Lock him up! Lock him up!
Author: DOuG pRATt
Rewinding PRX Remix
PRX Remix is a program from the Public Radio Exchange that collects audio stories from various sources. I’ll embed a couple of worthwhile segments that have been featured on PRX Remix.
https://exchange.prx.org/group_accounts/98822-remix
As with the start of the Revolutionary War, our Constitutional government began with an event here in Massachusetts. Shays’ Rebellion.
The fascinating, and dangerous, lives of real-life Skywalkers.
Chart-Topping Hit
Here is modest proof supporting the claims that Google manipulates search results to suit its own purposes. Each of the strings below is looking for “NextGen TV Boston”. My post from yesterday about WCRN appears near the top of the results from both DuckDuckGo and Bing. Google? Nope, nowhere to be found, even when limiting results to the last 24 hours.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=nextgen+tv+boston&atb=v174-1&ia=web
Record Keeper
Joel Whitburn has passed away. Whitburn’s scrupulous cataloguing of the Billboard song charts is appreciated by many who enjoy popular music and the radio biz, pros and fans alike.
Whitburn’s determined realization of his obsession reminds me of Andrew Sandoval, whose impeccable work I enjoy very much. Whitburn tracked everything that charted, while Andrew devotes a great deal of effort into finding the countless obscure 45’s from the 60’s that never charted.
NextGen TV Coming to Boston
At last, a Boston area broadcast TV station is going to be transmitting a NextGen signal. WCRN-LD, physical channel 30, displays as channels 31-1 through 31-6. I first learned of the station’s move to ATSC 3.0 from a crawl notice at the start a show, and seeing that got me searching for this notice.
ENGINEERING NARRATIVE AND NOTICE OF ATSC 3.0 OPERATION WCRN-LD CH 30 FACILITY ID 9154 FCC FILE 00001113233 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Tyche Media LLC (“TML”), Licensee of LPTV station WCRN-LD has been operating as a licensed LPTV DTV facility employing ATSC 1.0 in accordance with FCC Rules. Rule Section 74.782(h) speaks to stations operating in ATSC 1.0 being required to air daily announcements or crawls for a period of 30 days prior to terminating ATSC 1.0 operation and commencing ATSC 3.0 operation. TML is aware of this requirement and commenced the required notifications on June 14, 2022. The station will not provide simulcast service. Effective July 14, 2022, TML proposes to commence ATSC 3.0 operation. The WCRN-LD operation will comply with applicable ATSC 3.0 requirements for digital LPTV stations. WCRN-LD will be transitioning to ATSC 3.0 without simulcasting as permitted under FCC Rule Section 74.782(c). The Licensee certifies that no notice to MVPDs was required based on Section 74.782(i) of the FCC Rules as there will be no change to the currently licensed facilities other than the transition to ATSC 3.0. The WCRN-LD license was granted on May 7, 2020, and now files this formal modification of license application to be listed as a Next Gen facility as specified in Section 74.782(g)(3) of the Commission’s Rules.
WCRN has seemed experimental from the outset, with programming that has been mixed, to say the least. Some of the stations are frequently blank, and when they’re active there’s no predicting what will be aired. So I’m not surprised that WCRN is the first Boston outlet to take this step.
What does surprise me is their stated intention to broadcast exclusively in ATSC 3.0, which is not an FCC requirement. I don’t have a compatible tuner yet, and I doubt very many people do have one. So, on the day WCRN makes the switch, it will disappear from my TiVo.
Follow-up:
Publicity Propaganda Department
Today’s print edition of The Boston Globe came with a surprise. A copy of yesterday’s China Daily, a publication of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party.
On Facebook I have asked the Globe, through its subscribers group, for an explanation. I am aware the Globe has been printing the English-language Chinese paper for some years, but I am extremely displeased at having it foisted upon me.