Local television station websites

[bk77]

Years and years ago during those early internet days, I seem to remember a notice on various local TV station websites that said that their TV station is geared towards to their local area ( no duh !! ) and those outside the viewing area should click "here" ( usually a link to yahoo or some other search engine ).

WPVI in Philadelphia I remember had such a notice. As did Buffalo's WKBW..actually I remember visitng their site back in 1998, clicking on one of their videos only to get a notice that since I didnt live in Buffalo I could not view the video. I assume WKBW had some sort of system blocking ISP addresses or whatever.

Within a few years both WPVI and WKBW ,their notices disappeared and I was able to watch WKBW clips in Maryland.

Do any TV websites still do this practice? I know its done in radio. well on an international basis. Such as trying to listen to NYC's WPLJ radio say in London or Paris. I have heard the access is blocked.

 

[jal41]

Many of these radio streams are blocked outside of the US due to licensing issues with the music.

The only TV station I am aware that does something similar to what you are mentioning is WRAL/Raleigh. They stream their live on-air signal (including CBS programming), but you have to be within the Raleigh-Durham DMA to get it. I think the remainder of the website is the same whether you are in the DMA or not.

Since the local stations own the copyright to their local news video, they can offer it up however they choose (why there are no restrictions). On the flip side, live network programming is not offered up that way to protect local affiliates (The only way the networks have been able to offer on-demand streaming of programs over the internet without complaints is by sharing some of the profits with local affiliates).

We can get into a discussion on how the internet will get rid of broadcast television in the future...but that is a topic for another time.

 

[mleach]

Prior to the Internet most local TV stations thought it was weird for anyone outside their viewing area
to be interested in them.

I used to collect TV guides from different regions around the US back in my teen years. Before I started writing to the local Chamber of Commerce, At first I used to write to the actual TV stations asking for a copy but so many of them who wrote me back were just downright rude ( Indy's WRTV channel 6 called my hobby "retarded" while Denver's KMGH-TV said that "I should seek help" ). WRTV and KMGH just could not understand why would anyone outside of Indianapolis and Denver care about them.

A friend of mine who shared the same hobby as me received similar letters from Indy's WTHR as well.

I assume their attitudes didn't change when they first got their websites up and running but fairly quickly discovered that there are more people out there from outside their viewing area who ARE interested in them than just...."retarded TV freaks !!" ( WRTV Indianapolis 1984 )

 

[KML0224]

Prior to the Internet most local TV stations thought it was weird for anyone outside their viewing area
to be interested in them.

I used to collect TV guides from different regions around the US back in my teen years. Before I started writing to the local Chamber of Commerce, At first I used to write to the actual TV stations asking for a copy but so many of them who wrote me back were just downright rude ( Indy's WRTV channel 6 called my hobby "retarded" while Denver's KMGH-TV said that "I should seek help" ). WRTV and KMGH just could not understand why would anyone outside of Indianapolis and Denver care about them.

A friend of mine who shared the same hobby as me received similar letters from Indy's WTHR as well.

I assume their attitudes didn't change when they first got their websites up and running but fairly quickly discovered that there are more people out there from outside their viewing area who ARE interested in them than just...."retarded TV freaks !!" ( WRTV Indianapolis 1984 )

I was never called a retarded freak, but some TV stations did wonder why I wanted a coverage map from them. I used to write all around the country, always asking for a map and/or the "Channels Listed In" page from their area TV Guide. In some cases, it was because I had received their station via a "skip" signal whereas with Maine it was because I've lived there twice. Occasionally, I'd get a station that would send me a pen with their logo on it or a small note pad with the station's logo in the corner. By the time the early 2000s rolled around, I must have had 500 to 600 maps all stashed into one giant box (about 1/5 of these were radio maps). Thanks to having the internet and printer, plus with digital TV wiping away most shots of distant reception, the map collection became pointless. (For the record, the first out-of-area TV Guide page I wound up with here in Connecticut was the Kentucky Edition.)

