Old Cable TV Lineup: Manteo/Nags Head/Outer Banks, NC - June 1991

[HRDTV]

From: The Coastland Times - June 1991
Note: Lineup might be out of date from that time.

Outer Banks of Currituck - Corolla, Duck
North of Oregon Inlet (North) - Manteo, Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills
South of Oregon Inlet (South) - Waves, Buxton, Hatteras

Basic Cable:
02 WUND-2 (PBS) Columbia, NC
03 WTKR-3 (CBS) Norfolk, VA
04 Reserved (later added WTVZ-33 FOX Norfolk, VA)
05 WWOR-9 (IND) New York, NY
06 Request TV (PPV) Information
07 WITN-7 (NBC) Washington, NC
07 Reserved (Currituck)
08 WYAH-27 (IND) Portsmouth, VA (Should be WGNT)
08 Reserved (South)
09 WNCT-9 (CBS) Greenville, NC
09 Reserved (Currituck)
10 WAVY-10 (NBC) Portsmouth, VA
11 WTBS-17 (IND) Atlanta, GA
12 Reserved (Currituck)
12 Local Information (North)
12 WCTI-12 (ABC) New Bern, NC (South)
13 WVEC-13 (ABC) Hampton, VA

Optional:
14 HBO
15 Request 2 (PPV)
16 Cinemax
17 Request 1 (PPV)
18 Disney Channel
19 Prevue Guide
20 Reserved
21 Reserved
22 Reserved

Expended Tier Service:
23 QVC
24 HSN
25 Lifetime
26 Nashville Network (TNN)
27 Discovery Channel
28 CNN Headline News
29 CNN
30 ESPN
31 A&E
32 Weather Channel
33 Nick/Nick at Nite
34 USA Network
35 Family Channel
36 TNT
37 MTV
38 VH1
39 C-SPAN
40 FNN/HTS (HTS is now Comcast SportsNet in DC)
41 CNBC
42 Comedy Channel
43 American Movie Classics (AMC)

 

[genius]

My family has a beach house there in the Outer Banks, just south of Corolla to be exact(it's pronounced Coro-all to the tourists who come and rent houses, not they care). I went back there this past June for the first time since 1997, boy has the area grown since then! I understand that the Outer Banks are slowly eroding away, but I digress.

Back on topic, the cable there now has 70 channels, with some channels like SoapNet on it's regular cable now. They still get both the Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads and Eastern NC channels, except for ABC which comes out of Norfolk. None of the broadcast channels were blacked out when they aired the same programming, which is usual these days. WAVY has it's own 24/7 weather channel these days called WAVY Weather Station, as well as producing WVBT's newscast.(Former WB station that became Fox a few years ago, while WTVZ become WB, now soon to be MNTV)

 

[bpatrick]

I suppose there's no place to put WCTI, especially
since the advent of WSKY, but I've never been able
to understand why CBS and NBC are available from
both Eastern NC and Norfolk, but that's not true
of ABC. Aren't there people who would want
Channel 12 for North Carolina (as opposed to
Virginia) news and who watch ABC News as well?

 

[mleach]

I suppose there's no place to put WCTI, especially
since the advent of WSKY, but I've never been able
to understand why CBS and NBC are available from
both Eastern NC and Norfolk, but that's not true
of ABC. Aren't there people who would want
Channel 12 for North Carolina (as opposed to
Virginia) news and who watch ABC News as well?

Recently I read in one of the Virginia papers that ABC pretty much only allows one of their affilates to be available on cable unless the multiple ABC affiliates that are available are under the same ownership ( WCVB & WMUR for example ) or O&O's.

In Winchester, Virginia right now there is an issue going on with Harrisonburg's WHSV-TV plans to launch a channel complete with ABC programming and local news to serve the Winchester/Frederick County, VA area.
WHSV has already made a deal with the local Adelphia/Comcast system once that this new channel hits the the air they are to remove Harrisonburg's WHSV from the system and replace it with Winchester's WHSV. WHSV is already building studios in Winchester which are almost done.

Winchester's version of WHSV BTW will be airing on one of WHSV's digital channels.

The problem? Washington's WJLA. They do NOT want any station to set up shop anywhere north of Harrisonburg since all those counties fall until their market even though really none of the DC stations actually serve the region. Not really surprising since about 10 years ago WTTG tried to stop Martinsburg, WV's WYVN from hooking up with FOX. The only reason WTTG failed was due to good ole boy West Virginia politics. Had WYVN channel 60 went on the air from either Winchester or Hagerstown, it would never have been affiliated with FOX.

