Crappy Hotel "Cable" Report - Bedford Park, IL

[TheRob]

This was 20 years ago, but I remember staying at a motel in Arkansas where the TVs were connected to a common rooftop antenna. The only channel we received was KAIT/Jonesboro. Awesome, huh? ;D

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Isn't LodgeNet pretty much synonymous with "crappy hotel cable"? It seems to exist solely to get you to add PPV movies to your bill (and Nintendo, etc.).

Interesting comparison staying in Buffalo NY. One hotel I have stayed at before - the Clarion south of Buffalo - has full local TWC cable, including CTV and CBC that are on the system. TWC does simsubbing (U.S. style) to cover the U.S. shows on CTV.

At a Comfort Inn in Niagara Falls (U.S. side), they pick up CBC and CTV OTA out of Toronto (analog), as well as CHCH (E!) Hamilton, via a rooftop antenna. Quality varied, but it's the direct OTA feed, so no U.S. subbing...

 

[BRNout]

Interesting stuff, I had no idea. I am on the Comcast Libertyville system, didn't realize this was probably the southern-most lineup to get WMVS. Seems like Vernon Hills should be getting WMVS though...

I learned something on this one too - didn't realize that the Libertyville system has the same channel lineup as Waukegan and those other northern Lake County areas. You are at the south end of that group. Personally, I would prefer to have PBS from Milwaukee too as the NW Indiana station ("Lakeshore PBS") isn't very good.

However it seems that, as far as PBS is concerned, Vernon Hills and central Lake County get the short end of the stick with only 2 such channels.

 

[KML0224]

From what I understand, isn't the Illinois/Wisconsin state line also the market boundaries for Chicago and Milwaukee? Here in Hartford County, Connecticut, Comcast of New Britain and Hartford only offers the major locals (CBS 3, ABC 8, UNI 18, CW 20, PBS 24, ION 26, NBC 30, MY 59, FOX 61 and low-power Telemundo 50). The only out-of-market station we get right now is the down-converted analog cable channel 12 version of WGBY-DT (PBS) from Springfield, MA (formerly over-the-air analog channel 57).

It's strange, since Hartford and Springfield are only 25 air miles apart. Boston and Worcester, MA are the same market and they're 41 air miles from one another. Providence, RI is also 41 air miles from Boston but is the center of their own market.
Back to the Connecticut River valley again...once you cross from Enfield, CT to Longmeadow, MA on I-91, you leave Hartford/New Haven and enter Springfield/Chicopee/Holyoke. I don't know what Comcast in Springfield carries from my area other than "CBS 3", which is actually WFSB-DT 3-2, fed from Hartford.

 

[mescutia]

It's strange, since Hartford and Springfield are only 25 air miles apart. Boston and Worcester, MA are the same market and they're 41 air miles from one another. Providence, RI is also 41 air miles from Boston but is the center of their own market.

And then there's Manchester, NH, which is around 55 miles from Boston but is, along with much of southern NH, part of the Boston market.

 

[JustinT]

From what I understand, isn't the Illinois/Wisconsin state line also the market boundaries for Chicago and Milwaukee? Here in Hartford County, Connecticut, Comcast of New Britain and Hartford only offers the major locals (CBS 3, ABC 8, UNI 18, CW 20, PBS 24, ION 26, NBC 30, MY 59, FOX 61 and low-power Telemundo 50). The only out-of-market station we get right now is the down-converted analog cable channel 12 version of WGBY-DT (PBS) from Springfield, MA (formerly over-the-air analog channel 57).

Somewhat. Just checking, it turns out that Winthrop Harbor, IL, which is right on the IL/WI border, is part of Comcast Waukegan and thus receives almost exclusively Chicago stations, though trading out WYIN for WMVS. On the other side of the border, in Kenosha, the Time Warner lineup includes WBBM, WMAQ, WLS, WGN, WTTW, and WFLD along with the Milwaukee locals. This setup does make sense, as some consider Kenosha to be the northernmost city in the Chicago region. Additionally, I know more than a few people who live in Kenosha and Pleasant Prairie (WI) and commute down to Lake County for work, so they may want to stay in touch with Chicagoland news.

 

[markwooldridge]

It's not just hotels that have "crappy" cable systems. There's a special kind of "hotel" for "sick people" - they call them "hospitals".

They can be just as good or bad as hotels.

North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem isn't too bad... they take Time Warners' cable system and all rooms have full analog cable, but some channels are replaced with in-house channels that provide patient information, and a few are blocked off for I think is a semi on-demand service. In Greensboro, Moses Cone patients have to live with an in-house system of dubious quality, with far fewer channels, bad pictures on the local channels (they're received over the air) and some satellite channels received by big dish.

