My area of Southeast Texas was thrown into TV Chaos Land upon the stroke of midnight during which 2009 was ushered in like wiseguy at a Mob wedding.
It all started some while back when the longtime NBC affiliate KBTV-4 decided to become the local Fox affiliate. That touched off a big switch in which the ABC affiliate, KBMT-12 decided it wanted to both be the ABC affiliate and the NBC affiliate. If you can picture a mega car dealer: Abe Lincoln Mercury Mazda Kia BMW Toyota. Yeah, it’s like that.
Negotiations between area cable provider Time Warner (as in Time Warner Stinks Inc.) and KBMT went down to the wire as the carriage agreement between the so-called cable company and what was Channel 12 was set to expire at midnight.
But lo and behold, KBMT announced a last-minute agreement was made between the two parties. It somewhat makes sense, that is, if you have a program to follow it all:
***KBMT-NBC will be seen on Time Warner Cable Channel 14.
***KBMT Channel 12 will continue to be free over the air.
***SD SIGNAL: ABC ONLY: Channel 12
***HD SIGNAL: With antenna and converter box: ABC-12.1; NBC-12.2
***Direct TV: ABC-12: NBC-50
***Dish Network: ABC-12: NBC-To be determined
And don’t forget, of course, that KBTV-4 will be Fox 4 and that the current Fox affiliate in nearby Lake Charles, La., will is now “the U” (whatever that means) and will be showing reruns on cable channel 13, I suppose.
The problem with all this switching — except for all the obvious head-spinning confusion — is that I don’t think any of the TV stations with maybe the exception of the Fox switch. I also predict local news coverage will not be any better. Thank goodness I have a good book.