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KXJB gone! From Directv.


darell1976

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Any other Directv customers pissed at Charley Johnson station mgr at KXJB/KVLY! He claims he is not getting the money other stations are so he did not renew the contract between KXJB and Directv and gave what 2 day notice. What an a$$hole. I hate him so much and why should they pay you the same your newscasts are identical. Same People Same News. We sent in a waiver after calling Directv and we are getting a CBS station from New York to fill in the spot the problem it could take 45 days though they say it should be sooner. But if i miss March Madness i am hunting you down Charley Johnson. You greedy bastard. :sad:

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Don't even get me started on this one! Just be happy if you can get the CBS and NBC feeds. Our local stations won't give permission for us to even get those via Directv. Which, doesn't make sense to me. If we want to pay extra to get the East/West coast feeds, I don't understand why the stations here care. We still watch our local stations on regular tv in order to get news, etc. Strange! We have been able to get ABC, FOX (ONLY because we have had Directv so long that we were grandfathered in), PBS, and the CW. . . not sure why that is extra, as we do not have a local affiliate for that channel (all for a fee, mind you). Anyway, I am seriously contemplating switching to DISH Network in June once my Center Ice package ends. It costs less for more channels AND I get the actual local channels through the dish (and, not for an extra fee even!). WOW - strange concept!! Sorry, end of rant! :sad:

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Any other Directv customers pissed at Charley Johnson station mgr at KXJB/KVLY! He claims he is not getting the money other stations are so he did not renew the contract between KXJB and Directv and gave what 2 day notice. What an a$$hole. I hate him so much and why should they pay you the same your newscasts are identical. Same People Same News. We sent in a waiver after calling Directv and we are getting a CBS station from New York to fill in the spot the problem it could take 45 days though they say it should be sooner. But if i miss March Madness i am hunting you down Charley Johnson. You greedy bastard. :D

You really think he is being greedy? KVLY/KXJB have had numerous job cuts in the past year or two because of dropping numbers of viewers and increased expenses. It's something happening at stations throughout the country, not just in Fargo/Grand Forks. Advertising fails to make enough money to cover all of the costs involved in running a television station, especially during the change to digital.

Charley Johnson is doing what will help the business he works for survive. Without getting reimbursement (which many, many other stations already get) for the service his stations provide, KXJB/KVLY would become even more of a bare-bones operation. The two stations have combined newscasts as a way to help cut costs, while trying to bring up advertising revenue to help keep the stations alive. They have double the time to advertise thanks to simulcasting on both channels.

KXJB doesn't just feed their newscasts to directv, comcast, midcontinent, dishtv, etc. They feed all of CBS' programming as well. The fee is less about getting paid for the newscasts, but more about getting paid for the the 22 1/2 hours of other programming they air each day.

You can be pissed all you want at Charley Johnson, but it's not his fault. His hand is being forced by the stations' owners (Hoak Media) and by dwindling viewers and advertising revenue. He's hoping enough people complain to Directv which would create enough pressure to force Directv to make a deal.

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I'm just going to assume all you guys don't have any other choice other than DirecTV. Because choosing that over a digital cable package would be insane.

Digital cable is much lower quality than directv or dishnetwork. Digital cable is extremely encoded because of issues with bandwidth. Fiber is helping to fix that, but it's not installed everywhere yet. Satellites offer much higher quality HDTV compared to digital cable.

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I'm just going to assume all you guys don't have any other choice other than DirecTV. Because choosing that over a digital cable package would be insane.

Are you kidding? DirecTV has been a big pusher of HDTV. It has every cable station and then some for a comparable rate (don't have specific numbers). Also for a sports pack you get every FSN station across the country along with many of the comcast sports stations. I must also tell you that their customer service is very good. My only complaint was when the satellite installer company in the Cities went under and another had to pick up the slack but didn't have enough workers so I had to wait an extra day.

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I'm just going to assume all you guys don't have any other choice other than DirecTV. Because choosing that over a digital cable package would be insane.

if midcontinent ever got their heads out of their rearends and got ESPNU so I could would the NCAA hockey tournament I would switch back to them in a heartbeat. but I have Dish and right now everything is ok.

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You can be pissed all you want at Charley Johnson, but it's not his fault. His hand is being forced by the stations' owners (Hoak Media) and by dwindling viewers and advertising revenue. He's hoping enough people complain to Directv which would create enough pressure to force Directv to make a deal.

agree! Charley is the General Manager of a local station OWNED BY A LARGER Texas-based CORPORATION!! ...you do the math Darrell! (You can bring in your brothers Darell and Darell if you need help_)

Don't blame the messanger! :silly: and BTW - local TV has spent MILLIONS preparing for the digital upgrade - which they DID! Why wouldn't they expect to be compensated for providing a better, upgraded signal? Just asking...

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I obviously don't know the inner-workings of TV stations as some do, I'll defer to southpaw on that subject. But I will say that, from a personal experience, I know that Charley Johnson has a track record of being somewhat "uncooperative" when it comes to DirecTV.

I first became a DirecTV subscriber in 1995 as soon as it became available in my area. I live in a rural location, 100+ miles from Fargo. Before satellite, the only clear station we had was WDAZ (that's the closest transmitter). The other three were all always "snowy". WDAY was unwatchable. This despite our antenna being mounted atop an 80 foot tower! Then DirecTV came and we had the feeds for all four major networks crystal clear. After a few years, when all the hub-ub about the nations local stations being left out (understandable), we lost them all. DirecTV walked us through the waiver process so that we could obtain written approval from the local stations in order to receive the NY/LA network feeds back. KXJB, WDAY, WDAZ, and KVRR all granted the request immediately and the national feeds were restored for CBS, FOX, and ABC. Charley Johnson, then the GM of KVLY was the only one who refused. I wrote him several times and even spoke with him on the phone on one occaison trying to explain our situation to no avail. He reiterated time and again that "there are other avenues beyond DirecTV that will allow you to enjoy NBC programming". We went without NBC for about 2 and a half years, putting up with our "snowy" reception via outdoor antenna when we absolutely had to watch something on that channel, until DirecTV finally picked up Fargo's local stations.

