If you live in Adams County and use DIRECTV then next month you won't be able to see Madison T.V. stations.

Instead your local news, weather and sports will come out of the Wausau-Rhinelander market.

For the last decade Madison has been Fred Goodwin's home market.

"That's where our public service announcements come from, our weather bulletins, school closings, all of our information we need."

Goodwin, a DIRECTV customer and southern Adams County resident--says about two months ago he got a letter from the satellite company saying they were switching him to the Rhinelander/Wausau market...more than 100-miles away.

Goodwin says, "Rhinelander/Wausau does not cover Adams County for local weather or news, school closings...if the Wisconsin Dells School District calls the radio and television to say school's closed because of severe weather it's not going to call Wausau."

The reason for the switch is because satellite companies assign markets based on viewership in a county.

More people in Adams County watch T.V. out of the Rhinelander/Wausau market than out of Madison.

WMTV Chief Engineer Tom Weeden says, " In the case of Adams County a lot of the population is in the north part of the county and they watch the Wausau/Rhinelander T.V. stations. As opposed to in the southern part of the county in the Wisconsin Dells and Westfield they tend to watch Madison channels."

The big switch is suppose to happen on December 16th and if you still want to get local Madison stations you'll have to use an antenna.

Goodwin does have an antenna. But he doesn't like getting his signal over the air.

"Picture quality is not near as good because we're on the fringe of a digital transmission."

Courtesy WMTV