Super Bowl Update

The recent retransmission consent disputes between Time Warner Cable and the owners of a couple of stations in the Louisville market - both of which led to those stations being blacked out for a while for folks who, you know, actually like to watch network shows and local news - have had me doing some thinking over the past several weeks.

There's really a fairly simple solution to the problem of occasionally losing a local channel because a cable company and a station owner can't agree on money.  It'll cost you a few bucks in the short run, but it's well worth it.

That solution: Buy (or build) an antenna and get your local channels over the air (OTA).

You can walk into just about any big box store and find a good selection of decent antennas for anywhere from $10 to $50, and companies like St. Louis-based AntennasDirect offer a mind-boggling variety of types and sizes of antennas ... but if that's more than you'd be willing to pay, building your own isn't at all expensive ... and it's actually kind of fun.  (I should know; I've built a good many, both for myself and others.)

If you have a digital tuner-equipped TV, the antenna is all you'll need to keep local TV stations coming your way no matter what happens.  You may also find that the picture and sound are clearer; quite a few folks have told me they've noticed this.

Of course, if you're still using an older TV, you'll need a converter box.  Those aren't terribly expensive; $50 will buy you a new one at Walmart, and you can find 'em on eBay as well, often for considerably less than that.

The nicest part about having an antenna handy is that you won't have to worry about a local station not being available to you when you might need it most, such as during bad weather ... or when your friendly cable provider gets into a spat with the owner of the station.

And there's another good reason to go OTA:  More channels.  Many stations nowadays offer multiple streams of programming.  For example, Evansville's 14WFIE has NBC on channel 14.1, 14Xtra (which has weather, news and other selected programming) on 14.2, and This TV (a network that shows classic MGM movies and some older TV shows) on 14.3. Public broadcasters WNIN and KET also offer three streams, and there are some stations in some parts of the country with even more.

If you're interested in knowing what channels you can expect to get if you choose to install an antenna, I recommend using TVFool.com's interactive map.  I've found it to be very accurate and helpful.  All you do is plug in your address (or you can use a GPS device to get even more accurate, if you're so inclined) and the site does the rest.

When using the site, you can adjust the height of your theoretical antenna setup (it uses 10 feet as the default), and the stations you can reasonably expect to receive will be shown on the Google map.  The list you'll get is color-coded, too, with green-highlighted stations the easiest to receive, followed by yellows, reds and purples that are more challenging.

Another handy feature of the mapping system - very useful when aiming your antenna - is the ability to draw lines from your location to the stations.  Broader green lines point to the stronger stations, thinner ones to the weaker ones.

Consider looking into an antenna for your home.  It's a wise investment ... and you never know - you just might be pleasantly surprised by what's on the air.

As always, if you have comments or questions, let me know.  I'll be glad to help you sort out the details.