living near two time zones?

[Oscar Madison]

The Rest of The Story with Indiana's confusing time situation was that prime time was 8-11 in the fall and winter months and 7-10 during Spring and Summer. That all changed when the General Manager of WTHR-13, Indianapolis, discovered he could take a prime-time Mountain Time feed of NBC and it would be 8-11pm EST/CDT. Soon everyone in Indianapolis had the same schedule (by the clock) all year by delaying network programming during the spring and summer. When I worked in Lafayette, we used three one-inch machines, rolled 45 minutes apart, to do the delay (what a pain). Terre Haute, South Bend and Fort Wayne soon followed, and that gave some places that could receive other markets 2 chances to see everything-Richmond, Indiana got both Dayton and Indianapolis, some parts of western Ohio got Fort Wayne along with Dayton or Toledo.

Point of clarification: NBC and the other networks have never done a Mountain Time feed. The Denver network affiliates tape the Eastern/Central feed and play it back back one hour later, and feed it to other affiliates on Mountain Time. Worked fine as long as there wasn't a news bulletin.

 

[KeithE4]

Point of clarification: NBC and the other networks have never done a Mountain Time feed. The Denver network affiliates tape the Eastern/Central feed and play it back back one hour later, and feed it to other affiliates on Mountain Time. Worked fine as long as there wasn't a news bulletin.

Denver, Albuquerque, and SLC are the only decent-sized markets in the Mountain time zone year-round. The rest are not exactly a network or advertiser priority, unless the product is pickup trucks or cowboy boots.

 

[newsmark]

Point of clarification: NBC and the other networks have never done a Mountain Time feed. The Denver network affiliates tape the Eastern/Central feed and play it back back one hour later, and feed it to other affiliates on Mountain Time. Worked fine as long as there wasn't a news bulletin.

Actually NBC started a mountain feed for prime time in the mid-80s. I've seen on other boards that the feed is now full time.

 

[gr8oldies]

Correct, I used to see it when I worked in TV in the 1990s (in the clear, no less). That's what started the "delay" thing in Indiana, when WTHR started picking up that feed

 

[SteveRichards]

It's pretty common knowledge that NBC has had a MTZ feed for years now, and I believe Fox has one, as well. However, I've heard (or read) contradictory statements about CBS and ABC having MTZ feeds. Does anyone know for sure?

 

[newsmark]

I always found KXGN interesting. Has anyone heard of another station positioned just right, back in the day, to create an extended prime time? One could have presumably taken one network's east coast feed and another's west coast feed to create a six-hour prime. Did anyone else come close?

 

[Mr Tony]

There were some smaller market stations on the East coast like WBOC 16 Salisbury, MD and WAGM 8 Presque Isle, ME that carried their primary prime time from 8-11 and then the "best of" their other programing from 7-8. I know WBOC back in the day carried all 3 nets (but mainly CBS) but the "best of" all 3 nets. Wiki use to have an example....and going through edit history found it

But that was late 70's. The 2 last hold outs that did this were WAGM (which ended in mainly in late 90's) and KXGN which did it in 2009 (at the DTV transition). KXGN back in the day also ran the soaps from both networks and the national news too. I know in the mid 2000's they had CBS, NBC (that one hour + soaps), UPN (after the late show) and on weekends the sportsman network (before they went cable only)

On the old board they had listings. I happened to copy/paste them before the board went away. Weekday schedule as example for KXGN

8/30/89
KXGN 5-CBS/NBC Glendive
6:00 CBS This Morning
8:00 Family Feud
8:30 Wheel of Fortune
9:00 Price is Right
10:00 Young & the Restless
11:00 Golden Girls
11:30 Bold & the Beautiful
noon As the World Turns
1:00 Guiding Light
2:00 Win, Lose or Draw
2:30 Concentration
3:00 Days of Our Lives
4:00 Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears
4:30 NBC Nightly News
5:00 CBS Evening News
5:30 News
6:00 Queen of the Beasts
7:00 Jake & the Fatman
8:00 Wiseguy
9:00 NBC News Special "Bad Girls"
10:00 News
10:30 US Open Tennis Highlights
11:00 Pat Sajak
12:30 Adderly
1:30 sign-off

 

[seatownmedia]

I'm not sure this counts, but there are atleast two locations in Oregon and Montana that carry part of the Denver lineup, not sure if via cable or dish. In Burns, OR you can receive KUSA (NBC) and KCNC (CBS). In Dillon, MT you can receive KMGH (ABC) and Fox Denver. My guess this is due to some difficulty finding local available affiliates in these remote areas. (Though both areas offer some local affiliates, in Burns it is Portland, and in Dillon it is Missoula/Butte. Kind of a bizarre setup).

