Mammoth Lakes CA 2/14/1993

[crainbebo]

Source: The Review-Herald, on newspapers.com. Five locations listed. Some interesting pickups for networks, some doing Denver TV, others pulling in Reno, others still taking advantage of the knife-edge refraction off the mountains for central CA TV. Or microwave.

Mammoth Lakes
2 KTVU Oakland Fox
3 KCRA Sacramento NBC
4 Home Shopping Network
6 KVIE Sacramento PBS
7 TBS
8 KOLO Reno ABC
9 C-SPAN
10 KXTV Sacramento CBS
11 KSBY San Luis Obispo NBC
13 KTLA Los Angeles IND (probably picked-up from satellite)
16 Disney Channel
18 Showtime
20 PTL
21 HBO
22 Family Channel
23 USA Network
24 TNN
25 CNN Headline News
26 Weather Channel
27 Discovery Channel
28 MTV
29 Lifetime
31 Nickelodeon
32 TNT
33 ESPN
34 CNN
35 A&E
36 VH1

Crowley
2 KXTV Sacramento CBS
3 Showtime
5 KOLO Reno ABC
6 HBO
7 KQED San Francisco PBS
8 USA Network
9 ESPN
10 CNN
11 Family Channel
13 TBS
16 TNT
17 KMGH Denver CBS
18 KCNC Denver NBC
19 KRMA Denver PBS
20 CNN Headline News
21 Discovery Channel

Bridgeport
2 KMGH Denver CBS
3 Showtime
4 KCNC Denver NBC
5 KTLA Los Angeles IND
6 KRMA Denver PBS
7 USA Network
8 ESPN
9 Discovery Channel
10 CNN
11 CNN Headline News
12 TNT
13 TBS
15 TNN
17 Disney Channel
18 HBO
19 KOLO Reno ABC

June Lake
2 KPIX San Francisco CBS
3 USA Network
4 KRON San Francisco NBC
5 ESPN
7 KGO San Francisco ABC
8 Family Channel
9 Discovery Channel
10 MTV
11 Weather Channel
12 KOLO Reno ABC
13 TNN
17 KTVU Oakland FOX
18 KQED San Francisco PBS
19 TBS
20 The Movie Channel
21 Disney Channel
22 HBO
23 CNN

Lee Vining
2 KMGH Denver CBS
3 Showtime
4 KCNC Denver NBC
5 TBS
6 KRMA Denver PBS
7 KUSA Denver ABC
8 TNN
9 Discovery Channel
10 A&E
11 TLC
13 KOLO Reno ABC
17 Disney Channel
18 USA Network
19 CNN
20 TNT
21 ESPN

 

[Mark Roberts]

Lee Vining
2 KMGH Denver CBS
3 Showtime
4 KCNC Denver NBC
5 TBS
6 KRMA Denver PBS
7 KUSA Denver ABC
8 TNN
9 Discovery Channel
10 A&E
11 TLC
13 KOLO Reno ABC
17 Disney Channel
18 USA Network
19 CNN
20 TNT
21 ESPN

Lee Vining was still importing Denver stations when we were visiting Mono Lake in 2003.

Speaking of Bridgeport, here's the lovely Mono County Courthouse, one of California's oldest:

 

[IM42A]

I'm reminded here of how Television Factbook listed KSBY San Luis Obispo as being on cable in Tonopah NV in the 1960s.

I was skeptical, but with knife-edge propagation between Mammoth Lakes and SLO, and a low-VHF channel (OTA 6), I suppose anything was possible. The knife-edges would have to be lined up just right.

 

[crainbebo]

Scott Fybush went to a little college near Bishop in the late '80s and could get a weak KSBY-6 on antenna. The cable company probably had a 200 foot tower, however.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Keep in mind that KSBY is on Cuesta Peak between Atascadero and SLO.

 

[IM42A]

Keep in mind that KSBY is on Cuesta Peak between Atascadero and SLO.

I'm assuming that the Los Padres Forest, where KSBY's transmitter is listed in the 1968 TVFB, is one and the same place. I pulled up a heat map for some transmitter (not clear whose) on Cuesta Peak (link below), and it shows the signal hitting the mountains south of Coalinga and Madera, so it looks like it would be entirely possible for a signal to ricochet onto a similarly placed ridge further north, and then shine down into the valley over the ridge. That same TVFB shows KSBY as having 25-49% viewership in counties adjacent to Mono, such as Tuolumne and Mariposa, as well as 5-24% viewership in Nye County NV, which is where Tonopah is. (Granted, Nye is a massive county.)

Here's the link to the heat map (not RabbitEars.info) that I found:

https://mra-raycom.com/SiteMaps/California/Cuesta Peak Coverage.png

I'll have to take my antennas out to one of those mountaintops one of these days and check things out. (That presupposes I could get all of that in a trunk packed for a cross-country trip, or else I could just buy stuff out there and ship it back home when I'm done.)

 

[Mark Roberts]

I'm assuming that the Los Padres Forest, where KSBY's transmitter is listed in the 1968 TVFB, is one and the same place.

The forest is on the north side of the peak; I’ve hiked there. Technically, it’s called Cuesta Ridge according to current maps.

 

[IM42A]

Scott Fybush went to a little college near Bishop in the late '80s and could get a weak KSBY-6 on antenna. The cable company probably had a 200 foot tower, however.

