-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Non-Big Three Superstations
- Thread starter installLSC
- Start date
KTVT was a major superstation in the South during the '80s and early '90s. Excellent movie selection, sports, top-rated cartoons, and syndicated repeats. It was available nationwide on C-Band and was also carried in random parts of the U.S. by a few cable operators.
KSTW 11 in Tacoma was available all the way to Coeur D'Alene ID on cable during their 1980s/early '90s independent days. Just like KTVT - top movies, cartoons, lots of sitcoms, etc.
Even before C-Band, KWGN was carried in parts of SD, MT, UT, and NE via microwave. Similar microwave links allowed access to the Salt Lake stations (all networks) for many cable viewers in Montana. KHQ Spokane was available as far east as Havre, Montana.
KSTW 11 in Tacoma was available all the way to Coeur D'Alene ID on cable during their 1980s/early '90s independent days. Just like KTVT - top movies, cartoons, lots of sitcoms, etc.
Even before C-Band, KWGN was carried in parts of SD, MT, UT, and NE via microwave. Similar microwave links allowed access to the Salt Lake stations (all networks) for many cable viewers in Montana. KHQ Spokane was available as far east as Havre, Montana.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Yes, that was what I was referring to in my earlier post. The programming scheduled on WWOR-TV was subject to syndicated exclusivity (SYNDEX) rules which meant it had to be blacked out outside the NYC market and replaced with programs not subject to those rules. The operator of the satellite feed made a deal with Universal for the rights to air certain older shows nationally and those became the replacement programming.
KTVU was available on PrimeStar satellite, channel 120.
Content or lack of original programing. The big 3 now 4 OTA networks spent big bucks developing programing. They also made serious money off of having local affiliates. Plus their OTA signals reached folks not on cable which made sponsors happy. Satellite dishes were relatively expensive and not the most attractive yard decoration. My HOA allows them only if not seen from the street. Also local affiliates help in news gathering. I believe the ABC, NBC, and CBS still make money on their half hour evening newscasts,
I lived in the south suburbs of Chicago in 1981 and our village had Cox Cable so of course we got KTVU. We also got WTBS. A year or so later Cox Cable sold to Jones Intercable and the first thing they did was dump KTVU and replace it with WWOR, which I didn't care for.
I would assume most strong independent, like KPLR, WTTV, KSTP (and WTCN before it), WCIX all got decent regional carriage in markets nearby which had no independent.
I would assume most strong independent, like KPLR, WTTV, KSTP (and WTCN before it), WCIX all got decent regional carriage in markets nearby which had no independent.
In Harrisburg, PA, the local cable company at the time (Sammons Communications, then Suburban, now Xfinity) carried W(W)OR and WPIX from NY. WWOR lasted until late 1992 and was replaced by AMC, while WPIX lasted until 2007 and was not replaced on the dial (it was originally on 11 of course, but moved to 10 at one point).
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
In my fuzzy memory, 2007 was around the time WPIX stopped being available via satellite to cable operators, and I'm pretty sure the old microwave distribution system was long gone by then.
WPIX held on in State College, PA (Penn State University) until at least that long and other places close to New York but out of market for the Mets coverage and other stuff
I think you mean KMSP and not KSTP (KSTP is the ABC and was the NBC before that). KMSP Minneapolis (Fox) was the independent for years before they were Fox and UPN and was shown in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Western Wisconsin (and assume northern Iowa)
WKBD was on most cable systems in Michigan, parts of OH on the board & Indy boarder as well. Cablevision in Kazoo had WKBD on channel 10 I watched that a lot when I was a kid when I got Adephia Comm they didn't have WKBD indie & FOX, Cablevision dropped in 93 or 94 before it became UPN I believe I'm not sure on that, as I didn't have Suckyvision at the time. Adephia did have WWOR until Dec, 31, 94 the only local NYC channel, WGN, & TBS.
And wrestling from Fort Worth's Will Rogers Coliseum on Saturday nights. I lived in southeastern Arkansas in the late '70s/early '80s and our cable system had KTVT and another DFW station, KXTX, a CBN (Pat Robertson's outfit) affiliate. I wonder what KXTX's reach was compared to KTVT.
There was one where KTXL Sacramento and KTVU San Francisco were independent stations whose signal covered the western US via cable systems in Washington State, Oregon, Utah and Nevada in 1975. They were one of the earliest examples of running a Superstation for the west given that these two were independent stations prior to joining Fox Network.
I did mean KMSP, thanks for the catch. I recall going up to our relatives in Northern Minnesota, places like Hibbing and Int'l Falls and they had WTCN and some Winnipeg station as well. WTCN well covered Minnesota for cable before it became an NBC station.
From what I could tell, Manistee, MI had WTBS and WGN only. Both were on cable by 1980, with WTBS being added in 1977 (when it was still WTCG). Oddly, WKBD was never carried there, but WVTV from Milwaukee was apparently carried in the early days. The first few years of FOX went unseen AFAIK until local affiliate WGKI signed on in 1989. WWOR was rare in Michigan from what I could tell.
Speaking of WGKI, it was seen in most of the Upper Peninsula and into northern Wisconsin between 1995 (WKBD dropping FOX) and 2003 (the UP getting its own FOX affiliate).
I remember Grand Rapids having WKBD until around 1999, when a local UPN affiliate signed on and picked up most if not all of WKBD's sports rights at the time. I'm too young to remember if Grand Rapids dropped WKBD at some point in the early 90s before bringing it back when it picked up UPN (Grand Rapids didn't have its own UPN affiliate until 1999 and never had a primary WB affiliate; the local PAX station carried WB programming on a one-day delay after WGN Superstation (which had universal cable carriage in West Michigan) dropped WB shows)
Speaking of WGKI, it was seen in most of the Upper Peninsula and into northern Wisconsin between 1995 (WKBD dropping FOX) and 2003 (the UP getting its own FOX affiliate).
I remember Grand Rapids having WKBD until around 1999, when a local UPN affiliate signed on and picked up most if not all of WKBD's sports rights at the time. I'm too young to remember if Grand Rapids dropped WKBD at some point in the early 90s before bringing it back when it picked up UPN (Grand Rapids didn't have its own UPN affiliate until 1999 and never had a primary WB affiliate; the local PAX station carried WB programming on a one-day delay after WGN Superstation (which had universal cable carriage in West Michigan) dropped WB shows)
WXSP signed on for UPN in 1999 wasn't cleared until May, 2001 on Kazoo as Suckyvision had no interest in adding WXSP in 99 LIN TV & Suckyvision didn't like each other until Charter Spectrum bought Cablevision in Kazoo in fall of 2000. Yup, WB had no choice but to sign with WZPX I wish that WZPX would've been sold so it would've become a full time WB TV station. I thought that West Michigan would've gotten a full time WB station before UPN and I was wrong on that. If WB was still around that a main subchannel DT2 would've taken it in my opinion maybe WWMT DT2 which took The CW when it debuted in Sep, 2006, one of few markets that didn't go to UPN or WB I knew WZPX was out WXSP had too many sports at the time why The CW passed on them.
Ted Turner dies at 87
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/video/ted-turner-obituary-digvid
radiodiscussions.com
Here is the Obit Thread on Ted Turner Yes this is one of the players that generated consumer interest in Cable TV and "Superstations" nationwide in the 1970's and 1980's.
Windsor is the Canadian city closest to Detroit.