Former Superstations

[bk77]

On another site I was reading about Bob McAllister's Wonderama and the long defunct Metromedia stations.
Had me thinking about what it seemed to be back then, quite a few so-called superstations.

WGN, WTBS and WSBK everyone knows about. But many others, not all that remembered.

WTTG & WDCA ( Washington DC ) seen on cable systems well into the Carolinas
WBFF ( seen on cable in West Virginia )
WTTV ( Indianpolis ) all over Indiana, into Ohio and I heard even Illinois
KWGN & KDVR ( Denver ) as far away as Idaho, Utah, Montana and even into parts of Canada
WTCN & KMSP ( Twin Cities ) the Dakotas, Missouri, and I believe Wisconsin
WYAH ( Hampton Roads ) South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and into Kentucky
WUAB ( Cleveland ) I have heard they were seen on cable well into New York state and Pennsylvania
KTLA, KHJ, and KTTV ( LA ) all over the south west.
KTVU ( San Francisco ) all over the north west.
KPHO ( Phoenix ) I have heard that during their Wallace & Ladmo days, they had viewers in Texas
KTVT ( Dallas ) I heard as far north as Iowa and Kansas
WXIX ( Cincinatti ) Tennessee?

of course all of the big NYC indies WNEW, WPIK and of course WOR/WWOR were seen all over the place back then.
I also seem to recall hearing that Las Vegas, Honolulu, Seattle, and St. Louis had a few "super stations" of their own.

And what about Superstations that were affilated with NBC, CBS and ABC? A friend of mine swears she remembers watching Columbus, Ohio's WBNS on a cable system in southwestern Virginia. And Buffalo's WKBW I am pretty sure was on at least one system in southern Pennsylvania. I think it was Breezewood, near the Maryland border.

I am sure I left some station out here. Any others?

 

[fortmill]

sorry

 

[fortmill]

WYAH was never seen on cable in SC, WV, or KY. At one time, the plan was for it's programs to be featured on CBN (now ABC Family), and many of them were, but the plan as a whole fell through. WYAH was seen on cable in a few places adjacent to the Hampton Roads DMA---in the richmond area and in eastern NC. WRET/36 (now WCNC) in Charlotte was certainly a superstation back in it's independent days---it was carried throughout North and South Carolina, eastern TN and southwest VA. Regarding network stations which were/are carried well out of their markets---WSB, WAGA, WXIA, and WGCL are still widely carried thoughout south GA, way out of their normal coverage area--obviously they are microwaved in. I'm not sure how this is done legal-wise in this day and time. WKRN/2/ABC Nashville, is available around the country on small cable systems that can't get an ABC station OTA---The same for stations in Toledo, Detroit, and I think Erie PA and WNBC-TV NYC. I think WTAT/24 in Charleston SC is available on some cable systems around the country that can't pick up a Fox station OTA.

 

[Ultimajock]

...in the '70s, WVTV/18 Milwaukee was microwaved throughout the Upper Midwest as far west as a few North Dakota cable systems. And WKBD/50 Detroit was microwaved into Northern Michigan and Wisconsin at the same time...

 

[gr8oldies]

I Second that Emotion on WTTV. That and WXIX "Metromedia 19" from Cincinnati were seemingly microwaved to every cable system in the midwest in the days before satellite delivery. WXIX is the current Cincinnati Fox affiliate.

 

[mleach]

The old Washington Star newspaper carried listings for WYAH just before that paper folded in 1981. WYAH was the only Virginia commerical station the Star carried listings for. Considering the fact that the Star was nowhere near as regional as the Washington Post was and still is That leads me to believe that the Hampton Roads channel may have been carried at the time at least on a few select cable outlets in Northern Virginia and Maryland. So with that reguards WYAH could be considered a "superstation" though perhaps in a small sense.

Meanwhile Baltimore's WBFF never was a "superstation". Yes, WBFF was carried on a few WV systems but then again so was Baltimore's WMAR and WJZ as well. In the small town of Romney, WV back in the mid 80s
( Washington DMA ), their cable system carried not only WBFF but also WMAR and WJZ too and on top of that Pittsbugh's KDKA and WPXI. Considering that both WMAR and KDKA are both on channel 2, I still wonder how they managed to carry both stations on their system?

Pittsbugh's WTAE could very qualify as a "Superstation", even today since a good chunk of West Virginia ( the middle and top half of that state), the only ABC available is WTAE.

