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Do You Get Affiliates of the Same Network on Your Cable System?

G

Gregg

I know in many places in the country, you may get two affiliates of the same network on your cable system. Maybe you're halfway between two markets. Maybe you live in a smaller market and affiliates from a nearby large market have been grandfathered on your cable system along with the local signals.

I'm curiious how you decide which affilate you watch. Do you normally tune in the nearest station so you can see local news? Does the quality and professionality of the newscast have you tune in the affiliate in the larger market? A friend of mine used to live in Jackson, Michigan, part of the Grand Rapids market, but he also got many Detroit affiliates as well. Since he had moved there for work, he just watched the Detroit newscasts which had a higher level of newsgathering and reporting.

I also know someone who lives in New Hampshire where there's an ABC affiliate, WMUR 9, that dominates local news. But he also gets CBS, NBC and ABC from Portland ME, so sometimes for variety he'll watch one of those stations, even though most nights at 11pm, he switches from whatever he's watching to WMUR


Gregg
[email protected]
 
Is he in the Portsmouth area by chance? As soon as you hop the Piscataqua River Bridge on I-95 into Kittery, ME, you're into York County and the Portland/Poland Spring DMA. Another area you can get multiple affiliates in is Brattleboro, VT. Windham County, VT is considered the edge of the Boston/Worcester DMA. A few miles west in Bennington County and you're in the Albany/Schenectady DMA. 11 miles to the south is Bernardston, MA, which is in Franklin County, MA, the northern edge of the Springfield/Chicopee, MA DMA.
 
...the cable system in Walworth, Wisconsin, had the affiliates from three different markets -- Milwaukee, Chicago and Rockford IL -- when I lived there in '98-'99. I assume they were all grandfathered in from the '70s or '80s. Curiously, while Rockford was clearly the closest market, Walworth County is officially part of the Milwaukee ADI, and the head-end of the system's signal was actually in McHenry County, Illinois, part of the Chicago ADI...
 
Warren, OH's Time Warner system has nearly all of the Cleveland market stations, in addition to the five Youngstown stations (ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox plus PBS).

There is certainly historic viewing of the Cleveland stations in Trumbull County, but the Youngstown market stations are local to the area and cover it, news-wise, as much as they cover Youngstown and Mahoning County.

It's not like Cleveland and Akron, where the mayor pretty much has to start shooting people to get a crew south of the Ohio Turnpike...and Akron no longer has has any TV news operation, the reincarnation of the former Channel 23 newscast on WVPX/23 (ex-WAKC/WAKR, Akron's historic ABC affiliate, now ION's Cleveland market O&O) went away after a brief time on Time Warner Cable.
 
Cable One in Eastern Idaho (Idaho Falls/Pocatello) carries KSL-TV (NBC) out of Salt Lake City, in addition to KPVI-TV (NBC) out of Pocatello. I'm pretty certain this is due to the high LDS population in E. Idaho. Perhaps someone should demand the other SLC affiliates be shown in E. Idaho, as this isn't a fair situation. As to which I watch, it depends...a lot of duplicate programming is blocked out on KSL in E. Idaho, however, whenever there is something not competing on, either network or otherwise, KSL is beamed in. As an example, primetime is always blocked out, but "Millionaire" at 4pm can be seen in E. Idaho on KSL. The newscasts are better on KSL, but that would be expected. KSL also does not air Saturday Night Live due to their contention the programming is not family friendly.
 
Gregg said:
A friend of mine used to live in Jackson, Michigan, part of the Grand Rapids market, but he also got many Detroit affiliates as well.
Click to expand...

Actually, Jackson is part of the Lansing TV market, and the Comcast system there (I think) shows Lansing channels exclusively. Jackson County is sandwiched between the Detroit market (Washtenaw County to the east) and the Grand Rapids market (Calhoun County to the west).
 
Verizon FiOS in Dover, DE seems to have a lot of choice affiliate wise. :)

ABC: WMAR Baltimore, WPVI Philly & WMDT Salisbury MD
NBC: WCAU Philly, WBAL Baltimore
CBS: KYW Philly, WBOC Salisbury MD
FOX: WTFX Philly, FOX 21 Salisbury MD

I lived in Dover from 2003-2010 while having FiOS the last two years. It's good to have a spare affiliate when your local channel flakes out with local stuff.

It would be nice to have the San Diego affiliates here in Menifee, CA if only for the local news and syndication faire. ;)
 
A cable system in Benton Harbor, Michigan, part of the South Bend market, offers three CBS affiliates - WBBM/2 Chicago, WWMT/3 Kalamazoo, and WSBT/22 South Bend. The same cable system also carries Chicago's WMAQ and WLS in addition to the rest of the South Bend stations. Don't recall if they get WTTW/11 or not.

If I recall correctly Flint gets WDIV Detroit on cable in addition to WEYI from Saginaw.

Up until the DTV transition, Windsor, Ontario received WTOL and WTVG from Toledo in addition to the full slate of Detroit stations. Closer to Lake Erie it was not uncommon to find a whole smorgasboard of stations on cable from Detroit, Cleveland, and either Toledo or Erie, depending how far east you went.
 
