Regional television markets

[abefroman329]

Forrest City, AR

I just had to make sure that was the correct spelling.

Just like Forrest County, MS.

And Forrest Township, Livingston County, Illinois.

And Nathan Bedford Forrest, actual historical figure (not to be confused with Forrest Gump, fictional character named for Forrest).

[BamaZeus]

Is there a full list of stations that aired pay-TV during off hours in the 80s and early 90s? I'm talking OnTV, Spectrum Pay TV, Tele1st and SelecTv.

Wometco Home Theatre on Long Island (WHT) would show Islanders games and first run movies after 6 or 7 pm.  During the day it was just another UHF shopping channel.  It got big for a couple of years before cable tv reached most of the metropolitan area.

https://youtu.be/YTqwR8rgyC0

[jon daly]

My cousin used to live in Northwest Indiana (about a mile from the Chicago/Illinois border) and when I visited her, the cable system she had carried both NBC and ABC affiliates from South Bend, in addition to the Chicago stations.


Has anyone ever received three or more stations affiliated with the same network? I have family in Forrest City, AR, and their cable carries ABCs from Little Rock, Jonesboro and Memphis.

I grew up in Ellington, CT on a hill and we could pick up 3 ABC stations: WTNH (8) from New Haven/Hartford, WCDC (19) out of North Adams, MA [this was a repeater of Albany's WTEN (10,)] and WGGB (40) out of Springfield, MA.

[KeithE4Phx]

Has anyone ever received three or more stations affiliated with the same network? I have family in Forrest City, AR, and their cable carries ABCs from Little Rock, Jonesboro and Memphis.

I'll bet a lot of folks did in the analog era, maybe not so much now.

I grew up in Bloomington IN.  Our local market was Indianapolis, but we also got clear reception from all 3 Terre Haute stations, as well as fringe reception from Champaign (CBS, PBS), Cincinnati (CBS, NBC, ABC), Dayton (CBS, NBC), Louisville (CBS, NBC), and Evansville (ABC, PBS) VHFs.  If the weather was anywhere decent at all, Chicago (ABC and WGN) and St. Louis (ABC, NBC) were viewable as well.

I lived in Wauconda IL, 50 miles NW of downtown Chicago and 20 miles south of the Wisconsin state line, in the mid 1980s.  We got just about everything from not only Chicago, but Rockford and Milwaukee, plus CBS from Madison.

When my family moved to Belchertown MA (near Amherst) in 1979, they got the local Springfield stations (NBC, ABC, PBS), as well as Hartford (CBS, NBC, PBS), New Haven (ABC), Adams (ABC), and Boston (CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS), plus the independent in Worcester.  There was also some deep-fringe reception from NYC, Albany, and Providence stations as well.

All of the above were OTA, not cable.  Large antennas with preamps and rotators were required in each case.

[ftballfan]

Before the 1994-96 network realignment, the cable system (Bresnan) in Ludington, MI carried three ABCs (Green Bay, Grand Rapids, Traverse City), three CBSs (Cadillac, Green Bay, Milwaukee), three NBCs (Green Bay, Milwaukee, Traverse City), and three PBSs (Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Mount Pleasant [rebroadcaster near Free Soil]). OTA viewers, in addition to those stations, could have likely received ABC from Milwaukee, NBC from Grand Rapids, and CBS from Kalamazoo.

After the network switches, that system had three FOX stations when it only had one before (NBC Green Bay and CBS Milwaukee both switched to FOX). Eventually, all the WI stations were dropped, in part due to the digital transition and also due to stations becoming more protective of their turf. Today, ABC and PBS Grand Rapids are still carried.

[jp the roadgeek]

My cousin used to live in Northwest Indiana (about a mile from the Chicago/Illinois border) and when I visited her, the cable system she had carried both NBC and ABC affiliates from South Bend, in addition to the Chicago stations.


Has anyone ever received three or more stations affiliated with the same network? I have family in Forrest City, AR, and their cable carries ABCs from Little Rock, Jonesboro and Memphis.

I grew up in Ellington, CT on a hill and we could pick up 3 ABC stations: WTNH (8) from New Haven/Hartford, WCDC (19) out of North Adams, MA [this was a repeater of Albany's WTEN (10,)] and WGGB (40) out of Springfield, MA.

