WTVF is the only Nashville station still carried on Bowling Green CATV given the legacy of that station dating back to its WLAC days when it totally ruled the Bowling Green roost. (I know that because a lot of my family is from Bowling Green, and “channel 5” swamped then-WSM [now WSMV] and WSIX [now WKRN] in terms of viewer loyalty in that region.)
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Lexington, KY (December 7, 1981)
- Thread starter Bluenoser
- Start date
I'm going by memory here what I remember about tv stations carried on cable tv in Floyd and Knott County in Kentucky.
During the 1970's when my grandmother lived at Wayland in Floyd County, her cable tv service was from Hindman in Knott County.
I recall that during the 1970's, the Hindman cable carried the following channels from the big 3 networks.
ABC: WKPT 19 Kingsport, TN
CBS: WCHS 8 Charleston, WV and WJHL 11 Johnson City, TN
NBC: WSAZ 3 Huntington, WV and WKYH 57 Hazard, KY
I do know that the Hindman cable tv service never carried WHTN 13 and later WOWK 13 Huntington, WV when WKPT 19 Kingsport, TN came on the air. I do not know why it was that way even though Knott County was in the Charleston-Huntington tv market back then.
My grandmother's sister lived 3 miles away at Garrett in Floyd County, and Garrett had their cable tv service from Martin in Floyd County. Floyd County has always been in the Charleston-Huntington tv market.
Here's what I recall Martin cable in the 1970's carrying the following channels from the big 3 networks.
ABC: WHTN 13 later WOWK 13 Huntington, WV
CBS: WCHS 8 Charleston, WV and WKYT 27 Lexington, KY
NBC: WSAZ 3 Huntington, WV and WKYH 57 Hazard, KY
I also remember that during the early 1990's when Knott County went from the Charleston-Huntington tv market to the Lexington tv market, my grandmother was not a happy camper when the Hindman cable tv service dropped her favorite tv station WSAZ from the lineup.
I believe that the Martin cable tv service since the 1980's has been carrying only the big 3 networks from the Charleston-Huntington tv market.
I also believe that it was WKYT 27 from Lexington being the flagship station that carried the Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball games as the reason why that station was carried back then on Martin cable tv service.
And the only independent tv station that was carried on the Hindman and Martin cable tv service in the 1970's was the super station WTCG 17 from Atlanta, Georgia.
It never carried independents WXIX 19 from Cincinnati, OH or WDRB 41 from Louisville, KY due to the terrain and distance that was involved.
I suspect that back then WXIX 19 from Cincinnati would have been a popular channel on many cable tv sysyems in Eastern Kentucky if WXIX had their own translators or microwave coverage into that area of Kentucky.
Yes, WKYT 27 was popular given it was the flagship station for UK sports, hence why it was carried on CATV systems in areas far outside the Lexington market -- east, north, south and west. In Kentucky, UK sports -- especially basketball -- is a religion, and why you would see WKYT usually being the only Lexington station carried on CATVs in other markets, far and wide.
According to TVTV.com (which may or may not be accurate), Martin cable no longer carries WOWK. WYMT is its only CBS affiliate. Makes sense, as long as WOWK doesn't pitch a fit about not being carried in-market.
WXIX pretty much stopped at I-64. It was carried on cable in Morehead, Grayson, and Ashland. It was also carried at one time in Huntington and Charleston WV. In a nutshell, WVAH pushed WXIX aside.
Just guessing, I'm wondering if the Hindman head end was in a spot where WLOS came in just well enough to cause problems with WHTN, and perhaps there was no way to null it out. TV signals do strange things in the mountains. WHTN wouldn't have had much of a signal at that distance in the first place.
I'm not suggesting that this is the case with Martin cable apparently having chosen to drop WOWK in favor of WYMT. It might be more like "why are we getting a second CBS station from out of state, even if it is technically in-market, when we have a CBS station just down the road that gives our area excellent news coverage, and brings in news from Lexington to boot?". WOWK has become basically a Charleston-centered station, and nobody in Floyd County gives two hoots about anything that happens in Charleston.
I always marveled that WDRB 41 was carried on the Irvine (Estill County) CATV. At approximately 114 miles from the Floyds Knob, Indiana transmitters, that’s quite a “get.” At that point in time, I seriously doubt they were importing it via microwave.
At the time, getting independent stations from larger cities, with abundant offerings of reruns and movies, and little if any duplication of network programming, was seen as the holy grail, in areas that did not have such stations. They might have used a UHF parabolic dish to get a halfway-stable signal from that far away. And the lack of absolutely picture-perfect reception might not have been a deal-killer for folks who wanted to watch those shows.
When I was doing my (1986) Master’s thesis on the FCC’s must-carry rules and its impact on small market independent TV stations, one of the portions of the thesis dealt with WLJC demanding must carry status on the Irvine CATV system. Ultimately the system had to comply, and its owner indicated WCPO would have to be dropped to accommodate carriage of WLJC. However, the owner indicated that given the great distance from Irvine to Cincinnati, reception of WCPO would “go in and out” but “that subscribers got used to WCPO being on the system for many years.”
In this day and age of crystal-clear TV reception, watching TV in the days of yore meant having to put up with snow, ghosts, herringbone patterns, etc. On our farm at 68 air miles from Louisville’s Floyd Knob’s transmitters, it was just part of “watching TV.”
