Chicago TV stations coverage area?

[BMR]

Hi guys,

Two quick questions of no vital importance other than my curiosity....

1) Under normal conditions how far do the OTA TV signals from Chicago go?

2) What areas get Chicago TV for cable/satellite purposes?

 

[schmave]

I can only answer the second question. The Chicago DMA consists of Cook, DuPage, McHenry, Lake, DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, Will, LaSalle, Grundy and Kankakee counties in Illinois; and Lake, Porter, La Porte, Jasper and Newton counties in northwest Indiana. I know for a fact that Chicago OTA stations also are seen in Berrien County in the southwest corner of Michigan as well as Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties in southeast Wisconsin. I think at one time, WTTW was shown as far away as West Lafayette, about 120 miles from the Loop. Unsure if that's still the case (online TV listings aren't always accurate).
In Berrien County, while they get Chicago OTA at least one cable system there carries the national WGN, even though a good antenna probably could pick up the local version from just 40-45 miles across the lake. Pretty sure the local WGN is carried in those Wisconsin counties I mentioned.

 

[BMR]

I can only answer the second question. The Chicago DMA consists of Cook, DuPage, McHenry, Lake, DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, Will, LaSalle, Grundy and Kankakee counties in Illinois; and Lake, Porter, La Porte, Jasper and Newton counties in northwest Indiana. I know for a fact that Chicago OTA stations also are seen in Berrien County in the southwest corner of Michigan as well as Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties in southeast Wisconsin. I think at one time, WTTW was shown as far away as West Lafayette, about 120 miles from the Loop. Unsure if that's still the case (online TV listings aren't always accurate).
In Berrien County, while they get Chicago OTA at least one cable system there carries the national WGN, even though a good antenna probably could pick up the local version from just 40-45 miles across the lake. Pretty sure the local WGN is carried in those Wisconsin counties I mentioned.

Thanks for that. So for instance Rockford has it's own stations as does South Bend.

 

[schmave]

I can only answer the second question. The Chicago DMA consists of Cook, DuPage, McHenry, Lake, DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, Will, LaSalle, Grundy and Kankakee counties in Illinois; and Lake, Porter, La Porte, Jasper and Newton counties in northwest Indiana. I know for a fact that Chicago OTA stations also are seen in Berrien County in the southwest corner of Michigan as well as Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties in southeast Wisconsin. I think at one time, WTTW was shown as far away as West Lafayette, about 120 miles from the Loop. Unsure if that's still the case (online TV listings aren't always accurate).
In Berrien County, while they get Chicago OTA at least one cable system there carries the national WGN, even though a good antenna probably could pick up the local version from just 40-45 miles across the lake. Pretty sure the local WGN is carried in those Wisconsin counties I mentioned.

Thanks for that. So for instance Rockford has it's own stations as does South Bend.

Yep. They're both about 90 miles from Chicago and have their own network affiliates. As a Chicago sports fan I've seen more than one post from those areas from upset fans who can't get games WCIU or the local WGN shows. In both cases, they're one county or so too far to get them.

 

[dave73]

I can only answer the second question. The Chicago DMA consists of Cook, DuPage, McHenry, Lake, DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, Will, LaSalle, Grundy and Kankakee counties in Illinois; and Lake, Porter, La Porte, Jasper and Newton counties in northwest Indiana. I know for a fact that Chicago OTA stations also are seen in Berrien County in the southwest corner of Michigan as well as Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties in southeast Wisconsin. I think at one time, WTTW was shown as far away as West Lafayette, about 120 miles from the Loop. Unsure if that's still the case (online TV listings aren't always accurate).
In Berrien County, while they get Chicago OTA at least one cable system there carries the national WGN, even though a good antenna probably could pick up the local version from just 40-45 miles across the lake. Pretty sure the local WGN is carried in those Wisconsin counties I mentioned.

I doubt WTTW makes it all the way to Lafayette Indiana OTA (especially now that they're on the UHF on RF 47), but they are available on Comcast down there, due to only 1 TV station being in that market (CBS affiliate WLFI), & Comcast has permission to offer Indianapolis stations on their system, along with WTTW (probably with permission from WTTW).

WGN can be tricky to get in SW Michigan now that WGN-TV is on RF 19, & WXMI is also on RF 19 (WGN-TV used to be on RF9 & WXMI used to be on RF 17). So for those people, the antenna would need to be on a rotator to null out each other's signal. I have heard of people in parts of Michigan around Muskegon getting both WWMT & WMVS on RF 8 (WWMT used to be on RF 3 analog & DT 2 for pre-transitional digital, while WMVS used to be on RF 10).

As for Chicago stations being picked up in Indiana; I know in the analog days, Chicago VHF stations could be picked up in Starke County Indiana with no trouble, but UHF stations were iffy. WJYS when they transmitted out of Tinley Park, did not reach Starke County at all. WYCC was difficult to pickup, along with WCIU, WPWR-TV, WXFT, & WGBO. For digital, I don't know since my brother no longer lives in Knox Indiana. I do know that once WCIU ups their power, they'll increase their coverage in the northern & western suburbs, but the signal will be weakened in NW Indiana (especially around LaPorte, eastern Porter County, & Starke, Counties) in order to protect WCWW-LD, who also happens to be on RF 27 at 15kw non-directional (WCWW-LD & WCIU both owned by Weigel Broadcasting) & create interference. I know WYIN is weaker toward Starke County, due to the signal being directional toward Chicago, while protecting what used to be WNDU-TV on RF 16 (now on RF 42), since WYIN is on RF 17. I don't know if WYIN has plans to remove the nulls or not. They also had a null toward Lafayette Indiana to protect WLFI when they were on RF 18 (now on RF 11). WYIN wanted to be on the Sears Tower, but are forced to stay at their tower site in Cedar Lake Indiana for money reasons, & not because WTTW & WYCC tried to get the FCC to stop such a move out of fear of losing pledge dollars (BTW, the FCC did approve WYIN's request, but WYIN withdrew them, due to the cost to lease space on the Sears Tower prevented them from doing so).