The Durham, North Carolina, cable system used to have two CBS affiliates, WTVD, channel 11 in Durham (ABC since 1985) and WFMY, channel 2 in Greensboro. WFMY was the first station in the area and probably had lots of over-the-air viewership. It was dropped when Fayetteville independent WKFT-TV 40 (now Univision affiliate WUVC) powered up its full-market signal, also around '85.

Speaking of Fayetteville, NBC affiliate WECT, channel 6 in Wilmington, was a longtime fixture (and may still be) on cable there. When they build their 2,000 foot tower in 1969, WECT strategically cited it in Bladen County to cover Wilmington and Fayetteville. During the cable era, the Raleigh-Durham market has had two NBC affiliates, both UHF, and on Fayetteville cable. First was WRDU/WPTF/WRDC on channel 28 and now WNCN on channel 17. I don't think channel 28 covered Fayetteville very well until 1986 when their power/ tower height was upgraded.

WECT's conversion to digital saw their antenna move much closer to Wilmington.
 
About a month ago visitng Winchester, VA, I had noticed that their local Comcast offered the following..

NBC...
WRC Washington
WHAG Hagerstown
WBAL Baltimore
WWBT Richmond*
WVIR Charlottesville*

ABC....
WHSV Winchester ( not Harrisonburg's WHSV )
WJLA Washington
WRIC Petersburg-Richmond*

CBS....
WUSA Washington
WJZ Baltimore
WTVR Richmond*

MY Network...
WDCA Washington
WHSV-DT Harrisonburg* "My Valley"

FOX....
WTTG Washington
WHSV-DT Harrisonburg* "The Valley's FOX"

CW...
WDCW Washington

PBS...
WETA Washington
WVPT Harrisonburg
Maryland Public TV*
West Virginia Public TV*

Ind & ION...
WJAL Chambersburg, PA
WAZT Winchester
WWPX Martinsburg

*channels not listed on the Comcast/Winchester channel line-up available online BUT my aunt was getting these channels on her TV.
 
IN Porter & LaPorte Counties of Indiana are part of the Chicago DMA, but years ago, both counties included South Bend stations as well. In LaPorte County, cable companies still carry all 5 full power stations from South Bend. So this is the overlap in network affiliations:

WMAQ - Chicago & WNDU - South Bend (NBC)

WBBM-TV - Chicago & WSBT-TV - South Bend (CBS)

WTTW/WYCC - Chicago & WNIT - South Bend (PBS)

WFLD - Chicago & WSJV - Elkhart/South Bend (Fox) - Formerly, the overlap with WSJV prior to 1995 was with WLS-TV for ABC affiliation.

For Porter County, it's mainly WNDU (NBC) & WSBT-TV (CBS) that's carried on cable.

Years ago, it used to be cable companies could carry any station that could be picked up OTA. Now, in most cases, they can only carry stations from other markets if it's a significantly viewed station. Since full power South Bend stations cross over into Porter & LaPorte Counties, the stations mentioned for South Bend are allowed to be carried on cable. Satellite isn't given the same luxury, as they can only go by the market that each county is in. So satellite isn't allowed to carry South Bend stations.

IN Starke County Indiana, which is part of the South Bend market, can also get most Chicago stations OTA. I just checked the cable lineup, and was surprised that they only carry WFLD Chicago for Fox. I would have thought that WLS-TV (ABC), WBBM-TV (CBS), WMAQ (NBC), WGN-TV (CW), WTTW (PBS), & maybe WCIU would have been on the cable lineup. WYIN is the only PBS station licensed to the Chicago market that's carried on cable in Starke County Indiana. I'm shocked that WTTW isn't carried on cable, as a number of cable companies in northern Indiana carry WTTW, including Comcast Lafayette Indiana. Instead of WGN-TV, cable in Starke County Indiana carries WGN America (a channel not available on cable in the Chicago market, but is available to satellite viewers). Satellite isn't allowed to carry Chicago stations in Starke County Indiana.
 
I know for the last 40 years, the Mississippi Gulf Coast has always relied on cable for most of their television fare:

ABC: WLOX (Biloxi) and WGNO (New Orleans)
CBS: WWL (New Orleans) and WKRG (Mobile)
Fox: WXXV (Gulfport) and WVUE (New Orleans)
PBS: Mississippi Public Broadcasting and WYES (New Orleans)

While WWL has their top-rated local morning news from 7:00-9:00, Coast viewers can catch The Early Show on WKRG. That's one of the reasons WKRG has always been the area's "backup" CBS station on occasions when WWL preempts network programming, especially for Mardi Gras coverage.