Prior to cable systems implementing specialty networks, my cable system used to have 4 (later 3) NBC affiliates, and 3 ABC affiliates.  The 4 NBC affiliates were Hartford's WVIT (30), WNBC (4) in New York, WWLP (22) in Springfield, and until 1981-82, WATR (20; now WCCT) in Waterbury.  The three ABC affiliates were WTNH, WGGB, and WABC (7) in New York. 

[ErmineNotyours]

If you count PBS, then for a short while Seattle-Tacoma had three PBS stations: KCTS, KTPS and KCPQ.  Lightning struck the KTPS tower, knocking it off the air for a few years, and KCPQ went back to being commercial.  Pullman and Moscow have three PBS stations on cable, one from Spokane and the local WSU and UI stations.

[bing101]

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/nexstar-identifies-where-it-will-divest-to-acquire-tribune

Nexstar is in discussions on which TV stations to divest from in able to merge with Tribune.

[bing101]

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/229649/nexstar-wants-keep-tribs-top-4-duop-indy/

Update Nexstar is in talks to divest from WISH-TV Indianapolis for WTTV-TV and WXIN.

[vdeane]

I've heard that they're planning to sell WPIX in NYC.  Too bad.  I was hoping that them buying Tribune would allow them to enter the NYC market and spread their program, Empire State Weekly, to the entire state (it currently broadcasts across upstate but not downstate, where it is needed most).

[kevinb1994]

I've heard that they're planning to sell WPIX in NYC.  Too bad.  I was hoping that them buying Tribune would allow them to enter the NYC market and spread their program, Empire State Weekly, to the entire state (it currently broadcasts across upstate but not downstate, where it is needed most).

I'm not surprised as it would have at least some value to sell.

[bing101]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/05/liberty-media-joins-bidding-for-regional-sports-networks-.html

Liberty Media named as a candidate to get the Fox Sports local Outlets.

[kevinb1994]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/05/liberty-media-joins-bidding-for-regional-sports-networks-.html

Liberty Media named as a candidate to get the Fox Sports local Outlets.

Should be noted that Liberty Media was formed as a spin-off of the defunct TCI, which was incorporated into the also-defunct AT&T Broadband, which was incorporated into Comcast's broadband service (now Xfinity).

[bing101]

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/doj-ok-with-scripps-cordillera-station-buy


The Scripps Cordillera talks and the stations affected are KATC Lafayette, La. (ABC); WLEX (NBC), Lexington, Ky.; KOAA (NBC) Colorado Springs; KSBY (NBC) Santa Barbara; KRIS (NBC) and KAJA (Telemundo), Corpus Christi, Texas; KPAX and KAJJ (CBS) Missoula, Mont.; KTVQ (CBS) Billings, Mont.; KXLF-KBZK (CBS), Butte-Bozeman, Mont.; KRTV (CBS) and KTGF (NBC) Great Falls, Mont.; and KTVH (NBC) and KXLH (CBS), Helena, Mont.

[kevinb1994]

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/doj-ok-with-scripps-cordillera-station-buy


The Scripps Cordillera talks and the stations affected are KATC Lafayette, La. (ABC); WLEX (NBC), Lexington, Ky.; KOAA (NBC) Colorado Springs; KSBY (NBC) Santa Barbara; KRIS (NBC) and KAJA (Telemundo), Corpus Christi, Texas; KPAX and KAJJ (CBS) Missoula, Mont.; KTVQ (CBS) Billings, Mont.; KXLF-KBZK (CBS), Butte-Bozeman, Mont.; KRTV (CBS) and KTGF (NBC) Great Falls, Mont.; and KTVH (NBC) and KXLH (CBS), Helena, Mont.

I wonder about Scripps and Cox agreeing to merge their television assets. That could be next, or it could be Hearst or TEGNA instead of Scripps.

I also wonder if the hostile takeover of Gannett by MediaNews Group aka Digital First Media will come to pass.

[kevinb1994]

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/229649/nexstar-wants-keep-tribs-top-4-duop-indy/

Update Nexstar is in talks to divest from WISH-TV Indianapolis for WTTV-TV and WXIN.

WISH-TV should not be confused with WESH.

