Climbing while Rome burns
FCC Chair Brendan Carr likes to climb towers. I did too, decades ago. That kind of thing runs in my family. I also salute the workers who do it. As does Carr. That’s the claimed reason why he climbed the KELO TV tower in South Dakota last summer, and WCTI TV* a few days ago.
Meanwhile, over-the-air (OTA) TV has been tanking in the US since it went digital in 2008. Lots of reasons. TV screens have improved to 4K, UHD, and HDR, which streaming supports, while over-the-air TV stays stuck in the ’00s, with 480, 720p or 1080i resolutions. “NextGen TV” (ATSC 3.0) is slowly being rolled out for OTA, but with big technical limitations. plus absent tuners in most late-model TVs. Meanwhile, viewing continues to decline. Let’s take a survey. Are you watching over-the-air TV, meaning with an antenna? Do you know anybody watching it? Do you even know if your TV can get it? Didn’t think so.† Bonus link.
*Back in the early ’80s, WCTI was a client of my ad agency, together with WNCT-TV and WITN-TV. Some fun stories about that, which I’ll save for another time.
†If you do watch over-the-air TV, let me know where and how you’re getting it. Here’s how I’m doing it.
I’m only 27 years behind
Edhat: Santa Barbarian and WWII veteran Stanley Isaac Clothier is now 105 years old.
Interesting in any case
On this view in MarineTraffic.com, click on the tankers (red directional symbols) approaching the Strait of Hormuz from both directions, and tell us if the strait is open, not, or what.
Or re-lives
OpenCola lives. HT Cory.
A possible MyTerms tool?
Just discovered Datasette. Created by Simon Willison.
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