NASHUA – In a few weeks time, local Comcast subscribers will no longer be able to flip to Channel 13 to get their fix of local broadcast news.

A final appeal this week from the owner of WYCN TV-13, a low-power broadcast station, to keep the channel in Comcast’s lineup fell on deaf ears, according to Gordon Jackson and Carolyn Choate, WYCN’s station managers.

The pair said Comcast made its decision to drop the channel final on Tuesday during a meeting with Carol LaFever, CEO of Over The Air Broadcasting, the station’s owner.

Comcast will stop carrying WYCN on Sept. 3, despite a chorus of discontent from members of the community and local legislators.

The decision came as a blow, Choate said, but staffers at WYCN have been taking solace in the support they’ve received in the community since Comcast’s decision was announced earlier this year.

That support included approximately 1,500 signatures on a petition, as well as signs appearing at local businesses, such as Gurney’s Automotive. New Hampshire’s congressional delegation also weighed in, as have state senators, House members and local broadcasters.

Jackson said dropping WYCN only stands to diminish the health of the community.

“Usually local media speaks of who we are as a community, who we are as a people,” he said, “and I think with more of that being put to the wayside, we’re losing more of who we are as a consequence.”

Jackson and Choate have been affiliated with WYCN for decades, starting there in 1988 when it was still owned by founder Robert Rines. They eventually inherited the channel and sold it in February 2012 to Binnie Media, which filled it with a syndicated lineup.

Over The Air Broadcasting then bought the channel in May 2013 for $4 million and brought back Jackson and Choate to boost local content.

The pair say the station had a previous agreement with Comcast to remain in the television provider’s lineup through 2015. Comcast argues that agreement was rendered moot by a lack of local programming during interim ownership by Binnie Media, plus technical issues caused by the station’s lack of a digital transmitter.

But Choate and Jackson say local programming will soon be back, and that a digital transmitter will be online by October, at a cost of more than $1 million.

“We can’t seem to get a real handle on why this is transpiring,” Choate said.

Even if Comcast drops TV-13 from the lineup, the station won’t go away. When the digital transmitter turns on, the channel will broadcast over the air from a tower in Hudson, sending its signal north to Manchester and south almost to Boston.

But that would slash the channel’s potential audience, since relatively few people depend on antennas for their TV these days.

In the end, viewers in the Nashua area and the nonprofit organizations that depend on their support are the ones who stand to suffer, Choate said.

“I think that Comcast owes the public an explanation why they are taking away this particular service,” Jackson said. “There’s been no real substantive explanation.”

A Comcast spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment before press deadline Thursday.

Staff writer David Brooks contributed to this report. Jim Haddadin can be reached at 594-6589 or jhaddadin@nashua telegraph.com. Also, follow Haddadin on Twitter (@Telegraph_JimH).

Newsletter