How has WQLN survived so long?

[mjlarochelle]

I am becoming more and more convinced that WQLN in Erie, PA should fold up shop and rebroadcast another PBS station in Pennsylvania - WQED, WHYY, I don't care. The station has long been that PBS station that once couldn't afford to show Mister Rogers Neighbourhood, the Macneil/Lehrer Newshour, and Nova. And today, it continues to be that PBS station that doesn't have the good shows other stations have, or they air the good shows at times nobody can watch at.

Last night Live from Lincoln Center had the New York Philharmonic. My grandma wanted to see it, and WQLN is the only PBS station she can get. WNED Buffalo and WTVS Detroit both had it at 8 PM. WQLN at that time had Great Performances. Live from Lincoln Center did not air until 1 AM. My grandma does not have a VCR and was unable to watch it, and it upsets her. She is on her own.

WQLN has long had these programming quirks - my father has commented before that he wanted to see something that was on WNED and WTVS but not WQLN. And when I was younger, there were kids shows that I wanted to see that WQLN didn't have.

Erie is just too small a market to support a PBS station. I just don't know how they are surviving. Turn Channel 54 over to another organization elsewhere in Pennsylvania that has the money to show programming people want to see and shows the PBS schedule at the proper times.

 

[KML0224]

How do channels 12, 24, 35 and 66 survive? (LOL)

 

[mjlarochelle]

How do channels 12, 24, 35 and 66 survive? (LOL)

Oh, they've struggled too - Channels 12 and 35 have an LMA nowadays, and Channels 24 and 66 are both operated by Nexstar under separate ownership. All those stations have always been run on the cheap side, but when it comes to network programming I have no issues with them. I get Channels 12 and 24 and they don't have the pre-emptions of NBC and ABC, respectively, that the Detroit stations have. If it weren't for the poor picture quality on cable here, I'd gladly take them over Detroit.

Erie is just one of those markets that is over-saturated, and it shows in the production quality of their newscasts. Erie, in theory, should only have two station owners - WICU and WSEE co-owned, WJET and WFXP co-owned, and WQLN being a rebroadcaster of another PBS station.

 

[mjlarochelle]

While on the topic of WQLN, here's something from my video collection:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bk7l5U8y5II

That's a WQLN ID (sans logo) followed by a national program header from WTVS, all from late 1985. I call the WTVS header "WGBH Lite".

 

[chuckydoll]

A red herring for "I don't like their schedule"

I am becoming more and more convinced that WQLN in Erie, PA should fold up shop and rebroadcast another PBS station in Pennsylvania - WQED, WHYY, I don't care.

WQED-13 may have money issues of its own. WHYY-12 is at the other end of the state -- besides, its community of license is Wilmington, Delaware.

The station has long been that PBS station that once couldn't afford to show Mister Rogers Neighbourhood, the Macneil/Lehrer Newshour, and Nova.

NJN in New Jersey doesn't carry the NewsHour because Thirteen/WNET and WHYY-12 already have it. The NewsHour also has a history of right-wing bias -- a fact documented not once but twice.

Erie is just too small a market to support a PBS station.

By that argument Altoona/Johnstown, Harrisburg/Lancaster/York and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre cannot support PBS.

 

[toby]

Well I don't know how good of an argument that is.
WNET and WLIW both air The News Hour. However WNET airs it at 7 pm and WLIW airs it at 6 pm.
It should be noted the stations have the same ownership and master control.

 

[genius]

Re: A red herring for "I don't like their schedule"

NJN in New Jersey doesn't carry the NewsHour because Thirteen/WNET and WHYY-12 already have it. The NewsHour also has a history of right-wing bias -- a fact documented not once but twice.

Erie is just too small a market to support a PBS station.

By that argument Altoona/Johnstown, Harrisburg/Lancaster/York and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre cannot support PBS.

Well to MJ's credit Erie is small, at market size #112 out of 210, your comparison to Harrisburg(#41) and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre(#53) doesn't quite work.

Interesting about your info about Newshour...I remember all the conservative slamming PBS two years ago for airing the gay cartoon or whatever it was.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Correct me if I'm wrong...but doesn't PBS (and NPR for that matter) sell their programming to member stations on a per-viewer basis? For example, New York would pay more for "Antiques Roadshow" than would Erie, PA because New York has the potential for far more viewers. So even with Erie being as small as it is, they would pay a sliding scale based on their potential viewership. Aside from the fact that PBS stations are not *required* to run programs in-pattern like the the for-profit broadcast networks, I can't imagine why WQLN doesn't run programs in-pattern.

Again, please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Markxxx]

That is correct, the cost for PBS is on a sliding fee scale. This was one of the big reasons why WTTW (Channel 11) and WYCC(Channel 20) in Chicago, were against WYIN (Channel 56) from moving it's transmitter from NW Indiana to Sears Tower. WTTW and WYCC said it would allow Channel 56 to get PBS programing at a much cheaper rate yet cover the same market area.

Also remember PBS tends to appeal to educated people more. So it's not only the total number of viewers in a market it is the socio-economic class of that market that effects PBS.

 

[genius]

I realized I made an error here...Erie is market #142. That's smaller that what I noted. No wonder they have had trouble!