Most OR Least Number of TV Channels in TV Guide

[Markxxx]

What edition of TV Guide had the most number of channels listed? In their actual listings.

What edition of TV Guide had the least number of channels listed?

And what year were those editions?

I know there would be variables because the earlier the edition the less channels to be listed.<P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>

 

[rugrats1]

> What edition of TV Guide had the most number of channels
> listed? In their actual listings.

I say either South Georgia or Montana, up until TVG recently offed the local listings -- South Georgia covered the Macon, Columbus, Albany and Tallahassee markets, plus had listings from Panama City, Dothan, Atlanta, Savannah and Jacksonville.

Montana covered the entire state, plus listings from Williston, Spokane and Denver -- this was probably the only TVG to list local stations from three time zones. At one time, stations from Salt Lake City and Lethbridge were also listed.

>
> What edition of TV Guide had the least number of channels
> listed?
>

My guess is St. Louis (up to now) -- they only listed that market's ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS (just one in this market), Fox, WB, UPN (originally HSN), Pax and religious stations. And until Pax came on the scene and WHSL flipped from HSN to UPN, St. Louis' TVG only listed 7 channels.

 

[KML0224]

The old Hartford/New Haven (CT) Edition listed Hartford (3, 18, 24 and 61), New Haven (8, 59 and 65), Waterbury (20), New Britain (30), New London (26), Springfield, MA (22, 40 and 57), Boston (38B) and New York City (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13). The Comcast/Digital Hartford Edition also listed WRDM-LP (TEL), low-power channel 13 of Hartford.

 

[bpatrick]

> > What edition of TV Guide had the most number of channels
> > listed? In their actual listings.
>
> I say either South Georgia or Montana, up until TVG recently
> offed the local listings -- South Georgia covered the Macon,
> Columbus, Albany and Tallahassee markets, plus had listings
> from Panama City, Dothan, Atlanta, Savannah and
> Jacksonville.
>
> Montana covered the entire state, plus listings from
> Williston, Spokane and Denver -- this was probably the only
> TVG to list local stations from three time zones. At one
> time, stations from Salt Lake City and Lethbridge were also
> listed.
>
> >
> > What edition of TV Guide had the least number of channels
> > listed?
> >
>
> My guess is St. Louis (up to now) -- they only listed that
> market's ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS (just one in this market), Fox,
> WB, UPN (originally HSN), Pax and religious stations. And
> until Pax came on the scene and WHSL flipped from HSN to
> UPN, St. Louis' TVG only listed 7 channels.
>
Dallas/Ft. Worth in the late '70s had just six channels:
KDFW/4 (CBS), KXAS/5 (NBC), WFAA/8 (ABC), KTVT/11 (independent),
KERA/13 (PBS), KXTX/39 (independent). Likewise, Houston in
that period: KPRC/2 (NBC), KUHT/8 (PBS), KHOU/11 (CBS),
KTRK/13 (ABC), KDOG (now KRIV)/26 (independent), KHTV/39
(independent). And New Orleans had just five at the time:
WWL/4 (CBS), WDSU/6 (NBC), WVUE/8 (ABC), WYES/12 (PBS),
WGNO/26 (independent).

 

[clichemoth]

