Market and affiliation changes, cable/satellite carriage, and more

[IM42A]

Neither the 1963 nor 1968 TVFBs broke out Guilford into two parts.

I have to correct myself. I was looking at the 1968 TVFB and it did, indeed, break Guilford out into Inner and Outer.

 

[vchimpanzee]

What was the matter with the picture?

I have no idea why there was no picture but the sound was fine. I was nine years old and didn't question it.

 

[ftballfan]

I do recall seeing somewhere (don't remember exactly where) that Manistee and Mason counties in Michigan were in the Green Bay market in the late 1950s/early 1960s (before WPBN moved its transmitter from its studios just west of Traverse City to near Harrietta)

 

[IM42A]

I do recall seeing somewhere (don't remember exactly where) that Manistee and Mason counties in Michigan were in the Green Bay market in the late 1950s/early 1960s (before WPBN moved its transmitter from its studios just west of Traverse City to near Harrietta)

That's interesting. One thought I had, is that people in those counties would have no reasonable way of patronizing Green Bay businesses that advertised on that market's stations. They'd have to drive over 200 miles around Lake Michigan, through Chicago, and back up to Green Bay.

 

[ftballfan]

That's interesting. One thought I had, is that people in those counties would have no reasonable way of patronizing Green Bay businesses that advertised on that market's stations. They'd have to drive over 200 miles around Lake Michigan, through Chicago, and back up to Green Bay.

At the time, Michigan and Wisconsin were in the same time zone and Traverse City/Cadillac was a short market (and would be short until 1971 - although Manistee and Mason counties would get ABC in 1962 with WZZM).

The Green Bay VHFs (2/5/11) would all remain on cable in Ludington until 2009, while Manistee had them into the 1990s (Manistee also had 38 [PBS] on cable before WCMW came on). In the CATV days before the proliferation of cable networks, Ludington also used to have 4, 6, 10, and 18 (but never 12) from Milwaukee. In a related note, Ludington and Manistee were two of a select few cities in Michigan to have never had WKBD on cable - Manistee had WTCG by early 1978, and I'm not sure when Ludington had it, but both had WTBS and WGN by 1980 (Mason County had 25-49% NWC for both WTBS and WGN in the 1981 TV Factbook while Manistee County was 5-24% for both stations in the same Factbook)

 

[KEXPSD]

My family has summer property in Ludington. There is still an old ferry, the S.S. Badger, that goes from Ludington to Manitowoc, WI, which is one county south of Green Bay's Brown County. Still a bit time consuming, I suppose. I've never done that ferry. Not sure how long a ride that is. Interesting that Green Bay OTA's had penetration on the Michigan side of the lake, but it seems reasonable. I haven't been to Ludington since I was a kid in the 80's (and never to WI). The only OTA I remember was 9&10 from the Traverse City/Cadillac market.

 

[harrisburgpatv2]

Hopefully this qualifies..

The Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York (PA) TV market at one time had *three* CBS affiliates - WLYH-15 (Lebanon), WHP-21 (Harrisburg) and WSBA-43 (York). Because of the hilly terrain (this was before cable), CBS wanted to make sure they had carriage. The three stations aired all syndicated programming in tandem (i.e. the "Keystone Network), but WHP dropped out in the early '70s. 15 and 43 aired most shows simultaneously.

43 was the first to break off in 1983 - they were bought out, and with a change of call letters to WPMT in September 1983, they went independent, the market's first. They weren't independent long - aligning themselves with FOX a few years later (which they still are today).

I will always be surprised 15 stayed CBS as long as they did. Not until December 1995, when they switched to UPN, did they leave. They became CW in 2006. 15 became WXBU in 2014 and became a variety of affiliations since then - Grit, Comet, TBD, and currently Univision. The CW affiliation moved to a digital subchannel on WHP-21. The WLYH call letters still exist with Red Lion's channel 49 , a religious station.

 

[charlestondxman]

I don't know why I thought those were two separate markets. Were they at one time?

This sounds very similar to what happened with the Florence-Myrtle Beach market in South Carolina. At one time, there was only one station in Florence, WBTW-13, and it was primary CBS with some ABC (and maybe NBC if you go back far enough), and two stations in Wilmington, WWAY-3 and WECT-6 (ABC and NBC respectively, with the odd CBS show on WECT). Horry County (MB) was in the Wilmington market until 1983 when it flipped to Florence (about the time WPDE-15, ABC, went on the air, WWAY threw a fit and even filed a complaint with the FCC) and has been there ever since. However, with the explosive growth in the Myrtle Beach area in the years following, the center of gravity shifted, MB gained Fox and later NBC affiliates, and the Florence stations, for all practical purposes, moved to the MB area. They are still licensed to Florence, and the sticks for WBTW, WPDE, and WWMB (UPN and later CW affiliate) are at Hamer SC, near South of the Border (for those who don't know, it's a wildly popular, or at least it used to be, faux-Mexican mini-theme park with a motor hotel, camping, restaurants, and so on), which makes for the curious situation of Myrtle Beach-based stations having their towers some 50 miles inland, and, yes, that does create reception issues sometimes.

OTA reception of most Wilmington (as well as Charleston) stations is possible with a decent outdoor antenna in MB (actually easier to get than Hamer), but Wilmington might as well be on another planet, their world ends at the NC/SC line. Only PBS NC is carried on cable. Oddly enough, just a few miles down the coast from MB, Georgetown County, the Charleston market begins. Georgetown is a very long county and IMO should be split, with "Georgetown North" being Florence-Myrtle Beach, and "Georgetown South" being Charleston, but that hasn't happened and may never. WPDE, though curiously not WBTW, shows up as significantly viewed in a couple of resort towns and Georgetown city on the 2016 SV list, and WFXB (Fox affiliate licensed to MB, one of the Bahakel stations) shows up as SV for the whole county. Go figure. I'm assuming the satellite providers furnish only Charleston locals for the entire county, which means that for local news in places such as Murrells Inlet, I guess folks have to go out and buy an antenna. Again, the county really needs to be split for DMA purposes.

I lived in Myrtle Beach in 1996 and 1997 and watched stations from all three cities, though for local news, we always preferred WPDE. (Gordon Barnes was at the place where I took my ham radio license test.) At that time, WPDE was more "the Myrtle Beach station" and WBTW was "the Florence station", but they, too, have moved their main studios to the MB area.

Down here they still cover Georgetown County news no matter what happens. Could be a rando car accident in Georgetown or a charity event and they’d still cover it. The CBS shows every Coastal Carolina sports highlight no matter what, even though the rest of the market couldn’t give a crap (so they can cater to those viewers).