Has anyone ever pinpointed when the last full-power network affiliate relying on an off-air pickup for a network feed switched to coaxial or microwave? (Not official full-time "satellite" stations, but isolated small-market stations off the Long Lines grid.) I know a few of these were around at least into the early 70's. When my family first moved to Florida in 1971, WCJB Gainesville was still picking up their ABC programming off-air from WJKS Jacksonville. (As evidenced by occasional WJKS IDs during football games and such.)
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Off-Air Network Pickups
- Thread starter Stanislav
- Start date
KCBJ-TV/17 (now KMIZ) in Columbia, Mo. went on the air in 1971. Until the mid or late '70s, KCBJ picked up ABC over the air from KMTC-TV/27 (now KSFX and Fox) in Springfield, Mo., who in turn was picking up ABC from KODE-TV/12 in Joplin. It's possible that KMTC got a direct connection to ABC before KCBJ, but I don't know about that.
BTW....Old article on this subject
I just remembered someone once sent me scans (two pages) of an old article about real-life experience with off-air pickups in the 50's. (I forget where it's from -- I think it came from an old WTFDA bulletin or something.) Anyway, it's both informative and entertaining, and I posted the scans on my Andale image host for y'all to read. (They are pretty big JPG files, so I'll only keep them up for a short time.)
http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/3604934/1141966805952_0192tvttarticle1.jpg
http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/3604934/1141809901072_0192tvttarticle2.jpg
I just remembered someone once sent me scans (two pages) of an old article about real-life experience with off-air pickups in the 50's. (I forget where it's from -- I think it came from an old WTFDA bulletin or something.) Anyway, it's both informative and entertaining, and I posted the scans on my Andale image host for y'all to read. (They are pretty big JPG files, so I'll only keep them up for a short time.)
http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/3604934/1141966805952_0192tvttarticle1.jpg
http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/3604934/1141809901072_0192tvttarticle2.jpg
J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
I'll bet there were also times when KSTP-5 interrupted their regular program for a news bulletin announcing some kind of unexpected major news story of interest to the Twin Cities, but of no interest whatsoever to North Dakota!
I don't know if KSTP became the TV home of the Minnesota Twins when the team came into existance in 1961. If KSTP was the TV home of the Twins back then, I would think that the NBC stations in North Dakota ended up becoming affiliates of the Twins' TV network because otherwise, the North Dakota stations would have had to run movies or other films (this was in the pre-infomercial era) during the time that a Twins' game was being broadcast on KSTP, often displacing network programming.
I don't know if KSTP became the TV home of the Minnesota Twins when the team came into existance in 1961. If KSTP was the TV home of the Twins back then, I would think that the NBC stations in North Dakota ended up becoming affiliates of the Twins' TV network because otherwise, the North Dakota stations would have had to run movies or other films (this was in the pre-infomercial era) during the time that a Twins' game was being broadcast on KSTP, often displacing network programming.
> I don't know if KSTP became the TV home of the Minnesota
> Twins when the team came into existance in 1961. If KSTP was
> the TV home of the Twins back then, I would think that the
> NBC stations in North Dakota ended up becoming affiliates of
> the Twins' TV network because otherwise, the North Dakota
> stations would have had to run movies or other films (this
> was in the pre-infomercial era) during the time that a
> Twins' game was being broadcast on KSTP, often displacing
> network programming.
I would think, for purely geographic reasons, that ND baseball fans would tend to follow the Twins anyway, there being no other MLB franchise even remotely close to them.
> Twins when the team came into existance in 1961. If KSTP was
> the TV home of the Twins back then, I would think that the
> NBC stations in North Dakota ended up becoming affiliates of
> the Twins' TV network because otherwise, the North Dakota
> stations would have had to run movies or other films (this
> was in the pre-infomercial era) during the time that a
> Twins' game was being broadcast on KSTP, often displacing
> network programming.
I would think, for purely geographic reasons, that ND baseball fans would tend to follow the Twins anyway, there being no other MLB franchise even remotely close to them.
T
Tom_Desmond
Guest
> Has anyone ever pinpointed when the last full-power network
> affiliate relying on an off-air pickup for a network feed
> switched to coaxial or microwave? (Not official full-time
> "satellite" stations, but isolated small-market stations off
> the Long Lines grid.) I know a few of these were around at
> least into the early 70's. When my family first moved to
> Florida in 1971, WCJB Gainesville was still picking up their
> ABC programming off-air from WJKS Jacksonville. (As
> evidenced by occasional WJKS IDs during football games and
> such.)
In the summer of 1980, WGTU/29 in Traverse City, MI was still picking up its ABC programming from WZZM/13 in Grand Rapids.
> affiliate relying on an off-air pickup for a network feed
> switched to coaxial or microwave? (Not official full-time
> "satellite" stations, but isolated small-market stations off
> the Long Lines grid.) I know a few of these were around at
> least into the early 70's. When my family first moved to
> Florida in 1971, WCJB Gainesville was still picking up their
> ABC programming off-air from WJKS Jacksonville. (As
> evidenced by occasional WJKS IDs during football games and
> such.)
In the summer of 1980, WGTU/29 in Traverse City, MI was still picking up its ABC programming from WZZM/13 in Grand Rapids.
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