Talk:KATA-CD

Questions

Why does this article (and the FCC application I believe) say Mesquite? (and/or what terminology should be used: liscenced, application, broadcasting, etc)

The antenna is apparently just west of Cedar Hill, and according to the map, doesn't even reach Mesquite. (and IIRC, among an antenna tower collection hill)

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=KATA-CA
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=CA1174161.html
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=CA1046520.html
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=CA706676.html

And if the station is still LP (15), when is the station supposed to be finish with construction of a new tower to go to Class A power (50)?

I resigned from Wikipedia almost a year ago, but I can't resist this. I lived in Dallas, just inside the city limits of Mesquite, from April 8, 1995 until January 5, 2005, with no cable or satellite system hook-up, just VHF rabbit ears and a UHF loop as my television provider. Consequently, I viewed many LP telecasts in the area during that period.

To answer the unsigned (even after the fact by a 'bot!) questions: The operators' office/telephone number was in Mesquite, and since I lived spitting distance from the Mesquite line and picked Ch. 60 up clear as anything, the signal must have carried at least well into that town. As the website of the operators of chs. 46 & 60 included a map indicating Mesquite as part of their coverage area, "the map" (whatever Anonymous was referring to by that) was wrong. That telephone number, incidentally, was invariably answered by the most generic voice mail recording imaginable. It began, "You have dialed..." then the number was recited and each digit was obviously recorded separately. There was no indication of the identity of the "owner" of the number at all.

History: In the summer of 1995, a scan of my TV dial turned up American Independent Network on ch. 60 (the logo on the linked-in article does not match the very generic one seen on-air in Dallas/Mesquite). After several months they began simulcasting KJJM-LP ch. 46's America's Voice (not Family Net as the article says, which ch. 46 switched to only later, and were still carrying when they went off the air--see below) programming, but only part time. Otherwise, they had something called Financial News Network (despite the fact that the article linked-in there says it ended in 1991; maybe somebody else revived the name), which had coverage of minor sports and a SportsCenter-like scores and highlights show on the weekend. In 1998, they switched to the America One Network. They also had two-hour blocks of what seemed to be Public Access TV programs, increasing in frequency until there was suddenly several consecutive days of such, and hardly any (if any at all) thereafter. In 2002, they announced on their website that they were forced to take KATA off of ch. 60 (if "forced" was not their own word, it was irrefutably their meaning; the move, according to them, was involuntary), and were building a new transmitter on ch. 50. The lack of a similar announcement for their KJJM was surprising, as that channel had already been announced as the high definition--not digital--counterpart for ch. 44, which relayed a shopping service satellite feed--and neither, let alone both, is listed even in the defunct section of Template:Dallas-Fort Worth TV. Telecasts on ch. 60 soon ceased. Not long after, both KJJM and the operators' website were gone and their telephone was "...not a working number" (per the recording reached). Note that I had been checking said website rather frequently in hopes of finding an announcement as to when they'd start transmission on ch. 50, but that never appeared. Neither did one of ch. 46 ceasing to be available for LP use nor a warning of cessation of all operations. The local operators' website disappearing is very indicative that their KATA never went on the air via ch. 50. If a KATA did start telecasts on ch. 50 in October 2005 as the article claims, it must have been by a completely different ownership/management which happened to obtain the same call letters of the two-years plus defunct ch. 60 broadcaster. All of the above put out as statements of fact are just that, and is the truth of KATA-LP, chs. 60/50, Mesquite-Dallas, TX, up through the first week of 2005.

More examples of why people do not dare trust Wikipedia! 173.184.23.63 (talk) 20:51, 28 May 2011 (UTC)