[kevinb1994]

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/226741/station-trading-roundup-4-deals-46-4m/


KCSO-LD Sacramento is going to be a Telemundo affiliate owned by NBC and WHDT Palm Beach is going to Scripps.


https://nypost.com/2018/12/10/disney-plans-to-split-up-foxs-local-sports-networks-to-sell/


And an update on the Disney/Fox Talks over the sale of its RSN's

WHDT would be associated with WFOX and WJAX if the Cox-Scripps television assets are merged.

[kevinb1994]

Sounds like that's going to be one hell of a Montana monopoly!

You can say that ("˜Montana monopoly') again five times fast.

[kevinb1994]

Gray tends to promote from within. Lots of people from WYMT move on to WKYT, or the Gray station in Knoxville (typically the UT grads that WYMT seems to like to hire.)  We haven't had a lot of WYMT folks move up to WSAZ, so I typically don't know where SAZ people move up to. (WKYT seems to be a career destination for a lot of people; I guess they like Lexington and don't want to move away.)

WKYT's #1 weather man, Chris Bailey, used to be the #2 at WSAZ, but he is a UK grad and made no secret that he wanted to get back to Lexington.

WSAZ, which has had a local news rating no less than double all other stations combined since local ratings started in 1968, tends to keep its male anchors until retirement.  The females change every couple of years, generally go to Ohio markets.  Gray's recent growth may change that as it now has larger markets to move to within the company.

Exactly what happens here with our stations in Charleston south. The main anchor talent have been at each station for decades (the CBS's news anchors have been together at 6 since 1991 and the guy has been doing it since the 70s). We've had one main anchor change at the big 3 stations in about a decade. The Sinclair-owned ABC replaced the older co-anchor who had been on in Nashville for years with a younger, cheaper lady.

The reporters/anchors usually go from here to one of the big 4 Florida markets (Jax, Tampa, Orlando or Miami), Raleigh or Charlotte. The NBC (owned by Nexstar) is especially cheap. They've gone through 4-5 sports anchors in 5 years. Their main sports anchor just left to be the 3rd sports anchor at the NBC/ABC in Jacksonville.

This leaves our NBC with 1 sports anchor during most of the football season.

I did not know that First Coast News had hired a sports anchor from NBC Charleston SC.

[kevinb1994]

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2018/8/23/buying-tribune


Now FTV Live does an editorial on who will buy the Tribune stations.

They forgot to mention the Tegna-Tribune conflict in Grand Rapids.
Tegna owns ABC affiliate WZZM (one of two ABC's in the market [the other is Nexstar-owned WOTV]; WZZM's stick had to be way up in Newaygo County in order to be adequately spaced to two other Channel 13's in the analog era, however, this location benefited WZZM in the early days as the market to the north (Traverse City-Cadillac [Newaygo County borders the market on two sides]) had no ABC until 1971 and even after then, WZZM put a better signal into the southern portions of that market [Ludington, Big Rapids, Manistee] than in-market WGTU, whose tower was (and still is) in Kalkaska County)

WOTV should not be confused with WOKV.

[hbelkins]

Gray must have bought WAVE-TV in Louisville. One of my journalist associates with WYMT-TV posted that he was at a meeting at WYMT's new sister station.

[SP Cook]

WAVE was a Raycom station, Raycom and Gray have merged. 

With Gray now owning a station in every market serving a part of Kentucky, I would look for WAVE to take over all of the politics reporting and WKYT to take over all of the Wildcats reporting and the same reports and reporters showing up statewide.

[hbelkins]

WAVE was a Raycom station, Raycom and Gray have merged. 

With Gray now owning a station in every market serving a part of Kentucky, I would look for WAVE to take over all of the politics reporting and WKYT to take over all of the Wildcats reporting and the same reports and reporters showing up statewide.

I guess ownership takes precedence over network affiliation. I'm sure we see some of the same with WSAZ, which is also Gray but is NBC as well. I think Gray's Knoxville affiliate is NBC as well.

[bing101]

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/230061/gray-buys-three-united-stations-two-markets/

Now Gray is named to get three stations in Minnesota and New York State.

[bing101]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/10/reuters-america-exclusive-apollo-nears-3-billion-deal-to-buy-cox-tv-stations-sources.html

Apollo in talks to get the Cox stations.