 

[mleach]

You were very lucky to get pens and note pads from those TV stations !! I don't think I ever received anything like that. But I did get some stuff from Pittsburgh's WTAE in 1982 ( mainly xeroxed stuff ) about their history such as WTAE's role with the Three Stooges. Not really a surprise there because even Moe Howard brought up WTAE in his bio that came out in the mid 70s and was published around his death.

But Denver and Indianapols were the pits. Never did read the letter my friend recieved from WTHR but whatever WTHR said it must have been rather nasty as my friend soon lost interest in his hobby.

I didn't bother writing to the stations in New York City, Chicago or LA, but then again I didn't have too.
TV Guide back then had offices in those cities and they were happy to send me a copy of their local editions of TV Guide.

My first out-of-market TV Guide I believe did come from Kentucky as well. By 1983 I had recieved a copy of TV Guide from 49 states with the exception of Alaska and just about every single market except Houston ( KTRK, KHOU and KPRC ignored my requests ). Dallas OTOH was a bit nicer as I got TWO TV Guides thanks to KXAS and WFAA.

I still managed to get a copy of the Denver and Indy editions though. Denver I had to write to Fort Collins, CO Chamber of Commerce and my cousin picked up the Indy copy because he attended the Indy 500 back in 1982.

Had he not been at the race, Indianapolis would have joined Houston on my list of "no TV guide".

Sadly some of this additudes still remains to this day. I remember the problem the guy who ran the Florida Newscenter website had with some big media group over his site's posting of their news openings. I don't think it was a copyright thing ( I could be wrong on this ) but rather the station group thought it was "weird" that anyone outside their viewing area would be interested in seeing how they opened their local news.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

WRTV is trying to get Indianapolis's citizens to pay attention ... not sure what it was like in the mid-80s, but they haven't been a significant player in the local market in the last 10-15 years.

 

[KML0224]

Stations should be happy for the number of viewers they get, whether it's over-the-air in their local market or with comments left by people from out-of-state. I myself live in New Britain, CT (southwest of Hartford). Every day, the one local out-of-state website I check is www.wcsh6.com, the web site of WCSH-TV (NBC) channel 6 of Portland, ME. I used to live down the coast from there in Old Orchard Beach and it's nice to catch up with what's going up up there. Yes, there's NECN (New England Cable News) at my disposal with Comcast here. However, they're basically a Boston station with big cable coverage and Maine will always be well behind Massachsetts with their coverage. Also, I get no Maine radio stations at night here (used to listen to WTIC-AM 1080 of Hartford at night there all the time).

 

[bk77]

WRTV is trying to get Indianapolis's citizens to pay attention ... not sure what it was like in the mid-80s, but they haven't been a significant player in the local market in the last 10-15 years.

Sounds a lot like KMGH, when it comes to news in Denver it has been "9 Country" as in KUSA for so long. 30 years plus even gong back to 9's KBTV days.

And speaking of KMGH, cant forget that infamous Donahue memo they sent out to viewers who tried to get tickets to Phil's TV show when back in 1989 he did a week of shows from Denver but couldn't because..they didn't live in Denver.
In the memo it said "...oh course we here at Denver's 7 KMGH do give you permission to watch Donahue"

Since when does one need "permission" to watch a TV show???

I read this memo several years ago online. The sight of a TV station saying something like that was so..well weird !!

 

[BRNout]

Did McGraw Hill own them at that time? That was such a nasty company back in the late 1980s-early 1990s. During that time, my fiancee worked for McGraw Hill down the road in Colorado Springs. They would not give her one day off for us to get married! She'd worked there for about 6 months and they didn't give out vacation time for the first year. They literally told her to show up for work or get married and be fired.

