Dickinson, ND (March 1985)

[NoDakObserver]

From the Dickinson Press.

Scottcable

3 - WDAY Fargo, ND (ABC) (In June this becomes KBMY Bismarck, ND (ABC))
4 - USA
5 - KQCD Dickinson, ND (NBC)
6 - CBN
8- WGN Chicago (Ind)
9 - Weather
10- KNDX Dickinson, ND (CBS)
11 - WTBS Atlanta (Ind)
12 - CNN
13 - KDSE Dickinson, ND (PBS)
14 - Weather Channel
15 - ESPN
16 - CSPAN
17 - Nickelodeon
18 - Nashville Network
19 - MTV
20 - A&E
21 - CMTV
22 - CNN 2
23 - Lifetime
24 - Cinemax
25 - Disney
26 - Showtime
27 - HBO
28 - Public Access
29 - Public Access
30 - Public Access
31 - SPN
32 - TLC
33 - Catholic and Variety Programming
34 - VH1
35 - Local Bulletin Board
37 - Playboy

Channel 33 I'm guessing was EWTN, which did not broadcast 24 hours a day like it does now.
Channel 37 offering Playboy became a huge story in town. The owner of the cable company decided to drop the channel by December of 1985. According to a Dickinson Press article they could not guarantee with the current technology (both cable and TV sets) that children wouldn't be able to listen or see the scrambled signal and they did not want to offer it under those conditions.

 

[valvashon]

About two years after this schedule I went to work for Prairie Public TV at their Fargo HQ. All of the stations were signing off at about midnight, but they were adding some late night programming to the Fargo and Grand Forks stations, most likely to keep the Canadian cable companies happy. I never visited it, but they had a small control room in Bismarck, where an operator kept watch on the 4 stations in the Western half of the state, taking transmitter readings, etc. At midnight the top of the hour ID was a little longer than other hours, allowing the operator to roll in the sign off for those stations and then shut them down.

I don't remember what the midnight hour had for programming but I seem to remember a repeat of the Nightly Business Report at 1:00 and a repeat of the (then) McNeil-Lehrer Newshour from 1:30 to 2:30. After that was sign off of KFME and KGFE including both the U.S. and Canadian national anthems. I also don't remember at that time if we had a direct microwave feed to Canadian head ends or if they were pulling in KGFE from just across the border. Cable companies at the time were getting tired of local stations signing off and filling their channels with snow overnight.

The Williston and Dickinson stations signed on in 1982. Perhaps they were pulling in the Bismarck station until then.

 

[NoDakObserver]

Yes, before 1982, Dickinson got KBME for PBS. And before KBME signed on, they pulled in KPSD from South Dakota. I have some of these older lineups in previous posts if you feel like looking backwards through the posts.