# Denver low-power MTV2 Channel 55?



## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

During the Viacom showdown, I finally got around to putting an OTA antenna on the roof. As I flipped through the channels, I was surprised to see a slightly grainy version of MTV2 showing up on Channel 55. (I got to watch Viacom's alarmist crawl without E*'s inelegant black bar.)

I figured that somebody nearby left some in-home cable-sharing broadcaster on that channel, but the channel never changed. When I dug around online, I found references to several low-power TV stations across the country running the "MTV2" network. (WTF is up with that, BTW? Why pick MTV2? But I digress.)

I've Googled and browsed, but I can't find any reference to this station online. I even watched as much as I could, but I never heard any station ID announced. Anybody here have any idea what this station is?


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## DJ Rob (Jul 24, 2003)

I haven't found any info on it either.
It comes in pretty good here in Westminster...it's in mono though...


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## DJ Rob (Jul 24, 2003)

I did find this:

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?list=0&facid=67552


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

With that shred of info, I found that it's K55IO, owned by the Syncom Media Group. I could find next to nothing about Syncom, except that it also owns K23GJ in Colorado Springs. I wonder if that station has MTV2 too.

In addition to everything else, I wonder what the LPTV business plan is. Is Viacom giving them money to broadcast MTV2 to the uncabled masses? Do they plan to build enough of an audience to sell local ads?


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## juan ellitinez (Jan 31, 2003)

mtv2 bought out the the juke box network . They used to run on low power stations and cable systems across america .They had a 900# to call to request videos. They would charge about 2 bucks a request


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## juan ellitinez (Jan 31, 2003)

here's a link.....http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cach...uest_20radio_20station+juke-box-network&hl=en


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## Charles Oliva (Apr 22, 2002)

Juan is correct. It was a service based out of Miami known as "The Box", they had an outlet here in Honolulu on Ch.56. The big claim to fame was that they offered videos that MTV wouldn't air, like Too $hort, and was mostly rap oriented. MTV, being the pirahna that they were, bought the service and switched it to MTV2's feed, then M2, which wasn't on many cable outlets at the time.


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## TonyM (Aug 14, 2003)

Minneapolis has one of these too....Channel 13


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I remember it being FTA on C-Band.


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## DJ Rob (Jul 24, 2003)

So I'm wondering - how is this station making any money?
There aren't any local commercials on it.
Do you think Viacom is paying them to carry MTV2?
And why MTV2?
Why not have one of their other networks on there instead...


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## TonyM (Aug 14, 2003)

DJ Rob said:


> So I'm wondering - how is this station making any money?
> There aren't any local commercials on it.
> Do you think Viacom is paying them to carry MTV2?
> And why MTV2?
> Why not have one of their other networks on there instead...


at least in Minneapolis Viacom owns the channel. 
13 WBWX-CA MTV2 110W Viacom/CBS


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## jegrant (Mar 24, 2002)

I always figured that it must have been part of the deal when Viacom bought out The Box, that they would compensate the LP affiliates. What surprises me is that this is apparently a worthwhile long-term proposition. With MTV2's cable & sat coverage, I'm surprised they continue to pay for LPTV carriage. (I assume they pay. I have never actually found proof of it. But why else are they on these stations? Local ad sales can't pay that well.)

Also, this is why the program "Control Freak" is still on for a few hours each week; because the Control Freak system actually is regionalized, this counts as "locally produced programming" for the Class A TV MTV2 affiliates. (Control Freak takes votes online for which video will appear next; votes for areas that have a local affiliate are directed to that affiliate, which, to make a long story short, has a fancy TiVo-type unit that the videos are played off of. The rest of the votes (for areas where there is no affiliate, but just cable/satellite coverage) affect a nationally-targeted system instead.) (Again, I can't say for sure they're still doing this, but I don't know how else they are meeting the local programming requirements for Class A then.) (You can also see some really awful children's Educational/Informational TV programs, usually in early mornings, on OTA MTV2 Class A affiliates.)


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## kb7oeb (Jun 16, 2004)

The Box station in Phoenix turned into Home Shopping Network (or one of those). Do these shopping channels have to show local and educational content too? I have never seen anything else on them but they are deleted from my TV's tuner so I usually don't see them.


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## TonyM (Aug 14, 2003)

kb7oeb said:


> The Box station in Phoenix turned into Home Shopping Network (or one of those). Do these shopping channels have to show local and educational content too? I have never seen anything else on them but they are deleted from my TV's tuner so I usually don't see them.


Ive never seen Channel 13 in Mpls show local content...


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