And it was the news I watched every morning....not to mention the new LOST episodes starting in January....

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WARNING: Things posted by this user may offend some people. All things posted above are the opinions of poster and not necessarily the opinions of this site..or anyone else for that matter. They might not even make sense or be suitable for children. Come to think of it, they might be unsuitable for adults or human consumption. Have a nice day.

Wha-what? How could they not have at least one ABC station? We have two here.

I mean, there are certain sports events that are only on ABC. Don't want to miss them!

WTF! How can they do this???

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Get outdoors in Walton County!

Don't confuse having less with being less, having more with being more, or what you have with who you are. Noah benShea

MediaCon also just raised their rates again.
I so wish I had a line of sight to the satellite so I could fire them.

I wonder how Sandestin would feel if a bunch of folks showed up to protest outside the MediaCrap office there?

EDIT: It just came back on. yippee!! Wonder if they got a few calls or just wanted to show WMBB that they had all the power?

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WARNING: Things posted by this user may offend some people. All things posted above are the opinions of poster and not necessarily the opinions of this site..or anyone else for that matter. They might not even make sense or be suitable for children. Come to think of it, they might be unsuitable for adults or human consumption. Have a nice day.

Does anybody know if this is a done deal, and when it might happen?

It was a black screen on this morning for several hours. It just came back up about 5 minutes ago.

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WARNING: Things posted by this user may offend some people. All things posted above are the opinions of poster and not necessarily the opinions of this site..or anyone else for that matter. They might not even make sense or be suitable for children. Come to think of it, they might be unsuitable for adults or human consumption. Have a nice day.

For less than $50, you should be able to put up an external TV antenna, and receive ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox, and a few other channels. If you ditched your cable tv, you could subscribe to Netflix and still have about $40 left over every month.

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lol. I now recall Ch13 announcing that they received their new digital processor and they would be running a test for an hour or so, to see if it worked.

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Provided you don't have deed restrictions or HOA rules about external antennas, which are very common in these parts. The deed restrictions in my neighborhood limit external antennas to stuff that's so weak you get like two channels, and I suspect most modern SoWal neighborhoods have even more restrictive rules.

I believe that there are some FCC regulations that override deed restrictions and HOA rules on these issues.

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SJ, thanks for the suggestion. I have no HOA or restrictions to worry about, but I am down in a kind of a little dip. I'm thinking I ought to test this out before Feb when I'll need the converter box, is that right? And how would I go about doing that? Just disconnect the cable and connect an antenna and keep going up until I get a signal? I'm pretty clueless, have not used an antenna in many years, don't even own one.

Boy I hate to have to go and put up an antennae again. I thought those days were gone. I understand the HD/Digital signals are going to be on UHF frequencies. If that is the case then I believe the antennae is different for that frequency than it is for the VHF channels. Does anyone happen to know anything about range? I know VHF travels further and through structures better, that is why they want to use it for wireless broadband. I have a forty foot tower up at the house, but hate climbing the thing to put up an antennae unless I just have too.

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The HOA's are not allowed to mess around with communications according to the FCC. If they try you should contact the FCC by going to the website and following the instructions on how to submit a complaint. Once that happens the FCC will contact the HOA and fight for you.
This is off the FCC website.
The rule (47 C.F.R. Section 1.4000) has been in effect since October 1996, and it prohibits restrictions that impair the installation, maintenance or use of antennas used to receive video programming. The rule applies to video antennas including direct-to-home satellite dishes that are less than one meter (39.37") in diameter (or of any size in Alaska), TV antennas, and wireless cable antennas. The rule prohibits most restrictions that: (1) unreasonably delay or prevent installation, maintenance or use; (2) unreasonably increase the cost of installation, maintenance or use; or (3) preclude reception of an acceptable quality signal.
Effective January 22, 1999, the Commission amended the rule so that it also applies to rental property where the renter has an exclusive use area, such as a balcony or patio.

Also if you add a small amp to your setup for over the air TV you will pick up more stations. They can be found online or at Radio Shack. One other thing that I found was, I used the tuner in my TV and not the cheaper one that is built into my Direct TV box. The one in the TV has much less loss then the cheap one in the Direct TV Box.

I recently dumped Mediacom. Got the little black box. Can get Dothan, 4 channels. Hope that after the change in Feb. I can get more. The antenna is ugle but it's FREE!

Mediacon would do well to remember that in hard times people cut back on the extras - crappy customer service and cost increases just made it an easier decision!

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"Chemicals should not be innocent until proven guilty."