> > > What edition of TV Guide had the most number of channels
>
> > > listed? In their actual listings.
> >
> > I say either South Georgia or Montana, up until TVG
> recently
> > offed the local listings -- South Georgia covered the
> Macon,
> > Columbus, Albany and Tallahassee markets, plus had
> listings
> > from Panama City, Dothan, Atlanta, Savannah and
> > Jacksonville.
> >
> > Montana covered the entire state, plus listings from
> > Williston, Spokane and Denver -- this was probably the
> only
> > TVG to list local stations from three time zones. At one
> > time, stations from Salt Lake City and Lethbridge were
> also
> > listed.
> >
> > >
> > > What edition of TV Guide had the least number of
> channels
> > > listed?
> > >
> >
> > My guess is St. Louis (up to now) -- they only listed that
>
> > market's ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS (just one in this market),
> Fox,
> > WB, UPN (originally HSN), Pax and religious stations. And
> > until Pax came on the scene and WHSL flipped from HSN to
> > UPN, St. Louis' TVG only listed 7 channels.
> >
> Dallas/Ft. Worth in the late '70s had just six channels:
> KDFW/4 (CBS), KXAS/5 (NBC), WFAA/8 (ABC), KTVT/11
> (independent),
> KERA/13 (PBS), KXTX/39 (independent). Likewise, Houston in
> that period: KPRC/2 (NBC), KUHT/8 (PBS), KHOU/11 (CBS),
> KTRK/13 (ABC), KDOG (now KRIV)/26 (independent), KHTV/39
> (independent). And New Orleans had just five at the time:
> WWL/4 (CBS), WDSU/6 (NBC), WVUE/8 (ABC), WYES/12 (PBS),
> WGNO/26 (independent).
>

None of those editions carried listings from adjoining markets? I would have thought Ada/Sherman/Dennison would be in the same book with Dallas, Beaumont and Victoria would be combined with Houston, and Baton Rouge, Biloxi/Gulfport, and possibly Jackson would have shared an edition with New Orleans.

 

[Tom_Desmond]

> None of those editions carried listings from adjoining
> markets? I would have thought Ada/Sherman/Dennison would be
> in the same book with Dallas

Can't speak on the others, but when I moved here in 1984 the Ada/Sherman/Denison stations were listed in the North Texas edition -- which also included Wichita Falls, Abilene/Sweetwater, Waco/Temple, and Tyler. It also listed the Dallas/Fort Worth stations, even though it wasn't distributed in the DFW metro. Instead, the Dallas/Fort Worth area had its own separate edition that only listed the Dallas/Fort Worth stations.

 

[Markxxx]

> > None of those editions carried listings from adjoining
> > markets? I would have thought Ada/Sherman/Dennison would
> be
> > in the same book with Dallas
>
> Can't speak on the others, but when I moved here in 1984 the
> Ada/Sherman/Denison stations were listed in the North Texas
> edition -- which also included Wichita Falls,
> Abilene/Sweetwater, Waco/Temple, and Tyler. It also listed
> the Dallas/Fort Worth stations, even though it wasn't
> distributed in the DFW metro. Instead, the Dallas/Fort
> Worth area had its own separate edition that only listed the
> Dallas/Fort Worth stations.
>
Kind of the same with Chicago. For awhile Chicago had a "Chicago Edition." And Milwaukee had it's own edition. But when you hit Waukegeon going North till a little bit before Racine, you got the Northern Illinois edition for sale. Which had most of the Chicago and Milwaukee Stations alone with all the Rockford ones.<P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>

 

[oldiesfan]

For least, you mean many years ago?

In the mid-1960s the Tucson edition
had only the four locals--4, 6, 9, 13,
adding 11 when it signed on in 1967.

 

[bhayes1016]

I would have thought Ada/Sherman/Dennison would be
> in the same book with Dallas, Beaumont and Victoria would be
> combined with Houston, and Baton Rouge, Biloxi/Gulfport, and
> possibly Jackson would have shared an edition with New
> Orleans.
>

Up until the late 70s the Houston edition also included the three Beaumont/Port Arthur stations, KBTX in Bryan (CBS), and I think, channel 9 in Lufkin (combined ABC/CBS at the time).

 

[rugrats1]

> Up until the late 70s the Houston edition also included the
> three Beaumont/Port Arthur stations, KBTX in Bryan (CBS),
> and I think, channel 9 in Lufkin (combined ABC/CBS at the
> time).
>

Until the late-1970s, there was no Houston edition -- Houston was part of the Southeastern Texas edition, which included those out-of market channels.

