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TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Discussion pertaining to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Battle Creek, Big Rapids, and Michiana
Trophyhead
Posts: 391
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:36 am

TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by Trophyhead » Wed Feb 03, 2021 10:49 am

For those who get their video via OTA antennas, 54.3 is now TheGrio. "LightTV" was purchased by Byron Allen and replaced on Jan. 15.

It's African-American focused content, they assert a news presence in their promos, and I saw Stacy Abrams in a snippet, but much of what you get is movies with black stars, Gregory Hines in "Bojangles" is what's on as this is posted. Stumbed into a Fred "Hammer" Williamson movie, "Bucktown," when I first discovered this last evening. Pam Grier was a co-star.

There's paid programming in the early morning and a reliance on "The First Family" and "Mr. Box Office" as recurring series.



thatonedude
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Re: TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by thatonedude » Wed Feb 03, 2021 10:58 pm

Considering the lovely work Byron has done with The Weather Channel (/s), I really don't see "TheGrio.TV" being even remotely successful. Most of his networks that aren't named and/or are related to TWC are absolute shitshows that don't even register in the ratings; this venture more than likely won't be any different.


take this job and shove it

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MWmetalhead
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Re: TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by MWmetalhead » Thu Feb 04, 2021 6:18 am

I must admit - Grio programming isn't nearly as lame as I assumed.

Its programming, as noted earlier, mostly consists of movies with African American leads. Overall, the quality of programming is better than what was offered by Light TV.

Somewhat surprising, though, to see such programming on a subchannel of WTLJ! That's pretty funny.



Trophyhead
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Re: TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by Trophyhead » Thu Feb 04, 2021 8:49 am

Might as well load all my OTA television misgivings into one thread. Dabl now shows up on two digital offerings, 41.2 (which until recently was GetTV) and 64.6, which was on the air first.

I was searching for "All in the Family" around 10 p.m., as it was displaced by "Charlie's Angels" on GetTV, but suddenly I had Gordon Ramsay on a couple of fronts (two too many).

Still, not a bad situation resulting from a $170 investment made 12 years ago.



km1125
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Re: TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by km1125 » Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:59 am

thatonedude wrote:
Wed Feb 03, 2021 10:58 pm
Considering the lovely work Byron has done with The Weather Channel (/s), I really don't see "TheGrio.TV" being even remotely successful. Most of his networks that aren't named and/or are related to TWC are absolute shitshows that don't even register in the ratings; this venture more than likely won't be any different.
I haven't watched The Weather Channel in quite a while, but I can't imagine Byron could screw that up worse than it was getting.


Haven't seen anything listed on TheGrio yet that I wanted to watch, but that's not much of a change from when it was LightTV. Seems like they're directly competing with Bounce now.



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zackeast
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Location: Work in Benton Harbor / Live in Grand Rapids

Re: TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by zackeast » Thu Feb 04, 2021 2:27 pm

thatonedude wrote:
Wed Feb 03, 2021 10:58 pm
I haven't watched The Weather Channel in quite a while, but I can't imagine Byron could screw that up worse than it was getting.
I imagined Time Warner/CNN would have taken TWC when Comcast was selling it...they're in the same damn town for god sakes. I used to LOVE watching for hours on end just to see the meteorologists dive really deep in to storms and systems, explain oddities like a Nor'easter, etc. But I suppose there aren't too many of us nerds left to make an "audience" for that en mass...



thatonedude
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Re: TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by thatonedude » Thu Feb 04, 2021 6:56 pm

Zack, I agree, but I'm not sure if it would have ended any differently than it did when they sold it to Byron. However, they would at least have some semblance of integrity if WarnerMedia/AT&T owned them.

Personally, I believe the prior ownership (NBC/Blackstone/Bain) selling weather.com and the tech/biz side of TWC's operations to IBM practically screwed them. They have been treading water ever since, and it shows. Plus WeatherNation, and especially AccuWeather making serious inroads in TWC's niche is not helping matters, either. I won't be surprised if TWC shuts down by the end of the decade, if not sooner.

km1125 -- he's managed to do that, and more. LOT8s is now down to twice an hour, and he's increased the amount of longform programming that airs on the network. They even ran a damn COMEDY FESTIVAL last year (granted, it was for Feeding America, but TWC was *not* the proper venue for it). He isn't running movies on it like NBC/Comcast did, but I imagine it won't be long until they revisit that wonderful idea...


take this job and shove it

MasterB
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Re: TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by MasterB » Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:54 am

I wonder if Nexstar is going to have to find more diginets for the subchannel because Scripps buying ION and them airing the Katz diginets as Scripps is getting rid of the ION subchannels ION+, Qubo a kids network along with the shop ION on Feb 28. And if Antenna TV will move to one of the subchannels that Nexstar owns? I saw that Dabal replace GetTV on Monday it took Spectrum until Wed when they had the Dabal lineup today it finally said Dabal and not GetTV. I saw that WXMI Court TV was Court TV Mystery on Monday and somewhat on Tue I don't know why that happened unless Fox17 was having an issue with the Court TV feed.

I thought before NBCU bought The Weather Channel that it was becoming less about the weather and airing shows when there wasn't a major outbreak of server weather. Spectrum added ACCUWeather Network in Jan wish that the local forecast would show text for Kazoo what TWC does for local on the 8's and put Kazoo first when they air the 7-day forecast which Kazoo is the last at the bottom Det on top.


Go Pistons, Let's Go Redwings.