Channel 13 just went black about an hour ago. I've been with Mediacom for way too long and ABC has been one the better channels for the last couple years. This super sucks! Does anybody know which is better DirectTV or DishTV? I want to leave Mediacom so bad, but I'm not which way is the best to go...

FYI -- If MediaCON and WMBB don't come to an agreement, WMBB will be dropped as of Jan 1, 2009, the only ABC channel.

NotDeadYet, the short answer is that it depends. If you have a newer TV which can received digital signal, you have nothing to worry about when Feb rolls around. If you have the older TV, like myself, you will need a converter, unless you have cable or satellite. The Gov't offers two discount cards, totaling $40, toward the purchase of a digital converter. HOWEVER, the discount cards are good only for 90days, while supplies last.

Erecting a TV is almost too simple. I found some pvc pipe laying around the yard (long sections), and dug a hole. Found an old antennae in the yard, too, and connected it to the pvc pipe, and connected the a long wire, wrapping the pole. Put one end of the pole into the hole, tossed in some gravel, packed with dirt. Plugged other end of cord into the TV. Turned on the TV and wha-la! I had free TV! A twist or two of the antennae and I soon discovered which direction got the most channels. If I want a better picture of FOX, I would have to twist the pole slightly. Those antenna are directional. ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS all pick up very well from one position, and FOX is just as clear if I twist the pole, but I go for quantity of channels.

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We have Directv and it is good unless we have heavy rain. I noticed this morning that Ch 13 was promoting Dishtv so they may have a promotion of some sort.

Thanks, SJ. I have a newer tv (about a year and a half old, a replacement for a lightning strike) but where oh where am I going to find an antenna?
For Lake View Too, you can compare the different channel lineups Dish and Direct offer on the internet. The Dothan channel (is that CBS or NBC?) is not available on Dish, is my understanding. Maybe someone who has it will update the info on that.
Embarq usually has a package deal available, if you use them for landline and/or dsl. Personally I would shop around for the best deal.

Aren't they replacing ABC with the new JOE TV channel?

At this time, you cannot get local stations on Direct or Dish from what I was told. You can get them in Fort Walton, and PCB. This is due to the line of sight to the satellite's. You must use an antenna for them. I do know that Direct is in the process of activating a satellite that will allow us to get the channels. This could take a little while for them to finish bringing it online.

I live in SRB and I am able to get ABC and NBC local stations (13 and 7) with Dish. They explained to me that they could not offer CBS because the closest channel is 4 out of Dothan, and because it is out of Florida, they can not offer it with their package.

The only thing I miss is 60 minutes and I can watch it online if there is something I simply must see--which doesn't happen very often.

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"Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do." — Wendell Berry

That seems odd. Because we're on the Okaloosa County side of the line, we're classified as part of the Mobile-Pensacola television market, and Directv has no problems with crossing state lines and giving us 3-4 different tv channels that originate in Alabama.

And there's a lot of overlap and crossing of state lines in normal boradcast television. We used to live in an area where the 'local' television market legitimately covered parts of four different states (Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee) and also dipped into a handful of counties in Arkansas and Indiana.

Which made for sheer hell during campaign season because we'd get ads from four different states (and I came to despise both Mitch McConnell and Margaret Kelly) during the run-up to the election, but that's another show.

I know. It sounded odd to me as well, but apparently it has something to do with a license...and since it was not really important to me, I did not pursue it...

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"Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do." — Wendell Berry

I don't care about getting a local station, I just want to see my ABC network shows - Ugly Betty, Grey's, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, DWTS....

Crap, I just realized most of my shows are on ABC!!!

Guess I'll be getting a faster internet connection so I can watch them online!

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"Chemicals should not be innocent until proven guilty."

If you want to shop locally, I bet the Radio Shack will have one. Otherwise I'm sure you can buy for cheap, online.

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I bought a indoor antenna, that came with an amp. The indoor antenna did not work very well inside. So as a test I placed the antenna on my screened patio and was able to get most stations. I think the antenna cost 23 bucks. So not bad. If you get a true outdoor antenna with a much larger (Better as in more gain) amp you are only looking at around 50 to 70 dollars and you should be able to get all stations, CBS, NBC, ABC, and CW ETC.

I would rather have the ABC station out of Pensacola. Maybe when all this settles I can figure out how to do that. Right now, too far east and not in the Pensacola-Mobile district.

I'm thinking this time I will try and condition myself and my family to get their content from the internet. We are going to try a digital antenna too for local.