The St Joseph DMA should just be split up, with the Southern half going the Kansas City DMA, the Northern half going into the Omaha or Lincoln DMA
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DMAs that should be merged into others
- Thread starter nomadcowatbk
- Start date
There was an actual DMA merger: it occurred in the 1990s and involved two Alabama markets being added to Birmingham.
That occurred in the fall of 1998, a consequence of the affiliation switches of 1994 removing the last distinct major network affiliates from both Tuscaloosa and Anniston-Gadsden. Each of those markets already relied on Birmingham affiliates for all except CBS (except Fox in Tuscaloosa). Birmingham soared 12 market spots (51 to 39) and the total number of DMAs shrank from 212 to 210. At the same time, Birmingham became a metered market.
That occurred in the fall of 1998, a consequence of the affiliation switches of 1994 removing the last distinct major network affiliates from both Tuscaloosa and Anniston-Gadsden. Each of those markets already relied on Birmingham affiliates for all except CBS (except Fox in Tuscaloosa). Birmingham soared 12 market spots (51 to 39) and the total number of DMAs shrank from 212 to 210. At the same time, Birmingham became a metered market.
If you want some good ideas about how this could be done, look at the way rabbitears.info organizes markets.
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
If the Wheeling-Steubenville market is still a distinct DMA there is a good argument for merging it into
Pittsburgh (that area has lost a ton of population in the past 30-40 years)
Pittsburgh (that area has lost a ton of population in the past 30-40 years)
Most of those date back to the "old days" when politicians pushed to get a TV station into a city and ABC was desperate to get any affiliate.
Geographically, Boston and Providence could be one as well as Baltimore and DC, but for political reasons they never will be.
On the flip side, San Jose is big enough and far enough from San Francisco to be split off into it's own or merged with Salinas, which it kind of used to be.
Geographically, Boston and Providence could be one as well as Baltimore and DC, but for political reasons they never will be.
On the flip side, San Jose is big enough and far enough from San Francisco to be split off into it's own or merged with Salinas, which it kind of used to be.
KeithE4 said:
they have a full power ABC station, and a lower power Fox station
unclehonkey said:
CW isn't a major network, its a narrowcasting netlet
Living in the area, I've always thought Fort Walton should leave the Mobile-Pensacola DMA and join the Panama City market. Fort Walton has 4 full power TV stations licensed, one of them is now the MyNet affiliate for Mobile but the other 3 full power Fort Walton stations just carry paid programming and don't have signals that reach the population center of the Mobile market. Adding 4 full power TV stations to the Panama City DMA would allow the market to take CBS off of the LPTV and end the need for multicasting on ABC and NBC stations.
Charles1 said:
E
EJ204
Guest
@polido...
Do those Fort Walton stations get carried on the cable systems of Mobile-Pensacola? If they do, they and the My Network station probably want to stay with the larger Mobile-Pensacola market.
I understand that in the Fort Walton-Destin area, cable systems carry both Mobile-Pensacola stations and Panama City stations. I guess all those cities on the Gulf Coast between Tampa and New Orleans have odd market groupings. No city, Mobile, Pensacola, Biloxi, Panama City, Tallahassee, etc. is large enough to be a market on its own and have all the major networks. So they all have groupings where markets cross state lines and have to include network affiliates from other cities that really have nothing to do with the home market.
Do those Fort Walton stations get carried on the cable systems of Mobile-Pensacola? If they do, they and the My Network station probably want to stay with the larger Mobile-Pensacola market.
I understand that in the Fort Walton-Destin area, cable systems carry both Mobile-Pensacola stations and Panama City stations. I guess all those cities on the Gulf Coast between Tampa and New Orleans have odd market groupings. No city, Mobile, Pensacola, Biloxi, Panama City, Tallahassee, etc. is large enough to be a market on its own and have all the major networks. So they all have groupings where markets cross state lines and have to include network affiliates from other cities that really have nothing to do with the home market.
The MyNet affiliate in Fort Walton was allowed to move its transmitter to the Mobile tower farm durring the DTV conversion, so it is now a Mobile-Pensacola station but no longer has a useable OTA signal in FWB. The other three FWB TV stations, WFBD, WAWD, and WPAN have spots on Dish, DirecTV, UVerse and some cable head ends that are capable of receiving the signals OTA. Some Panama City TV stations are on cable in Fort Walton and Destin but they aren't offered on satellite. I understand that some zip codes in the Destin area aren't offered any local stations on sattelite.
It's kinda a mute point as the Fort Walton area has about 98% cable/dish penetration.
It's kinda a mute point as the Fort Walton area has about 98% cable/dish penetration.
EJ204 said:
A number of you have complained about the size of the South Georgia edition of TV Guide; this is precisely the reason. That
edition was intended for Columbus, Macon, Albany, and Tallahassee, but contained spillover from Atlanta, Jacksonville, Savannah...and Dothan and Panama City. And the latter markets were included in the Gulf Coast edition as well, along with
Mobile/Pensacola and spillover from Biloxi and Tallahassee (New Orleans and Laurel/Hattiesburg were included in earlier years).
Then there was another relatively large one: South Mississippi, aimed at Meridian, Laurel/Hattiesburg, and Biloxi, but also carried Mobile/Pensacola, New Orleans, and spillover from Jackson.
With the way these Gulf-area markets were jammed together, it's no wonder TV Guide was a nightmare to read there.
bpatrick said:
Aside from Mobile-Pensacola, Jacksonville, and New Orleans, there is not "functional DMA" in the Gulf Coast region. It is embarrassing how "piecemeal" these so-called DMAs are and basically controlled by the same small group of owners Media General, Gray, Sinclair, and Raycom.
Way back when... WCTV from Tallahassee along with WTVY, WJHG, and WMBB from Panama City were included in the TV listings in the Pensacola News(paper). I have no idea why as I don't believe circulation ever extended beyond Fort Walton or Destin. I believe WLOX from Biloxi was also included but I'm pretty sure New Orleans and Montgomery stations (which are/were closer than WCTV) were never part of the newspaper TV listings. No UHF stations outside of Pensacola's PBS affiliate were included in the TV listings back then but at the time the Mobile-Pensacola market only had two UHF stations (both PBS).
I can only assume that some people in the Crestview area with 100 foot high TV antennas were able to catch WCTV on occasion but I can't imagine why people would be trying to pull in a third CBS affiliate.
I can only assume that some people in the Crestview area with 100 foot high TV antennas were able to catch WCTV on occasion but I can't imagine why people would be trying to pull in a third CBS affiliate.
Raymie said:
It's ashame the Birmingham TV market hasn't really grown much since the early 00s because it one of those markets in dire need of a stronger news operation that isn't in the pockets of RSA (Raycom).
I've sometimes wondered if Alpena, MI should be merged into the Traverse City-Cadillac market, which completely surrounds it. Alpena has its own CBS affiliate, otherwise they get a rebroadcast of a PBS station in the Flint-Saginaw-Bay City market (which also serves Traverse City-Cadillac), and they do not have their own affiliates of NBC, ABC, or Fox.
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