Discovery to drop WINGS channel !

[Guest Staggerwing]

Hope this upsets most of you as it did me this morning..Jan 10, 2005 the Discovery channel will change their "Wings" channel over to "Military channel" and that's not "Military WINGS" just Military. (I'm sure there will be some military aviation shown)JUST at the time when the FAA introduces new ways to get people into GA and Sport flying they do something like this... remove the only real source of civil aviation programming for the masses.I contacted the Discovery Channel and also my local flying clubsto voice my displeasure.....If you every enjoy watching civil aviation programs on the "Wings" channel, you might want to contact Discovery channel and your own local clubs as well.Can you tell I'm angry ? Oh... and nothing against the Military intended here... just support for the so few GA programs on TV !

[fbobum 0]

Thanks for the heads-up, Tom. Went over and voiced my opinion as well.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Tom, yeah, that is bad news and am heading over there myself to voice my not so positive opinion on the subject. As my next door neighbor's punk kid would say; "that sucks big time...".

[Guest Staggerwing]

>Tom, yeah, that is bad news and am heading over there myself>to voice my not so positive opinion on the subject. As my next>door neighbor's punk kid would say; "that sucks big time...".GREAT guys.. ! Thanks for jumping in...Good to hear I'm not alone in this bad news...Tom..Any chance of Avsim as an organization taking a position on this with Discovery channel ? :-) And did the AOPA ever say anything about this that you've seen ? I know they have items on the Wings channel along with the EAA and I have not seen a thing from EAA about it either.Just how did Discovery Channel come up with this "improvement" for everyone ??If I may quote from the Discovery site:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"The Military Channel will represent the highest quality programming across a broad spectrum of military related genres that we believe consumers have a keen interest in learning more about," said Judith A. McHale, President and CEO of Discovery Communications. "In an increasingly fragmented marketplace, the Military Channel will broaden Discovery Communications' offerings and further differentiate our portfolio of emerging networks."~~~~~~~~~~~~~WHAT?

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I just caught this tonight as well. I am very sorry to hear about this. Much to my wife and daughter's chagrin, the #1 most watched channel in the house is Discovery Wings. But to be honest, I've watched it less and less over the past few months as it seems they've ramped up the number of commercials and seem to be carrying less content on GA.-John

[Guest]

We never had it anyway, just Discovery Europe which is someone's idea of a collection of the "best" shows from all channels.Every show repeated 2-3 times a week for 2-3 months, maybe 1 aviation show per cycle among them (mostly it's "medical detectives", "American chopper" (which is not about helicopters), "time detectives", and shows like that).But with all that I'm happy to finally have it back after the cable company removed it several years ago to make room for a 24 hour shopping channel.Guess the number of cancelled subscriptions (people going satellite...) got them to reconsider.Despite the high number of reruns it's still the best channel we get here by far...

[Guest joea]

That's pretty dumb to ay the least. As an ex-pat Canuck in Europe, I can't get Discovery anyway, but it would be nice when I go home to visit. Frankly, as a history PhD candidate I find a lot fo historical and military stuff on TV to be below par anyway, not to mention anything involved with aviation, be it military or civil. We need all the positive coverage possible.

[Sonar5 3]

It's sad indeed.I used to watch SpeedVision as well, and then they got rid of their Aviation Shows once Wings took hold.Now Discovery is getting rid of Wings.While I think it's great to have a Military Channel for us Military Buffs, this is indeed a loss for General Aviation.I've tried looking around to see if the some of the shows would be kept, but haven't seen any statements about that.I used to watch Sport Aviation almost every Saturday Morning when it was on. EAA says it is in negotiations with The Outdoor Channel for a series to show in Summer 2005, so hopefully we will see that.The Outdoor Channel is HQ'ed in my town, so maybe I will call over there and find out when the series will show.EAA has been great about producing shows. AOPA doesn't do too many.EAA has produced some on D-Wings which now such as "From the Ground Up", "Learning to Fly", and the Annual Air Venture Series.I like the Ground Up Show, as I would love to build an aircraft someday.I'm sure EAA will keep making the shows, they just have to keep searching out outlets to air them in.Stay Positive.Regards,Joe

[Guest joea]

Hi Joe, what's up? Haven't seen you around, err actually haven' been around myself much.:-shy

[turner112 52]

I'm glad to see it go, and here's why:Next time someone starts an aviation channel, maybe they'll get people to watch. All the complaint you read here and elsewhere are nothing but legitimate; Wings appears to have virtually no budget (how many f@cking times are they gonna show the same lady get her first three lessons?!?) and the stuff they should be showing is generally found in the planetarium gift shop DVD section.Luckily our local provider (DirecTV) carries NASA, which at any given moment is exponentially (dare I say billions and billions of times) more interesting.Regarding the Military Channel - or whatever it's going to be - well, I can't help but get the feeling that when we have people in harm's way, people back home want to feel connected.But, in a sense, it's lots of Rah-Rahing; just look for Smithsonian, Boeing, Rockwell, etc. affiliations in the credits.. I'm interested to see whether it's presented as history or pro-military. It ain't gonna show things that will lose support for our current... ah... situation.So in order to do that, I guess they'll be airing the same current war footage Al-Jazeera does, hm? After all, explosions are more sensational than aerodynamics. Bang!While efforts may be in the works to increase GA flying, the fact is that the economy has tanked and many people who could make it to lessons can't anymore. What I feel the govt should do that will -actually- have a positive effect on GA falls back on what things would have a positive effect on the economy, and that goes WAY beyond the scope of this discusson.Anyway, I can't say I'm surprised. P'd off a bit, but not surprised.

