Cursed TV Stations

[mvcg66b3r]

I put this thread on some other boards,but I wanted to get you reaction on this board as well.


In a “Cursed TV Markets” thread on another board,WeatherSTARIII brought up the story of WJJY-TV in Jacksonville IL, astation that died too young. So, I’ll just go ahead and start a newthread on cursed TV stations.


Are there any stations in your marketthat are cursed (weak signal, no HD, program shifts, ownershipchanges, etc.)?

 

[Mr Tony]

locally here in Duluth, MN it would be KDUL-LP channel 12...lasted all of 11 months (October 2000-August 2001)

First off they were only to be at like 1000 watts due to short spacing with KCCW in Walker (Bemidji, MN) and the NBC in Rhinelander/Wausau WI
Then someone screwed up and blew half the transmitter so they only were at 502 watts

Originally was to sign on Tax Day 2000 with UPN and America One
Then pushed back to May 15...then June 1 due to not getting the equipment yet
Then Mid June....Then October 1st.
Then they switched from America One to "AIN" (American Independent Network) before even signing on
Finally started broadcasting on October 1.....and got cable coverage which blacked out the UPN stuff on KMSP 9 that was piped in from Minneapolis (at the time KMSP was UPN)

Then the glitches began....out of sync audio, black and white picture on UPN shows, long times of dead space and just horrible programming from AIN. What made it worse is they held "exclusive" rights to UPN shows so Charter HAD to black out KMSP...even though KDUL-LP had all those issues

Even on OTA it barely came in.....I remember being in downtown Duluth and the tower is all of 2 miles away and having a very snowy picture

June 2001 they got rid of everyone but one guy and put the station up for sale
August 2001 Charter says they're taking KDUL off cable due to the tenchical issues on September 15th
August 31, 2001 station goes off air due to building being sold and getting kicked off the tower they were using (from one of the other stations)