It has been a very long winter here in Maine. It started in early December and it has snowed about every 3 days since then. And the storms haven't been little ones. Typically, we've gotten at least 6 inches or more each and every time it snows.
As a result, the storm cancellations are broadcasted across the crawl on the bottom of the screen. Everything from Bingo at the church, to Meals on Wheels, to schools, to tap dance class gets cancelled. The cancellations go on forever. And they often start in the evening on the day BEFORE the storm is scheduled to arrive.
Every time a television station broadcasts this information, they can't do it in high definition because they don't have the high definition equipment to do it. The same is true for station identification logos (required by the FCC about once an hour or so, or on Tuesday and Saturday evenings when they display the lottery numbers. Any of this type of "interruption" in the normal broadcast picture results in your local television station backing out of high definition (which happens with a jolt to the screen picture) and then back to HD (if they remember to flip the switch again). There have been times when I have had to call the local TV station and tell them that they forgot to put the broadcast back into high definition after a broadcast interruption. There is nothing I can do about the cancellation crawl because that goes on for hours, even days.
In Boston, they have one channel (WCVB - ABC Channel 5) that is in HD all the time. They have the right equipment to broadcast locally in high definition so these issues don't affect them.
As for when our local TV stations in Maine have the same capabilities so that the viewer is not affected by broadcast interruptions, from what I can tell and from the information I have been able to get, there are not plan in the near future for our local TV stations to upgrade their equipment. I think this is a travesty.
Why is it that our PBS stations, in both Maine and New Hampshire, have better High Definition technology than the “for profit” TV stations in our area? PBS depends on public funds and donations. They aren’t exactly rich. But somehow they have put their priorities in order by investing in the future. Never mind that, they invested in the present.
In my opinion, Jeers to all Portland TV stations who can’t seem to set their HD priorities correctly. In one week, it will be one year from the date that all broadcast television must be in digital format. That doesn’t mean everything will be in High Definition, just digital. But you need digital to get to High Definition.
It just doesn’t seem the our local for-profit TV stations are committed to giving the viewing public regular, reliable, High Definition programming. I am glad I don’t pay the cable company for digital and high definition TV because then I would be really upset.
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