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Channel 40 from the shore is on DirecTv
- Thread starter Bill_W
- Start date
Now they just need to add WGAL (which is on many cable systems in the Western part of the DMA) and then they can remove WCAU!
*Note - the above post contains a dangerous substance known as SARCASM.
It just seems like there's an overkill of NBC stations in the Philly area (WNBC in Mercer, Ocean & Pike Counties, WMGM in Atlantic, Cape May & Cumberland Counties, WGAL in Chester & Berks Counties)
*Note - the above post contains a dangerous substance known as SARCASM.
It just seems like there's an overkill of NBC stations in the Philly area (WNBC in Mercer, Ocean & Pike Counties, WMGM in Atlantic, Cape May & Cumberland Counties, WGAL in Chester & Berks Counties)
The duplication dates back to the days of free antenna viewing. Lancaster and the Cape May Counties were black holes for reception of Ch 3. Then owned by Philco, WPTZ was an elaborate experimental station used for Philco engineers to real world test new circuitry. It was relatively low power/height compared to William Paley's WCAU and Walter Annenberg's WFIL TV 6. NBC wanted Philadelphia, and purchased the station, investing heavily in their new WRCV TV 3. By then, WGAL had already got an affiliation for Lancaster. The Shore got on for WCMC TV 40 about '65 I think.
WCMC-TV signed on the air in 1966. Part of the reason Channel 40 got the NBC affiliation was the animosity between the network and Group W after the reverse of the Philadelphia-Cleveland stations swap. NBC was forced to give up WRCV AM-TV. Group W stations were notorious for pre-empting network shows. The affiliation with 40 was NBC's revenge.
Neil Rattigan said:
...and you might say that Group W got its own revenge, in that WCMC's NBC programming in the early days came more-or-less OTA from KYW-3!
Whenever Channel 3 pre-empted NBC shows, 40 had to run its own programming (usually listed in TV Guide as a B&W "Film"). Once in a while WCMC would slip, and shore viewers would see part of the "NBC" broadcast of KYW's "Meeting House"!
---Perf2K8
Occasionally, they would also switch to the off-air signal of WNBC. By the time I started working there in 1986, they already had a dish to pick up the direct NBC feed. But, yes, I've heard the horror stories.
JerseyShor said:
DirecTV also has WLVT 39 (PBS), which runs pretty much the national PBS offering of the night. Together WLVT 39 and WMGM 40 could be used instead of CH.10 and CH.12!
DirecTV has every full power station in the Philly market except WBPH 60 (Ind.) and WGTW (TBN) and WWSI 62 (TEL), the latter two though air feeds of channels, TBN and Telemundo, already available on DirecTV, though Telemundo requires a Spanish language package.
WWSI 62 was dropped as they didn't properly elect must-carry for the four years (2004-2008), but could it could show up again back on DirecTV perhaps next year. They remain on Dish Network. One TBN national feed is carried in place of the local TBN owned stations.
Bill_W said:
WNJS (NJN) is definitely a PBS member station, but they don't air the PBS national feed as not to duplicate WNET in the New York market, and WHYY in Philadelphia.
WLVT however airs the PBS national feed. In the Lehigh Valley, for the longest time Service Electric didn't even carry WHYY 12. They recently added CH.12 on Ch.21. WLVT is on CH.12. I suppose its a reciprocal thing now that WLVT is all in SE PA and on DirecTV. Service Electric still doesn't carry WNJT (NJN) even though its signal is receivable, and NJN has PA, NY and DE cable coverage as well as just NJ coverage.
Lehigh Valley is halfway Philly oriented. No Comcast for instance. No SEPTA or mass transit connecting that region to Philly proper. Different newspapers and FM. They have their own international airport that's small but with enough flights to compete against PHL. Census put them as their own region because it has some New Yorkers who migrated there. Elevation is higher up. However, for sports programming, its still within the Philly area's exclusive zone and MSG, FSNY and SportsNet-NY aren't available. On cable, Service Electric gets WNBC, WNYW, WWOR and WPIX, and Service Electric even carries HD feeds of some of the New York stations though.
With Service Electric there, I think it's one way WFMZ-HD news has been viable in that cable carries it. If Comcast was the cable co. in Allentown, Comcast would never carry an independent station in HD esp. if was deemed to be a competitive factor to them. And see what happened to CN8. Comcast prevents competition then does a half a** job and Philly has no cable news network.
An interesting thing with DirecTV is that they have WFMZ from Allentown and WMGM from Wildwood, along with the Philadelphia stations.
So some shows like Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown are on 3 local stations on DirecTV. I wish I had DirecTV for 39 and 40, though I get 39 over the air, and it'd be nice if WPIX and maybe WWOR were given as well, but its not worth it for me to switch for just distant local channels.
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