Posted by Melody on Tuesday, Sep 9, 2014
This question came in on Saturday, and it was a ton of fun sleuthing it out.
Iowa City currently has 5 local television channels (4, 5, 10, 18, 21). These broadcast from Iowa City itself and are government or community channels like the City Channel, Library Channel, and PATV (public access).
The affiliate stations like CBS, ABC, FOX, and NBC broadcast from farther away, and that’s why they don’t come in as well without the right kind of antenna. PBS/IPTV is a little farther away as well, but word is it comes in a little better than the others.
For getting channels in, the type of TV matters. Digital TVs will already be equipped to receive the digital signals broadcast by both Iowa City channels and those further out. All Iowa City channels and area affiliates broadcast digitally. The stations have been phasing out their analog antenna systems since about 2009. Older TVs that use an analog antenna system require purchasing a digital conversion box.
Helpful Links
If avoiding paying for any cable service, you can check what kind of antenna to get through this website: http://antennaweb.org. With this website, you plug in your address and it will show you what channels you can get with which types of antennas. They are color-coded, so you click on the color next to the TV channel you want, and it uses a pop-up box to tell you what kind of antenna to get (e.g., “a large directional antenna”).
The City of Iowa City website has a list of the area TV/internet providers about halfway down the page here: http://www.icgov.org/?id=1493.
Did I miss something? Please let me know in the comments!
Hat tip to Beth and Bond for helping me hash out this answer.
About the Author
I've been at the library for more than 10 years now, and I still find joy when choosing the best books for our readers. My current reading journey is taking me book by book through different genres. I'm challenging myself to find books that are enough outside my wheelhouse that I'd pass them by on first glance. The genre I'm looking forward to... more
The algorithm behind all my audiobook app recommendations chooses Elin Hilderbrand books constantly. I have to check off "thriller" from my list of unread genres, and I stumbled upon this one while hunting one down. It's more of a mystery than thriller, but I did read it compulsively over one weekend. While it had a wide range of interesting characters, I would have liked more depth to the main ones. How much do I really believe the victim's motivations? Or the husband's? Or the other husband's? Or the almost husband's? But what the novel lacked in character development, it made up for in pacing and police procedural work. Do I usually read police procedurals? No! So I can cross that subgenre off the list. I did enjoy the detective work, however, which could inspire me to pick up another, more direct piece of detective fiction. Hey, look, reading options are opening up everywhere! -Melody