When it comes to the Television Industry, the TV markets that you despise the most are the markets in which your favorite TV shows did not clear. Do you realize how angry that makes you when your TV market does not clear it having you to watch it in another market or only like when you are on vacation somewhere. I can assure you that die hard Super Mario Bros. fans like myself hate the Flint, MI Dayton, OH and Wichita, KS for not clearing the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. That would mean that viewers in Flint, MI Dayton, OH and Wichita, KS that wanted to watch the Super Mario Bros. Super Show will have to watch it on WXON in Detroit, WIII in Cincinnati and KSHB in Kansas City respectively or being forced to wait until reruns on The Family Channel which I hate for not airing all the episodes or for those who did not have cable at the time, and another I for one hate the distinction of the only way the Super Mario cartoons aired in the market is by way of NBC's Saturday Morning lineup which aired the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. Those are the markets that I hate for not clearing any Mario Cartoon (either SMBSS or CN&TVG) in syndication. What are yours for not clearing you favorite shows?
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Markets that you hate.
- Thread starter edward1978
- Start date
San Francisco, anytime before early 1990s. One of CBS' biggest daytime hits, The Price is Right, was preempted on KPIX so they could air "People are Talking" from Group W Productions. As soon as it went O&O that stopped. But viewers would have to see Bob Barker on KOFY, or maybe KXTV (was there any times where TPiR did not air on ANY SF station, even indies?) CBS said it was one of the largest affiliates, but preempting a program like that would really tick off loads of viewers.
-crainbebo
-crainbebo
There was a period in the late 70s (pre-KOFY), and another in the '90s, when 'TPIR' was not seen in the Bay Area. I'm not sure when that putrid 'People are Talking' show started ('77 or '78?), but I do know that KPIX carried 'TPIR' from the beginning, in its half-hour format. As you said, KPIX finally carried 'TPIR' after CBS and Westinghouse merged, but KOFY had dropped it several years before that(maybe 1992?)
Until the move to Atlanta this past fall, there was one market I hated with a passion: Fairbanks, Alaska!!!!
And here's why: They're #202 with four network stations, one religious, and one PBS (the only one with multiple sub-channels); their newscasts looked more like public access quality than professional; and until about the early to mid-'90s, if you wanted to watch Oprah, Jeopardy, Love Connection, (the original) People's Court, American Gladiators, Siskel & Ebert, and many other syndicated shows (though some of them would later be rerun on cable), you had two options: Get somebody in Anchorage (currently market #146) to tape them for you, or plunk down $3,000 for a C-Band satellite system.
And here's why: They're #202 with four network stations, one religious, and one PBS (the only one with multiple sub-channels); their newscasts looked more like public access quality than professional; and until about the early to mid-'90s, if you wanted to watch Oprah, Jeopardy, Love Connection, (the original) People's Court, American Gladiators, Siskel & Ebert, and many other syndicated shows (though some of them would later be rerun on cable), you had two options: Get somebody in Anchorage (currently market #146) to tape them for you, or plunk down $3,000 for a C-Band satellite system.
Atlanta's WSB, from what I can gather, was the first network station to black out network programming. When The Price Is Right first premiered on November 26, 1956 on NBC at 10:30 AM ET, WSB (as an NBC station) bumped it for the last half hour of a movie. Fortunately, NBC moved Price to 11 AM a month later and WSB cleared it. In 1994, when it was announced that WAGA was switching from CBS to Fox, they began piecemeal pre-emptions of CBS shows. The entire CBS Saturday morning line-up was scuttled that fall for syndicated fare, as was The Price Is Right. Fortunately, indie WVEU stepped in and cleared Price until a new CBS affiliate for Atlanta--WGNX--was named, which today is WGCL.
All three network stations were devil-may-care about pre-empting shows. Which is why on the eighth day God created independent stations that would run many of these shows we wanted to see. WJRJ (today WPCH), WATL, WTLK (today WPXA) and WVEU (today WUPA) were all heroes to us. WJRJ cleared CBS's top-rated primetime show Medical Center in the late 60s when WAGA pre-empted it (!) for a movie. WJRJ also cleared Jeopardy! when WSB bumped it for local news.
All three network stations were devil-may-care about pre-empting shows. Which is why on the eighth day God created independent stations that would run many of these shows we wanted to see. WJRJ (today WPCH), WATL, WTLK (today WPXA) and WVEU (today WUPA) were all heroes to us. WJRJ cleared CBS's top-rated primetime show Medical Center in the late 60s when WAGA pre-empted it (!) for a movie. WJRJ also cleared Jeopardy! when WSB bumped it for local news.
Paducah, KY. WPSD-TV delayed Saturday Night Live by an hour for close to 20 years! And that is when they were carrying it at all! For the first few years, it did not air at all, but back then, I would have been too young to stay up that late anyway.
So for me, I really didn't get to watch it until the '80s, when I could stay up late enough, and we got a VCR so that I could tape it and watch it at my convenience.
WPSD was (and maybe still is) the station that pre-empted even "must-see Thursdays" back in the Cosby era for UK basketball. Despite their viewing area being four (and potentially up to six!) states!
I am guessing that it was primarily the smaller markets that pulled shenanigans like this.
So for me, I really didn't get to watch it until the '80s, when I could stay up late enough, and we got a VCR so that I could tape it and watch it at my convenience.