 

[RobertMoore]

> Kind of the same with Chicago. For awhile Chicago had a
> "Chicago Edition." And Milwaukee had it's own edition. But
> when you hit Waukegeon going North till a little bit before
> Racine, you got the Northern Illinois edition for sale.
> Which had most of the Chicago and Milwaukee Stations alone
> with all the Rockford ones.

Actually it was called the "Illinois-Wisconsin" edition and it featured TV listings for Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago and Rockford.

Interestingly Milwaukee has had five TV editions: Chicago(1953-54), Wisconsin(1954-73), Illinois-Wisconsin(1973-2000; 2004-05), Northern Wisconsin(1973-2005) and Milwaukee(2000-2004).

Maenwhile, speaking of TV Guides with the least channels, there was Memphis, Spokane, Nashville, Columbus(Ohio), Salt Lake City and Hawaii.

 

[TimL]

> The old Hartford/New Haven (CT) Edition listed Hartford (3,
> 18, 24 and 61), New Haven (8, 59 and 65), Waterbury (20),
> New Britain (30), New London (26), Springfield, MA (22, 40
> and 57), Boston (38B) and New York City (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11
> and 13). The Comcast/Digital Hartford Edition also listed
> WRDM-LP (TEL), low-power channel 13 of Hartford.


The Lake Erie/Cleveland Edition began in 1953 with 4, 5 and 9 in Cleveland and 27 and 73 (Soon to be 21) in Youngstown-5 stations

By the time the original Cleveland Edition was replaced by Youngstown/Erie, There were 24 stations-(The Cleveland Edition actually continued-With 5 Cleveland and 2 Akron Stations only-sold mostly in Cuyahoga and Summit County)

Cleveland-3, 5, 8, 25, 43
Akron-23, 49
Canton 17
Alliance 45
Youngstown 21, 27, 33
Wheeling, W. Va. 7
Steubenville 9
Toledo 11, 13
Erie 12, 24, 35, 54
Columbus 4, 6, 10, 34

Possibly the fewest stations i've seen in any TV Magazine was Pittsburgh's "TV Digest" Which in late February-Early March 1953 had only 3 stations listed:

2 WDTV Pittsburgh (DuMont Owned-Carried all networks)
6 WJAC Johnstown,Pa. (NBC CBS ABC)
27 WKBN Youngstown (CBS-ABC-DuMont)


<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by TimL on 10/31/05 02:20 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[rugrats1]

> Interestingly Milwaukee has had five TV editions:
> Chicago(1953-54), Wisconsin(1954-73),
> Illinois-Wisconsin(1973-2000; 2004-05), Northern
> Wisconsin(1973-2005) and Milwaukee(2000-2004).
>
Was Northern Wisconsin actually sold in the Milwaukee area? The bullet scheme for that edition was a little funny -- the white bullets were "local" channels (I think anywhere outside Milwaukee) and the black were out-of-region (Milwaukee, though I don't know if Madison or other cities got black bullets).

 

[RobertMoore]

> > Interestingly Milwaukee has had five TV editions:
> > Chicago(1953-54), Wisconsin(1954-73),
> > Illinois-Wisconsin(1973-2000; 2004-05), Northern
> > Wisconsin(1973-2005) and Milwaukee(2000-2004).
> >
> Was Northern Wisconsin actually sold in the Milwaukee area?
> The bullet scheme for that edition was a little funny -- the
> white bullets were "local" channels (I think anywhere
> outside Milwaukee) and the black were out-of-region
> (Milwaukee, though I don't know if Madison or other cities
> got black bullets).


Yes, but in a few areas(If you were lucky to come across it).

BTW Milwaukee have always had "Black" channels since the Wisconsin Edition while Green Bay, Madison, Wausaw-Rhinelander and Las Crosse-Eau Claire remained "White".

As for Northern Michigan, WLUC-6/Marquette had "White" while WJMN-3/Escambia, WBKP-5/Calumet and WNMU-13/Marquette had "Black" (The latter at one point had a split channel when it was added to the Northern Wisconsin Edition in the 1970s).

