full power with normal broadcast channels

Channel 32: Restoration on Local 32 proves to be a major undertaking – a key component to the 32 transmission line was lost in the fire, and new parts need to be manufactured.

New transmitters for channel 9 and channel 32 are also being manufactured. There is typically an 8-week lead time on completion.

We thank you for the patience during this trying time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

They have had other outages over the last few years due to ice and other situations where they post insight rather promptly. And because Heritage (WWTV) runs WFQX via Shared Services Agreement, they've also accomplished other temporary steps like this time for adding subchannels.

It could be that OTA is a higher priority to them, as there has also been a history of retransmission fee disputes. The most recent one was just settled (after the fire-caused outage)--so maybe ownership and management recognize that those situations have slightly upped the OTA viewer count.

Cheers!
Statmanmi

Hi Joe. :D

Yes, it seems that they have more long-distance problems now than when they were still analog. As I found out, channel 8 here was still transmitting but on low power after the lightning strike, which didn't do me any good being so far away.

All the TV transmitters in Rochester are on Pinnacle Hill, so when there's a storm/lightning, etc. often more than one goes out, as was the case this week when PBS went out along with 8. But PBS got back on fairly quickly.

I never really thought that, because channel 8 suddenly went off, completely dead. I scanned through the other channels, which were fine, until I came to PBS which was also completely dead. My second TV was the same.

At that point I thought "Uh oh, something's going on at Pinnacle Hill." (see my previous post)

There was a cold front that was supposed to come through that evening, which it did but it didn't amount to much here, just a bit of rain. But Rochester, being 30-some miles away got a lot of lightning, and there was the problem.

FWIW: After an hour or two I checked 8's website, nothing, nor did a broad Google search bring up anything current. I don't Facebook so that was out, although a friend did check it for me and there was nothing on 8's FB page, but she did find the story on their competitor's page, channel 10.

Go figure.

In cold weather at night time RECEIVE of RF is unbelievable