Here’s a footnote on an earlier story: Former TV3 sports director Joe Downs is off to Lima, Ohio, as sports director of a larger station. (See http://www.wlio.com/staff/kozav.aspx). Downs had earlier played a role in the competition between Harrisonburg’s TV3 and Charlottesville’s NBC29, moving to to NBC29 as a sports and news reporter. NBC29’s website then reported: “Joe Downs comes to NBC29 with more than a decade of experience in sportscasting . . . his true passion is high school and college athletics. Joe has spent the last 5 and a half years covering sports in the Shenandoah Valley and looks forward to bringing his knowledge of the area to the NBC29 Sports Team.”

Kelly Creswell, news reporter with WHSV-TV in Harrisonburg, has accepted a position at Newschannel 8 in Washington, D.C. Creswell joined the Harrisonburg station after graduating from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in May 2006. She grew up in Massachusetts.

As TV enthusiasts already know, most over-the-air TV signals will be shut down early in 2009. Where does that leave Bridgewater residents? Not too badly off, according to local hobbyists. They say the new digital signals are fairly strong. Those with older TVs will need a converter box, and the government will pay $40 toward the cost of around $60.

The best converter box for local reception appears to be the Zenith DTT900. It handles the mountain echoes and reflections between here, Charlottesville and Richmond well. The best antennas for getting Charlottesville and Richmond signals are laid out here.

Update: In some other areas, big problems with reception are expected. Many viewers, it seems, will have to have outdoor antennas to receive quality signals.

After being the first locally with widescreen news, NBC29 of Charlottesville has gone the rest of the way to high definition. (See news release here.)

Here’s what we said when they went widescreen but not hi-def:

It’s not actually high-definition but even in standard definition it looks great on the newer widescreen TVs. Notice that there are no black bars left and right of the main picture on a widescreen TV. A Channel 29 technical staff member explains, “The reason for the near-HD quality in the studio is the camera chain is digital from the 16 X 9 CCD image sensors to your TV screen. There is no analog conversion anywhere in the system.” There’s more for the technically inclined, but for now Channel 29 fans have a great, near-high-definition picture on local news. Channel 3, below, uses black bars left and right of its main picture for now. Of course, on conventional TV’s the picture fills the screen and there are no black bars. However, there are more widescreen TV’s being sold every day.

Do you wonder where your favorite former personalities from TV3 went? An unofficial listing is available at the TV3 alumni page.

Local TV viewers choosing satellite service haven’t had an easy way to get Harrisonburg’s WHSV-TV3, but that’s changing. TV3 has announced that its three major channels are now available on DirecTV. Before the change, satellite customers had to put up an antenna or subscribe to a basic cable package to get TV3. Now a DirecTV subscription can be set up for TV3 plus other broadcast and cable networks in a choice of packages. “Finally, people who have had such a strong desire to get WHSV, especially local news, weather and sports, will be able to get the station,” says Tracey Jones, Vice-President and General Manager of WHSV. Here’s more on the story from WHSV’s website. Here’s a link to DirecTV. And finally, here’s a link on HDTV and multicasting in our area.

Recent rate increases by local cable provider Comcast have Bridgewater residents looking at alternatives. Although cable remains the easiest way to get TV signals, some residents report success with a mix of old and new technology — the old-fashioned outdoor antenna teamed up with newer TVs and digital receivers. There’s a page on one setup that works in Bridgewater here. Also check what your neighbors are saying about Comcast and the alternatives at Bridgewater Buzz.

There’s a ratings battle in progress among local TV stations — not an unusual occurrence, but there are a few new developments:

• NBC-29 is pushing to have out-of-market NBC affiliates taken off local cable outlets.
• TV3 is going for Waynesboro-Staunton-Augusta viewers with more news coverage of the area.
• NBC-29 has started a 24-hour weather channel for its coverage area, with lots of Valley readings and forecasts.
• TV3 is doing significant Winchester-area news coverage with its TV3-Winchester operation.

See what posters to Bridgewater Buzz say about this topic.