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• DIGITAL TV TRANSITION OF 2009 AS RECEIVED AND RECORDED IN • Channel 4 #1 • New York, District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Mexico TV DX EXPO pages and images are owned, maintained, and |
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• Nightlight is a station that aired continuous (looped) DTV Transition information beginning on June 12, 2009 (except for emergency and severe weather alerts). Although Nightlights were allowed to operate until July 12, only a small number remained on the air until that date. Nightlights used various types of local IDs. • Transition Highlight photographs display local DTV Transition information that was broadcast on or prior to June 12, 2009. This includes a variety of on-air Transition-related material. These stations left the air or switched to Nightlighting by midnight on June 12. |
| The Final Days of Analog TV in the USA |
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 THESE PAGES WOULD NOT EXIST WITHOUT "PRODUCTION-LINE" TV DXING In reality, I am just not a very efficient TV DXer. Therefore, I feel compelled to do things a little differently than most DXers. Much of my success with TV DXing (especially with Mexico TV) can be attributed to "production-line" DXing. What is production-line TV DXing? It is simply using multiple receivers tuned to different channels. I borrowed the idea from Jeff Kadet, North America's premier TV DXer. Jeff has used a similar technique with great success. All of the DX on Nightlights & Transition Highlights was received and recorded using a VCR and TV for each low-band channel during E-skip. DX notes about my receptions are written in spiral-bound notebooks as the DX is being worked. At the end of DX sessions, notes are also written on tape boxes to indicate what is on the tapes. Although my production-line TV DX system works well, I do sometimes miss ID material during live DX sessions. In spite of being blessed with a knack for spotting on-screen ID material, it is not easy keeping up with all of those E-skip-filled TVs. When reviewing recordings, those surprises are sometimes real gems. WNBC-4's 2009 Transition Day activities were not found until three years after they were recorded. While the quality of the photos of WNBC are mediocre (due to poor propagation), I am thankful to have something from WNBC to include here. In the past, I did a good amount of time-shifted DXing. Unfortunately, I no longer have the time or interest to review a large number of recordings. My main purpose in recording DX is to have the opportunity to review questionable ID material, to make ID photographs, and to have a permanent record of IDs. Maybe someday... |
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WNBC-4 New York, NY via E-skip 1 June 12, 2009 It is cetainly fitting that one of the historic New York network owned-and-operated TV stations would be displayed on these pages. WRC-4 DC and WTAE-4 Pittsburgh fought each other for control of channel 4 for hours. Therefore, I am very fortunate to have been able to squeeze these photos out of the co-channel interference. WNBC-4 was never a common ID here. Although WCBS-2 was my most-frequent catch from New York City, WCBS was not common, either. New York City low-banders usually made only a few appearances a year at my location. |
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Transition Highlight WNBC-4 WNBC-4's final minutes of regular analog programming as recorded on June 12. Newscaster David Ushery is discussing the DTV Transition. The picture to the right shows Mr. Ushery in the screen on the left side, while NAB Transition material is in the screen on the right. → |
 Although it is difficult to discern, that is WNBC-4's light-colored "4" logo lower right. |
 WNBC-4 newscaster David Ushery |
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Syndicated program Access Hollywood was coming up at 1230 ET on WNBC-DT-28. According to Mr. Ushery, if viewers cannot see that program, and they want "to continue seeing WNBC programming," they should call...
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Nightlight WNBC-4
WNBC-4 was received a few hours later while running the Spanish version of a NAB Transition program during the afternoon of June 12. WNBC displayed a tiny text ID lower left at times. The ID was up for only a few seconds at a time - and it was always when the signal was bad. WNBC was also running a crawl at the bottom of the screen part of the time. Difficult to see and read text ID lower left: "WNBC NEW YORK" → |
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UNIDENTIFIED TRANSITION HIGHLIGHT FROM JUNE 12: This unID was recorded on channel 4 during the early afternoon of June 12. At the time, WRC-4 DC was mostly-winning in a fight with
WTAE-4 Pittsburgh for control of channel 4.
Nevertheless, short spurts of other stations were coming and going (including WNBC-4; this might be WNBC) .
The Telemundo 48 screen is actually part of a news story on some stations's newscast and has nothing to do with the location of the unID channel 4. (Actually, I think the "T48" station where the graphic originated is KTMD Galveston - Houston.) I could hear the news woman speaking (in English), and she was reporting on how senior citizens and Spanish-speaking viewers were coping with the DTV Transition.
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WRC-4 Washington, DC via E-skip 2 June 2009 |
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The final minutes of WRC-4's midday newscast and switch to Nightlighting were not received well enough to photograph (too much co-channel inference). Nevertheless, I was able to shoot the "DTV Walk-In Center" screen soon after WRC-4's switch. That graphic was shown between at least some loops. The lower two photos are from a few days later. |
Shortly after Nightlighting began on WRC
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Spanish
 "WRC-TV WASHINGTON, DC" is written below the "NBC4" logo, which was upper left continuously during the instuctional loop. |
English
 The crawl was also up continuously. |
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WTAE-4 Pittsburgh, PA via E-skip 3 June 2009 |
 Like a number of Nightlights, WTAE-4 put Comcast information between some loops. |
 Yes, that tiny text at the bottom of the screen is an ID. This is the smallest ID that I saw on a Nightlight. On a positive note, the ID was up continuously. I never saw an ID on Pittsburgh's other Nightlight, KDKA-2, except on a severe weather alert. |
 The ID reads: WTAE TV / WTAE DT PITTSBURGH |
 That ID is smaller than the ones used by Mexico TV network relayers! The Mexican IDs are easy to read when compared to WTAE's Nightlight text ID. |
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KDFW-4 Dallas, TX via Tropo 4 June 2009 |
 This small text ID was upper left continuously. |
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In spite of that ID listing "KDFW/KDFW-DT," it is doubtful that KDFW-DT-35 ran any of this programming. Why would they need to do that? A number of Nightlights (including WTAE above) were using IDs which listed calls with a DT suffix. |
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KOB-4 Albuquerque, NM via E-skip 5 June 2009 |
English
 "4 KOB" logo bug upper center alternated with telephone numbers continuously during the instuctional program. |
English
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Spanish
 1-866-503-3329 (upper right) is KOB's number. "All full-power television stations will broadcast in digital." |
Spanish
 A screen showing "KOB-TV" and the station's telephone number was shown between the loops. |
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