2018 – The Year Where the Weatherman Lost His Cred

2018 began very cold. Colder than average, and broke many records. Not being sensitive to cold is not a bad thing, given in reality we have more days with temperatures over 60° overall in a single calendar year. (Again that’s if you think logically. Boston is an area of neurotic people using “feelings” as a datapoint. I do not know any “feelings” that is universal since “feelings” is a subjective view.)  It wasn’t that long that we had a near 80° swing from a low of near 20° to 60 something degrees in mid January. Followed by somewhat of a typical winter in February that was so cold it couldn’t snow, to late that February joining the club for the first time since records were logged for having an 80° day, then winter returned into March and April.

Of course the Boston Marathon was a memorable visual to see the first American woman to win since a couple years before I was born in sub freezing temperatures. But hey, from a contrarian point of view, if people can persevere in 90° April days with a heat index, then why can someone tough it out in the cold too?

Spring was non existent and summer came in June and came in full force by July with very high humidity that I couldn’t recall the last day we had excessive heat warnings. August was more of a soaker with thunderstorms, but that month was drenched with high humidity.

By late September, it was already reported that the record days of over 70° was made of over 40 days. The National Weather Service (at least in New York via Craig Allen’s Facebook page) doesn’t keep records of dew points, of which that area was very humid.

Oh and did I tell you that the water temperatures in the ocean were already at the August average by early July? Oh and did I tell you that the water was near bath temperature by mid August where some readings were in the mid 70s?

Not to mention the freak tornadoes?

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Are you READY FOR SOME SUPER BOWL???

Just kind reminder, whether side of the fence you’re on with this whole years long drama between the Peacock Network or Sunbeam Broadcasting; NBC is no longer on WHDH, so depending on the last time you saw a football game, it’s most likely going to be on another channel.

Welcome NBC 10, or Channel 10 with a CBS O&O looking typeface from 1980?

On New Year’s, a year into NBC moving to an owned and operated license in Merrimack, NH and stick in Goffstown, they have had a hard time with ratings and viewers with a weak signal up here, and through some spectrum sales in the last year, “NBC10” Boston has been able to build a network of low powered stations.

So within the next 24 hours, and if you are wanting to know where to tune to see TB12 hopppeeffulllly make it to six rings, onnnneeee wwould hooopppe. Here are your options.

Over the air, it’s on channel 8.1. If you don’t get it on the ears, just do a “rescan”. If you live in Foxboro, you may get WJAR that other NBC 10, since Boston and Providence is such a tight market, it actually has a definition in the Harry Newton’s Telecom Dictionary on signal overlap (I think.)

For most cable channels, the HD feed is on 710 or 810, (hence the virtual channel 10 branding), some SD feeds are on Channel 10, mine (legacy Adelphia/Comcast) is on Channel 26, legacy Comcast may be on other positions.

Because the NFL is known to be the No Fun League, it’s unclear if you can stream it instead.

I know the Emily Rooneys of the world joke (or possibly are literal) about tuning to Channel 7 to see her late dad Sunday nights, but in this case, don’t turn to WHDH for the Super Bowl, “Turn to 10” instead!

This writing has been a continuation of the discussion of NBC and their historical hostile treatment to their affiliates

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“NBC 10” Comes to Boston…

Branding aside, I strongly am an proponent of “legacy branding”,  I am an avid watcher of NBC Boston despite not watching SuperStore (although that looks funny) or Chicago Fire or whatever. I do watch TV still, on “traditional” means if X1 is considered to be “traditional”. It looks like a streaming platform to me. I watch CBS and ABC shows too. When the local news comes, I will change the dial to whatever applies to me. Because of the NBC’s license and stick, they actually have covered New Hampshire more often than the competition and since WBIN has gone off the air.

 

Welcome NBC 10, or Channel 10 with a CBS O&O looking typeface from 1980?

On January 1st, exactly a year after the switch from the NBC affiliation on WHDH-TV from the Sunbeam company, to an owned and operated signal owned by the network; NBC finally has added a channel number. 10.

In a very heavily cable market, NBC decided that the SD feed would be on most cable systems on Channel 10 and the HD on x10, where the x would be the one hundred ranges of the digital cable system. In most of the northern Comcast systems, the ones that predate Adelphia is on 710, and the legacy ones (like the ones that go back to TCI and Continental Cable) are on 810.

Also this past year, the TV spectrum in Boston has shank like crazy. Because more people are using the Internet to stream (and log up the bandwidth at the same time), that channel positions aren’t really the problem, it’s finding a strong signal.

The problem when NBC assumed it’s affiliation of it’s own network was the stick in Goffstown, NH was not even close to be strong signal to seen right in Somerville/Boston city lines. This goes back to the WGOT days, when the channel once aired a programming service that claimed to be the “Boston affiliate”  NBC bought I believe the old WMFP that used to be the Shop at Home station, and another low powered signal to extend the signal to Boston and points south. With the magic of PSIP, you can spoof the channel from that old rabbit ear spectrum to a channel number that could be viewer friendly.

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NBC Boston Is A-Comin’ (The Holy War of NBC and their non-owned affiliates, part two)

A major change to Boston TV will occur in the first time in nearly twenty-two years. NBC will no longer be affiliated with WHDH-TV Channel 7 beginning on New Years and will be moving to a weak digital UHF station in New Hampshire and a translator in the Greater Boston Area. Most of the cable systems will be on channel 10, HD on ether 710 or 810. Some of the stations that carried New England Cable News’ HD feed will be on that channel while NECN HD will be reassigned. (Check your local listings.)

Since my writings in January, I’ve learned more about NBC’s antics against large market affiliates not owned by larger entities. And the man who founded the largest fraudulent autism organization, may exhibit signs of Asperger’s Syndrome himself.

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Confirmed: NBC Leaves WHDH; No Longer in a relationship by end of year

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAQVGvdMAqh/?taken-by=stevenclickford

Today, NBC confirmed the months long rumors that they would part with WHDH, Boston’s Channel 7 despite a decades long complicated relationship with the owner Ed Ansin’s Sunbeam Television Corp. (The relationship is so complicated, there will be 3 different posts; this one about the local; the other just on Sunbeam/NBC and NBC’s other victims.) The relationship is expected to end by this calendar year and by January 1st, NBC will be on another TV station. Both newspapers as well as competing stations had reports on Thursday. If the local mass media is reporting this; then this really may develop in a once in a lifetime media biz drama.

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