 

[ftballfan]

Surprising KXGN didn't air Carson after the late news.

Burns is an odd place. It gets Portland stations yet it is closer to Boise, Bend, Medford, Eugene, and Pendleton/Tri-Cities than Portland.

 

[installLSC]

I always found KXGN interesting. Has anyone heard of another station positioned just right, back in the day, to create an extended prime time? One could have presumably taken one network's east coast feed and another's west coast feed to create a six-hour prime. Did anyone else come close?

Oh it was pretty common for multiple affiliate stations in the past to have an extended prime time, based on some TV Guides I have from the 70s. Nobody went to the extreme of a six hour prime time, but they commonly went with four hour prime times. And it was also common to air certain prime time shows just before the early news or just after the late news.

 

[gr8oldies]

I think you're right about Fox and an MT feed. CBS and ABC, at least in the 90s, made affiliates handle their own tape delay. CBS allowed affiliates to sell an extra prime time minute per hour of prime time to defray the cost (you're 9pm show would start at 9:03). CBS allowed WISH, Indianapolis to do the same thing (we didn't do that at WLFI, however) during DST periods.

It's pretty common knowledge that NBC has had a MTZ feed for years now, and I believe Fox has one, as well. However, I've heard (or read) contradictory statements about CBS and ABC having MTZ feeds. Does anyone know for sure?

 

[blizzard59]

It's pretty common knowledge that NBC has had a MTZ feed for years now, and I believe Fox has one, as well. However, I've heard (or read) contradictory statements about CBS and ABC having MTZ feeds. Does anyone know for sure?

ABC has had a dedicated Mountain Time Zone feed for at least the last decade or so. CBS still does not, and, for that matter, neither does PBS or The CW (although The CW Plus does).

 

[JeeperOne]

Denver, Albuquerque, and SLC are the only decent-sized markets in the Mountain time zone year-round. The rest are not exactly a network or advertiser priority, unless the product is pickup trucks or cowboy boots.

And of those, only Denver has had a network O&O since 1981 or so (KOA (Later KCNC) 4 - NBC (Now CBS))

True KUTV 2 in SLC was once an O&O but it's now owned by Nexstar (??)

Cheers & 73

 

[JeeperOne]

Actually NBC started a mountain feed for prime time in the mid-80s. I've seen on other boards that the feed is now full time.

Which affiliate are they running that out of ?? KOB 4, KSL 5 or KUSA 9 ??

Cheers & 73

 

[blizzard59]

Which affiliate are they running that out of ?? KOB 4, KSL 5 or KUSA 9 ??

Like the other NBC feeds, the Mountain Time Zone feed is played out and uplinked from the NBC Broadcast Operations Center at 30 Rock in New York.

This is an older photo of the facilities, but not much has changed in the meantime, and the description remains valid.

 

[seatownmedia]

do the Denver stations really cover far Western KS?

Yes, as someone else posted, Denver is available in Goodland, KS but I don't know where else.

 

[seatownmedia]

clarified below

 

[seatownmedia]

Northeast Nevada is in Pacific Time, but is in the Salt Lake City DMA (Mountain Time). However, most systems there carry at least one Reno station. Prime time would be two hours different between stations (6-9 on the SLC stations and 8-11 on the Reno stations)

In Northeast Nevada there is indeed a quirky thing. In both West Wendover, NV and Jackpot, NV, they observe Mountain time, though the rest of the state is in the Pacific time zone. In fact, you only need to travel outside these towns for a mile or so and it becomes Pacific. This is due to these gambling towns more associated with Southern Idaho and Northern Utah, both in the Mountain time zone. There are no Reno stations available in W. Wendover or Jackpot, atleast on cable.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Yes, as someone else posted, Denver is available in Goodland, KS but I don't know where else.

do the Wichita stations cover far Western KS anymore than the Denver stations? how would syndex work if a cable system has 2 CBS stations and they are carrying different NFL game (one has Chiefs and the other has Broncos)?

 

[Prescott Joe]

The Wichita major stations generally rebroadcast through most, if not all of Western Kansas.
Denver and Wichita's major stations are available on most cable systems. Not sure about
the syndex and football....