Some people have asked us why closed captioning of our local news doesn't include captions of live field reports, breaking news, etc. The reason is rooted in our very small market size. Palm Springs is market 144, and small-market stations are not required to provide real-time captioning of their local newscasts. We do provide newsroom captioning, which translates the scripts from our broadcasts into closed captions. Since live shots are unscripted, our captioning system can't translate what's said into captions. The very largest markets such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, are required to completely caption their news broadcasts. They have the financial resources to hire the highly trained staff needed to do this, or they are paying an outside contractor to do it for them. Small market stations are exempt because they can't afford to pay the considerable expense of live news captioning.
Virtually all other forms of our programming, such as syndicated and network shows, are now captioned. There is an exception for foreign language programming, but that exception will sunset in a few years. Our Telemundo affiliate, KUNA-TV, offers the same news captioning as KESQ and KDFX, and the network provides closed captions for all other programming except news.
And finally, all emergency information including EAS alerts are provided in a form recognizable by the hearing impraired. Usually it's a and on-screen crawl or a graphic, displayed either full-screen or on a screen behind a weather or news person.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
DirecTV Picture Quality
I received an e-mail from a viewer complaining about poor picture quality of the KDFX signal on DirecTV's satellite service. I took a look at the signal and indeed it often broke into pixels, an indication of some kind of technical problem.
The issue is not KDFX's signal. It's the same signal we put out over the air on analog and digital TV, and which we send to the cable company. Actually the problem occurs in the DirecTV receive facility itself. DirecTV installed some very new equipment designed to capture local signals, turn them into digital signals, and then send them over fiber optic cables to their satellite uplink facility. They have had many problems getting all this high-tech gear to work right.
Now DirecTV is removing this troublesome equipment and installing new. It should be in operation well before the first of the year. When this happens DirecTV plans to offer local signals in High Definition once it concludes agreements with the local stations allowing them to do this. Meanwhile viewers who watch in SD should see fewer artifacts on their DirecTV screens.
The issue is not KDFX's signal. It's the same signal we put out over the air on analog and digital TV, and which we send to the cable company. Actually the problem occurs in the DirecTV receive facility itself. DirecTV installed some very new equipment designed to capture local signals, turn them into digital signals, and then send them over fiber optic cables to their satellite uplink facility. They have had many problems getting all this high-tech gear to work right.
Now DirecTV is removing this troublesome equipment and installing new. It should be in operation well before the first of the year. When this happens DirecTV plans to offer local signals in High Definition once it concludes agreements with the local stations allowing them to do this. Meanwhile viewers who watch in SD should see fewer artifacts on their DirecTV screens.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Coachella Valley Economy Struggles
Last week experts gave the Coachella Valley economy a grade of D+, which is not much better than an "F." We were an early indicator of the direction the rest of the world would go. Because our economy was so dependent upon new home building, when things went bad, our economy soured earlier than much of the rest of the U.S.
The Hispanic community has been especially hard hit, because the majority of the skilled and unskilled workers who built all those houses were Hispanic. Those tradesmen are now out of work. The situation isn't much better for the businesses that cater to people moving into new homes including furniture stores, flooring and carpet dealers, and home improvement businesses. Local auto dealers are having a tough time, and my heart goes out to all who depend upon that business everywhere in our country. Even if a willing buyer wants to purchase a car, credit is difficult to get.
Businesses who cater to snowbirds are wondering what kind of vacation season we'll see this year. My best guess there is that our Canadian guests will return in force. Canada's resource-driven economy seems to be weathering the economic storm better than most countries, and the Canadian dollar, or "Looney" is still worth more than a U.S. Dollar.
Part-time residents are already returning to our neighborhood, and it's encouraging to see the lights on their homes on at night and the bustle at some of the local restaurants.
We local broadcasters depend upon local retailers and service providers for advertising dollars. The advertising business has been hit, too, by declining budgets. Local businesses just don't have as much money as they once had to advertise. Take a look at the Desert Sun. It's narrow and the copy has been reduced to six columns. They changed the size of the roll of paper used to print the newspaper. In the newspaper business it's called the "web." I find that ironic, since it's the WEB (Internet) which is eating into all media businesses. Newsprint is one of the most expensive items used to create a newspaper. Newsprint prices have been rising and advertising revenues have been declining. That is a recipe for economic trouble.
Like everyone else, all we can do is hunker down and push straight ahead until the storm dies down.
The Hispanic community has been especially hard hit, because the majority of the skilled and unskilled workers who built all those houses were Hispanic. Those tradesmen are now out of work. The situation isn't much better for the businesses that cater to people moving into new homes including furniture stores, flooring and carpet dealers, and home improvement businesses. Local auto dealers are having a tough time, and my heart goes out to all who depend upon that business everywhere in our country. Even if a willing buyer wants to purchase a car, credit is difficult to get.
Businesses who cater to snowbirds are wondering what kind of vacation season we'll see this year. My best guess there is that our Canadian guests will return in force. Canada's resource-driven economy seems to be weathering the economic storm better than most countries, and the Canadian dollar, or "Looney" is still worth more than a U.S. Dollar.
Part-time residents are already returning to our neighborhood, and it's encouraging to see the lights on their homes on at night and the bustle at some of the local restaurants.
We local broadcasters depend upon local retailers and service providers for advertising dollars. The advertising business has been hit, too, by declining budgets. Local businesses just don't have as much money as they once had to advertise. Take a look at the Desert Sun. It's narrow and the copy has been reduced to six columns. They changed the size of the roll of paper used to print the newspaper. In the newspaper business it's called the "web." I find that ironic, since it's the WEB (Internet) which is eating into all media businesses. Newsprint is one of the most expensive items used to create a newspaper. Newsprint prices have been rising and advertising revenues have been declining. That is a recipe for economic trouble.
Like everyone else, all we can do is hunker down and push straight ahead until the storm dies down.
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