Also, WLJC’s sign on in 1982 and subsequent must-carry enforcement probably knocked some legacy stations off area CATV systems, particularly WCPO it seems. Below is from The Winchester Sun in October 1993:
I'm assuming they were limited to 12 channel slots at time.
Between WCPO having a suboptimal signal by the time it got to Irvine, and the blackouts, it made more sense to drop WCPO. By 1982, you were getting more into the era of satellite delivery of premium programming services, and more uniformity among network affiliates, so carrying multiple network affiliates in the name of programming diversity was pretty much a thing of the past. And Irvine has little if any connection to Cincinnati, and it was not the case of an "orphan county" needing to have at least one full-service station from in-state.
WCPO was also carried in Morehead as a second CBS affiliate, in lieu of carrying WCHS from Charleston. Morehead cable has since resumed carrying all four major networks from Lexington and Charleston-Huntington, and they no longer carry WCPO or WXIX. My cousin used to live in Morehead when I was in my teens, and I thought it was neat that they got two Cincinnati stations on cable there.
I have another good one for you:
In the early 80s (81, 82) Warner QUBE cable in Cincinnati carried WKYT on cable there on a high cable channel.
Southwest Ohio has always had a large UK fan base, which also accounts for WKYT carriage in all those counties from Cincy to Maysville, on the Ohio side of the river along US 52.
In 1981, I was visiting a friend that lived in Green Township and saw WKYT on cable. There was even a listing for WKYT in the Cincinnati Enquirer TV listings.
I'm not sure how long that lasted, as later on WSTR began carrying UK games. I would watch the games on 64 when I made business trips there. Which I was glad of...
I had mentioned in an earlier post WKYT claimed an 80 county coverage area. Being carried in other DMAs counties would support that claim.
There were a lot of 12 channel systems in small towns until the mid eighties. Had friends in Versailles in 81 that had 12 channel cable system. They had a simple box for HBO.
Tune to 3, box off-WAVE, box on-HBO....
My brother went to Morehead State in 71, we would take my brother there and pick him up on weekends as freshmen were not allowed cars on campus .
The lobby TV in his dorm was connected to cable and I remember WCPO and WXIX were carried then.
I remember watching "Wait til Your Father Gets Home" on WCPO in the lobby, while Mom and Dad got him supplies.
Back then, dorm rooms were not wired for cable, and you were not allowed TVs, hot plates, refrigerators in the dorm rooms as the wiring would not handle the load, BUT you could have a stereo. And some of those students had nice stereos for the time...
… and several small, deep eastern Kentucky towns had three-, four-, or five-channel CATV systems in the 1960s through the early 1980s.
When I moved to Anderson county in 1993, our cable headend had two large "Wade" parabolic UHF antennas: One aimed at Lexington to capture the 5 Lexington stations, the other aimed at Louisville for WLKY and WDRB, and the low VHF for WAVE and the high VHF for WHAS.
WLKY was signing off around 1AM then. When they would sign off, most nights I was getting a "not perfect" but watchable picture from WFLD FOX 32 in Chicago. Have a couple of tapes where I taped off WFLD.
Up and down signal as you would expect from 350 miles away. Couple of minutes or a couple of hours, But sometimes not all that bad.
Now in the summer, tropo would wipe out WLKY and either give you herringbone/noise (mostly) or sometimes WFLD would "replace" WLKY for short periods.
Ah, the analog days....
I remember that in the early 1990's after Knott County switched over to the Lexington tv market, Hindman cable started carrying two NBC affiliates, WLEX 18 Lexington, KY and WCYB 5 Bristol, VA on their cable tv system.
It also carried two CBS affiliates, WYMT 57 Hazard, KY and WKYT 27 Lexington, KY.
But it only carried one ABC affiliate, WTVQ 36 Lexington, KY.
As for carrying the FOX network, Hindman cable had a local cable channel that carried FOX network tv programs. It wasn't until years later that Hindman cable decided to carry WDKY 56 Danville, KY as the FOX affiliate.
I believe sometime during the last 10 to 15 years, Hindman cable dropped WCYB and it only carries NBC affiliate WLEX.
And it still carries CBS affiliates WYMT and WKYT on Hindman cable today.
When I used to run service up in Eastern Kentucky, I noticed all of the cable TV headends that were always placed on the highest elevation around.
Guyed towers. What appeared to be 100 ft towers. On the mountain top....
A lot of them had VHF yagis aimed at C-H and huge parabolic UHFs aimed at Lexington. Often these were stacked 2 or 3 high for maximum gain. Pre WYMT days.
Once, I was doing a big install at the high school in Paintsville (Johnson county) for 3 days. The local hotel I stayed at had 12 channel cable. The Lexington stations were carried but they were far from perfect. Fading and mostly unstable. But they had the C-H stations were clear and stable. Even WVAH which was still on 23:at the time .
I always just assumed that carriage of WKYT (and other Lexington stations) in the counties along the river in Ohio was because they were served, in one way or another, by cable out of Maysville, and it was simpler just to carry everything that Maysville saw. I recall that sometime in the 1970s, the Kentucky TV Guide was sold in Aberdeen.
And Lexington just isn't all that far away.
I would never have thought that, in a town as small as Hindman. Got to wonder if it was some kind of broadcasting practicum for Alice Lloyd College, to allow them to run a "real" TV station complete with network programming. Students there do work-study similar to Berea College.
Getting a signal from Lexington in Paintsville would be a pretty big "ask", given the terrain. I'm not surprised that the signal would be shaky.