DROP MY NETWORK TV & CW-----FOR LOCAL INDEPENDENT !!!!!

[gregg75]

Why don't some of the My Network Tv & CW stations..........switch to local Independent? I think in most cases it would be an improvement with better ratings.

EXAMPLE
Mon.
7:30 Your Religion Today
8:00 Cartoon Roundup
9:00 Hazel
9:30 Bewitched
10:00 Morning Drama Movie
12:00 Love American Style
1:00 I Love Lucy
1:30 Afternoon Western Movie
3:00 The Jetsons
3:30 The Flintstones
4:00 Laverne & Shirley
4:30 Happy Days
5:00 Mama's Family
5:30 C.H.I.P.S.
6:30 Wheel Of Fortune
7:00 Jeopardy
7:30 Mary Tyler Moore
8:00 Wonder Years
8:30 Growing Pains
9:00 Comedy Movie
11:00 Twilight Zone
11:30 Alfred Hitchcock
12:00 Horror Movie

 

[landtuna]

I agree.

 

[Neel]

Yea, why don't they show reruns of old shows that much anymore?? low ratings? royalty fees?

70s like Happy Days, Three's Company, One Day At a Time, Alice; 80s like Two Close For Comfort, Diff'rent Strokes, Silver Spoons, Charles in Charge, Out of This World, Small Wonderetc....

I wouldn't mind seeing some of those shows again....

 

[tothedj]

The CW Network will probably be around one more season, and as for "My Network TV", it's mainly a program service, but with "WWE Smackdown" heading to SyFy this fall, they might as well go ahead and fold.
As for some of the stations affilated with them, a return to being independent won't hurt, in a few markets
where "ION Television" doesn't have a affiliate though, they could pick them up, but since all they run is
movies, reruns of mainly CBS shows, that air on cable also, and christian programs overnight and Sunday
morning, it might not be a wise move since they just getting by as well.

 

[imhomerjay]

CHiPs into Wheel of Fortune? Jeopardy into Mary Tyler Moore? Ummm, sure. ???

Dropping "My" would get a station two hours back, with all of their other commitments intact. If the best they could do is the antique, bottom-of-the-barrel stuff like this, slapping in a couple of sitcoms in primetime isn't going to move the needle. Nearly the same for a CW affiliate, save for having (for now at least) the afternoon block.

Better ratings with that kind of lineup...compared to a test pattern, almost for sure. Even compared to second-tier current syndicated fare, not so much.

 

[TexasTom]

In any event, not all of that programming is available in broadcast syndication -- and of the shows that are, a couple of those are already spoken ("Wheel" and "Jeopardy") in pretty much every market in the country.

As for the rest of that...it would be nice if it could work, but I wouldn't hold out huge hopes that it would be especially successful. I miss the old indies too, but it's not 1980 anymore.

 

[gregg75]

Some of these shows I would be watching. I'm watching zip on MNTV and CW right now. There are shows like Gomer Pyle, That Girl, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Mr. Ed, Lassie, Perry Mason, etc. not being covered that are as good or better than those of today.

Spend the big bucks on anchor shows like Wheel and Jeopardy or Dr. Oz and The Doctors and go second tier or lower for the rest. People "were" watching RTV (Retro TV) before they shot themselves in the foot.

There are many who could care less about newer shows in re-run like C.S.I., Law & Order, L.A. Law.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

To leave something running across the United States vs. exclusive programming to specific states/towns/Cities is much cheaper...is it not?

 

[1st of 5]

Sounds like an excellent idea, but it would never work. First of all, all of the classic shows listed would undoubtly be chopped to pieces in order to cram more and more commercials into them, rendering those shows, like MASH reruns, unwatchable. It seems that the more popular a show was/is, the more content is chopped out of it, in oder to make more $$$ from all of those ginsu steak knife oxy squirt tomato pulpers.

 

[anotherguyTN]

MNTV and CW stations are pretty much independent in the daytime already, so in most cases there would probably be little or no changes there. In most cities they would stay with the same garbage of courtroom shows, trash talk, and infomercials that is already being done.

Where I'd hope there could be real change would be in prime time, but here again, it would be more likely to be filled with local movies and sports at best rather than classic reruns. That could be good or bad depending on what the station owners do. but I'd guess that most of them would take the cheap way out and carry mediocre movies like they fill weekends with now.

 

[imhomerjay]

Some of these shows I would be watching.

That's great, your local station would have one viewer, and they're off and running.

I'm watching zip on MNTV and CW right now.

Understood, but irrelevant. The problem is just because you're not watching, doesn't mean others aren't, nor that a lineup of what amounts to table scraps would somehow draw better, more desirable demographics.

There are shows like Gomer Pyle, That Girl, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Mr. Ed, Lassie, Perry Mason, etc. not being covered that are as good or better than those of today.

No doubt some would feel that way, but there's zero proof nor reason to believe there's enough of such an audience to be any more successful than what typical MNTV/CW affiliates are currently doing.

Spend the big bucks on anchor shows like Wheel and Jeopardy or Dr. Oz and The Doctors and go second tier or lower for the rest. People "were" watching RTV (Retro TV) before they shot themselves in the foot.

Setting aside the practical issue of contracts with incumbent stations, it’s not as if the “big bucks” for those shows will magically appear when your income from the rest of the day will be minimal.