WPSD was (and maybe still is) the station that pre-empted even "must-see Thursdays" back in the Cosby era for UK basketball. Despite their viewing area being four (and potentially up to six!) states!
I am guessing that it was primarily the smaller markets that pulled shenanigans like this.
Many places in the Paducah/Cape Girardeau/Harrisburg market had KSDK (St. Louis) available to them on cable. Did they use syndex to blackout SNL on KSDK when it actually aired live (or anything else that was pre-empted by Bball)?
B
bpatrick2
Guest
In markets that cut across several states, a station will tend to stress the state where it is located; perhaps people in Missouri and Illinois objected to WPSD's pre-emption of NBC on Thursdays, but it is a Kentucky station and, given UK's basketball tradition and usual place in the upper reaches of the top 25, you have to know Ch. 6 is going to carry the games. WLOS Asheville, NC is part of the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville market, but being in North Carolina, it stresses North Carolina news while its South Carolina competitors, WYFF and WSPA, emphasize the Palmetto State. WLOS dominates the news ratings on the North Carolina side of the market but runs third in South Carolina.
My least favorite market was always Birmingham; until the access rule forced the affiliates there to put on some first-run syndicated shows, its stations' schedules were loaded with old black-and-white reruns, especially Westerns. WBRC, ABC at the time, was as pre-emption happy as WSB. I was at least partially satisfied, too, when the FCC forced Ch. 13 to pick between CBS and NBC (it chose NBC) just as WTVD/11 Raleigh-Durham had to choose between the same two networks (it chose CBS, not becoming an ABC o&o until 1985).
My least favorite market was always Birmingham; until the access rule forced the affiliates there to put on some first-run syndicated shows, its stations' schedules were loaded with old black-and-white reruns, especially Westerns. WBRC, ABC at the time, was as pre-emption happy as WSB. I was at least partially satisfied, too, when the FCC forced Ch. 13 to pick between CBS and NBC (it chose NBC) just as WTVD/11 Raleigh-Durham had to choose between the same two networks (it chose CBS, not becoming an ABC o&o until 1985).
In my much younger days I lived in Buffalo, NY we only had the 3 network stations in those days. We had the advantage in those pre-VCR days of being able to watch Canadian stations CHCH-11, CFTO-9 and CBL-6. They aired shows from the 3 American networks but on different nights and times. If you missed your favorite show it was possible to see it on one of these channels even if it was a little snowy.
I've mentioned many times before that I lived in three markets during my lifetime--Rockford, IL, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles. Now, I wouldn't use "hate" in regards to this conversation, but I would really dislike when certain programs that I knew would air elsewhere didn't air where I lived (at least in regards to Rockford and Milwaukee). Of course, Los Angeles being market #2, and home to the Big Four's west coast flagship stations, pre-emptions rarely, if ever, happens. In the case of Rockford, in the pre-digital days, was a four-station TV market, but it had a benefit by being located by closer (and larger) neighboring markets. Of course, if you had a strong-enough antenna, you could pull in Chicago, Milwaukee, or Madison (or even the Quad Cities or Peoria if you were further southwest of Rockford proper), to get those missing network and syndicated shows.
Even thinking about it now, the Rockford network stations quite weren't as pre-emption happy as their counterparts in Madison and Milwaukee. Of Rockford's Big Three affils, WTVO (back when it was with NBC) was the biggest "offender"; they would always bump-off a hour or two of NBC's daytime shows for syndicated product (either for talk shows or sitcom reruns), or when they carried Cubs games, whatever NBC carried at that same time wasn't seen at all (not even put on delay). I can even recall one year (it may have been 1986) that NBC was carrying a sporting event (maybe golf), and instead, WTVO aired a movie in its place. Besides WMAQ as a nearby reliable NBC option, WMTV Madison was a good alternate...pre-emption happy WTMJ in Milwaukee, not so much.
Even thinking about it now, the Rockford network stations quite weren't as pre-emption happy as their counterparts in Madison and Milwaukee. Of Rockford's Big Three affils, WTVO (back when it was with NBC) was the biggest "offender"; they would always bump-off a hour or two of NBC's daytime shows for syndicated product (either for talk shows or sitcom reruns), or when they carried Cubs games, whatever NBC carried at that same time wasn't seen at all (not even put on delay). I can even recall one year (it may have been 1986) that NBC was carrying a sporting event (maybe golf), and instead, WTVO aired a movie in its place. Besides WMAQ as a nearby reliable NBC option, WMTV Madison was a good alternate...pre-emption happy WTMJ in Milwaukee, not so much.
My second home has been the Portland/Poland Spring, ME DMA, having lived in southern Maine twice (1974-77 and 1985-87). I was too young to remember the TV setup the first time, but have at least some idea of the second time around. A prime example was WCSH-TV (NBC) channel 6 of Portland always preempting NBC Sportsworld on weekends, running a movie or other shows instead. One time in either fall 1986 or early 1987, NBC's coverage of The Skins Game (golf) aired on WPXT-TV channel 51 of Portland (then FOX and now CW).
WVIT-TV (NBC) channel 30 of New Britain/Hartford has always cleared the NBC schedule as far as I know. This even included when Viacom owned the station in the late 1980s, long before they ever became an NBC owned-and-operated station.
WVIT-TV (NBC) channel 30 of New Britain/Hartford has always cleared the NBC schedule as far as I know. This even included when Viacom owned the station in the late 1980s, long before they ever became an NBC owned-and-operated station.
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