We. Are. Peoria (Area)

There is limited spectrum available for over-the-air broadcasting, and those licensed to use it should provide programming that serves the public interest. But there's one station in Peoria that shows (almost) nothing but infomercials 24 hours a day, seven days a week: WAOE-TV, channel 59.1.

The Federal Communications Commission requires there be three hours of children's programming per week, and WAOE provides exactly that: three hours per week, on Sunday mornings. It also rebroadcasts WTVP's "At Issue" program once a week on Sunday mornings. Other than that, it's wall-to-wall advertising. In other words, they provide practically no service to the community. It's a waste of spectrum.

WAOE is owned by a company with no local ties to the community (typical for media ownership these days): Four Seasons Peoria, LLC, registered in Delaware (doesn't everyone incorporate there?), but with a Los Angeles address, a joint venture of Venture Technologies Group, LLC, of Los Angeles, California, and Malibu Broadcasting of Cleveland, Ohio. From September 2005 to December 2014 they had a joint service agreement with Granite Broadcasting to operate the station--Granite owned WEEK-TV at the time. Now the station appears to be on auto-pilot. According to Dun & Bradstreet, they have one employee (apparently Sara Horn, station manager and Bradley University graduate, the only employee listed on WAOE's website) and just over $20,000 in sales revenue.

Isn't this channel affiliated with the CW network?

DennisinMH wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 7:54 am Isn't this channel affiliated with the CW network?

Nope.

What happened to MeTV?

RPlant wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 5:40 pm What happened to MeTV?

We've never had MeTV in Peoria. 59.2 used to have Antenna TV, but their affiliation expired. Now they have Light TV. But 59.1 is all infomercials.

If you have a rooftop antenna, it's possible to pull in channel 55 from Springfield, which has MeTV.

cjsummers wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 11:16 am

RPlant wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 5:40 pm What happened to MeTV?

We've never had MeTV in Peoria. 59.2 used to have Antenna TV, but their affiliation expired. Now they have Light TV. But 59.1 is all infomercials.

If you have a rooftop antenna, it's possible to pull in channel 55 from Springfield, which has MeTV.

Thanks for that. I couldn't exactly remember what 59.2 was and MeTV sounded like the programming. We have a rooftop (DB4), put it is pointed towards BN to pull in FOX with a stronger signal. All of the Peoria channels still tune in strong, but I get Decatur's NBC instead of Springfield's 55.

cjsummers wrote: ↑Wed Dec 16, 2020 6:49 am The Federal Communications Commission requires there be three hours of children's programming per week, and WAOE provides exactly that: three hours per week, on Sunday mornings. It also rebroadcasts WTVP's "At Issue" program once a week on Sunday mornings. Other than that, it's wall-to-wall advertising. In other words, they provide practically no service to the community. It's a waste of spectrum.

Doesn't the FCC also require them to continue to broadcast something just to retain their license? I don't disagree at all with your point, but I'm not sure that there is anything that can be done except wait for a new buyer and new programming content.

https://www.fcc.gov/general/broadcast-c ... ite-guides

The FCC does not control the programming schedules of radio or television stations, either broadcast or subscription services such as cable, satellite radio or satellite television. The FCC approves licenses for broadcast radio and television stations and regulates some aspects of their operations, but it does not impose rules for selecting and scheduling programs.

Scheduling programs
Radio and television broadcasters and subscription service providers are expected to be aware of the problems and needs of the communities they serve and to present programs that address local issues. They are not required to air all programming that may be available to them from networks or other programming suppliers.

Complaints and concerns
All concerns or comments about radio or television programming should be directed to the broadcast or subscription service provider so that the people responsible for making the programming decisions can become better informed about audience opinions.

You're right that there's really nothing that can be done to force them to change. But it would be nice if there would be community pressure on the owners to provide value to the public. Publish the names of the owners, give them bad press, maybe have the city send them a letter asking that they provide something other than infomercials. I don't know. If they were a cable channel, I wouldn't care, but they're OTA and using valuable, limited spectrum. It's almost like they're just squatting.

Another terrible station is channel 19 (WHOI). They're no longer affiliated with ABC (that affiliation moved to 25.2), so now all channel 19 shows is 24 hours of TikTok videos plus infomercials. That's another waste of spectrum. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, essentially the same company that owns channel 43 (WYZZ). WYZZ is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, but the same people who own that company also own Sinclair, so it's just a shell game to get around FCC rules against ownership concentration.

cjsummers wrote: ↑Sat Dec 19, 2020 8:48 am You're right that there's really nothing that can be done to force them to change. But it would be nice if there would be community pressure on the owners to provide value to the public. Publish the names of the owners, give them bad press, maybe have the city send them a letter asking that they provide something other than infomercials. I don't know. If they were a cable channel, I wouldn't care, but they're OTA and using valuable, limited spectrum. It's almost like they're just squatting.

Another terrible station is channel 19 (WHOI). They're no longer affiliated with ABC (that affiliation moved to 25.2), so now all channel 19 shows is 24 hours of TikTok videos plus infomercials. That's another waste of spectrum. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, essentially the same company that owns channel 43 (WYZZ). WYZZ is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, but the same people who own that company also own Sinclair, so it's just a shell game to get around FCC rules against ownership concentration.

It is interesting to read up on Low Power Television (LPTV) channels. I don't know what kind of range 15kW would get someone, but a community group could start something like that. I've seen some homebrew kits to do something similar with low power FM, but with all of the streaming and WiFi available I'm not sure its worth the effort to operate your own home radio station.

Digital LPTV stations are limited to an effective radiated power of 3 kilowatts (VHF) and 15 kilowatts (UHF). There are no limits on transmitter output power and on antenna height, provided the tower structure has been registered with the FCC.