[Guest Staggerwing]

>I'm glad to see it goNo comment....You know...for one thing..Perhaps they needed more input from the viewers to improve programming. Gripes OR praise..>Next time someone starts an aviation channel...Yeah, sure..not in my lifetime I'm guessing..Hey...EAA might as well cancel the "Young Eagles" first flight program too, it's just there to TRY and encourage young people to get interested and go on to find solutions to current problems... it might NOT also, but we can't drop the very few things we have that deal with the subject in front of the general public.Yup, economy is bad and many have been gounded because of it.. more reason to keep something going in front of the public. Just bad timing I'm thinking.. we are JUSt starting new with the latest FAA regs, who knows what might come of them. Even a whole new lineup of GA/Sport flying documentary programs on Wings might have been worked out.BTW,Try Typing "Judith A. McHale" into Google and see all the hits..but then see what they are (She's President and CEO of Discovery Communications) not sure where her decisions about what we see come from.

[turner112 52]

Hi Tom,>You know...for one thing..Perhaps they needed more input from>the viewers to improve programming. Gripes OR praise..>I've personally contacted them by email a few times inquiring about new original programming, the lack thereof, and when new programming may get on the air - every time I got a canned response suggesting to check the programming guide...>>Next time someone starts an aviation channel...>>>Yeah, sure..not in my lifetime I'm guessing..>If only Ted Turner were really into it!>Hey...EAA might as well cancel the "Young Eagles" first flight>program too, it's just there to TRY and encourage young people>to get interested and go on to find solutions to current>problems... it might NOT also, but we can't drop the very few>things we have that deal with the subject in front of the>general public.Now you're just trying to bum us out. Admit it.>BTW,>Try Typing "Judith A. McHale" into Google and see all the>hits..but then see what they are (She's President and CEO of>Discovery Communications) not sure where her decisions about>what we see come from. Conference speaker at "The White House Conference on Teenagers", hm?:)Guess she knows what those teens need to watch! Hee hee... sorry. She does seem to show up in lots of places in which the context is teen/youth education.Andrew

[Guest]

Maybe, just maybe, there's no market for a dedicated aviation channel?Even if every FS buff in the US and everyone with a pilot's license would watch every show that would not amount to all that many viewers (especially given that Discovery is wont to do 10+ reruns of every single show over the course of a month or less).A military channel can carry all that heavy stuff about WW2, Vietnam, as well as current military stuff that noone except some militaristic fascist sympathisers (not my words, that's how media types think of people with an interest in military affairs think) want to see.The other channels will then have more room for home and garden shows and true historical programs about interesting things like the porcelain collection of president Jefferson...

[Jeff Nielsen 1,386]

Wonderful (sarcastic), let's just stop flying all together now. It's seems like every time I turn around there's something being taken away from us in the aviation industry. I can see the old days of being able to go down to your local airport are going to be long gone.

[Guest Staggerwing]

>I've personally contacted them by email a few times inquiring>about new original programming, the lack thereof, and when new>programming may get on the air - every time I got a canned>response suggesting to check the programming guide...That's good Andrew.. I do that also and yes.. get a form Email too.. but, I'm thinking that what they do look at is how many comments they get on a program good and bad as they would equal viewer numbers anyway. So still some good might come of the contact.>If only Ted Turner were really into it!Well, now there's a direction to go.. let's keep that in mind.And no matter what you might think of their acting/singing etc, people like John Travolta (first in my head) could make things happen in the future. Many other famous and wealthy aviation fans out there still.>>Hey...EAA might as well cancel the "Young Eagles" first>>flightprogram too, it's just there to TRY and encourage young>people to get interested and go on to find solutions to current>>problems... it might NOT also, but we can't drop the very>few things we have that deal with the subject in front of the>>general public.>Now you're just trying to bum us out. Admit it.Oh..Absolutely ! Did it work ? Even a little ? Not sure what demographics they would look at for aviation programming these days. I know retail market target age is pretty young teen numbers.Not sure how much strength I collectively have as a 50+ male these days. I always hope the form I see for questions or comments does not ask age, but they most times do. Depends on how much money they want to please most likely.. that would bump the age up a bit.Thanks for the input Andrew..