WAVE-TV 3/Louisville appearing on converters?

We received word via email from Friend of TSMW Rich Emery yesterday that WOTH-LP/LD 25/Cincinnati was down for technical issues...and then that there MIGHT be a flicker of life on RF 47 as WAVE-TV 3/Louisville, KY occupies that frequency.

Today, Rich emailed us:

Long story short, WOTH's digital signal on ch. 47 has been down for over 2 days -- I called them yesterday, and was told they were down for technical reasons and hoped to be back "within a couple of days".

Well, yesterday I got a glimmer of SOMETHING that ID'd as 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 -- I thought it might be WAVE, since it's also digital 47. No picture ever formed, and no other channel ID appeared -- until this morning, when all three WAVE channels popped up, large as life!

Wonder if they've boosted digital power, and if so, whether that plays any part in WOTH's problems.

Indeed, that's how it looks to us. WOTH's digital allocation was channel 47, like WAVE 3's.

If WAVE 3 has indeed boosted their digital power, that is a serious problem for WOTH. As it is, WAVE 3's analog signal is viewable, with rabbit ears in the right spot, in much of Greater Cincinnati.

Of course, the analog 3 allocation is low-VHF, whereas the digital 47 allocation is a high number on the UHF band...

We'll follow this story throughout the week. And, if you have any observations about it, email us at tristatemediawatch@gmail.com.