I would imagine we will go through this same process as we are now when DirecTV's agreement with KVLY runs out in the future.

BTW, who's playing in the AFC championship? :silly:

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OK, this nonsense has gone on long enough. I found the whole situation mildly amusing up until this point. I figure they would take a few days to figure it out and things would be back to normal. However, now that I have to find a new location to watch the AFC Championship, I'm officially tired of this crap. I refuse to use rabbit ears on my HD flat-screen television.

I was always under the impression that CBS was free and the station made its money off advertising from the huge number of viewership. Mr. Charles Johnson needs to realize that his job is to increase the local viewership of the CBS affiliate he manages to increase the advertising revenue. From reading his statements on the official website, it almost seems like he is trying to convince people to switch from Direct TV to Dish Network or the local cable company.

I would hope that current advertising clients realize there are significanltly fewer customers watching their commercials these days because of the current decision by KXJB and are taking appropriate action to reduce their advertising fees and/or cancelling future spots.

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You might want to find out how much longer they have a deal with CBS and NBC. Same thing could happen.

It really wasn't the KXJB thing that we made the switch for. Looking to upgrade to HD DVR's and DirecTV will give a free one to a new customer, but not to a 15+ year customer. With Dish, we are getting 2 HD DVR's and a regular reciever (all at no cost), a ton of channels and less $$.

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You might want to find out how much longer they have a deal with CBS and NBC. Same thing could happen.

[/q]

It will eventually be the "same thing" with every commercial broadcaster - not just CBS or NBC (you don't think ABC, Fox, et al are watching how this whole thing is going and will jump RIGHT ON THE BUS once someone starts writing checks??)

The commercial stations have spent millions upgrading to digital...why shouldn't we be compensated for this expense? Why the hell do you think you're entitled to get TV for free? What makes YOU so special? Those were the gold old days my friend...it's 2009 - get your checkbook out douchbag!

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It will eventually be the "same thing" with every commercial broadcaster - not just CBS or NBC (you don't think ABC, Fox, et al are watching how this whole thing is going and will jump RIGHT ON THE BUS once someone starts writing checks??)

The commercial stations have spent millions upgrading to digital...why shouldn't we be compensated for this expense? Why the hell do you think you're entitled to get TV for free? What makes YOU so special? Those were the gold old days my friend...it's 2009 - get your checkbook out douchbag!

Wow. I don't know what prompted the personal attack. I said nothing against what KXJB is doing. All I was pointing out to Siouxmama is that the same thing could happen if she got Dish.

Lighten up.

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Wow. I don't know what prompted the personal attack. I said nothing against what KXJB is doing. All I was pointing out to Siouxmama is that the same thing could happen if she got Dish.

Lighten up.

I think SiouxMeNow was talking about the attitudes of the TV networks to satellite providers and the viewing public; I don't think it was directed at you. And I think he is spot on with his comments. I have always had a very low opinion of TV executives at the local and national level. They think it's good business to screw over the viewing public (the same people that make it possible for them to have the jobs they have) and then they whine and moan when things don't work out in their favor. Look in the mirror boys, that's the problem with television today! ;)

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Actually I'm more than willing to pay for the programming. I already do pay a fee to direct tv for the local channels. I called direct tv today to see if there was any other way I could pay to receive the channel so I could watch the football game today. The fact is I was more than willing to write a check to be able to watch the game today. Direct TV said there was no way I could get the game. I admit I'm rather ticked off today at both CBS and Direct TV. I'm not quite ready to switch to Dish Network yet, although I'm much closer than I ever thought I'd be. I guess this is just one of those battles I'm gonna lose. I hope everyone else enjoys the game.

P.S. Does anyone know a way to get the game via internet?

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Actually I'm more than willing to pay for the programming. I already do pay a fee to direct tv for the local channels. I called direct tv today to see if there was any other way I could pay to receive the channel so I could watch the football game today. The fact is I was more than willing to write a check to be able to watch the game today. Direct TV said there was no way I could get the game. I admit I'm rather ticked off today at both CBS and Direct TV. I'm not quite ready to switch to Dish Network yet, although I'm much closer than I ever thought I'd be. I guess this is just one of those battles I'm gonna lose. I hope everyone else enjoys the game.

P.S. Does anyone know a way to get the game via internet?

http://www.channelsurfing.net

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Wow. I don't know what prompted the personal attack. I said nothing against what KXJB is doing. All I was pointing out to Siouxmama is that the same thing could happen if she got Dish.

Lighten up.

Yeah, I know it could be a possibility to lose the network(s) with Dish, too. But, like I said, it wasn't really the KXJB thing that was the final straw.

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remember when the "dish" systems started out and the big outcry was..."WE CAN'T GET THE LOCAL CHANNELS?" The local satellite services eventually were able to ADD the local channels due to DEMAND by their subscibers - (and didn't mind payng for it then...because their SUBSCRIBERS DEMANDED IT!) - fast forward to 2009! Local Network TV has spent MILLIONS of dollars to beat the federal mandate to UPGRADE to DIGITAL TV! No one is compensating US for this...so guess who has to pay... the CUSTOMER!! SORRY! Last time I checked...it's how FEDEAL MANDATE via CAPITALISM works....we provide a better DIGITAL signal - you pay....sorry but that's how it goes...and for you Satellite customers blaming local TV? CANCEL SATELLITE and I guarentee they'll ask you back within a month...

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