All of this seems to indicate that KSBY was in just that perfect little sweet spot that would allow long-haul reception via successive knife-edges, even beyond the San Joaquin Valley. The SJV is like this big oblong dish, and if you will pull up heat maps for Fresno and Bakersfield stations (or even Stockton), you can see how the signals just roll across the surface, which is as flat as a pancake. There are vast areas that are in solid green. The heat contours more resemble paths over open water (which obviously isn't the case in the SJV), eventually, they just drop off as the curvature of the earth has its way.

 

[IM42A]

I also found, in the 1974 Television Factbook that just got posted on World Radio History, that KSBY was rebroadcast on a translator (K12FU) in Goldfield NV, so obviously reception was possible, though by this time it had dropped off the Tonopah cable system.

Again, all of the knife edges would have had to line up just right. I wonder if KSBY was ever made aware of this (not sure if compensation payments or permission to retransmit existed back in those days).

 

[ftballfan]

Was KOLO the usual top station in Reno? It was the only station carried on all of the systems listed.

 

[IM42A]

Was KOLO the usual top station in Reno? It was the only station carried on all of the systems listed.

Don't know, but that sounds about right. It is the other station carried on the Goldfield TV District translators alongside KSBW. KORK-3 Las Vegas was also carried on a translator in Goldfield and Tonopah, apparently O&O, KORK shows up as being carried on several other translators, as well as the one in Goldfield/Tonopah, owned by Western Communications in Las Vegas.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

I looked at the map and Mammoth Lakes is technically in the Reno TV Market. But the lineup only has KOLO-TV and not the rest of the stations like KRNV, KTVN, KRXI, KNSN, KNPB at the time of the cable lineup. The rest of the line up came from Sacramento, San Francisco, Denver, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles What was the issue that prevented other Reno stations reaching the Mammoth Lakes area around this time.

Map of California and Nevada TV Markets.

 

[IM42A]

I looked at the map and Mammoth Lakes is technically in the Reno TV Market. But the lineup only has KOLO-TV and not the rest of the stations like KRNV, KTVN, KRXI, KNSN, KNPB at the time of the cable lineup. The rest of the line up came from Sacramento, San Francisco, Denver, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles What was the issue that prevented other Reno stations reaching the Mammoth Lakes area around this time.

Map of California and Nevada TV Markets.

Were the markets as rigidly enforced in 1993 as they are now? I am thinking that especially towards the edges of markets, cable providers might not have sought to provide a market's entire slate of stations, and instead would carry what was either easier to receive OTA, or which might be judged of more interest to local viewers.

In the case of KSBY, it might have been the same unique reception characteristics as seen in far western Nevada, again, a series of knife edges situated "just so", that enabled reception of a very distant station. (I'm assuming that SF, LA, and Denver were delivered via satellite.) I have to imagine that the signal was also suboptimal by the time it made it there all the way from SLO. (Another possibility, it may actually have been KSBW-8 Salinas, still a long reach but possibly a bit more feasible, KSBW and KSBY were basically the same station for many years.)

 

[K.M. Richards]

(Another possibility, it may actually have been KSBW-8 Salinas, still a long reach but possibly a bit more feasible, KSBW and KSBY were basically the same station for many years.)

The KSBY-KSBW connection ended in 1979, long before this lineup in Mammoth.

 

[IM42A]

The KSBY-KSBW connection ended in 1979, long before this lineup in Mammoth.

Thanks for the clarification. I have to wonder if KSBY being carried on cable in Mammoth Lakes (and, at one time, Tonopah) and on translator in Goldfield and Tonopah goes back to the days when cable (and, I'm assuming, translator) operators would put an antenna on the highest mountain or hill, see what they could pick up, and selected their stations that way. There's certainly no affinity whatsoever in those places for San Luis Obispo, it's far from being a major city. Again, KSBY's propagation characteristics may have been such, that their signal simply hit the tops of mountains in that area, and due to this, they were chosen for retransmission. Low-VHF helped too.

 

[IM42A]

I checked the 1974 TVFB, and at that time, KSBY was carried on a translator there. I realize that is many years before 1993, just seemed like this should be shared. Not clear whether the translator was still active in 1993, I'm thinking perhaps the cable company received its signal and distributed it on cable.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I'm guessing you are correct about how the signal may have been received by the translators. I do not remember any rules restricting a cable company from carrying a station via its translator, but back in the 70s the FCC had to approve all out-of-market station carriage.

There was an application in 1970 for a KSBY translator on channel 11 itself in Mammoth Lakes, but I cannot find any disposition of same.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

I looked at the Reno Radio Market maps and Mono County is unranked on this one. It's not clear if more stations could have put their translators in the Mammoth Lakes area at the time the listings were made. Or was Mammoth Lakes had a high cable and satellite usage at the time the line up was made.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Market designation was never a factor in approving translators, so don't go down that rabbit hole looking for answers.

 

[IM42A]

I'm guessing you are correct about how the signal may have been received by the translators. I do not remember any rules restricting a cable company from carrying a station via its translator, but back in the 70s the FCC had to approve all out-of-market station carriage.

There was an application in 1970 for a KSBY translator on channel 11 itself in Mammoth Lakes, but I cannot find any disposition of same.

By 1972 there was a KSBY translator, K11KD, operated by Mammoth Electric (Henry J Warta), along with K09JW which carried KGO (this per TVFB).