Oh yeah, there's also WDSU (NBC) and WNOL (CW), both from New Orleans.
 
johnnya2k6 said:
I know for the last 40 years, the Mississippi Gulf Coast has always relied on cable for most of their television fare:

ABC: WLOX (Biloxi) and WGNO (New Orleans)
CBS: WWL (New Orleans) and WKRG (Mobile)
Fox: WXXV (Gulfport) and WVUE (New Orleans)
PBS: Mississippi Public Broadcasting and WYES (New Orleans)

While WWL has their top-rated local morning news from 7:00-9:00, Coast viewers can catch The Early Show on WKRG. That's one of the reasons WKRG has always been the area's "backup" CBS station on occasions when WWL preempts network programming, especially for Mardi Gras coverage.

Oh yeah, there's also WDSU (NBC) and WNOL (CW), both from New Orleans.
Click to expand...

Another area that relies on cable is the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where I vacation every
summer. The cable system there carries CBS from both WBOC from Salisbury and WJZ from
Baltimore. Until about 1997, they also carried ABC from WJZ(WMAR from 1995) and WMDT.
WMAR was dropped from the cable in favor of MSNBC.
 
I lived in Hunterdon County, New Jersey where the system was long-established ("Grandfathered") and located between two major markets (New York and Philadelphia). At first there were differences between major network affiliates in each market but over time, their schedules became virtually identical (even to the same syndicated shows). Now, I don't see much point in any cable system wasting bandwidth. The only difference is local news (and local spots) and the occasional ballgame.
 
Parts of Western Montana Still Carry Some of the Spokane Stations (KXLY and KREM)
as well as the Missoula Stations I believe this dates back to the 60's when KECI (then KMSO) was
the only station in missoula
 
A few years ago the cable system in Roanoke Rapids, NC offered the following markets:

Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville:
WRAL (CBS - Raleigh)
WTVD (ABC - Durham)
WLFL (then WB- Raleigh)
WRAZ (Fox - Raleigh)

Greenville/Washington/New Bern (NC):
WNCT (CBS - Greenville)
WITN (NBC - Washington)

Hampton Roads:
WGNT (then UPN- Portsmouth)

Only CBS was repeated, but the then 6 networks were from 3 different tv markets. Not sure what is going on there now as I think WGNT is CW as is WLFL now.
 
Here, we don't get affiliates of the same network, but about 50 miles N or S, you can. In Georgetown, about 50 miles N or so, they have two cable systems. One system has all Charleston stations plus WPDE, WBTW, and WIS out of Columbia, while the other has the same plus the CW from Charleston. Neither picks up WMBF, the NBC from Myrtle.

In Bluffton, the system picks up all Savannah stations plus WCSC and WCIV from Charleston. In Hilton Head itself, the cable picks up all Savannah plus WCSC. In Beaufort, about 50 miles S of Charleston, all Savannah and Charleston channels are picked up. This is good especially for football games, since the Savannah channels usually air Falcons and Jaguars games while Charleston shows the Panthers and the best game available.
 
Back when I lived in Mount Pleasant, TX, the local cable system was so small (how small was it?) we got our bills on a postcard every other month.

Anyway, we had the following network stations:

ABC: WFAA Dallas, KLTV Tyler, KTBS Shreveport
CBS: KDFW Dallas, KLMG Longview, KSLA Shreveport
NBC: KXAS Fort Worth, KTAL Texarkana
Fox: KDAF Dallas
PBS: KERA Dallas
Ind: KTVT Fort Worth

KDFW is now Fox, KTVT is now CBS, KDAF is now CW, KLMG is now KFXK Fox.

Now on the cable system are:

ABC: KTBS Shreveport (SD+HD), KLTV Tyler (SD only), WFAA Dallas (SD only)
CBS: KYTX Longview (SD only), KSLA Shreveport (SD+HD)
NBC: KTAL Texarkana (SD+HD), KXAS Fort Worth (SD only)
Fox: KMSS Shreveport (SD+HD)
PBS: KERA Dallas (SD only), KLTS Shreveport (HD only)
My: KSHV Shreveport (SD only)
CW: KCEB Tyler (SD only)
 
Out where I live we don't have cable, so I have DirecTV and
get two CBS stations (WFMY and WRAL) and two Fox (WGHP
and WRAZ). We're in the Raleigh-Durham DMA but WFMY, as
the oldest station in the area, and WGHP, which has been around
since 1963, have significant viewership and people wanted them
left on (I think Charter Communications, the local cable company,
offers both as well).

My dad and stepmother have Time Warner Cable in Burlington, NC,
and have two ABC stations: WTVD and WXLV. At our house in
Myrtle Beach we had two NBC stations, WECT and WIS, until
Myrtle Beach got its own NBC station, WMBF, so now there's only
one.

I've probably said this before, but sometimes I miss the days when
cable brought in affiliates in more than one market; when I was at
the University of Georgia in the '70s, WSB was the NBC affiliate in
Atlanta and was so pre-emption happy it was good to have Ch. 4
in Greenville, SC.
 
Two and three years ago, the cable system in St. George Island, Florida was carrying WABC from New York, in addition to ABC affiliate WMBB from Panama City, Florida. I thought that was odd. I checked their listings now, and it doesn't show WABC--instead the cable system apparently now carries Fox 5 from Atlanta.
 
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