How much freedom do affiliates have to opt out of network programming?

[OhioMediaWatch]

Houston leads the nation in car chases and yes, KTRK is ABC's O/O here and they LOVE getting their "owned" chopper up to cover the craziness!

When CBS bought KOVR/13 in the Sacramento market, one of the first things they did was buy a helicopter. KOVR was the only "big three" station in the market without its own chopper...it leased a chopper from time to time before CBS bought one.

Oddly enough, KOVR's studios in West Sacramento had a mostly unused helicopter pad.

The market had one of its few "high speed chases" in the 1990s, and KOVR, then owned by Sinclair, was reduced to "covering" it by driving a reporter from overpass to overpass.

Meanwhile, the news radio station in the market still had its airborne traffic (by plane), and the legendary "Commander Bill" was calling play by play from the air.

The radio station grounded the planes a few years later, and uses studio anchors reading CHP CAD displays, listening to scanners, and watching Caltrans cams and speed sensors...and Bill, he went into retirement after a long career.

 

[recto101]

Houston leads the nation in car chases and yes, KTRK is ABC's O/O here and they LOVE getting their "owned" chopper up to cover the craziness!

Yeah I thought KCAL's Sky9 With Larry Welk in LA and Bob Tur on CBS2 news in LA leads the car chase count from San Diego to LA.

 

[Drucifer]

recto101 on a side note I have watched several "Southland" car chases via CNN on KCAL and CBS 2. I am continually amazed at the stupidity of these people thinking they can outrun helicopters. I was shocked that Houston leads the nation in high speed pursuits, seriously, have had one go past me on the freeway, frightening indeed. What's funny is Houston cops have those ram bars on the front of their cars so they sometimes wreck the perpetrator and before they "pull" the suspect from the car and commence with the beating a.k.a. "taking into custody" they look up to see which helicopter is overhead. If' it's theirs, let the whippin begin and if it's Channel 13, the suspect is handled with kid gloves. Priceless television for sure!

 

[charlestondxman]

Yeah, like every chase on World's Wildest Police Videos has audio dubbed in from Bob Tur. Charleston, being a small market just in the top 100, never shows police chases. There has only been one police chase shown, over 10 years ago when a guy rammed a police cruiser and lost control of his car, after stealing beer and taking a Crown Vic on a test drive.

That chase was such a big deal, Edwin McCain was in the chopper. The one station that rented a chopper, our CBS, dropped it about six or seven years ago. They used it so rarely because it was actually shared with the police department. Now, the stations just use radio traffic reporters and one uses HD maps.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Because of their hour-long noon newcast, WBTV in Charlotte, NC moved "The Price Is Right" a half-hour earlier the next day and never aired "Child's Play", "Press Your Luck", "Card Sharks", or "Now You See It" (That's from Wikipedia). I remember seeing "Card Sharks" somewhere, and I have fond memories of the Whammy.

 

[recto101]

recto101 on a side note I have watched several "Southland" car chases via CNN on KCAL and CBS 2. I am continually amazed at the stupidity of these people thinking they can outrun helicopters. I was shocked that Houston leads the nation in high speed pursuits, seriously, have had one go past me on the freeway, frightening indeed. What's funny is Houston cops have those ram bars on the front of their cars so they sometimes wreck the perpetrator and before they "pull" the suspect from the car and commence with the beating a.k.a. "taking into custody" they look up to see which helicopter is overhead. If' it's theirs, let the whippin begin and if it's Channel 13, the suspect is handled with kid gloves. Priceless television for sure!

I had No idea that Houson and Dallas had the most televised car chases after LA and SD. Also I noticed some of the Dallas and Houston Freeways look wider and crazier than the LA Freeways.

 

[bpatrick]

Because of their hour-long noon newcast, WBTV in Charlotte, NC moved "The Price Is Right" a half-hour earlier the next day and never aired "Child's Play", "Press Your Luck", "Card Sharks", or "Now You See It" (That's from Wikipedia). I remember seeing "Card Sharks" somewhere, and I have fond memories of the Whammy.

It's on Wikipedia but it's correct. WBTV had an hour-long midday show, "Top O' The Day," which originally aired from 12-1. When CBS moved "Young And The Restless" to 12:30, WBTV moved "Price" to 10:30 on a one-day delay and put "Top O' The Day" at 11:30. In the early '90s WBTV reverted to a traditional half-hour newscast at noon and has been airing "Price" in pattern at 11 since then. Charlotte-area viewers had access to all the pre-empted shows on either WFMY or WSPA (except that WSPA did not carry "Now You See It" and briefly pre-empted both "Press Your Luck" and "Card Sharks").

