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Last TV Station To Broadcast 24 Hours A Day (per market)

Since there's a discussion on first station to go 24 hours, I thought about bringing up (per market) the last station to go 24 hours. For Chicago, I would go with PBS affiliate WYIN, licensed to Gary, IN. They went 24 hours around 2007 or 2008 (I believe 2008), just before the analog shutoff date of February 17, 2009 (was changed to June 12th, 2009, & WYIN did shut off analog on that date). Before 2008 (or 2007), they signed off between midnight & 2am. Since going 24 hours, their regular schedule only goes to 12:30 - 2am, then the overnight hours are filled with beg-a-thon programming. When they carried Create on a subchannel, the main channel still signed off, but the subchannel was on the bird. Since adding a locally programmed PBS Kids Go channel, that is truly 24 hours, with the kids shows in 6 hour blocks, airing the same show 4 times a day (same way Create is programmed).
 
Mark said:
Wasn't it WYIN or WYCC, that used to sign off over the air, but would broadcast 24/7 via cable?

It might have been WYCC, because my home still had cable in 2008 (my TV however was strictly OTA), & when WYIN signed off, the cable company would place one of the shopping channels on WYIN when it went off the air. When WYIN did finally go 24 hours on the main digital channel & analog, it has always been beg-a-thon programming in the overnight hours.
 
I think there was a thread on this several years ago. In Raleigh-Durham, it was statewide public TV network UNC-TV, whose local station, WUNC-TV 4 and (at that time) nine other transmitters began 24-hour operation in the early-to-mid 1990s. I'm pretty sure it was before 11th station WUNU-TV 31/Lumberton signed on in 1996.
 
Most of the Citadel Communications TV stations (bet they're glad they won't be confused with the former Citadel radio stations anymore!) still sign off overnight - WHBF in the Quad Cities, WOI-TV Ames/Des Moines, KCAU Sioux City.

Not many like that anymore!
 
Scott Fybush said:
Most of the Citadel Communications TV stations (bet they're glad they won't be confused with the former Citadel radio stations anymore!) still sign off overnight - WHBF in the Quad Cities, WOI-TV Ames/Des Moines, KCAU Sioux City.

Not many like that anymore!

What about WVCY in Milwaukee -- I read somewhere that they closed down around Midnight each night, at least until the digital conversion.
 
azumanga said:
Scott Fybush said:
Most of the Citadel Communications TV stations (bet they're glad they won't be confused with the former Citadel radio stations anymore!) still sign off overnight - WHBF in the Quad Cities, WOI-TV Ames/Des Moines, KCAU Sioux City.

Not many like that anymore!

What about WVCY in Milwaukee -- I read somewhere that they closed down around Midnight each night, at least until the digital conversion.

They were the last station in that market to go 24 hours, & I believe it was around March or April 2009 (they shut off analog on the original date of February 17, 2009, for financial reasons). They don't have as high of an electric bill since going digital. They were transmitting at 1070kw for analog, but now only 196kw for digital. That will now allow them to be on 24 hours, but most of those hours are just repeats of shows they showed earlier in the day.

Luckily WMVS & WMVT aren't part of the statewide Wisconsin Public Television service, because they (WPT) still sign off every night, while WMVS & WMVT are 24 hours (even if WMVS uses PBS East & WMVT simulcasts Create during the overnight hours).
 
In South Carolina, ETV was signing off at night through the 90s. Until about 1997 or 98 they signed off at midnight or 1am, and they wouldn't come back until the 6:30am yoga stretches every morning. It wasn't until 2000 that they completely stopped signing off on weeknights, maybe a little later on weekends.

In Charleston, WTAT was the last station to sign off on weekends, Sunday nights as recently as '96.
 
What about WVCY in Milwaukee -- I read somewhere that they closed down around Midnight each night, at least until the digital conversion.
[/quote]

They were the last station in that market to go 24 hours, & I believe it was around March or April 2009 (they shut off analog on the original date of February 17, 2009, for financial reasons). They don't have as high of an electric bill since going digital. They were transmitting at 1070kw for analog, but now only 196kw for digital. That will now allow them to be on 24 hours, but most of those hours are just repeats of shows they showed earlier in the day.

Luckily WMVS & WMVT aren't part of the statewide Wisconsin Public Television service, because they (WPT) still sign off every night, while WMVS & WMVT are 24 hours (even if WMVS uses PBS East & WMVT simulcasts Create during the overnight hours).

[/quote]




WVCY didn't go 24-7 immediately after the analogue shut-off. I seem to recall the overnight programming beginning in fall 2009 (October or November). They previously broadcast from 9 a.m. to midnight weekdays and 8 a.m. to midnight weekends. And, yes, WVCY was the last of the bunch to refrain from signing off here in Brew Town.
 