She chose the latter which, in retrospect, was probably not the best choice! :

It just struck me that they had an exceeding nasty attitude. And, I was working in radio in CO at that time and never heard a good thing about channel 7 (KMGH) either. That newsroom was the perennial fourth choice as a place to work in Denver TV back then (KUSA, KCNC, and KWGN being better). Now that I read some of the comments here, it all seems to fit. There is (or was) a bad corporate culture at that company....very nasty.

 

[genius]

KMGH Nightmares...

I worked at KCNC in the early 90s, and yes I heard some NASTY things about good ole KMGH. When CBS bought KCNC, it was assumed that NBC would go to them. However, they wanted to pre-empt the Tonight Show in order to air Cheers! Not to mention they had some real tastless and classless anchors like Natalie Pujo. Heck I think Bill O'Reilly even worked for them back in the 70s, obviously a long-standing tradition. Pam Daale however, always was a sweet lady, and I was saddened to hear she lost her battle with breast cancer a few years ago.

"9 Country"? Heh, we never thought so...considering the success we had with News 4 Colorado. We were embrassed though after the station appeared in the TV movie "The Chase" and wondered if we'd get a backlash...

 

[SeanMGilbow]

WBNS-TV, the CBS affiliate in Columbus, is very good in its ability to make its video accessible regardless of location. I accessed it several times in Toronto when I was up there the last couple of years. Also had no problem when traveling with my laptop to St. Louis.

www.10tv.com

 

[JeeperOne]

WRTV is trying to get Indianapolis's citizens to pay attention ... not sure what it was like in the mid-80s, but they haven't been a significant player in the local market in the last 10-15 years.

Sounds a lot like KMGH, when it comes to news in Denver it has been "9 Country" as in KUSA for so long. 30 years plus even gong back to 9's KBTV days.

Beginning in the early 80s, you could also throw KCNC 4 into the mix.

And speaking of KMGH, cant forget that infamous Donahue memo they sent out to viewers who tried to get tickets to Phil's TV show when back in 1989 he did a week of shows from Denver but couldn't because..they didn't live in Denver.

I always thought he was on KCNC 4. Am I mistaken when it comes to 1989??

Cheers

 

[JeeperOne]

Re: KMGH Nightmares...

I worked at KCNC in the early 90s, and yes I heard some NASTY things about good ole KMGH. When CBS bought KCNC, it was assumed that NBC would go to them. However, they wanted to pre-empt the Tonight Show in order to air Cheers! Not to mention they had some real tastless and classless anchors like Natalie Pujo.

Natalie Pujo is (Or at least WAS) a poster child for the FOX Reality Channel of today as she fit the Real Life - Real News moniker to a T

Heck I think Bill O'Reilly even worked for them back in the 70s, obviously a long-standing tradition.

Tragically yes.

Pam Daale however, always was a sweet lady, and I was saddened to hear she lost her battle with breast cancer a few years ago.

That was sad.

Yet on the flip side, she also inspired so many viewers that they can do jobs like hers because she was also in a wheelchair due to some kind of disability too.

"9 Country"? Heh, we never thought so...considering the success we had with News 4 Colorado.

Success which KCNC still enjoys today (Though the competition is a lot tougher, especially since the Air Force Academy scandal which KMGH broke the story on shortly after switching to ABC).

We were embrassed though after the station appeared in the TV movie "The Chase" and wondered if we'd get a backlash...

Naah. You'd have gotten a backlash from Wendy Bergen's series on dog fighting before you'd get one for being featured in that movie (I mean look at how many times WFOR has appeared on CSI: Miami as an example).

Mind you, I've never worked for any of the stations, but I've lived in Denver all my life and have obviously watched them.

 

[genius]

Re: KMGH Nightmares...

You'd have gotten a backlash from Wendy Bergen's series on dog fighting

I didn't think anyone actually remembered her...Granted, I was at the station yet when that happenend but I was there in the aftermath as they were sweeping it under a rug except for gossip in the break room whenever she would make her 2, 534th appeal to the courts. Eighteen years later I wonder where she is now...never use your own dog to film an illegal dogfight!