Mark.

 

[BRNout]

Somewhat. Just checking, it turns out that Winthrop Harbor, IL, which is right on the IL/WI border, is part of Comcast Waukegan and thus receives almost exclusively Chicago stations, though trading out WYIN for WMVS. On the other side of the border, in Kenosha, the Time Warner lineup includes WBBM, WMAQ, WLS, WGN, WTTW, and WFLD along with the Milwaukee locals. This setup does make sense, as some consider Kenosha to be the northernmost city in the Chicago region. Additionally, I know more than a few people who live in Kenosha and Pleasant Prairie (WI) and commute down to Lake County for work, so they may want to stay in touch with Chicagoland news.

True, but as I pointed out earlier in the thread, Chicago broadcast channels are offered by Time-Warner in the Lake Geneva area and on their Racine system too. Because of the historically dominant nature of Chicago television in the region, they must qualify as "significantly viewed" across a decent stretch of SE Wisconsin. The reverse is not true of Milwaukee stations, none of which are offered on Illinois cable systems with the exception of WMVS (PBS).

Network affiliates from the (truly) major markets generally do tend to enjoy a larger distribution area than their smaller market cousins. I know that, in the northeast, Boston affiliates pop up on cable systems more than 100 miles from the city (NE Conn., Berkshire County MA, York County, ME, southern and central VT) and New York City affiliates are carried well up into New Haven and Litchfield Counties in CT. Meanwhile, WTNH (ABC) from New Haven, CT can't get carriage in Suffolk County, NY - parts of which are a straight 20 mile shot across the water from their transmitter.

Historically people tended to gravitate to the larger market stations which always seemed to have more to offer the viewer (although it is debatable whether this remains true in 2009).

 

[fybush]

It's not just hotels that have "crappy" cable systems. There's a special kind of "hotel" for "sick people" - they call them "hospitals".

They can be just as good or bad as hotels.

True, that. My wife is recovering from surgery this week, and the system in her room (Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester) is a roll-your-own - about 35 channels of local TV and basic cable networks, plus the usual hospital channels of health info. Picture quality is fine; channel selection is somewhat limited - no Comedy Central, for instance.

The most interesting part? They have their own TV Guide Channel, complete with custom listings for the hospital system.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

The most interesting part? They have their own TV Guide Channel, complete with custom listings for the hospital system.

And as such, TVGuide.com's online listings pick up the lineup, if you put in the hospital's Zip Code (14642).

They have a "Clock Channel", and supposedly two "Radio Channels" up at the top of the lineup...

 

[Joey1986]

When I was 11 years old, I stayed at the Bun Boy Motel in Baker, CA. The place was pretty rundown. They had those old TVs with knobs (the knobs were missing) and the TV had a cable box with red LED numbers that would show the channel that the viewer was watching. The keys on the remote control smelled like cigarette smoke. The cable lineup was pretty weird, too. For example, NBC4 was on Channel 7. Also, for PBS, they got KVIE Channel 6 from Sacramento. This is pretty intriguing given that Baker is in San Bernardino County, which would put it in the Los Angeles market. IMO, they should've gotten either KVCR Channel 24 from San Bernardino or KCET Channel 28 from L.A.

 

[BRNout]

I know where Bun Boy is - home of the world's largest thermometer!!! Wouldn't they have some Vegas channels too? That's still the closest large city to Baker (which is in the middle of nowhere).

On a completely different note (re-using the same post in the interest of the environment)......

About the hospital TV's, do they still charge you a couple of bucks per day for the TV? I remember having my tonsils out (about 20 years ago) and was incredulous to learn that the hospital required $2 per day (cash, no less) for the TV to work! More recent visits to the maternity ward have demonstrated that hospital cable seems to be at least as limited as that which is offered in most hotels.

 

[fybush]

I know where Bun Boy is - home of the world's largest thermometer!!! Wouldn't they have some Vegas channels too? That's still the closest large city to Baker (which is in the middle of nowhere).

Baker is also home to the Mad Greek Cafe, which has some of the finest strawberry shakes known to mankind.

I actually wouldn't expect to see much Vegas TV in Baker - there's pretty heavy-duty terrain shielding the Vegas transmitter sites from the Mojave. Until the seventies and eighties, most Vegas TV was on short towers down low in the valley and didn't really get out of the valley at all; even after the stations moved up to Black Mountain, they still don't clear the taller mountains west of Vegas.

