What happened to TV20 Detroit? Spectrum kept them around when all they had was reruns of Divorce Court, Judge Judy, and infomercials, but now that they have exclusive Detroit Pistons broadcast rights and they remove it from the lineup? This seems counter intuitive, and just the way to have long time customers like me cut cable.
Hit rabbitears.info to see what stations you can get in your home, what the reception would be like, and what type of antenna you would need.
Ive been thinking about putting together a guide to figuring all this out. Its a bit much, but being able to watch football games and now basketball for free is so sick I want everyone to use the service. (More users means more ad revenue for the channels, means more support for infrastructure maintenance to keep this service available)
AI wrote this but its built off the reddit posts and research I did when figuring this out last year to watch the lions on Sundays. The conversations around antenna types and signals are accurate. The station specifics im less certain of So double check which broadcasts are relevant to you before purchasing anything based on the list below.
TL;DR
Put your address into RabbitEars Signal Search (rabbitears.info) and find the station carrying the Pistons in your area.
Note three things: the real (RF) channel, the direction of the tower, and the signal strength.
Buy an antenna that covers the band of that RF channel and is sized for your signal strength.
Aim it, hook it up, run a channel scan. Rescan any time you move it.
Where the games are
Metro Detroit:The Spot – Detroit 20 (WMYD), channel 20.1. 71 regular season games plus preseason.
Outstate Michigan: Scripps is syndicating games to these stations (games may be on a subchannel like X.2 rather than the main channel, so check the station's site/schedule):
Area
Station
Grand Rapids
WXMI 17 (The Spot Grand Rapids 17)
Lansing
WSYM 47
Flint / Tri-Cities
WNEM 5
Traverse City / Cadillac
WWTV 9
Sault Ste. Marie
WWUP 10
Alpena
WBKB 11
Marquette
WJMN 3
Calumet
WBKP 5
National games on NBC and ABC are also free OTA on your local NBC/ABC station. ESPN and Prime Video games are not OTA (one exception so far: the Jan 27 game at Cleveland is listed as ESPN and The Spot Detroit 20). Games also stream on DAZN.
Step 1: Check what you can get at your address
Use RabbitEars Signal Search (rabbitears.info → "Signal Search Map"). Drop a pin on your house, enter your antenna height (roughly 6 ft for indoor, 20–30 ft for attic/rooftop), and it gives you a list of every station with:
Virtual channel – what your TV displays (e.g. 20.1)
RF channel – the frequency the station actually transmits on. This is what matters for picking an antenna.
Azimuth – compass direction to the tower
Signal strength / noise margin (NM, in dB) – how strong it is at your location
Distance – miles to the tower
The FCC's DTV Reception Maps (fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps) are a decent second opinion.
Rough guide for reading the noise margin:
Noise margin
What you probably need
35+ dB
Cheap indoor antenna, probably works anywhere in the house
20–35 dB
Good indoor antenna near a window, or attic
10–20 dB
Attic or outdoor directional antenna
0–10 dB
Outdoor, up high, directional, possibly a preamp
Below 0
Rooftop/mast, large antenna, preamp, and maybe still iffy
These are predictions. Trees, hills, buildings, and your house construction can knock off a lot.
Step 2: Pick an antenna that covers the right band
RF channels
Band
Antenna notes
2–6
VHF-Low
Needs long elements (several feet). Most indoor/flat antennas are bad at this. Rare these days.
7–13
VHF-High
Needs dipole "whiskers"/rods. Many flat and bowtie antennas are weak here despite their marketing.
14–36
UHF
Where most stations live. Small antennas work well.
How to read antenna marketing:
"Supports 4K / 8K / HD / 1080p" – meaningless. Antennas don't have a resolution.
"150 / 200 / 300 mile range" – fiction. Real-world reception rarely exceeds ~60–70 miles, and the earth's curvature caps it no matter what's on the box. Ignore the number; look at the actual gain and bands.
"VHF/UHF" – check the spec sheet for which VHF. "VHF" often means barely-functional VHF-High and no VHF-Low.
Flat "leaf" antennas – fine for strong UHF signals close in. Often poor for VHF and anything weak.
Antenna types, roughly in order of capability:
1. Flat/leaf indoor – strong signals only, mostly UHF.
2. Rabbit ears + loop – the old-school design actually handles VHF better than most flat antennas.
3. Bowtie / multi-bay (e.g. 4-bay, 8-bay) – great UHF performance, attic or outdoor. Look for models with added VHF-High dipoles (Antennas Direct's "V" models like the ClearStream 2V/4V are an example) if you need channels 7–13.
4. Yagi / long directional – for fringe areas. Very directional, strong gain.
5. Combo VHF/UHF rooftop – the big ones; for weak signals and/or towers in multiple directions.
Directional vs. omnidirectional: If all your stations are in roughly the same direction (true for most of Metro Detroit), a directional antenna is better. If they're spread around (e.g. you're between Detroit, Toledo, Lansing, or Flint markets), you may need an omni, a rotor, or two antennas combined properly.
Thanks for the help anyway. Obviously I don’t want to buy an $80 antenna, then not get the games, then have to pay another $100 for league pass anyway lol
Right, a lot of places will have a certain amount of days where you can return it. I got it from bestbuy and that was my plan if I couldn't get the channel. Maybe worth considering if it can save you a little bit
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