WJLA is even getting ABC involved to fight this by using this "one ABC per system" rule. What makes this interesting is that WHSV has been on cable in Winchester since 1966 !! I see a court battle here between WHSV and WJLA since both do a case.

If this rule is correct my guess is that WVEC had WCTI removed since the Outer Banks are in the Norfolk market. Maybe NBC and CBS aren't as picky unlike FOX and ABC.

 

[radiorob2.0]

The cable company serving Owensboro, KY has two Fox affilates. The Evansville, IN television stations, all with towers less than thirty miles away, allow WDRB TV-41 Louisville on the Owensboro system. Through the eighties, the cable company was allowed to keep Channel 41 on cable as long as it was on channel position far away from the Evansville stations. In the nineties when stations were given a chance to declair "must carry" or negoitate a fee, WDRB opted "must carry" on the Owensboro system.

 

[bk77]

The cable company serving Owensboro, KY has two Fox affilates. The Evansville, IN television stations, all with towers less than thirty miles away, allow WDRB TV-41 Louisville on the Owensboro system. Through the eighties, the cable company was allowed to keep Channel 41 on cable as long as it was on channel position far away from the Evansville stations. In the nineties when stations were given a chance to declair "must carry" or negoitate a fee, WDRB opted "must carry" on the Owensboro system.

I would guess it depends on the station. Around the Mid-Atlantic back in the 80s until the mid 90s, it was common to find two FOX affiliates on a number of systems. Some of the Maryland systems I have heard had three ( DC's WTTG, Baltimore's WBFF and either WPMT out of York, PA or even Philly's Fox 29 ).

Likewise with Virginia, WBFF was offered on a number of systems there plus Richmond's WRLH Fox 35. WBFF had a huge Virginia following.

But around 1996, WTTG started claiming exclusive FOX coverage and many, if not all the systems within the Washington market took off every FOX station they had on their line-up, except of course WTTG.

 

[genius]

Fox may have problems with two stations at one time nationally. I remeber reading a couple years ago that in the Flint/Saginaw market, WJBK was on against WSMH. Then, Fox(and I think Sinclair, WSMH's owners) had the local cable company black out WJBK so that WSMH could be the only Fox affliate. Same with ABC, I remember they(KGO) weren't happy with KNTV taking their San Jose viewers.

Back to the Norfolk and Eastern NC thing....

http://ekb.dbstalk.com/TVMarkets/Maps/north_carolina.gif

Since Currituck County borders VA, it probably got included, and since both Corolla is Currituck County, perhaps they wanted the whole Outer Banks. So they included Dare County, which goes all the way down to Cape Hatteras, which is rather too far south of Norfolk to be included if you ask me.

 

[azumanga]

I remeber reading a couple years ago that in the Flint/Saginaw market, WJBK was on against WSMH. Then, Fox(and I think Sinclair, WSMH's owners) had the local cable company black out WJBK so that WSMH could be the only Fox affliate.

The funny thing about it is that this system, a Comcast system serving Flint, also covers northwestern Oakland County, with all of that county within the Detroit market. When WJBK, a local channel to Oakland County viewers, was blacked out in favor of WSMH, an out-of-market Fox channel to them, some viewers in that area complained about Comcast's actions.

Since blackouts against WDIV and WXYZ were imposed, the only way viewers in that part of Oakland County can get their Detroit stations is either via antenna or satellite.

 

[ssetta]

I just looked at the current lineup for Currituck, and I noticed that they still carry WITN out of Greenville, but dropped all the other affiliates from other cities. But I also noticed that now they carry WHRO-15 (PBS), and they didn't use to. The same thing happened on Cape Cod when they expanded their cable system in 1999. Starting in 1999, the middle and lower cape started receiving WSBE-36 (PBS) out of Providence, RI.

 

[ixnay]

Slightly OT: How are you folks making out with Ernesto in the neighborhood?

ixnay

 

[genius]

Slightly OT: How are you folks making out with Ernesto in the neighborhood?

ixnay

Whenever my relatives(mother's family) doesn't vacation there, they rent it out for the rest of the summer. There is a family who renting it out for this week right now, so I wonder. I'm just guessing it very heavy rain and maybe some gusty winds. Certainly Ernesto is no where as bad as past storms like Fran, Bertha, Bonnie and Isabel. While Ernesto was similair in strength as last year's Ophelia, Ophelia did have hurricane status(a weak one though) and stalled over the Outer Banks.