WTVT Tampa, when it was a CBS affiliate, also had an hour-long noon newscast; that station opted to run "Y&R" on a day-behind at 1 PM and pre-empt "Bold And The Beautiful". CBS affiliate WINK Fort Myers, FL, does this, too, except that "B&B" airs there in the morning. When WTVT became a Fox o&o and WTSP moved from ABC to CBS, it chose to air the two soaps in pattern; Bay Area viewers were skeptical it would work, since soap viewers are traditionally creatures of habit, but it has worked out very nicely (WTSP also kept "Guiding Light" and, now, "Let's Make A Deal" in the afternoon even as the Miami and Orlando CBS stations put them in the morning).

It's been commented on more than once but WSB refused to carry NBC's block of "Jeopardy!", "Who, What Or Where" and "Three On A Match" in the early '70s; "Jeopardy!" was pre-empted for noon news, while the other two were pre-empted for, first, Mike Douglas, then for Merv Griffin. Ted Turner picked up "Jeopardy!" and the "3Ws" for a time but dropped them apparently after the flap about those billboards proclaiming that the NBC network had moved to Channel 17. WXIA, when it was an ABC affiliate, carried "One Life To Live" in the morning in the mid-'70s, substituting a movie at 3:30, which was "OLTL"'s timeslot at the time. When the station approached ABC about moving the soap to a morning slot the network balked, even though 11 Alive's then-sister station, WLKY Louisville, was airing "OLTL" in the morning; "OLTL" was blacked out in Atlanta from September 1972 to early in 1973. And WLOS Asheville, NC, went WXIA one better, not even clearing "OLTL" for its first five years, preferring to air "The Flintstones" at 3:30.

 

[Drucifer]

recto101 on a side note I have watched several "Southland" car chases via CNN on KCAL and CBS 2. I am continually amazed at the stupidity of these people thinking they can outrun helicopters. I was shocked that Houston leads the nation in high speed pursuits, seriously, have had one go past me on the freeway, frightening indeed. What's funny is Houston cops have those ram bars on the front of their cars so they sometimes wreck the perpetrator and before they "pull" the suspect from the car and commence with the beating a.k.a. "taking into custody" they look up to see which helicopter is overhead. If' it's theirs, let the whippin begin and if it's Channel 13, the suspect is handled with kid gloves. Priceless television for sure!

I had No idea that Houson and Dallas had the most televised car chases after LA and SD. Also I noticed some of the Dallas and Houston Freeways look wider and crazier than the LA Freeways.

recto101, Houston is #1 in car chases, before LA and before SD. This shocked me because I assumed, with LA being much bigger, they would be first but to my surprise, they aren't. There may be more people in the Southland but we have more idiots...without question!

 

[rwells2265]

Doesn't matter, what went on in Jackson, it's never been a large Southern market. Last time I remember the "Puppy" episode was in 1997, which was 13 years ago, so it is pushing into the "retro" territory. My point is Birmingham was a prominent Southern market like Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis during the 1960s. Birmingham was the already in the spotlight in addition to it size but also being the home of some of the major battles of the Civil Rights Movement. Yet there was ignorance being perpetuated all the way into the 1990s.

Pushing retro, but not technically so - going by established precedent on the Classic TV forum governing retro TV schedule posts: that being 15 years or more. Define it as you wish, but I hardly consider the '90s as "retro." Younger folks might beg to differ, your own mileage may vary. Use only as directed.

ANYway ... the "puppy" episode was a single incident of grandstanding. Was it boneheaded? Yes. Look at my previous post, where I clearly state I wrote a piece for a small newspaper in south Alabama (an area that makes Birmingham on its worst day look positively utopian!) where I pointed up the hypocrisy of the Ellen flap. But did it achieve what the station wanted? You know it. It was all about publicity.

In the end, it does not prove what you appear to claim: that Birmingham television is a holdover of 1960s repression. I'm not sure if you still live in Birmingham -- whatever case, I get the impression this is more about bad feelings with the city in general. If so, I can vouch for the fact that all 3-1/2 interstate highways (the half being "Future I-22" <g>) have outbound lanes. I know, for I use I-20's when I have to go back home after visits.

