most infuriating! pre-emptions by local stations

[MCarney]

Was not really an issue for me in Pittsburgh because a) I generally preferred the Pirates game to whatever
CBS program might normally run on KDKA at that time (the Pittsburgh Pirates, despite entering their third
decade of futility, continue to have some of the highest local TV ratings in Major League Baseball), and
b) I lived high enough on the hill that it was a simple matter for me to tune to WTRF-7 out of Wheeling, WV
or WKBN-27 from Youngstown, Ohio to watch CBS programming.

What about WTAJ-10 from Altoona-Johnstown?

.

Not really receivable from my house. It was strange because I knew people just a few blocks away
who could pick up Altoona and Johnstown, but none of the Ohio stations. Pittsburgh had some really
crazy terrain when it came to OTA reception.

Someone I know who grew up in New Hampshire has a similar story. One side of the street got channel 6 - WCSH from Portland, Maine. The other side got channel 6 - WLNE from New Bedford, Mass. Which is funny because there were places (pre-digtial) in Rhode Island that can't get WLNE in at all.

There's another more recent preemption story from the Boston market. WFXT Fox25 had the Red Sox from 2000-2002. They would tape delay the NASCAR races, run them after the Sox game and delay whatever prime-time shows that were preempted until 11 PM (usually it would be "King of the Hill" and "Futurama"). There was one NASCAR fan that flooded the station with angry faxes, e-mails and calls and he was taken to court over it.

 

[azumanga]

WBIR-TV 10 in Knoxville was notorious of pre-empting shows on CBS during the late 70s/early 80s in order to show a country music special instead. The specials were produced by LandMark Media, which was also the corporation that owned WBIR at the time.

Actually at the time, Multimedia, which also owned WFBC / WYFF in Greenville (amongst others), owned WBIR. The only Landmark station I knew about in Tennessee was WTVF in Nashville.

 

[rnigma1]

CBS was scheduled to air the movie "GoodFellas" sometime in the mid-2000s; instead, they aired one of Chuck Norris' "President's Man" movies. The station got quite a few complaints. I know CBS would have censored "GoodFellas" to hellangone, but substituting Chuck Norris?
The local CBS station decided not to air the first Victoria's Secret fashion show, airing two "Frasier" reruns in its place. Talk about complaints...

What station in what city?

WCTV, Tallahassee.

 

[crainbebo]

KIRO 7 here in Seattle did not air Bold & The Beautiful off CBS until the flip from UPN back to CBS in early 1997. KIRO was owned by the Mormons (Bonneville).
Also, they killed over twelve hours of programming last year to air non stop coverage of a snow storm (January 2012). Of course it's needed because 98% of drivers do not know how to drive in snow!

-crainbebo

 

[FredLeonard]

ABC stations will preempt network shows for football games that are normally part of an ESPN package when a local team is playing. When that happens, they usually run the network show in the middle of the night or on the weekend (and my Tivo picks it up).

 

[nomadcowatbk]

WBIR-TV 10 in Knoxville was notorious of pre-empting shows on CBS during the late 70s/early 80s in order to show a country music special instead. The specials were produced by LandMark Media, which was also the corporation that owned WBIR at the time. There were one time that I remember when CBS had been advertising a movie that I really wanted to see only to pre-empted by the forth airing of the "Statler Brothers on the Mississippi River". I thought that special sucked the first time it aired, why air it another three times?

Simple, friend. You were in the minority in eastern Tennessee, a hotbed of country music fans. Much like my observation about Cincinnati above, tastes were far from uniform across the country. WBIR knew that and figured it could get a lot more money on local sales from that than the net feed. Regardless of our armchair second-guessing here, the station felt it a no-brainer at the time.

Another thing to remember, cable had not become as big as it is today, with the umpteen options folks have to watch anything they want. Local OTA stations had a lot more power in scheduling than they do now. Since stations and networks are now in the same boat facing possible extinction, the preemption issue has largely gone away, with both working together to keep their shrinking slice of the pie.

Even if only a few people wanted to see those country specials, the station still got to keep all the ad $. Didn't some other small market station pre-empt St. Elsewhere with Rodeo? Stations still pre-empt network programming today, it's just not as noticeable today because they do usually do it during reruns. It mights news when whatever they show instead gets almost the same ratings (like what WKYC did with Matlock).

 

[anotherguyTN]

But now you have the problem with some stations pre-empting programs for infomercials, which WSMV in Nashville has done. Granted it was on a Saturday night, but it's still inexcusable. The FCC and the networks should put a stop to that.

 

[azumanga]

KIRO 7 here in Seattle did not air Bold & The Beautiful off CBS until the flip from UPN back to CBS in early 1997. KIRO was owned by the Mormons (Bonneville).