Trophyhead
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Re: TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by Trophyhead » Fri Feb 05, 2021 9:14 am

MasterB, I did also notice the pair of Mystery Channels last night, 17.4 and 15.3, which means Charge! is no longer in my hand. I wasn't looking for episodes of "Magnum, P.I.," Selleck-era, "CHiPs!" or "Walker, Texas Ranger" anyway. I miss "ThisTV," where you could stumble into a decent movie now and again, but the deck chair battles apparently will continue, even in the OTA TV realm.



statmanmi
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Re: OTA changes

Post by statmanmi » Sat Feb 06, 2021 6:29 pm

Hey Trophyhead and All!

Some further topical thoughts:

* As MasterB noted, changes are instore for WZPX (channels 43-n) when the calendar advances, since Scripps is shutting down some of the diginets on that station (source: https://scripps.com/press-releases/scri ... orks-move/).

But with Scripps owning the Katz networks, that seems to be what has brought about Court TV Mystery being on 17.4, versus Scripps (WXMI owner) contracting with Sinclair for Charge!

Note that the Charge! livestream can be sourced free (with the usual ads) via the STIRR app on many streaming devices, and the like-named STIRR.com website.

* The switch of WOTV 41.2 around 2/1 to the Dabl diginet appears to be caused by some new contract between Nexstar (WOTV/WOOD/WXSP owners) and CBS Media Ventures (subsidiary of ViacomCBS)--owners of Dabl. The Rabbitears.info site and a couple of different TV market threads on AVSForum noted that Dabl showed up this month on Nexstar operations in other areas.

The displaced gettv that had been on 41.2 doesn't seem to have a free source online, although a few of the streaming services such as Philo have it included.

* Trophyhead joked about CHiPs! having been on 17.4 Charge!--my household has watchers of that show (who won't be named here), such that our Tablo TV DVR was set to record all episodes.

This has resulted in my having a recording of the transition on Tues. 2/2 early in the 5pm hour of 17.4. There was an oddity involved:
-- For the first 90 seconds or so after the 5pm mark, CHiPs! was on, with their predictable "hook" scene prior to the credits (which never saw the airwaves, because...)
-- The next ~20 seconds had the GRIT stream going. (My guess is that WOTV engineering picked the wrong satellite transponder. With GRIT being a Katz-owned diginet, just like Court TV Mystery and Court TV, they're likely on the same bird in the sky--and probably adjacent transponders. I guess I could Google to confirm.)
-- Then Court TV Mystery appears abruptly. From a GRIT-provided Western scene to some nanoseconds of black, then a few back-to-back commercials until the program with the /Mystery bug in the lower right corner shows up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A quick summary of OTA (over-the-air) subchannel changes since January 1st that I've noticed.

35.5/52.5 -- PBS Michigan Learning Channel (MLC) appeared in early January on GVSU Public Media subchannels 35.5 (WGVU Allendale tower) and 52.5 (WGVK Kalamazoo), bumping their Guide content to the newly added 35.6 and 52.6. (Similarly for those like me in the northern reaches of the TV market, CMU Public Media added 14.4 as MLC in late December, as previously they only had 3 streams.)

54.3 -- TheGrioTV replaced the defunct LightTV in mid-January as Trophyhead noted to start this thread. (From WTLJ's Allendale and WJGP's Fulton country tower southeast of Kalamazoo.)

41.2 -- Dabl replaced gettv late 1/31 or on 2/1. (From WOTV's Gun Lake area tower.)

17.3 -- Likely an oops: For some hours on 2/1 and 2/2, 17.3 had replaced Court TV with Court TV Mystery. By end-of-day 2/3, 17.3 was back to being the usual Court TV fare.

17.4 -- Court TV Mystery replaced Charge! as described above during the 5pm hour on Tues. 2/2. (From WXMI's Gun Lake area main tower, as well as their other 4 low power transmission sites around West Michigan.)

Note that as of this posting, most every viewer in the market is receiving duplicated sources of these two diginets:

Dabl -- Newly available as 41.2; continues to be on WLLA 64.6 (as was added there just a few months ago. Kind of funny how these stations have their towers across the street from one another near Gun Lake.)

Court TV Mystery -- Newly available as 17.4; continues to be on WXSP 15.3 and affiliated towers that function as translators/repeaters around the market.

I'm expecting we'll have a similar post in early March after seeing what shakes out related to WZPX 43-n having to adjust to defunct diginets.

Cheers! ~~ Statmanmi



paul8539
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Re: TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by paul8539 » Sat Feb 20, 2021 6:24 pm

I noticed this on TV49 in Saginaw. I like LightTV better than GRIO. (For other things besides the Flipper Reruns.)



ftballfan
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Re: TheGrio replaces LightTV...

Post by ftballfan » Mon Feb 22, 2021 8:29 am

WTLJ has a decent digital signal. Occasionally I'm able to pick it up near the airport with a portable digital TV just with the included whip antenna (which isn't a good antenna). From that area, I can also pick up WLLA, WOOD, WOTV, WXMI, and WZPX and their subchannels



Jason Kragt
Posts: 81
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:01 pm

Re: OTA changes

Post by Jason Kragt » Fri Feb 26, 2021 4:51 pm

statmanmi wrote:
Sat Feb 06, 2021 6:29 pm
The displaced gettv that had been on 41.2 doesn't seem to have a free source online, although a few of the streaming services such as Philo have it included.

41.2 -- Dabl replaced gettv late 1/31 or on 2/1. (From WOTV's Gun Lake area tower.)
Looks like Get TV landed on 17.5.



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