 

[bpatrick]

> I would have thought Ada/Sherman/Dennison would be
> > in the same book with Dallas, Beaumont and Victoria would
> be
> > combined with Houston, and Baton Rouge, Biloxi/Gulfport,
> and
> > possibly Jackson would have shared an edition with New
> > Orleans.
> >
>
> Up until the late 70s the Houston edition also included the
> three Beaumont/Port Arthur stations, KBTX in Bryan (CBS),
> and I think, channel 9 in Lufkin (combined ABC/CBS at the
> time).
>
That edition was the Southeast Texas edition,
which included Houston, Beaumont, Bryan, Lufkin, Lake
Charles, and (later) Lafayette. Houston, IIRC, had its
own just for the metro area by the end of the '70s, while
Southeast Texas continued to cover the rest of the area
until two weeks ago.

The North Texas edition had Dallas/Ft. Worth (most of the
stations, not a lot of the newer UHFs), Wichita Falls, Waco,
Abilene, San Angelo, Tyler, and Ada/Ardmore. Again, its
circulation area was outside the Metroplex.

The Louisiana edition had New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette,
Lake Charles, Alexandria, and the CBS and PBS stations in
Monroe. New Orleans stations were also in the South Mississippi
edition, along with Jackson, Meridian, Laurel/Hattiesburg,
Biloxi, and Mobile/Pensacola. I think this edition added Columbus/
Tupelo and served the whole state of Mississippi during the last
couple of years of digest-size TV Guide.

 

[bpatrick]

> > Up until the late 70s the Houston edition also included
> the
> > three Beaumont/Port Arthur stations, KBTX in Bryan (CBS),
> > and I think, channel 9 in Lufkin (combined ABC/CBS at the
> > time).
> >
>
> Until the late-1970s, there was no Houston edition --
> Houston was part of the Southeastern Texas edition, which
> included those out-of market channels.
>
I do recall that the first time I saw an edition with
Houston stations, it was the Southeast Texas edition,
in 1976. But I also recall buying a New Orleans edition
with New Orleans stations only, that year; it was also
the year I moved to Plano, and even then we had the
Dallas/Ft. Worth edition (DFW stations only).

 

[RobertMoore]

> I think this edition added Columbus/Tupelo and served the whole state of Mississippi during the last couple of years of digest-size TV Guide.

Actually Tupelo/Columbus was in the Central Mississippi Edition, prior to its merger with the South Mississippi Edition.

 

[bpatrick]

> > I think this edition added Columbus/Tupelo and served the
> whole state of Mississippi during the last couple of years
> of digest-size TV Guide.
>
> Actually Tupelo/Columbus was in the Central Mississippi
> Edition, prior to its merger with the South Mississippi
> Edition.
>
Right. The two editions did merge.

The idea of merging editions didn't get very far, apparently;
I know that Eastern Virginia and Central Virginia, Southern
Alabama and Gulf Coast, Orlando and Northern Florida, and
Oklahoma City and Tulsa, to name a few, merged, then it
stopped before the small-size TV Guide went out of existence.
Some of us never did get the one we wanted: merging Greenville/
Spartanburg/Asheville, Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City, and
Knoxville/Chattanooga back into the Carolina/Tennessee edition.

 

[ShawnHill]

