Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Welcome To Thrush TV: UNCLE Still Blocked





PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY - 10/29/2014

UNCLE fans still aren't happy.  In fact, they're even unhappier.

As detailed in another post the Plattsburgh MeTV affiliate station has been blocking transmission of The Man From UNCLE for its half-hour Vermont news program at 10 PM.

At first WPUTZ-TV on Channel 5.3 would cut to the last 30 minutes of each UNCLE episode after the news.   Now the station is has even eliminated that on Sunday nights, showing reruns of The Twilight Zone.

Channel 5 simulcasts the same news at subchannel 5.2 .  So people can get their Vermont news fix there.

The odd part is that local news does conflict with another MeTV program on Saturday night, Svengoolie, that features old Universal Studio monster movies in a two hour format hosted by a goofy host.  The last time I checked at 10:30 PM the station threw in another half-hour program but then it broadcast all two hours of Svengoolie, one hour behind its regular schedule.

So why doesn't UNCLE get the same treatment?

Gee, was it something I said, WPUTZ-TV?

I heard from one UNCLE fan who was wondering why reruns of The Twilight Zone ended up on his video recording when he was trying to time-shift UNCLE.

Because Channel 5, despite being located in New York State, is gonna to cram its Vermont news on both subchannels, like it or not.  Your viewership doesn't count as either a New York news watcher or UNCLE fan.

Remember: The public owns the airwaves.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'm an UNCLE fan and I just wrote to MeTV about this. People can write through the MeTV contact page here: http://metvnetwork.com/contact/

Or, you can send a snail mail here:

Me-TV Network
26 N Halsted
Chicago, IL 60661

I wrote to them awhile back when WPTZ wasn't "listing" MeTV shows or even making them available for broadcast on TV receivers through Windows Media Center. Things changed very quickly...maybe a coincidence....but, maybe not.