Humboldt HDTV Digital Television Information

The DTV transition in Humboldt County, California is so low-key, that you wouldn’t even know it was happening, if you relied upon news from the websites of local digital television broadcasters, that is.

To put it mildly, web sites belonging to local digital (and analog) television stations in Northern California are nearly all but useless, when it comes to finding helpful information, especially of a technical nature. With the sole exception of our local DTV PBS affiliate KEET, most local TV stations look as if they haven’t had a major website redesign in years, or have farmed-out web development to some third-party who has no interest in providing the community with any information at all.

Local NBC TV affiliate KIEM, has not made any major changes to their website in years. Last I checked, their only contact e-mail was being directed at the now-defunct local ISP Humboldt Internet. I have attempted to contact them in the past for information via e-mail, but have never received any type of reply. At first glance, it looks as if the station might be moving into the 21st century by offering streaming video of their nightly newscast. However, newscasts available on the site are usually outdated, often not adding any new material for several days at a time. To make matters worse, the station seems to be relying on some trashy third-party called VEOH to provide its streaming services. Why trashy? Just try clicking on the menu to watch any of KIEM’s previous newscasts. You’ll immediately be transported to a page that seems to specialize in streaming soft-core porn clips. As of last night, next to KIEM’s footage on VEOH are clips from the Marilyn Chambers hardcore XXX rated porn movie Behind the Green Door as well as nightly clips from The Naked News. Every single time I have viewed any of KIEM’s news broadcasts on this site, I have been bombarded with thumbnail images of pornography. The only part of KIEM’s website that seems to be updated regularly is Jim Bernard’s weather forecast. I’m guessing that Jim probably has to upload everything himself. There is also a link on the homepage to a video describing how to hook-up a DTV converter box. When you click on it, there are thumbnail previews of video clips titled “Two Girls, One Shower” and “How To Breast Feed“. Other than that, there isn’t much useful or up-to-date information to be found on the DTV switch, or anything else.

KAEF-TV, Channel 29, by contrast, offers nothing. No website. No technical information. Nothing. Their sister station KRCR in Redding has a website, but that is it. This local ABC affiliate is pretty much just a signal pumped-in from out of town, and they seem to have little to no interest in the local community or its viewers. If you want any information on DTV, HDTV or the digital television transition, you’ll need to keep looking.

This brings us to Eureka Television Group, which for some reason the Federal Communications Commission is allowing to own the majority of broadcast television stations in Humboldt County. ETG operates KVIQ (CBS), KBVU (Fox), KUVU (The CW), KEMY (MyNetwork) and KEUV (Univision). As of today, the site’s information page on the digital TV transition was last updated “Wednesday, 18 June 2008″. Yes, it’s been almost a year since they have added any new information. The rest of the site is pretty much useless. Some TV programming listings and what looks to be some syndicated, national news that is automatically added to the site via an RSS feed. No e-mail links or contact info, other than phone numbers. The “about us” page was last updated in 2006, and gives a brief bio of the station’s current owner Chester Smith. The only problem here is, Smith died in August of 2008.

The last stop on this mind-numbing journey through Humboldt County’s DTV broadcasters is local PBS affiliate KEET. Fortunately, KEET seems to be the exception to the rule among local digital TV broadcasters. Besides updated programming listings and offering wealth of information about PBS programming, you will find full contact information, along with updated news on the local DTV transition. Strangely, they even reply to e-mails! Going even further than that, KEET has actually gone out of their way to educate the public on DTV issues and seems to be the only broadcaster in the area that makes an effort to keep viewers and the local media informed as to what they are doing. Seeing as they are reliant upon public donations, one would expect them to want to keep the public tuned-in. It’s sad that they seem to be the only local broadcaster going so far out of their way to keep local residents informed though.

In closing, the Internet provides a fantasic opportunity for local television stations to keep the public informed on the DTV transition, as well as many other subjects. In most TV markets, stations take full-advantage of this fact. Updating a website is certainly much cheaper than providing airtime on their stations. Alas, KIEM is the only DTV station in the area that even bothers doing a local newscast anymore, so it appears that most local stations are not very interested in providing viewers with much more than straight “entertainment” these days.

UPDATE: As of this writing in mid-December of 2009, KIEM-TV’s website seems to be abandoned. The last newscast that was uploaded to the site was on October 12th. That was over two months ago. The contact e-mail address for the news department is now a @hotmail.com address. There are some error messages on pages due to broken scripts. I haven’t watched any of the local TV channels in months now, so I have no idea if they are even still on the air. Nothing surprises me anymore in Humboldt County.

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