Now the bad news: We still have one station in this area--KWWL, NBC 7, which is staying on digital channel 7 instead of joining the others on easier-to-pull-in UHF. I say they should make it unanimous and move to UHF, as their signal quality sharply varies at certain hours of the day and night around here, in contrast to the others on UHF, whether their station IDs say they're on UHF or not. Channel 7 says that they don't necessarily WANT to stay on Ch. 7, but to move to UHF, they would have to pay millions for a new transmitter which they are unwilling to do unless their current one blows for some reason and they need a backup transmitter. In any case, UHF has come a long way since 1970 when we had trouble picking up a pair of indies in Kansas City; now, in the digital era, it's a lot more desirable for a station's OTA signal to be somewhere on the UHF spectrum than on VHF--ESPECIALLY channels 2 to 6.
Earlier this year, Cedar Rapids, Iowa ABC affiliate KCRG-TV 9 made a wise decision: to change its digital channel from 9 to 32 in order to make it and its CW subchannel easier for antenna viewers to pick up. Hooray--I am one of those who was affected. Another Cedar Rapids station, KGAN, known as CBS 2, made the even wiser decision to get off digital Channel 2 at the dawn of the analog-to-digital switch and go with digital channel 29 instead. Viewers had a hard time picking them up in recent months due to tower/transmitter work, but it appears now to have been finished or near-finished.
Calling all OTA viewers in Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids and particularly Iowa City and Dubuque: I am starting an online poll to convince KWWL to join the other area stations on digital UHF. Tell me if you are having problems getting KWWL clearly with the same antenna you use for KGAN, KCRG, the Channel 28s and KPXR. Cable is dying and streaming is peroidically unreliable. Maybe some well-heeled, financially well-off individual could provide financing to KWWL to get a UHF transmitter. I want only your names and the city you reside in. These will be passed onto KWWL later this year.
And to KWWL: Try to do something about this latest problem. Whatever it takes from you to get a new transmitter, please do it. Thank you,
--David P. Johnson
February, 2025