Back in 1982 my family stayed at a hotel near Kings Dominion amusement park ( just south of Fredericksburg ). They offered not only WRC and WWBT for NBC, but also WAVY ( Hampton Roads again ) too.

 

[tothedj]

I often wondered how stations like the former WRET in Charlotte and WTTG in
Washington D.C. were seen, when i first got cable 30 years ago, the system in
my hometown in Northeastern North Carolina had these stations in their "10
Channel" cable lineup, WRET was on Channel 3 until October 31st, 1977 when
Turner's sister station in Atlanta, WTCG Channel 17, replaced it, and WTTG was
on Channel 10 until the early 1980's, Later on WOR(Now WWOR)Channel 9 in
New York was added around 1980, but was not on very long due to changes in
cable rules, and eventually WGN was put in many years later.

 

[classictvfan]

Originally posted by fortmill:
sorry


You don't have to apologize

 

[ceejay]

I grew up with KTLA/Los Angeles. To me it is and always will be a super station! I start every day with the KTLA Morning News. They are head and shoulders above the rest!

 

[Tim L]

Pittsbugh's WTAE could very qualify as a "Superstation", even today since a good chunk of West Virginia ( the middle and top half of that state), the only ABC available is WTAE.

In October 1957, WKST-TV 45, (Now WYTV-33) Located in New Castle, Pa. (Youngstown Market) signed-on..It was actually the first full-time ABC affiliate In Western Pennsylvania..The Pittsburgh TV Guide in 1958 carried 12 stations, 8 of which were partial ABC affiliates alomg with Channel 45, making a total of 9 ABC stations in the area..WTAE-TV 4 in Pittsburgh finally signed on September 14, 1958..

 

[RicoGregg]

Some stations become sudden superstations when there's sunspot activity. When I lived in San Diego in the 70s, I flipped on the set one day, and while changing channels, I was shocked to see a signal on a channel that was normally blank, and it was a newscast on a station from Portland, Oregon! I wondered what the hell I had smoked, then remembered that this phenominon was known to happen. I've heard the stories of others, some of them involving international stations from Canada and Latin America.

Solar flares - ya gotta love 'em!

 

[mleach]

In October 1957, WKST-TV 45, (Now WYTV-33) Located in New Castle, Pa. (Youngstown Market) signed-on..It was actually the first full-time ABC affiliate In Western Pennsylvania..The Pittsburgh TV Guide in 1958 carried 12 stations, 8 of which were partial ABC affiliates alomg with Channel 45, making a total of 9 ABC stations in the area..WTAE-TV 4 in Pittsburgh finally signed on September 14, 1958..

On another website I heard that in the recent years WTAE has actually blocked a few stations in West Virginia from becoming ABC. Morgantown some years back got the own FOX affilate but I heard ABC was their first choice only to run into a problem with WTAE. That might be a bad example since I think Morgantown is in the Pittsburgh market even though being a college town ( West Virginia University is there ), WVU gets a ton of coverage on the two nearby Clarksburg stations ( WBOY and WDTV ).

I remember a news report some time ago that either WBOY or WDTV expressed interest in putting ABC on one of their digital channels, but again WTAE said no. This despite Clarksburg being their own market.

I have been told that WTAE has even as went as far as has Charleston's WCHS ( one of two WV's ABC ) getting taking off of cable in many parts of West Virginia, even in places that are not in the Pittsbugh market. Curious how WTAE could pull that off..

Must be a gentleman's aggreement somewhere in all of this.

 

[bpatrick]

I don't know if WCMH, WSYX, and WBNS were carried on
cable in southwestern Virginia, but they were listed as
cable stations in the West Virginia edition of TV Guide:
as "4C," "6C," and "10C."

One that almost could be a "superstation," at least
regionally, is CBS affiliate WYMT Hazard, KY. It is
on cable in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia,
southwestern Virginia, and Claiborne County, TN.

 

[dhett]

One that almost could be a "superstation," at least
regionally, is CBS affiliate WYMT Hazard, KY. It is
on cable in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia,
southwestern Virginia, and Claiborne County, TN.

By those standards, virtually every station from Albuquerque, Denver, Salt Lake City and Phoenix would qualify as superstations, as they are carried by translator TV and by cable/satellite to larger areas.

 

[BRNout]

Yep, all of the big Salt Lake stations were carried on cable and via microwave from the Arizona strip northward well into northern Wyoming and parts of Montana. When I worked there, we included such places as Cody, Bozeman and West Yellowstone in our weathercasts (in addition to Elko and Rock Springs).

