Thanks for posting this! I watched at my office on a tiny 5 inch B&W TV as they signed off today. Now I am watching WVIT and WTIC and hope they both get a proper sendoff.
And that was the last time I was able to see WFSB. They moved to a weak UHF frequency that just doesn't reach me on DTV. A slightly fuzzy analog picture has been replaced by a NO SIGNAL message.
Could be a few factors. Some stations reduced power when switching to digital. Many of them switched frequencies (WFSB being one of them...switch from 3 VHF to 33 UHF). Also directional antennas will affect the signal. In WFSB's case, they were broadcasting with 100kW video output. According to the FCC (and you have to dig for this information, it's not in the normal CDBS system...you have to find the inspection reports), the transmitter is only broadcasting at 38.5kW, a reduction of over 60%. That means the signal isn't going to cover as much distance as its predecessor since the height of the antenna didn't change. Got to love those dirty little secrets the FCC likes to hide.
WFSB was received OTA in Brattleborro, VT. Now here in Fairfield County we can't get anything anymore either, forced to buy cable. I used to enjoy playing with my rotor especially in the summer when you usually got more channels and getting channels 6, 10 & 12 from Providence and also spinning the antenna south west and getting channels 3, 6 & 8 from Philadelphia, plus all the NYC UHF channels. I also remember getting 2, 4, 5, 7 & 38 from Boston. I wish WFSB would put a translator down state for both 3.1 & 3.4. The FCC knew that stations audiences would be cut dramatically and should have forced stations to add repeater/translators to cover their old areas. But the FCC is never consumer orientated.
WTIC-TV (Ch. 3) became WFSB in... I want to say 1972. Channel 61 signed on the air in 1984. Despite the calls, Ch. 61 was never aligned with Travelers Insurance, while Ch. 3 was. (In fact, 61 had originally applied for the call sign "WETG-TV, in honor of the late Gov. Ella T. Grasso, but those letters were taken by a station in Erie, PA.)
Good to see them sign off properly! I hope someone in Boston does, but I don't have much confidence in that, with all owned by big companies, or in the case of WHDH-7, a "if it bleeds, it leads" station.
I hope KPRC here in Houston does the same after they finish their analog nightlight service. I wonder if they still keep their ID cards when they were KLEE-TV?
Why does WFSB say "becoming digital" when WFSB-DT has been on for a few years already? Scot Haney as the last person shown on the station from 2009? Gimme a break! :(
They made it great saying "Good Bye" on their analogue signal ! Thanks a lot for recording that historic moment and thank you for upload ! Greetings from Germany, M. ☆☆☆☆☆
Yes WFSB has class! However, I feel sorry for S.E.T.I. "recipients" who prolly just figured out within last 6 decades Philo Taylor Farnsworth's and Vladimir Kosma Zworykin's interlaced scanning synchronization methods of analog TV. Just imagine the Chi Sagittari area (i.e. Wow!) "recipients" at Gliese 699 saying: "Hey Prot what happened to the Earth video signals? Have they gone to a new format? Aw crap it took us this long to figure out 1st one!". Wont notice for 6 more yrs though! /humor