There are many who could care less about newer shows in re-run like C.S.I., Law & Order, L.A. Law.

“Many” is hardly a quantifiable figure. The millions that still tune in to those shows (none of which are in widespread daily broadcast syndication) in first run does represent something substantial though. (L.A. Law? Didn’t that end 15 years ago? Far from “new” at this point.)

 

[DToTheJ]

Gregg would like WLNY-TV on Long Island. Not only do they have Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, but they also carry shows like Just Shoot Me and Simon & Simon!
http://www.wlnytv.com/

 

[FreddyE1977]

what's worse, I have a dish package with hundreds of channels, and no more than a handful of those shows ever turn up
in the listings.

 

[gregg75]

Yes, the New York station sounds like what I'm talking about. I think it was a mistake when many local independent stations jumped on with UPN, MYNTV, CW. They thought another Fox was in the making, but woooooo were they wrong.

I'd put Gomer Pyle/Lost In Space up against MYNTV junk any day........and I wouldn't be the only one watching!

 

[imhomerjay]

And when they "jumped on" they were taking only two hours off the table, and had the ability to keep doing (or change) whatever they wanted the rest of the day. Signing up with something to fill the brutal 8-10 pm block replaced...what...Planet of the Apes movie weeks? Old sitcoms? They could still do those the other 22 hours. Wonder if there's a reason most aren't.

 

[DToTheJ]

Remember, some of these stations didn't have a choice in the matter, namely the stations like WWOR in New York that were partly owned by the companies behind these networks.

 

[dave73]

Remember, some of these stations didn't have a choice in the matter, namely the stations like WWOR in New York that were partly owned by the companies behind these networks.

WGN-TV in Chicago is another one that didn't have a choice as to whether they wanted to be a network affiliate or not. They had to affiliate with WB, and later with CW. WGN-TV has always done well with movies & sports in the evening hours. Since they have to affiliate with the network, they've had to farm out some of their sports to WCIU. CW has scaled back to Monday - Friday, which gives affiliates Saturday & Sunday back to the stations, that still makes it difficult for WGN-TV to commit to airing the sports they hold the rights to that are on during the week. I honestly wish WCIU would take the affiliation, as they would be able to commit to the network affiliation better than WGN-TV could. However, WCIU is happy to be an Independent, and doesn't want a network to dictate what airs at what time. WCIU did have affiliations with Netspan/Telemundo & Univision in the past, but it wasn't as a fulltime network affiliation. WCIU lost their Univision affiliation in 1995 after they refused to drop all non-Univision programming, and Univision later finding out that WGBO was for sale, and bought that station. I see that as the best decision WCIU made.

 

[gregg75]

In Atlanta cable TBS gave up channel 17 and rebranded it as independent Peachtree TV. It's doing fine and has a wide variety of programs (but as part of the TBS family I'm sure they have deep pockets there). Didn't WGN Chicago do the same thing with WGN America?

Point is, independents can be successful if ran well...............and looking at it from a 2011 standpoint this seems to be the NEXT WAVE and the best way for stations of sub-par networks to rebrand themselves and capture their former glory.

 

[dave73]

In Atlanta cable TBS gave up channel 17 and rebranded it as independent Peachtree TV. It's doing fine and has a wide variety of programs (but as part of the TBS family I'm sure they have deep pockets there). Didn't WGN Chicago do the same thing with WGN America?

Point is, independents can be successful if ran well...............and looking at it from a 2011 standpoint this seems to be the NEXT WAVE and the best way for stations of sub-par networks to rebrand themselves and capture their former glory.

WGN America has to air alternative programming in most timeslots, due to Syndex rules, plus CW doesn't allow WGN America to carry the network on a national basis (even under predecesor WB they weren't allowed to carry WB after 1999). That's why the morning news, the 11am-noon portion of the midday news, & the evening news aren't aired on WGN America. Syndex rules prevent most newscasts from being available on WGN America. I believe other programming on WGN-TV can't be available on WGN America for the same reason. If I'm not mistaken, Superstation TBS has always been available on cable in the Atlanta area (correct me if I'm wrong), but WGN America is not available on cable in the Chicago market, but is available to those with DirecTV & Dish Network.

As for Independents; they can be successful as long as they're programmed properly. WPWR-TV under Newsweb was one of those stations that did well as an independent, and continued as UPN. That changed when Newsweb sold the station to Fox & made a sister station to WFLD. Now programming overall sucks. WCIU has always done well with their brokered programming prior to 1995. Refusing to give into Univision's demands was the best decision they made, because they basically took over where the old WGBO left off and competed with WPWR-TV being an Independent. WCIU has a few first run syndicated court & talk shows, plus a number of shows from the 90's & 2000's that are in syndication. Their sister low power stations, WWME-LD airs Classic comedy as MeTV & WMEU-CA (still analog for now) airs Classic Drama as MeToo. Both of those stations are available on WCIU's subchannels to reach the entire market.

If CW were to go under, and no other network were available, WGN-TV would have no problem being an independent again. They were an independent for nearly 40 years before they joined the WB in 1995. They wouldn't have to farm out as many sports programs to WCIU if they became an independent again.

 

[Sammi Brie]

Many of Tribune's stations, in exchange for Tribune not being a part-owner in the CW, got a 10-year affiliation contract with The CW.