 

[bpatrick]

Recently I read in one of the Virginia papers that ABC pretty much only allows one of their affilates to be available on cable unless the multiple ABC affiliates that are available are under the same ownership ( WCVB & WMUR for example ) or O&O's.



[/quote]

Does this explain, then, why Time Warner Cable in Burlington, NC, carries two
ABC stations? The city is in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point DMA,
and TWC carries WXLV, but also WTVD/11 Raleigh/Durham, which is an o&o
(WXLV is owned by Sinclair). OTOH, the system carries only Triad stations
for the other networks: WFMY (CBS), WGHP (Fox), WXII (NBC), WGPX (i),
WCWT (CW), and WMYV (MyNetwork).

 

[mleach]

Does this explain, then, why Time Warner Cable in Burlington, NC, carries two
ABC stations? The city is in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point DMA,
and TWC carries WXLV, but also WTVD/11 Raleigh/Durham, which is an o&o
(WXLV is owned by Sinclair). OTOH, the system carries only Triad stations
for the other networks: WFMY (CBS), WGHP (Fox), WXII (NBC), WGPX (i),
WCWT (CW), and WMYV (MyNetwork).

Really doesn't.

I guess it comes down to ownership. Only recently has our system started to block out certain programs. Harrisonburg's WVPT ( PBS ) has been lately getting our system to black out certain PBS shows that air on DC's WETA even though the county I live in is in the Washington DMA. I know some who contacted WETA about this but so far WETA has done nothing, as it they don't even care.

 

[azumanga]

Only recently has our system started to block out certain programs. Harrisonburg's WVPT ( PBS ) has been lately getting our system to black out certain PBS shows that air on DC's WETA even though the county I live in is in the Washington DMA. I know some who contacted WETA about this but so far WETA has done nothing, as it they don't even care.

Also, I don't think either WVPT or WETA can do anything about it, since FCC rules regarding blackouts do not apply to PBS stations; also, there's a rule in which cable systems must offer at least two PBS stations, if possible.

There are many markets in which cable systems offer a local PBS station and another one from an adjacent market; there are some markets that also have more than one primary PBS outlet in the same market -- see my post here:

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,34533.20.html

 

[ixnay]

Since Currituck County borders VA, it probably got included, and since both Corolla is Currituck County, perhaps they wanted the whole Outer Banks. So they included Dare County, which goes all the way down to Cape Hatteras, which is rather too far south of Norfolk to be included if you ask me.

I agree.

I vacationed in Kill Devil Hills in the first week of Aug. 2003. Fortunately there were no hurricanes or TS's lurking that week. I later learned that the hotel where I stayed, took a major hit from Isabel. While in KDH I watched some of WAVY. Is Charlie Van D y k e still doing WAVY's vo's?

ixnay

 

[genius]

When I lived in Pennsylvania in the late 90s, I got all the Harrisburg/Lancaster/Lebanon/York stations and KYW, WPVI, WPHT, and WPSG out of Philly. The local cable company(Time Warner at the time) blacked out both KYW and WPVI, execpt for their newscasts. Interestingly, even to this day on Comcast, WPVI shares with CSPAN 2 on cable channel 6 in the Lebanon Valley. Also, they never blacked out WPSG, even though WLYH was UPN for the area, and WPHT serves as the area's WB-now My affliate.

I agree.

I vacationed in Kill Devil Hills in the first week of Aug. 2003. Fortunately there were no hurricanes or TS's lurking that week. I later learned that the hotel where I stayed, took a major hit from Isabel.

Yeah, Isabel had no mercy for OBX residents. The storm got more attention when it went up the Chesapeake and over DC. The storm surge from Isabel washed out Highway 12 and split Hatteras Island in half. My uncle and aunt(who own the beach hosue I mentioned earlier) have lived up and down the Carolina coast since the late 40s use to tell us the stories of storms like Hazel and the Billion Dollar Hurricane from the 50s. At the time, the east coast was in a good 20-25 year period of no major storms and listening to their stories it almost seemed like it was made up or just legend, even for all the newcomers. Until Hugo struck, I don't think anyone thought it could become reality.

To make this Classic TV, I wonder how 50s-era TV stations covered hurricanes?