Beckley, WV (May 23, 1965)

[Bluenoser]

from Beckley Post-Herald via Newspapers.com

2 WOAY Oak Hill
3 WSAZ Huntington
5 WCYB Bristol
6 WHIS Bluefield
7 WDBJ Roanoke
8 WCHS Charleston
10 WSLS Roanoke
11 WJHL Johnson City
13 WHTN Huntington

 

[IM42A]

Aside from the fact that they were able to be received at the head end, I could never figure out why they carried WCYB and WJHL in Beckley. There is absolutely no connection between Beckley and the Tri-Cities, and they wouldn't be anyplace that people from Beckley would ever go shopping, for medical care, and so on.

At least Roanoke is a larger city, and 3/8/13 would have been considered the "big city" stations, relatively speaking, along with WCHS being in the state capital and WSAZ being the best-known and most professional news operation in WV at the time.

It was possibly because, as I said, the stations could be received in the first place, and to provide variety in syndicated programming and reruns that was a big drawing card for out-of-market stations on cable in the first place.

 

[ftballfan]

Another reason: pre-emptions and NFL games

 

[IM42A]

Another reason: pre-emptions and NFL games

I didn't think of that, thanks. Back in those days, network affiliates pre-empted programs for pastime, and if you could only get stations from one market, you were SOL. You couldn't get Dark Shadows on the western side of the C-H market because WHTN (now WOWK) didn't carry it --- in Charleston you could get WOAY, but not in Huntington. That's just one example.

Just for the heck of it, I wonder if they could have carried Winston-Salem/Greensboro stations instead? Bluefield cable carried WFMY and WSJS (now WXII) for a time, and Beckley is only about 100 miles from WSJS/WXII (Sauratown Mountain, near Pilot Mountain). That wouldn't have been all that much of a reach.