Hotel "Cable" Report - Manchester, NH (1/29/2011)

[KML0224]

I stayed at the Homewood Inn & Suites on Perimeter Road in Manchester, NH on Saturday, January 29, 2011. As expected, the "cable" was nothing special. However, you may note the anomaly in the broadcast portion:

2- NESN
3- WFXT-TV (FOX) channel 25 Boston
4- WHDH-TV (NBC) channel 7 Boston
5- WBZ-TV (CBS) channel 4 Boston
6- WLVI-TV (CW) channel 56 Cambridge
7- WMUR-TV (ABC) channel 9 Manchester, NH
8- WSBK-TV (IND) channel 38 Boston
10- HBO
12- TNT
13- TBS
14- CNBC
15- MSNBC
16- HLN
17- TWC
18- USA
21- DISCOVERY [channel card and caption said this, but nothing was there]
22- A&E
23- ESPN
24- Fox News Channel
25- Disney
26- Nickelodeon
27- ESPN News
28- ESPN 2
29- CNN
30- Cartoon Network

The following stations were missing:

WENH-TV (PBS) channel 11 Durham, NH
WPXG-TV (ION) channel 21 Concord, NH
WZMY-TV (MY) channel 50 Derry, NH
WNEU-TV (TEL) channel 60 Merrimack, NH

I expected that there would be no WCVB-TV (ABC) from Boston on this "cable" line-up, since WMUR-TV is their sister station and nearly all of their programming is the same. Just how does this market have two ABC affiliates anyways? ???

 

[Marckd]

Many hotels have their own rooftop antenna to get over the air stations and have processing to put them on a particular dial position and have a satellite dish to recieve a few satellite channels from the C Band and processing to put them on a particular spot on the dial...sort of their own mini cable system. Motel 6 has this type of thing on most of their motels...But they leave off channels that they feel are of no interest. WHat I also notice is no PBS station...

I wonder why Boston has 2 ABC stations..Ny guess was Manchester was to be its own TV mkarket so they had their own ABC station but not large enough for many others. As time went on they gained 3 independent stations by 1987 and one of those took on CBS affiliation and another was rumored to be eventually getting Fox and another NBC...But the CBS Affiliate wound up going dark and the other two wound up in limbo...one stayed indepenednt general entertainment while the other moved into minority programming. The former CBS station came back as a simulcast of a Boston Indie WABU eventually being bought by Paxson and becoming Pax TV and ION...Also until the 90's WMUR ran virtuially all ABC programs whie WCVB was quick to preempt lower rated shows. Both stations eventually became the same company. Today WMUR's function is news for New Hampshire and ABC shows for much of teh state.


Complex

 

[DToTheJ]

...Manchester was to be its own TV market [sic] so they had their own ABC station but not large enough for many others. As time went on they gained 3 independent stations by 1987 and one of those took on CBS affiliation... the CBS Affiliate wound up going dark and the other two wound up in limbo...one stayed independent general entertainment while the other moved into minority programming...

To some, "My Network TV" with its low ratings qualifies as "minority programming"...

 

[BRNout]

I wonder why Boston has 2 ABC stations..Ny guess was Manchester was to be its own TV mkarket so they had their own ABC station but not large enough for many others. As time went on they gained 3 independent stations by 1987 and one of those took on CBS affiliation and another was rumored to be eventually getting Fox and another NBC...But the CBS Affiliate wound up going dark and the other two wound up in limbo...one stayed indepenednt general entertainment while the other moved into minority programming. The former CBS station came back as a simulcast of a Boston Indie WABU eventually being bought by Paxson and becoming Pax TV and ION...Also until the 90's WMUR ran virtuially all ABC programs whie WCVB was quick to preempt lower rated shows. Both stations eventually became the same company. Today WMUR's function is news for New Hampshire and ABC shows for much of teh state.

Although the DMA has "2" ABC stations, Boston doesn't. WMUR is an exception that crosses market boundaries. It is offered on cable systems in all of New Hampshire, despite NH being in 3 different markets. It was an early TV station, originating as New Hampshire's first television station back in 1954, waaaay before the modern concept of markets and exclusivity were imagined. It served areas that had no other television service and was successful enough at it to stay in business for 57 years. And, I believe it's been an ABC affiliate since day 1. They now superserve New Hampshire with news and - especially considering the size of their "market" - do an excellent job at it. Very impressive operation.

You're right about the failed try for a CBS affiliate based in Concord, WNHT-21. It was bad timing by a group that lacked sufficient funds to gain a foothold. Had they made it, perhaps Concord/Manchester would have been its own market which would have been VERY interesting. As it stands now, NH is an asterisk of sorts thanks to having their own ABC and PBS affiliates while being in other markets. The smaller stations that you referred to came later and have elected to rimshot Boston in one way or another.

It's an interesting situation.

 

[mescutia]

I read somewhere that WNHT's failure was a big factor in the area not becoming its own market. Which is too bad, because I remember being excited about NH having its own CBS station.

I'd love to see Ion sell WPXG to someone who will turn it into a major network affiliate complete with a news department, but that's probably just a pipe dream.

The following stations were missing:

WENH-TV (PBS) channel 11 Durham, NH

Looks like WGBH-TV is also missing. And WGBX-TV, for that matter.

 

[KML0224]

WCVB-TV (ABC) channel 5 was also missing, but I expected that, since WMUR-TV is their sister station already. You make a good point with WGBH-TV missing, but I highly doubt that WGBX-TV would be carried anyways.

 

[DToTheJ]

One of the sad things about WNHT's demise: the final program aired was the now-defunct CBS late-night program "The Pat Sajak Show." (Well, it was in mid-show, so I suppose that might have been a little schaudenfrude... : )

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

There are plenty of examples of secondary ABC affiliates over the years, including right here in NE Ohio (WAKR-turned-WAKC/23 Akron, second to WEWS/5 Cleveland).

There's also KNTV/11 San Jose, which acted as the Monterey/Salinas market's ABC affiliate for many years despite being in the same market as ABC O&O KGO/7.

23 is now Ion's Cleveland O&O, and 11 is now the Bay Area's NBC O&O.

 

[BRNout]

There are plenty of examples of secondary ABC affiliates over the years, including right here in NE Ohio (WAKR-turned-WAKC/23 Akron, second to WEWS/5 Cleveland).

There's also KNTV/11 San Jose, which acted as the Monterey/Salinas market's ABC affiliate for many years despite being in the same market as ABC O&O KGO/7.

23 is now Ion's Cleveland O&O, and 11 is now the Bay Area's NBC O&O.

I don't know that I'd consider WMUR to be a 'secondary affiliate' in a real sense as it's presence in a different, larger out-of-state-based market is a somewhat an accident of history. The station makes a good living superserving the State of NH and it's 1.3 million residents and seems to do a pretty good job of it. It also still has 'local' carriage status in a number of counties that lie outside of the Boston TV market. Quite a different scenario than the likes of WAKR and KNTV.

The fact that WMUR has remained the state's only "big 3" network station, while every other such station in the market is from Massachusetts probably has something to do with it. They are successful because they're NOT from Boston, as opposed to those other examples where stations from rimshot cities longed to be players in the nearby larger city. If San Jose or Akron were in different states than (respectively) San Francisco and Cleveland, they probably would have successfully supported those stations. In-state news coverage is a powerful draw and can be enough to build a loyal viewer base - if done right.