NBC affiliate WFMJ/21 Youngstown OH signed off overnights until very recently. It looks like they're running the NBC late night schedule weekdays with an informercial or two, and all infomercials on weekends.

However, WFMJ kept the transmitter on all night, as CW subchannel "WBCB" (21.2) has programmed 24/7 since it launched as a WB affiliate.
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
NBC affiliate WFMJ/21 Youngstown OH ... kept the transmitter on all night, as CW subchannel "WBCB" (21.2) has programmed 24/7 since it launched as a WB affiliate.

Until last year, WCMU in Mount Pleasant, Michigan and its satellites would also leave the air every night at Midnight (later on Saturdays), but after the analog sunset, the main channel would go dark while the Create subchannel remain on with its usual programming. WCMU would institute a 24/7 schedule shortly before buying WFUM (now WCMZ) in Flint last year.
 
milwaukee_dave said:
What about WVCY in Milwaukee -- I read somewhere that they closed down around Midnight each night, at least until the digital conversion.

They were the last station in that market to go 24 hours, & I believe it was around March or April 2009 (they shut off analog on the original date of February 17, 2009, for financial reasons). They don't have as high of an electric bill since going digital. They were transmitting at 1070kw for analog, but now only 196kw for digital. That will now allow them to be on 24 hours, but most of those hours are just repeats of shows they showed earlier in the day.

Luckily WMVS & WMVT aren't part of the statewide Wisconsin Public Television service, because they (WPT) still sign off every night, while WMVS & WMVT are 24 hours (even if WMVS uses PBS East & WMVT simulcasts Create during the overnight hours).

[/quote]




WVCY didn't go 24-7 immediately after the analogue shut-off. I seem to recall the overnight programming beginning in fall 2009 (October or November). They previously broadcast from 9 a.m. to midnight weekdays and 8 a.m. to midnight weekends. And, yes, WVCY was the last of the bunch to refrain from signing off here in Brew Town.
[/quote]

After looking further into this, it was actually in January 2010 that they went 24 hours. I even found a posting on their facebook page, but the link on their own website is no longer valid. So they've only been a 24 hour station for over a year. I thought it was a little longer than that.
 
In the Greenville/Spartaburg, SC market. The last station to go 24/7 was WNEG-TV when it was commerical (before it became non-commercial WUGA-TV last May) after it became indepedent and bought by UGA Media Research in 2008 after they sign off on Saturday and Sunday Mornings.

The last TV station to go 24/7 was WHNS 21 (FOX) in 2006 after sigining off at 1:30-5:00am on early Monday mornings. WLOS 13 (ABC) went 24/7 in the mid 2000s after signing-off for one hour 5-6am I think on Saturday Mornings. WSPA 7 (CBS) went 24/7 sometime in the mid 1990s. WYFF 4 (NBC) went 24/7 sometime in 1988.
 
In Seattle, one station still signs off every week, and that would be KIRO 7 (CBS) every Sat and Sun. morning between 3:35 and 4AM (25 min.). KCTS 9 signs off for technical maintenance at least once every month or two. KSTW 11 has been 24/7 since about '06-'07 or so, signing off very occasionally Monday mornings. KOMO/KING have been 24/7 for many years, KCPQ has been 24/7 since the late '90s, KZJO for a long time as well. KBTC 28 also 24/7 since about '08 or so.

In Yakima, in the 1990s EVERY station signed off at least once a week. Now, it's only KAPP 35 (ABC), every night around 2AM-5AM or so. KIMA was like this not too long ago, but went 24/7 sometime early this year or late last year.

-crainbebo
 
Also in SLC NBC affiliate (owned by the Mormons unfortunately, also refused to air risque NBC shows like "SNL", "The Playboy Club", and "Coupling") KSL-TV 5 still signs off every Sunday Morning at 3:30-5:00am MT.
 
WTOL in Toledo still signs off Saturday & Sunday mornings from 2-6am. Other than that the rest of the market is 24/7.
 
Scott Fybush said:
Most of the Citadel Communications TV stations (bet they're glad they won't be confused with the former Citadel radio stations anymore!) still sign off overnight - WHBF in the Quad Cities, WOI-TV Ames/Des Moines, KCAU Sioux City.

Not many like that anymore!

KCAU doesn't sign off, they run their transmitter all night with a slide, while accu-weather continues on 9.2.

The Iowa Public TV stations all do sign off overnight. They used to be on all night, but that was discontinued a year or two ago due to budget cuts.
 
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