In the Tampa Bay area, WTVT also refused to show Bold & Beautiful, due to their hour-long noon news -- it wasn't until the early-1990s when WTMV (WMOR) picked up the soap, moving to WTSP after tyhe affiliation switch in 1994. B&B's predecessors, "Capitol" and "Search for Tomorrow", went unseen in Tampa Bay. When Search moved to NBC, WXFL (WFLA) preferred "All in the Family" reruns at 12:30PM instead.

And while WTVT cleared Young & Restless and As the World Turns, both soaps (at least Y&R) were on a week delay; they became same-day when CBS moved to WTSP, though WTSP would show a marathon of the previous week's Y&R episodes late one Saturday the weekend of the switch, so no one would miss anything when WTSP began carrying Y&R "live" with the switch.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

But now you have the problem with some stations pre-empting programs for infomercials, which WSMV in Nashville has done. Granted it was on a Saturday night, but it's still inexcusable. The FCC and the networks should put a stop to that.

was it an infomercial for a local hospital or grocery store or a typical late night infomercial for Power 90?

 

[nomadcowatbk]

KIRO 7 here in Seattle did not air Bold & The Beautiful off CBS until the flip from UPN back to CBS in early 1997. KIRO was owned by the Mormons (Bonneville).

In the Tampa Bay area, WTVT also refused to show Bold & Beautiful, due to their hour-long noon news -- it wasn't until the early-1990s when WTMV (WMOR) picked up the soap, moving to WTSP after tyhe affiliation switch in 1994. B&B's predecessors, "Capitol" and "Search for Tomorrow", went unseen in Tampa Bay. When Search moved to NBC, WXFL (WFLA) preferred "All in the Family" reruns at 12:30PM instead.

And while WTVT cleared Young & Restless and As the World Turns, both soaps (at least Y&R) were on a week delay; they became same-day when CBS moved to WTSP, though WTSP would show a marathon of the previous week's Y&R episodes late one Saturday the weekend of the switch, so no one would miss anything when WTSP began carrying Y&R "live" with the switch.

it was easier to delay a soap by a week before the days of internet, spoilers were hard to come by

 

[kinphoenix2]

Re: to mike stroud

Everything you said is correct, except for one little detail: change the "him" to "her."
Am I the only female here?

gosh what a relief, I thought I was the only one! Radio/TV boards are usually all men. I used to admin a very popular shortwave radio listener page and out of about 750 regulars on the board I was the sole female!

But YES I do find it's coincidence, and really only that- the shows that are pre-empted seem to be a high female viewership. The worst offense is pre-empting the Judge Judy show for sports games on Fox.

A few weeks ago Phoenix stations got the GREAT : idea to interrupt regularly scheduled programming for a live car chase, a la Los Angeles style. I hope it is not a new "thing" for Phoenix now...

 

[bpatrick]

KIRO 7 here in Seattle did not air Bold & The Beautiful off CBS until the flip from UPN back to CBS in early 1997. KIRO was owned by the Mormons (Bonneville).

In the Tampa Bay area, WTVT also refused to show Bold & Beautiful, due to their hour-long noon news -- it wasn't until the early-1990s when WTMV (WMOR) picked up the soap, moving to WTSP after tyhe affiliation switch in 1994. B&B's predecessors, "Capitol" and "Search for Tomorrow", went unseen in Tampa Bay. When Search moved to NBC, WXFL (WFLA) preferred "All in the Family" reruns at 12:30PM instead.

And while WTVT cleared Young & Restless and As the World Turns, both soaps (at least Y&R) were on a week delay; they became same-day when CBS moved to WTSP, though WTSP would show a marathon of the previous week's Y&R episodes late one Saturday the weekend of the switch, so no one would miss anything when WTSP began carrying Y&R "live" with the switch.

it was easier to delay a soap by a week before the days of internet, spoilers were hard to come by

"Y&R" may have been delayed a week on WTVT, since it aired at 1 PM. As for "ATWT" it's possible when it aired on CBS at 1:30 but in the Bay Area at 2 ("Capitol" aired at 2:30), but I would suspect Ch. 13 went to the in-pattern feed of "ATWT" when it moved to 2 PM and "Bold And The Beautiful" got the 1:30 slot. The only thing certain is that "Guiding Light" aired at 3, first on WTVT, then on WTSP, and "Let's Make A Deal" still airs at 3 on WTSP even though a number of markets in Florida get that show at 10 AM (Miami, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Tallahassee, and Panama City).

Sports were a factor in CBS's dropping WMAR Baltimore, what with its almost-incessant pre-emptions for Orioles games. But, IIRC, WMAR was always an underperformer for CBS; Baltimore, when WJZ was the ABC affiliate, was one of the Alphabet Network's best markets. And leave us not forget the schedule-juggling by KXLY Spokane that cost it its CBS affiliation (and probably forced WKRG Mobile to quit tinkering with the CBS schedule and air all its primetime shows in pattern).

