Tag Archives: WETK

Vermont PBS turns its eye to Montreal

If you’re watching TV tonight, you might want to tune to Vermont PBS (WETK) to catch two shows the focus on Montreal. Or you can watch both online.

At 7:30pm, the weekly panel discussion show Vermont This Week presents its Canada special, focusing on Canada-U.S. relations. The panel includes Montreal Gazette Managing Editor Michelle Richardson and Global Montreal reporter Tim Sargeant. They talk road construction, Quebec-Vermont economic cooperation, Quebec politics and tourism.

Then at 8:30pm, it presents Qulture, a documentary-style show about Montreal culture produced with Cult MTL. This episode, described as a pilot, but with no clear indication whether there will be other episodes, discusses comedian Sugar Sammy, graffiti artists and the local vaudeville scene, and a bit about Cult itself along the way.

Vermont PBS is available on Channel 55 on Videotron Illico, Channel 57 on Videotron analog cable (Western Montreal only), Channel 224/1224 on Bell Fibe, and Channel 33.1 over the air.

Analog shutdown going on as scheduled next week

Despite the extension of the deadline to June 12, television broadcasters in the Burlington and Plattsburgh areas have agreed to shut down their analog transmitters at 11:59pm on Feb. 17 as scheduled.

This means that Montrealers who watch TV over the air with an external or internal antenna will no longer receive programming on these stations unless their TV is digital-ready or they have a digital converter box.

The following stations, which count Montreal as part of their markets, are among the 25% of U.S. broadcast TV stations whose analog transmitter will stop programming on Feb. 17:

  • WCAX-3 (CBS)
  • WPTZ-5 (NBC)
  • WVNY-22 (ABC)
  • WETK-33 (PBS/VPT)
  • WFFF-44 (Fox)
  • WCFE-57 (PBS/Mountain Lake)

Associated Press has a running list of the stations shutting down next week.

People who get television by analog cable, digital cable, pirated cable, direct-to-home satellite, illegally-pirated U.S. direct-to-home satellite or by Torrenting it off the Internet will not be affected by the change (except to see all those DTV shutdown reminders on the local stations).