The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / Why Does WGRZ Do This & What Happened To The CC On WUTV?

**Posted by RadioActive** November 5, 2024 7:59 am

Two questions about Buffalo TV that have been driving me crazy for the past few weeks. (If you’re the victim of simsub, you may not have seen the first one.)

WGRZ-TV

Every night, at 10:59, when NBC’s primetime line-up ends for the night, WGRZ always (and I mean always) cuts off the end of the credits by several seconds, to go immediately to their 11 PM late news. There’s nothing really wrong with this, I suppose, except that it makes the station look amateurish, especially if they’re in the middle of a network promo.

You get “Thursday on N…) and the “BC” gets cut off. Or the theme music ends in the middle.

It’s quickly become apparent they’re doing it on purpose since it happens every single night. But why? If they’re trying to prevent tune out to another station’s news, those precious few seconds aren’t going to make a lot of difference. But from a production standpoint, it looks and sounds terrible.

WUTV-TV

There’s nothing wrong with my hearing, despite all those years in radio, but I occasionally like to watch TV with the closed captioning on, a habit I got used to while taking care of my elderly late mother for many years.

For at least the past three weeks, there has been no CC on any show on WUTV – not on their local shows and not on their Fox Network shows. I’ve asked my friend with the U.S. sat dish to check (he gets WNYW-TV Channel 5 from New York) and he confirms they’re there.

What would cause Channel 29’s captioning to disappear this long? I wonder if they even know it’s happening.

**Posted by Radiowiz** November 5, 2024 8:53 am

For WGRZ, I see what you mean because a sim sub would suddenly end abruptly.
City TV goes to ads (the program ended early on the Canadian side) then it goes to NBC repeating closing credits that the Canadian viewer already saw...then 11PM news brutal cut in.

Why not just do what City TV does? Run a quick news teaser during the program to let people know what's coming up at 11? That should be enough to keep people interested...

**Posted by Radiowiz** November 5, 2024 9:02 am

RadioActive wrote:
WUTV-TV

There’s nothing wrong with my hearing, despite all those years in radio, but I occasionally like to watch TV with the closed captioning on, a habit I got used to while taking care of my elderly late mother for many years.

For at least the past three weeks, there has been no CC on any show on WUTV – not on their local shows and not on their Fox Network shows. I’ve asked my friend with the U.S. sat dish to check (he gets WNYW-TV Channel 5 from New York) and he confirms they’re there.

What would cause Channel 29’s captioning to disappear this long? I wonder if they even know it’s happening.

They can help you here: https://help.fox.com/s/article/How-do-I-report-closed-caption-issues

**Posted by mace** November 5, 2024 9:41 am

During the day, the simsub of The View and Price Is Right does not end until the local Buffalo newscast actually begins.

**Posted by pinto** November 5, 2024 9:55 am

I can confirm CC works OTA

**Posted by RadioAaron** November 5, 2024 10:09 am

RadioActive wrote:
T
Every night, at 10:59, when NBC’s primetime line-up ends for the night, WGRZ always (and I mean always) cuts off the end of the credits by several seconds, to go immediately to their 11 PM late news. There’s nothing really wrong with this, I suppose, except that it makes the station look amateurish, especially if they’re in the middle of a network promo.

You get “Thursday on N…) and the “BC” gets cut off. Or the theme music ends in the middle.

It’s quickly become apparent they’re doing it on purpose since it happens every single night. But why? If they’re trying to prevent tune out to another station’s news, those precious few seconds aren’t going to make a lot of difference. But from a production standpoint, it looks and sounds terrible.
.

My guess would be they have a hubbed, offsite, mostly automated Master Control and the time sync isn't quite perfect.

**Posted by RadioActive** November 5, 2024 10:12 am

pinto wrote:
I can confirm CC works OTA

Are you referring to Channel 29? I tried it on two different venues - through my DVR and on my regular TV tuner - and I can't get it to work on either one.

**Posted by tvguy** November 5, 2024 10:18 am

CC working on WUTV on Judge Mathis court tv show at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday. But ads and FOX network promos are not displaying captions

**Posted by paterson1** November 5, 2024 11:02 am

I don't believe RA was referring to simsub on WGRZ. This chopping they were doing themselves, going from network to local. The Detroit stations that I recieve tend to mess up the top of the hour and half hour breaks fairly regularly especially in the morning and getting in and out of network breaks during programs that are not simsubed. Often it is smooth. but more than it should be a commercial or promo gets chopped or there is some dead air and a blank screen.

**Posted by Radiowiz** November 5, 2024 11:10 am

paterson1 wrote:
I don't believe RA was referring to simsub on WGRZ.

RadioActive wrote:
(If you’re the victim of simsub, you may not have seen the first one.)

Yes I did. Thanks to how the Sim Sub ends when City TV has a program sim subbing on NBC.

For WGRZ, I see what you mean (RA) because a sim sub would suddenly end abruptly.
City TV goes to ads (the program ended early on the Canadian side) then it goes to NBC repeating closing credits that the Canadian viewer already saw...then 11PM news brutal cut in.

RadioActive wrote:

It’s quickly become apparent they’re doing it on purpose since it happens every single night. But why? If they’re trying to prevent tune out to another station’s news, those precious few seconds aren’t going to make a lot of difference. But from a production standpoint, it looks and sounds terrible.

Why not just do what City TV does? Run a quick news teaser during the program to let people know what's coming up at 11? That should be enough to keep people interested...

Last edited by Radiowiz (November 5, 2024 11:17 am)

**Posted by RadioActive** November 5, 2024 12:12 pm

Just to clarify, I'm seeing this OTA, not as part of simsub. It's originating with WGRZ and has nothing to do with any Canadian station override. It happens on Channel 2 every night at the end of primetime and I can't quite figure out why. But it does make them look amateurish when you cut off the end of a word or two or the end of a theme song every evening.

**Posted by pinto** November 6, 2024 7:30 am

RadioActive wrote:
pinto wrote:
I can confirm CC works OTA
Are you referring to Channel 29? I tried it on two different venues - through my DVR and on my regular TV tuner - and I can't get it to work on either one.

Yes, tried it yesterday morning about 8:45am.

**Posted by RadioActive** November 6, 2024 7:49 am

That is very odd. I get CC on every other station, but WUTV. What could have changed? Did they switch to a different kind of encoding that my sets for some reason can't figure out? Because I didn't change anything. Thanks for checking.

**Posted by Radiowiz** November 6, 2024 11:50 am

RadioActive wrote:
Just to clarify, I'm seeing this OTA, not as part of simsub. It's originating with WGRZ and has nothing to do with any Canadian station override. It happens on Channel 2 every night at the end of primetime and I can't quite figure out why. But it does make them look amateurish when you cut off the end of a word or two or the end of a theme song every evening.

RadioActive wrote:
Two questions about Buffalo TV that have been driving me crazy for the past few weeks. (If you’re the victim of simsub, you may not have seen the first one.)

Yes, and as I have already mentioned, when City TV is running a sim sub, it ends early.
It DOES NOT go straight to 11PM.
I DO get to see the exact same thing you see thanks to them finishing early. When it switches over, it goes to a repeat of closing credits... then I get to see the exact same thing you see OTA.
This is an NBC issue, not a sim sub issue.
I was just letting you know that I do get to notice this bizarre thing also, sim sub or no sim sub.
It's annoying.

**Posted by RadioActive** November 6, 2024 11:55 am

It does seem to be deliberate, but I can't figure out why they would want to look so amateurish every night.