To the people that asked the transmitter is still sitting there 4+ years later... eerily quiet in there... the racks full of video equipment are pretty much stripped bare....
Your exactly right! Also, one hour after I turned it off the temperature in the room went from 77 degrees to 59 degrees!! I had to turn the AC to nearly off.
WTVJ was one of the stations nationwide that aired the "Nightlight" video loop after the switch to digital. Normal programming ended on June 12th, with the Nightlight loop airing for 2 weeks afterwards until the final analog signoff on the 26th.
To answer "AmericanOtaku83's" question about WTVJ's digital transmitter... it was moved back to the channel 4 tower upon the switchover, giving WTVJ a full-market signal once again.
Every transmitter has a remote warning system tied to it. This transmitter used a hardware/software system that detected normal and abnormal readings on the transmitter. When readings were detected the software sends an email to engineers responsible to maiintainthe transmitter. I have an mp3 on my computer that plays the NBC chimes when I receive email. What you heard was simply my laptop telling me that I had mail
I agree, very touching. The moment Earnest turned off the analog transmitter, I felt as if a baton had been passed. In a way, it was a profound statement and a salute to the many years of analog broadcasting. It was almost as if we were witnessing the passing of an old friend. 73 de NØJAA
The cut off of programing was on 6/12/09 but NBC6 like many stations around the country ran the infomational video about the digital conversion for two weeks after the official analog shutoff date.
That's not how it's supposed to work. Analog signals previously used by tv has been transferred to first responders (paramedics, firefighters and police) and mobile telecommunications companies.
gladfan1989 well, as Ralph Renick began using that line at WTVJ’s advent in 1949... it is possible. Do note that WKRP was also based off of nearby WQXI-AM in Atlanta.
@@jav05 some stations had a broadcast where they show how to setup a converter box and instructions and they had 2 weeks to show that in a analog format
This is the old tower in Homestead that belonged to WCIX before 1995, right? Also, where is the new digital tower located and more importantly, does this bring WTVJ on par with the other Miami stations?
And now WTVJ's digital signal is NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0). An ATSC 1.0 simulcast is on WSCV's multiplex. I'm one of the few that can receive NextGen TV broadcasts out of Miami, and I'm in Greenacres near Lake Worth in Palm Beach County. I have better luck tuning into NextGen TV out of Miami than my own NextGen lighthouse in West Palm Beach (WWHB-CD). That station is low-powered and the signal is nonexistant where I live.
"We've come a long way in the last six decades, but not so far that we don't view the flipping of a switch as less important than actual news. We'll always be serving...self-serving, bragging about being places first, despite the fact that it's our job, and we'll always trumpet ratings successes as if the internet didn't exist, our relevance dwindling by the hour."
It's likely the oldest surviving footage of Ralph Renick in existence, clearly chosen to bring things full circle for WTVJ's analog era. (Plus Bob Mayer was a protégé of Renick.)