I think that a lot of those places have since dropped those stations, but they are still carried in SE Idaho, SW Wyoming and NE Nevada. Most is via microwave to translators.

 

[Ultimajock]

...an additional element to the WVTV/18 Milwaukee situation -- whoever microwaved WVTV also sent WBBM-TV/2 Chicago over the same channel when WVTV signed off for the night; WBBM-TV had news, late late movies and local talk shows overnights at the time...

 

[fortmill]

I don't know if WCMH, WSYX, and WBNS were carried on
cable in southwestern Virginia, but they were listed as
cable stations in the West Virginia edition of TV Guide:
as "4C," "6C," and "10C."

One that almost could be a "superstation," at least
regionally, is CBS affiliate WYMT Hazard, KY. It is
on cable in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia,
southwestern Virginia, and Claiborne County, TN.

The "big 3" from Columbus OH were listed in the WV edition of TV guide because they were carried on cable systems in the Parkersburg area. I'm sure they were never on cable in SW VA. However, WLOS-TV, Asheville was certainly on many cable sytems in far SW VA, as well as in SE KY--they even had a few translators in those areas. WLOS truly did cover parts of 6 states--GA to KY. In the same region, WGHP/8 HIgh Point/Greensboro/Winston Salem had a very wide reach on cable---from Charlotte to Raleigh and Fayetteville to a number of systems in north central SC and many systems in SW VA. Now they are not even on in close in areas like Danville VA--only about 40 miles from Greensboro.

 

[TexasTom]

I'd place KSTW/11 Tacoma/Seattle in the regional superstation category -- in the seventies and eighties, it was carried by microwave link to cable systems throughout the state of Washington. That put it on cable systems in the Seattle/Tacoma, Yakima, Spokane, and Portland markets. In the early eighties, KSTW ran station ID proclaiming that "We're entertaining the whole Northwest" and turning their call letters into "KST-Washington".

Here in Texas, KTVT/11 in Fort Worth/Dallas is the obvious superstation example, and it was carried on satellite prior to becoming a CBS affiliate in the nineties. But two other Dallas area stations had wide distribution at one time: KXTX/39 and WFAA/8. KXTX was a CBN-owned independent that also saw distribution over much of the state of Texas. WFAA was (and is) an ABC affiliate -- and at a time when many smaller markets did not have full-time ABC affiliate, cable systems would microwave in WFAA to fill the gap.

 

[easttxtv]

Here in Texas, KTVT/11 in Fort Worth/Dallas is the obvious superstation example, and it was carried on satellite prior to becoming a CBS affiliate in the nineties. But two other Dallas area stations had wide distribution at one time: KXTX/39 and WFAA/8. KXTX was a CBN-owned independent that also saw distribution over much of the state of Texas. WFAA was (and is) an ABC affiliate -- and at a time when many smaller markets did not have full-time ABC affiliate, cable systems would microwave in WFAA to fill the gap.

KTVT/11 was on the cable in Amarillo when I lived there. Was really great to get DFW news after the local angle had done their thing for the evening. When TV Guide was still regional, the West Texas edition listed WFAA/8, KTVT/11, and KERA/13 as well as the locals. KERA was Amarillo's semi-de facto PBS station until KACV/2 debuted in the panhandle in 1988.

There was a question when cable systems in east TX found out that KXTX/39 was going to flip to (and be bought out by) Telemundo. Several debated whether to continue carrying it. Now it seems those that did have made KXTX the semi-de facto Telemundo station there, as Telemundo didn't have a presence there before, and Univision's national feed was the only Spanish programming on cable there beforehand. As for replacement far-off indies, I don't think any of the major cable systems in east TX carry any of what DFW has now (mainly KDFI/27 or KFWD/52).

 

[ixnay]

Some stations become sudden superstations when there's sunspot activity. When I lived in San Diego in the 70s, I flipped on the set one day, and while changing channels, I was shocked to see a signal on a channel that was normally blank, and it was a newscast on a station from Portland, Oregon! I wondered what the hell I had smoked, then remembered that this phenominon was known to happen. I've heard the stories of others, some of them involving international stations from Canada and Latin America.

Solar flares - ya gotta love 'em!

Could that have been why the following happened? ??? ;D

One night in 1985, shortly after moving to the Baltimore market from the Philadelphia market, I was channel surfing and suddenly, when surfing across channel 4, found myself hearing WRC's audio and seeing WNBC's video (it was during their 11 pm newscasts).

ixnay