--Russell

 

[recto101]

recto101 on a side note I have watched several "Southland" car chases via CNN on KCAL and CBS 2. I am continually amazed at the stupidity of these people thinking they can outrun helicopters. I was shocked that Houston leads the nation in high speed pursuits, seriously, have had one go past me on the freeway, frightening indeed. What's funny is Houston cops have those ram bars on the front of their cars so they sometimes wreck the perpetrator and before they "pull" the suspect from the car and commence with the beating a.k.a. "taking into custody" they look up to see which helicopter is overhead. If' it's theirs, let the whippin begin and if it's Channel 13, the suspect is handled with kid gloves. Priceless television for sure!

I had No idea that Houson and Dallas had the most televised car chases after LA and SD. Also I noticed some of the Dallas and Houston Freeways look wider and crazier than the LA Freeways.

recto101, Houston is #1 in car chases, before LA and before SD. This shocked me because I assumed, with LA being much bigger, they would be first but to my surprise, they aren't. There may be more people in the Southland but we have more idiots...without question!

Who did the survey of the number of car per city the Texas Highway Patrol or the California Highway Patrol. also I heard so many people and corporations from my state of CA leave California to Texas ever since the Terminator was Governor. I heard back in the OJ Simpson chase era the CHP said that LA, OC, Inland Empire and San Diego were tied for first for the most car chases in the USA.

 

[Drucifer]

recto101 on a side note I have watched several "Southland" car chases via CNN on KCAL and CBS 2. I am continually amazed at the stupidity of these people thinking they can outrun helicopters. I was shocked that Houston leads the nation in high speed pursuits, seriously, have had one go past me on the freeway, frightening indeed. What's funny is Houston cops have those ram bars on the front of their cars so they sometimes wreck the perpetrator and before they "pull" the suspect from the car and commence with the beating a.k.a. "taking into custody" they look up to see which helicopter is overhead. If' it's theirs, let the whippin begin and if it's Channel 13, the suspect is handled with kid gloves. Priceless television for sure!

I had No idea that Houson and Dallas had the most televised car chases after LA and SD. Also I noticed some of the Dallas and Houston Freeways look wider and crazier than the LA Freeways.

recto101, Houston is #1 in car chases, before LA and before SD. This shocked me because I assumed, with LA being much bigger, they would be first but to my surprise, they aren't. There may be more people in the Southland but we have more idiots...without question!

Who did the survey of the number of car per city the Texas Highway Patrol or the California Highway Patrol. also I heard so many people and corporations from my state of CA leave California to Texas ever since the Terminator was Governor. I heard back in the OJ Simpson chase era the CHP said that LA, OC, Inland Empire and San Diego were tied for first for the most car chases in the USA.

It was an article in the Houston Chronicle about HPD's chase policies. I will try to find it just for entertainment sake. Our Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is almost unheard of in the state's urban areas leaving the enforcement, even on the freeways, to local law enforcement. You folks may lead the nation in televised chases as I am sure your TV market has more than one helicopter in the air at anytime. Our market only has one O/O helicopter and that on ABC's O/O KTRK. KPRC-2 the NBC affiliate leases services mostly during drive time (which is a fallacy because our drive time, like yours, never ends).

 

[kilamanjero]

Doesn't matter, what went on in Jackson, it's never been a large Southern market. Last time I remember the "Puppy" episode was in 1997, which was 13 years ago, so it is pushing into the "retro" territory. My point is Birmingham was a prominent Southern market like Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis during the 1960s. Birmingham was the already in the spotlight in addition to it size but also being the home of some of the major battles of the Civil Rights Movement. Yet there was ignorance being perpetuated all the way into the 1990s.

Pushing retro, but not technically so - going by established precedent on the Classic TV forum governing retro TV schedule posts: that being 15 years or more. Define it as you wish, but I hardly consider the '90s as "retro." Younger folks might beg to differ, your own mileage may vary. Use only as directed.

ANYway ... the "puppy" episode was a single incident of grandstanding. Was it boneheaded? Yes. Look at my previous post, where I clearly state I wrote a piece for a small newspaper in south Alabama (an area that makes Birmingham on its worst day look positively utopian!) where I pointed up the hypocrisy of the Ellen flap. But did it achieve what the station wanted? You know it. It was all about publicity.

In the end, it does not prove what you appear to claim: that Birmingham television is a holdover of 1960s repression. I'm not sure if you still live in Birmingham -- whatever case, I get the impression this is more about bad feelings with the city in general. If so, I can vouch for the fact that all 3-1/2 interstate highways (the half being "Future I-22" <g>) have outbound lanes. I know, for I use I-20's when I have to go back home after visits.

