Weird MyNetwork arrangement in Grand Rapids MI

14 - former UPN, not MyNetworkTV
41 - ABC affiliate playing MNT on sub-schannel x.2
8 -- NBC affiliate playing MNT on sub-channel x.2

All broadcasting the same Desire/Fashion House programs at the same
time. I wonder if there's any advantage to simulcasting the same shows
across 3 different stations?

akjack...

Perhaps each station believes there is an audience for those programs.

I guess the former UPN is not relevant since it is "not MyNetworkTV".

David Levy...

Both WOOD (channel 8) and WOTV (channel 41) are owned by LIN TV
Corporation. Assuming that they have nothing else of consequence to
broadcast via their sub-channels, they might as well use both for this
purpose. There probably are people who receive one but not the other.

Grand Rapids has no channel 14, so I assume that you're referring to
WXSP (channel 15), which simulcasts as WOBC (channel 14) for Battle
Creek. This low-power station *is* a MyNetworkTV affiliate, and it's
owned by the aforementioned LIN TV Corporation. It also simulcasts as
WOLP 27 (Grand Rapids), WOMS 29 (Muskegon), WOHO 33 (Holland), and

videonovels...

.

That is weird. Why would a single station broadcast on 6 different
channels? We don't have anything like that back home in Pennsylvania.
Why not just use *1* channel to broadcast to Grand Rapids and the
surrounding towns?

WOKZ 50 (Kalamazoo). I assume that this station is more difficult to

akjack...

Those additonal channels are likely to be Translator stations.
They exist because there are places in a served area where the
main channel cannot be received.

Translator stations are a means of increasing a coverage
area at minimum expense. Many PBS stations have one or more

videonovels...

Hmmm, wonder why they don't call them "repeaters" (since that's what
they are doing). Anyway, thanks for the info. As I said I'd never
seen that before... back home in PA, all the stations broadcast over a
50-100 mile radius on one single channel.

But I suppose if Michigan is sparsely-populated (rural) instead of
densely populated like my home (urban), then it makes more sense to
have multiple low-power stations rather than braodcast to empty
countryside.

translator stations.

akjack...

A TV repeater station outputs on the same channel it receives.

videonovels...

.

Oh okay. Wonder why they didn't use the same channel then, but with
multiple repeaters? Advertising yourself as "TV-15" would be less
confusing then "TV-15, 29, 44, 56,..."

The TV translator station outputs on a different channel from what
it receives.

Here's a link to a Wikipedia article...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-power_broadcasting

receive OTA in fringe areas than the aforementioned digital
sub-channels are, but it's carried by DirecTV and most local cable
systems.