Question about TV channel spacing

[vchimpanzee]

WLOS was the default ABC affiliate for the Tri-Cities market before WKPT started up, and as you note, for many Knoxville-market viewers, it was their de facto default ABC affiliate as well, due to problems getting a good picture on WTVK.

In Kentucky, WLOS was on cable as far north as Manchester, Corbin, and London. Don't know how much, if any, viewership WLOS has in Kentucky anymore, but it wasn't a long, long time ago that I saw reference made to them on the WTVQ website as an ABC affiliate some viewers might receive (don't recall the context, may have been some thing about the digital transition, they mentioned WCHS as well). Keep in mind that WLOS was the only ABC affiliate on VHF in a very large area stretching from Cincinnati (yes, Cincinnati) and Huntington in the north, down to Chattanooga (not so far) and Augusta GA in the south, and they had the mother of all catbird seats (unless you count Mount Washington) up on Mount Pisgah. Their tower is actually kind of short and stubby, a taller tower would neither be necessary nor probably even allowed.

I think WLOS is moving and won't have quite that good a signal.

No one mentioned Charlotte but I watched WLOS when I lived just to the west in the 70s. That's where I watched "I Love Lucy".

 

[Huff]

WLOS was the default ABC affiliate for the Tri-Cities market before WKPT started up, and as you note, for many Knoxville-market viewers, it was their de facto default ABC affiliate as well, due to problems getting a good picture on WTVK.
In Kentucky, WLOS was on cable as far north as Manchester, Corbin, and London.

A signal they had/have every right to be quite proud of, as evidenced by the TVFB ad from 1968, and their country penetration map from the same year:

 

[IM42A]

I think WLOS is moving and won't have quite that good a signal.

No one mentioned Charlotte but I watched WLOS when I lived just to the west in the 70s. That's where I watched "I Love Lucy".

It probably won't be quite as good, at least to the north. Their priority will probably be to cover the entire extent of their market and no more. With the advent of WJHL-11.2 ABC and with having WATE in Knoxville, there is no pressing need for viewers there to get WLOS anymore. The days of UHF stations with sketchy signals driving a preference to a strong VHF station are behind us.

WLOS did get into the western portions of the Charlotte market, and even had viewership in Mecklenburg County through at least the 1960s. I recall it being carried on the MATV system at the Days Inn in Gastonia in 1976 as their ABC affiliate in lieu of WCCB. Keep in mind that there was also a not-negligible number of viewers who had VHF-only TV sets, we didn't have a TV that got UHF until about 1972.

 

[IM42A]

A signal they had/have every right to be quite proud of, as evidenced by the TVFB ad from 1968, and their country penetration map from the same year:
View attachment 8580View attachment 8581

Yes, it was pretty beefy, and probably enjoyed favorable knife-edge propagation in the mountains. Your map demonstrates what I was saying about Mecklenburg County. (Got to suspect, though, that TVFB got its wires crossed and showed Chesterfield County SC, when in fact WBTW-13 would have been much more easily receivable there. TVFB occasionally got its counties garbled when you had two stations on the same channel. But those shaded maps were awesome, and TVFB did away with them sometime in the 1970s. Pity.)

 

[bpatrick]

In the late '60s WLOS had a thing called "The Money Man." Similar to "Dialing for Dollars," viewers were called and could win if they knew the amount in the jackpot and the show or star of the day. Bob Caldwell, who also did the weather at 5:30, made three calls between 4:30 and 6, during "Perry Mason" and the local news. Some of those calls went to places in Kentucky like Middlesboro and Corbin. After all these years I don't recall if anybody in those places won, but I know that they would not have been included if southeastern Kentucky had not been able to receive WLOS.

 

[IM42A]

In the late '60s WLOS had a thing called "The Money Man." Similar to "Dialing for Dollars," viewers were called and could win if they knew the amount in the jackpot and the show or star of the day. Bob Caldwell, who also did the weather at 5:30, made three calls between 4:30 and 6, during "Perry Mason" and the local news. Some of those calls went to places in Kentucky like Middlesboro and Corbin. After all these years I don't recall if anybody in those places won, but I know that they would not have been included if southeastern Kentucky had not been able to receive WLOS.

I'm sure WLOS was well aware that they had viewers in Kentucky. If nothing else, it gave WLOS bragging rights about how far their signal could be received.

If translator and cable providers were in search of a viewable (even if just barely) ABC signal around London and Corbin, it would have made just as much sense for them to try to relay WKRC from Cincinnati, but evidently WLOS just had the "secret sauce" that allowed them to reach translators up that way. I have to imagine that much of their viewership faded away once WBLG got on the air, but OTOH a UHF signal on channel 62 might have been even more difficult than a long-haul VHF signal from Asheville. And given the poor economic conditions in that area, many viewers probably did well just to have a VHF-equipped TV set, or any TV set at all for that matter.

 

[vchimpanzee]

It probably won't be quite as good, at least to the north. Their priority will probably be to cover the entire extent of their market and no more. With the advent of WJHL-11.2 ABC and with having WATE in Knoxville

I still think of WATE as NBC.