KION-TV in Monterey to Shut Down all News Operations

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

I’m surprised that the entire state of New Jersey don’t have split counties even though we know it best for being within the New York TV Market or Philadelphia TV Markets and people in the approximate middle of the state gets both via OTA, Cable or streaming.

 

[radiofan2023]

The Nut Tree was different before they levelled the whole thing and turned it into a shopping center with national brands. It had it's own local restaurant and featured a train with a much longer track around the property. It was a common meeting place where someone from the Bay Area and someone from the Sacramento area could kind of meet in the middle.

I thought the Nut Tree was where Leslie Nielsen's family came from!

 

[IM42A]

I’m surprised that the entire state of New Jersey don’t have split counties even though we know it best for being within the New York TV Market or Philadelphia TV Markets and people in the approximate middle of the state gets both via OTA, Cable or streaming.

Except for arguably Monmouth and Ocean counties, there's really nothing to split. Mercer County (Trenton) is kind of "neither fish nor fowl", but it has to be assigned to one market or the other, and Philadelphia wins that one.

Cable companies in the middle probably adhere to "grandfathered" carriage patterns and possibly significantly viewed stations (as per the FCC's list, which is archaic), and as for streaming, do those ever carry stations from more than one market, where the home market is full-service with all major networks?

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Back to this one what do you think NPG could have done differently to not be in the position they are in around the nation where they have operations. We seen Nexstar, Sinclair, Gray having their origins in TV Markets with similar DMA rankings with Monterey and now they are household names nationwide once they put attention to medium and large TV markets via networks they manage to owning Subchannel brands.

 

[inari]

That’s what NBC negotiated with AT&T Broadband (which later was bought by Comcast) in 2001. You answered your own question: it was thought that channel position mattered and 3 was the lowest available. It might also have helped that it was “next door”, so to speak, with KRON on 4. I suspect that most people in the Bay Area, even in the eastern edges, wouldn’t have known what KCRA was. A pretty reliable principle is that, given a choice of network affiliates between a big market and a smaller market, people will gravitate to the station in the bigger market. Vacaville and vicinity in Solano County might have been an exception, but in the vast majority of the Bay Area, 3 was just another position in the channel lineup.

In Vacaville, KNTV could not be picked up over the air and was not on the cable system nor Dish or Directv. I do remember at the time around the move of NBC to KNTV there was a billboard for KNTV "NBC 3" near Dixon (even more west of Vacaville and closer to Sacramento) which featured their news team which was really odd and confusing.

 

[Mark Roberts]

In Vacaville, KNTV could not be picked up over the air and was not on the cable system nor Dish or Directv. I do remember at the time around the move of NBC to KNTV there was a billboard for KNTV "NBC 3" near Dixon (even more west of Vacaville and closer to Sacramento) which featured their news team which was really odd and confusing.

I think you must mean that Dixon is northeast of Vacaville.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

In Vacaville, KNTV could not be picked up over the air and was not on the cable system nor Dish or Directv. I do remember at the time around the move of NBC to KNTV there was a billboard for KNTV "NBC 3" near Dixon (even more west of Vacaville and closer to Sacramento) which featured their news team which was really odd and confusing.

True too back in the Analog era if you live in Solano County and have an OTA antenna at that time channel 3 would be directed to KCRA-TV Sacramento. Then again it was the time ownership was changing from Granite to NBC. Also they meant other counties outside of Santa Clara County to use cable to get KNTV’s signal once NBC takes over the station.

Then again Granite and NBC also had another issue at that time for KNTV to not “Take away viewers from KSBW” which is also a Hearst owned NBC affiliate like KCRA is in Sacramento given parts of the South Bay such as Santa Cruz is in the Monterey TV Market that meant leaving Loma Prieta peak to San Bruno Mountains.

 

[davideduardo]

NPG's business model has been to roll up multiple network affiliates in a market and then program the same newscast on most or all of them. The move in Monterey is a little surprising...NPG actually seems to run decent news operations, if a bit on the dull side...possibly it's an experiment. They certainly haven't tried it in their home market of St. Joseph, Mo., where there's a significant incursion from Kansas City stations, and always has been...and where NPG is entirely on LPTVs (since their attempt to buy KQTV failed).

We have NPG here in the Palm Springs market. They carry news at different times on the CBS, ABC and Fox channels and at any time of the day they have a newscast somewhere.

They are among the best smaller market operators I have seen, and attract good talent. The very good ones do not last, as we are so close to Phoenix, LA, San Diego and even Las Vegas that the news and weather folks get hired away very quickly. They do at least a B+ job, with lots of street reporting. They would have a full "A" but the market does not have that much strong news, so often the newscasts are filled with civic club meetings and the like.

 

[inari]

I think you must mean that Dixon is northeast of Vacaville.

Opps, you are correct.

We have NPG here in the Palm Springs market. They carry news at different times on the CBS, ABC and Fox channels and at any time of the day they have a newscast somewhere.

They are among the best smaller market operators I have seen, and attract good talent. The very good ones do not last, as we are so close to Phoenix, LA, San Diego and even Las Vegas that the news and weather folks get hired away very quickly. They do at least a B+ job, with lots of street reporting. They would have a full "A" but the market does not have that much strong news, so often the newscasts are filled with civic club meetings and the like.

A great market for those looking to move up. I've seen a lot of small market newscasts feature fresh grads just getting started. They end up in tiny markets far from a big city and their climb up is a much slower process.

I assume there are still a few locals or long term anchors or reporters that don't move on and are happy to stick around?