The planned new PBS station in the Waco-Temple market now has a call: KLRW-TV.
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New Waco PBS station
- Thread starter Mediafrog+
- Start date
KLRU. (KLRN and KLRU have been separate entities since 1984.)
Either way, will KLRW originate its own programming?
Funny thing: Waco and Bryan/College Station were once the same radio market and it seems still one TV market. Both small cities are about 90 miles apart. Waco signals (TV and Radio) cannot be heard or viewed in Bryan/College station and vice versa. in fact, Bryan/College Station is closer to Houston (given the suburbs) just as Dallas/Fort Worth is to Waco (again considering suburbs)
They're officially one TV market, but in reality function as two separate markets these days. KBTX in Bryan runs all its own newscasts separate from KWTX, and I believe that's largely true these days for the LPTV stations in B/CS that are nominal satellites of KCEN and KXXV in Temple and Waco, too.
KAMU-TV has no OTA or cable presence in Temple or Waco, which get KLRU or KERA instead, and so the only major station that is seen in the entire combined market is KWKT, the Fox station, which appears on the 28.2 of KYLE in Bryan (and KYLE is on KWKT's 44.2 in Waco).
KAMU-TV has no OTA or cable presence in Temple or Waco, which get KLRU or KERA instead, and so the only major station that is seen in the entire combined market is KWKT, the Fox station, which appears on the 28.2 of KYLE in Bryan (and KYLE is on KWKT's 44.2 in Waco).
I’m in NW Harris County, and I’ve always been able to receive KBTX on both its analog RF3 and digital RF50 and RF16 incarnations. Redundant as CBS and the various subchannels are available locally, though KBTX sometimes runs a different NFL game than KHOU.
Is KLRW building a new tower or using an existing one? At a quick glance I thought it would be on the KWTX/KNCT tower, but a check of the coordinates reveals the KLRW site to be a bit to the NNE.
Wikipedia entry about Waco’s previous PBS stations, KCTF and KWBU-TV, and the failed sale to Daystar: KDYW - Wikipedia
Wikipedia on the market’s other (former) PBS station KNCT, which was sold to KWTX: KNCT (TV) - Wikipedia
Arbitron did not begin regular surveys of B/CS until Spring 1988.
There was a one-off survey in 1982, with previous measurement of the market being mostly at the hands of individual station sanctioned research from companies like Auditaire. Stations could also subscribe to Arbitron's county-by-county report, which was printed once per year and broke out listening by counties but without weighting.
If a radio ratings report was shown covering Waco and B/CS, it was likely a report run for the Waco DMA, which would show the radio listening for the combined TV market, but as far as Arbitron's radio metros go, B/CS and Waco have always been separate.
There was a one-off survey in 1982, with previous measurement of the market being mostly at the hands of individual station sanctioned research from companies like Auditaire. Stations could also subscribe to Arbitron's county-by-county report, which was printed once per year and broke out listening by counties but without weighting.
If a radio ratings report was shown covering Waco and B/CS, it was likely a report run for the Waco DMA, which would show the radio listening for the combined TV market, but as far as Arbitron's radio metros go, B/CS and Waco have always been separate.
What an odd pairing of Waco and Bryan/College Station, Texas. Waco is about equidistant from Austin and Dallas. B/CS is east-northeast of Austin, closer to the Texas state capital than it is to Waco.
Texas has five top-100 markets: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso. But it has plenty of smaller cities scattered all around the state. In some cases, those cities have a full compliment of broadcast media, I guess defined as having a CBS, NBC and ABC affiliate. But it looks like some small cities had to get linked up with another small city to be considered a ratable market, even if those combinations weren't always logical.
Texas has five top-100 markets: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso. But it has plenty of smaller cities scattered all around the state. In some cases, those cities have a full compliment of broadcast media, I guess defined as having a CBS, NBC and ABC affiliate. But it looks like some small cities had to get linked up with another small city to be considered a ratable market, even if those combinations weren't always logical.
Existing tower owned by Scripps that is home to its KXXV(TV) and iHeart's KWTX-FM 97.5.
Has a lot to do with KBTX having once been a straight satellite station for KWTX some decades ago. There were no other TV stations in B/CS at the time.
Actually B/CS is about ten miles closer to Waco than it is to Austin.
Some of the small “three station” markets in Texas go back many decades. For instance Amarillo has had affiliates for NBC/CBS/ABC since 1957, while the bigger Austin market didn’t achieve that status until 1971.
The answer is simpler than that. KBTX was founded as a semi-satellite of KWTX and owned half (effectively more than half) of it when it first went on the air in 1957.
From Television Digest at worldradiohistory.com:
Link: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/h...s/Television-Digest-1957-05-OCR-Page-0063.pdf
It has always been co-owned with KWTX-TV.
I wonder if the "A." in "Brazos A. Varisco" stood for "Arms".
Year of reaching 3 full affiliate status:
D/FW: 1949
Houston: 1953* KNUZ/39 signed off in 1953, KTRK signed on a year later.
Wichita Falls/Lawton: 1953
Waco: 1955* KANG/34 signed off in 1955, full 3 didn't return until 1985.
Shreveport/Texarkana: 1955
Corpus Christi: 1956* KVDO/22 signed off in 1957, full 3 didn't return until 1964.
Amarillo: 1957
San Antonio: 1957
Midland/Odessa: 1958
Beaumont: 1961
Lubbock: 1967
Austin: 1971
Abilene: 1979
McAllen: 1981
Laredo: 1984
Tyler/Longview: 1987
D/FW: 1949
Houston: 1953* KNUZ/39 signed off in 1953, KTRK signed on a year later.
Wichita Falls/Lawton: 1953
Waco: 1955* KANG/34 signed off in 1955, full 3 didn't return until 1985.
Shreveport/Texarkana: 1955
Corpus Christi: 1956* KVDO/22 signed off in 1957, full 3 didn't return until 1964.
Amarillo: 1957
San Antonio: 1957
Midland/Odessa: 1958
Beaumont: 1961
Lubbock: 1967
Austin: 1971
Abilene: 1979
McAllen: 1981
Laredo: 1984
Tyler/Longview: 1987
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And that UHF station and ABC affiliate was once owned by Lyndon Johnson's wife. CBS was ready to transfer its Waco affiliation to Channel 34, only to curry favor with her powerful husband. The owner of the CBS VHF station cried foul.
Instead of becoming the CBS station in Waco, the Johnsons agreed to take KANG 34 off the air. The owner of the CBS station agreed to give the Johnsons a partial ownership in exchange for eliminating the competition.
That's in addition to everything the Johnsons did to dominate Austin TV and radio. That's worth another post.
To paraphrase Sesame Street, this channel lineup was brought to you by the letters L, B, and J.
The story of KANG could be a book!
Some markets have less-than-perfect pairings of core cities, the main reason probably being to secure a full complement of network stations. If DTV had existed when these markets were created, some of them might well have gone the subchannel route to secure full network carriage. Beckley-Bluefield-Oak Hill WV, while not outlandish, has difficult terrain and OTA reception leaves much to be desired. At one time, WOAY was considered a Charleston-Huntington market station, at least by some measures (this per Television Factbook, I'd have to do some digging to get the reference). For that matter, when you think about it, Florence-Myrtle Beach SC is a somewhat unlikely market, the two towns really don't have that much to do with one another, the main catalyst has probably been the explosive growth of MB and Horry County (BTW, the H is silent). And the market stops at the Horry-Georgetown county line, Georgetown County is in the Charleston market even though its northern beach towns are far more tied to MB.