 

[firepoint525]

Didn't some other small market station pre-empt St. Elsewhere with Rodeo?

The aforementioned channel 6 in Paducah once did that. I had to watch St. Elsewhere that evening (grainy!) from channel 5 in Memphis.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Didn't some other small market station pre-empt St. Elsewhere with Rodeo?

The aforementioned channel 6 in Paducah once did that. I had to watch St. Elsewhere that evening (grainy!) from channel 5 in Memphis.

was it some syndicated rodeo show or something local?

 

[firepoint525]

Didn't some other small market station pre-empt St. Elsewhere with Rodeo?

The aforementioned channel 6 in Paducah once did that. I had to watch St. Elsewhere that evening (grainy!) from channel 5 in Memphis.

was it some syndicated rodeo show or something local?

I don't remember. It has been nearly 30 years, and like I said, I watched channel 5 in Memphis.

 

[EricStein]

Around 2006 or 2007, I remember KPHO in Phoenix pre-empting new CBS programming for an hour block of infomercials, one of which was from the infamous shyster Kevin Trudeau. I think it might have been a Saturday night and it could have just been "48 Hours Mystery", being pulled, but I still didn't understand the station's logic.

I don't know if I would consider the following to be "infuriating, but KPNX in Phoenix pre-empted most of the first season of Michael Moore's summer series "TV Nation" to air a number of programs sponsored by a local hospital chain.

 

[MCarney]

Re: to mike stroud

Everything you said is correct, except for one little detail: change the "him" to "her."
Am I the only female here?

gosh what a relief, I thought I was the only one! Radio/TV boards are usually all men. I used to admin a very popular shortwave radio listener page and out of about 750 regulars on the board I was the sole female!

I'm female as well. And a sports fan (particularly baseball and hockey), which is part of the reason I got into DXing radio (and later TV) signals.

Back to the subject...during the last snowstorm all 4 Boston major network affiliates blew out regular programming on Friday afternoon. WBZ (CBS O&O) moved their programming to sister station My38 and WCVB (ABC) moved programming to their subchannel (blowing out MeTV). WHDH (NBC), despite having both a subchannel and a sister station did not bother to move programming. It felt like the dark ages!

 

[ShawnHill1]

I remember being pretty miffed when I was 8, and Full House was pre-empted locally on WREX Rockford because they elected to carry a high school basketball tourament (I believe it was the city/regional championship). In fact, the first two hours of the ABC lineup was bumped that night, until 20/20 came on. It's kinda ironic now 25 years later, and I just wouldn't watch Full House these days.

Rockford is a four-station town were they had their fair share of pre-emptions and delays, although our friends up the road in Milwaukee and Madison experienced maybe far-worse, even with each city having more stations. WIFR, the longtime CBS affiliate has been, at least since I've been alive, very cooperative with the network schedule as opposed to rivals WREX and WTVO. When I lived there, I could remember the CBS Late Night schedule being delayed 30 minutes to a hour thanks to sitcoms reruns (usually All in the Famiy, M*A*S*H, or WKRP depending on the year). However, I once talked to someone who worked at WIFR in the late 70s/early 80s as a director that the station would pre-empt CBS' Late Night completely as not to compete with Johnny Carson on NBC, and carry movies after the 10pm news instead.


I really never had a problem with a network affiliate not clearing certain shows, just so long as they at least made the network program available on another station in the area. However, at least in some cities (San Diego and Columbus, Ohio being good examples), the local cable company provided channels set aside to carry programs that were pre-empted by the local affiliates.

 

[anotherguyTN]

But now you have the problem with some stations pre-empting programs for infomercials, which WSMV in Nashville has done. Granted it was on a Saturday night, but it's still inexcusable. The FCC and the networks should put a stop to that.

was it an infomercial for a local hospital or grocery store or a typical late night infomercial for Power 90?

I don't recall the program since Charter no longer carries Nashville stations in my area, but it was discussed on a thread here.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I've mentioned WMC in Memphis on other threads on this topic (which seems to come up a lot). They were notorious for pre-empting most of NBC's daytime game shows from the late 70's to the early 90's and pushing David Letterman back at first by 30 minutes, then later by an hour. And nothing came before Memfus Rasslin'. They would pre-empt NBC's kid's shows and come into Major League baseball games in progress. The more viewers complained the worse they got, as if to spite the viewers. When WMC was sold in the early 90's to what would become Raycom they went to having fewer pre-emptions.

There were times though that stations in the Memphis area had pre-emptions that I didn't mind. For several years WMC carried syndicated SEC football games instead of Notre Dame games on NBC when there was a conflict. Also WREG carried reruns of MASH and later Cheers instead of CBS's late night programming until David Letterman moved there.