In local news....
Time Warner contacted me so I could let everybody know that their Navigator boxes will be running without any problems by the end of the month. Kidding! But it's time to free up some new digital space, and I think I've explained a few times, one analog channel can hold a bunch of digital channels — or at least, more than one.
So Time Warner will be moving Jewelry Television (yeah, me neither) and Style in order to free up one more analog channel and use the extra bandwidth for digital stuff. Such as HD. But first, Time Warner has to move all of the existing HDs around to make room for the potentially new HDs it will be adding, fingers crossed, any year now.
Comcast also announced changes to its Missouri and Kansas lineups: Metro Sports is moving from channel 44/MO and 68/KS to channel 258 everywhere. CMT is moving from channel 56 to channel 146. Those new assignments are on the Digital Starter tier, where you can expect more analog channels to move for reasons I just explained. Again. A Comcast rep that I dialed at random said: "We are offering a free upgrade from Analog to Digital Starter for 12 months, plus 2 free additional digital converters for 12 months." After that, you'll just be watching TV on your computer screen anyway ...
Rick Iler, news director at the local NBC, just got named Region 4 and 5 rep for the national board of the RTNDA, the selfsame group old Edward R. once memorably addressed. Actually, there's a slew of Missourians suddenly representing on the RTNDA masthead: Stacey Woelfel, longtime ND of Mizzou's teaching station KOMU-8, is chairman-elect (which is why they needed a new regional rep), and Bob Priddy of MissouriNet is secretary-treasurer.
FYI, I did notice that last weekend Time Warner had MHD (1024) on line. The channel info still appears in the menu, but cannot be accessed. It also looks like they have been working with Food HD and HGTV HD (if you type in 1052 and 1054 a screen appears).
Posted by: Jondy | June 11, 2008 at 07:56 AM