Now, if someone built a TV on Mount Potosi, southwest of Vegas, it would see down I-15 pretty well, just as the Potosi FMs (88.9, 92.3, 93.1, 97.1, 104.3, 107.5) do - but there's not really room on the mountain, or available power, for a TV transmitter up there.

On a completely different note (re-using the same post in the interest of the environment)......

About the hospital TV's, do they still charge you a couple of bucks per day for the TV? I remember having my tonsils out (about 20 years ago) and was incredulous to learn that the hospital required $2 per day (cash, no less) for the TV to work! More recent visits to the maternity ward have demonstrated that hospital cable seems to be at least as limited as that which is offered in most hotels.

Yes, they still charge - it's $5 a day or somesuch for the TV and the phone together, not that she's picked up the hospital phone once since she's been here.

Interestingly, the wireless internet is free. Go figure.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

My wife is recovering from surgery this week, and the system in her room
(Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester) is a roll-your-own...

Mr. Tower Site,

Best wishes to your better half (Mrs. Tower Site?) for her recovery,
and perhaps more so after she goes home and has to again put up
with your "doggondest hobby."

 

[gr8oldies]

When my daughter was giving birth the hospital had the locals, many of the cable nets, movies, hospital info and most of the area radio stations.

 

[KML0224]

Ah! Cable FM! Now there's an 80s cable novelty!

 

[gr8oldies]

This system even has the AMs

 

[mleach]

I know where Bun Boy is - home of the world's largest thermometer!!! Wouldn't they have some Vegas channels too? That's still the closest large city to Baker (which is in the middle of nowhere).

What about Palm Springs? I know little about California so forgive me.

Reason I ask, over the years I knew many who went there and all of them told me the only "local" TV they could pick up at their hotels was TV from...Los Angeles but nothing from Palm Springs even though, of course that city has their own TV stations. Maybe those hotels had their own in-house system and figured it would be better just to offer the LA stations and not Palm Springs since chances are many of those vistors ( I know it was the case with my firends ) they flew out of LAX or the other LA airports.

 

[fybush]

What about Palm Springs? I know little about California so forgive me.

Reason I ask, over the years I knew many who went there and all of them told me the only "local" TV they could pick up at their hotels was TV from...Los Angeles but nothing from Palm Springs even though, of course that city has their own TV stations. Maybe those hotels had their own in-house system and figured it would be better just to offer the LA stations and not Palm Springs since chances are many of those vistors ( I know it was the case with my firends ) they flew out of LAX or the other LA airports.

Palm Springs has long lived in the shadow of LA TV. Until just a few years ago, the only network affiliates PS had were NBC (KMIR 36, "NBC 6") and ABC (KESQ 42, "ABC 3"). They've since been supplemented by CBS and Fox, via LPTVs with cable carriage, and more recently a CW subchannel as well.

Even so, the Palm Springs stations have very limited reach over-the-air. They're on a relatively low mountaintop just north of Palm Springs, completely shadowed by higher mountains to the west (toward Riverside/San Bernardino) and the north (up toward the Mojave), and so their audience is entirely confined to the Coachella Valley.

As a result, Riverside County is the only county I know of that's split among THREE DMAs - the western portion (Riverside and vicinity) is in the LA DMA, the central portion is Palm Springs, and the eastern portion falls in the Yuma/El Centro DMA, I believe.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Bumped as I am staying at the St. Louis Hyatt Riverfront for a conference as I speak. Anyway, here's their lineup (Lodgenet is the provider):

3--KTVI (2) Fox
6--KMOV (4) CBS
7--KSDK (5) NBC
8--KETC (9) PBS
10--KPLR (11) CW
12--KDNL (30) ABC
13--HBO
14--CNN
15--Headline News
16--HBO Family
17--TBS
18--USA
21--TNT
22--Hotel [Barker?] channel
23--WRBU (46) MyNetwork
24--Discovery
25--Travel Channel
26--"HOTEL1" [Barker?]
27--A&E
28--CNBC
29--MSNBC
30--National Geographic
31--Weather Channel
32--History
33--Fox News
34--Biography
35--Hallmark
36--(Listed on guide as Fox Sports Bay Area--WITHIN BLOCKS OF BUSCH STADIUM--WHY?!!--but Fox Business Network appeared instead)
37--ESPN2
38--ESPN News
39--ESPN Classic
40--ESPN
41--Speed
42--Disney (East)
43--FLN
62 & 84--Barker

And that's it--no KNLC-24 per the channel guide (I haven't watched a whole lot since I checked in my room this morning).