--Russell

Thanks for the offer, but I been did that voluntarily years ago. No regrets at all. You can overlook and downplay it all you want, but at the end of day it's still there for anyone with the analytical eye to see. Last time I remember, all publicity isn't good publicity so all ABC 33/40's stunt did was reaffirm in some people's minds how "backwards" Birmingham still is in many ways.

 

[recto101]

It was an article in the Houston Chronicle about HPD's chase policies. I will try to find it just for entertainment sake. Our Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is almost unheard of in the state's urban areas leaving the enforcement, even on the freeways, to local law enforcement. You folks may lead the nation in televised chases as I am sure your TV market has more than one helicopter in the air at anytime. Our market only has one O/O helicopter and that on ABC's O/O KTRK. KPRC-2 the NBC affiliate leases services mostly during drive time (which is a fallacy because our drive time, like yours, never ends).

I actually live in the San Francisco Bay Area and KGO is the primary O&O that own a helicopter its called Sky 7 HD. In San Francisco Sky 7 hd tends to be used more to fly over a shooting in Oakland and wildfires on Mount Diablo but in San Francisco Traffic is more concentrated at certain times of the day any varies when Giants, A's, Sharks, and Warriors games take place.
But I do understand Visiting LA I tend to see helinet HD (the second air 7 for KABC) and KABC's primary helicopter Air7 HD more when a wildfire takes place near Mount Wilson. and close to the San Gabriel Valley. While KCAL and CBS2 is more of a Chase helicopter along with the CHP helicopters near by.

 

[Drucifer]

I realize we are hijacking this thread to an extent but it's interesting that as you and I were discussing this, there was another chase yesterday which started just before 6M and ran into the 6:00 news and once again SkyEye was on top of it, literally. Here's the kicker, a good 20 minutes into the chase, HPD was just getting a chopper in the air to "put eyes on it."

 

[recto101]

Didn't any San Francisco TV station air the Barry Bonds verdict live or was this only seen on CNN and ESPN?

 

[vchimpanzee]

Because of their hour-long noon newcast, WBTV in Charlotte, NC moved "The Price Is Right" a half-hour earlier the next day and never aired "Child's Play", "Press Your Luck", "Card Sharks", or "Now You See It" (That's from Wikipedia). I remember seeing "Card Sharks" somewhere, and I have fond memories of the Whammy.

It's on Wikipedia but it's correct. WBTV had an hour-long midday show, "Top O' The Day," which originally aired from 12-1. When CBS moved "Young And The Restless" to 12:30, WBTV moved "Price" to 10:30 on a one-day delay and put "Top O' The Day" at 11:30. In the early '90s WBTV reverted to a traditional half-hour newscast at noon and has been airing "Price" in pattern at 11 since then.

I have access to a Charlotte Observer archive that might confirm this. I hope I can remember to look it up.

I remember "Top O' The Day" well.

 

[mleach]

In the early 1980's Washington, DC's then-WDVM channel 9 ( now WUSA ) pre-empted a LOT of CBS.

What wasn't seen on DC's channel 9 or at the very least delayed?

*Press Your Luck
*Child's Play
*Body Language
*$100,000 Pyramind
*The Price is Right ( on occasion )
*Richard Pryor's kid show
*Charlie Brown & Snoopy
*Bugs Bunny & Road Runner
*CBS Children's Film Festival
*Benji Zak and the Alien Prince
*CBS News Sunday Morning
*CBS Latenight

..most of the pre-emptions were in favor of local programing such as "In Our Lives", "Saturday Magazine" or "Morning Break".

OK before someone says "..hey I have listings for WDVM from 1983 and it showed that they did air Bugs Bunny & Road Runner or whatever, ah nice try. Back in those days WDVM would often pre-empt stuff in favor of their own prgramming even though the listings including TV Guide had said otherwise. If I had just $5 for everytime this had happened, that would be more than enough to take everyone on this board out to dinner and I am NOT kidding. Threw me off guard many of times when I wanted to tape something from CBS on channel 9. Actually I still have tapes in my collection of WDVM set to record CBS only to get something stupid like "The Music Video Connection" , "The Greaseman TV show", "Glenn Brenner" or better yet that long forgotten relationship show..."Couples".

In 1985 WDVM was sold to Gannett and became WUSA and rather quickly those pre-emptions had came to an end.