> > Was Northern Wisconsin actually sold in the Milwaukee
> area?
> > The bullet scheme for that edition was a little funny --
> the
> > white bullets were "local" channels (I think anywhere
> > outside Milwaukee) and the black were out-of-region
> > (Milwaukee, though I don't know if Madison or other cities
>
> > got black bullets).
>
>
> Yes, but in a few areas(If you were lucky to come across
> it).
>
> BTW Milwaukee have always had "Black" channels since the
> Wisconsin Edition while Green Bay, Madison,
> Wausaw-Rhinelander and Las Crosse-Eau Claire remained
> "White".
>
> As for Northern Michigan, WLUC-6/Marquette had "White" while
> WJMN-3/Escambia, WBKP-5/Calumet and WNMU-13/Marquette had
> "Black" (The latter at one point had a split channel when it
> was added to the Northern Wisconsin Edition in the 1970s).
>
The Illinois-Wisconsin Edition always had the black bullets for the Chicago and Milwaukee sets of channels, while the Madison and Rockford channels (which BTW should have been one market, due to the close proximity and overlapping coverage) were in white bullets. From my recollection from the time I last lived there (1987-88), they listed Chicago's 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 26 (?), 32, 44(?), 50 and 66; Milwaukee's 4, 6, 10, 12, 18, 24, and 36; Madison's 3, 15, 21, 27, and 47; and the Rockford Foursome of 13, 17, 23 and 39 (who was still an independent at the time, and they become Fox until 1989). For those who wanted to watch Fox in Rockford at the time, had to watch WFLD out of Chicago, or you were out of luck until '89. It used to irk me that I couldn't watch Married...with Children and some other Fox shows (the only other shows I liked were 21 Jump Street and Small Wonder--although Small Wonder was technically syndicated), plus the Fox stations back then also carried Double Dare (syndicated and the Saturday night summer edition in '88), except WVTV carried the syndicated version for Milwaukee, and they all (18, 32, 47) aired the show at 4:30pm.

 

[RobertMoore]

> > > Was Northern Wisconsin actually sold in the Milwaukee
> > area?
> > > The bullet scheme for that edition was a little funny --
>
> > the
> > > white bullets were "local" channels (I think anywhere
> > > outside Milwaukee) and the black were out-of-region
> > > (Milwaukee, though I don't know if Madison or other
> cities
> >
> > > got black bullets).
> >
> >
> > Yes, but in a few areas(If you were lucky to come across
> > it).
> >
> > BTW Milwaukee have always had "Black" channels since the
> > Wisconsin Edition while Green Bay, Madison,
> > Wausaw-Rhinelander and Las Crosse-Eau Claire remained
> > "White".
> >
> > As for Northern Michigan, WLUC-6/Marquette had "White"
> while
> > WJMN-3/Escambia, WBKP-5/Calumet and WNMU-13/Marquette had
> > "Black" (The latter at one point had a split channel when
> it
> > was added to the Northern Wisconsin Edition in the 1970s).
>
> >
> The Illinois-Wisconsin Edition always had the black bullets
> for the Chicago and Milwaukee sets of channels, while the
> Madison and Rockford channels (which BTW should have been
> one market, due to the close proximity and overlapping
> coverage) were in white bullets. From my recollection from
> the time I last lived there (1987-88), they listed Chicago's
> 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 26 (?), 32, 44(?), 50 and 66; Milwaukee's 4,
> 6, 10, 12, 18, 24, and 36; Madison's 3, 15, 21, 27, and 47;
> and the Rockford Foursome of 13, 17, 23 and 39 (who was
> still an independent at the time, and they become Fox until
> 1989). For those who wanted to watch Fox in Rockford at the
> time, had to watch WFLD out of Chicago, or you were out of
> luck until '89. It used to irk me that I couldn't watch
> Married...with Children and some other Fox shows (the only
> other shows I liked were 21 Jump Street and Small
> Wonder--although Small Wonder was technically syndicated),
> plus the Fox stations back then also carried Double Dare
> (syndicated and the Saturday night summer edition in '88),
> except WVTV carried the syndicated version for Milwaukee,
> and they all (18, 32, 47) aired the show at 4:30pm.


Actually WCIU-26 and WSNS-44 were removed from the Illinois-Wisconsin Edition by 1987, although WCIU would be added again several years later.

BTW WCGV-24 was the Milwaukee Fox affiliate at the time while WVTV carried the syndicated "Double Dare" and WITI-6 had "Small Wonder"(the later was co-produced by then-O&O Storer, who along with Hearst, Taft, Gannett and Metromedia/Fox, were the partners in the sitcom).