Out of Town Newscast

[mleach]

I used to make it a habit of buying TV Guides whenever I travel out of region, up until 2004, when they began to skimp on their listings. I haven't even as much as touch it since then (though I do use their website on occasion for out-of-town listings, but even there I suspect that they're skimping on some channels).

I used to be into out of town TV Guides as well. However in the those days I didn't have a drivers license so I started to write to various local TV stations for a copy. Earlier I posted this on anohter forum...lets just say some there were some local TV stations out there who were NOT very nice to honor such request.

".....I used to collect TV guides from different regions around the US back in my teen years. Before I started writing to the local Chamber of Commerce, At first I used to write to the actual TV stations asking for a copy but so many of them who wrote me back were just downright rude ( Indy's WRTV channel 6 called my hobby "retarded" while Denver's KMGH-TV said that "I should seek help" ). WRTV and KMGH just could not understand why would anyone outside of Indianapolis and Denver care about them.

A friend of mine who shared the same hobby as me received similar letters from Indy's WTHR as well.

I assume their attitudes didn't change when they first got their websites up and running but fairly quickly discovered that there are more people out there from outside their viewing area who ARE interested in them than just...."retarded TV freaks !!" ( WRTV Indianapolis 1984 )..."

Wonder what was WISH-TV and WTTV's take on people collecting out of town TV Guides..since the other stations in Indy ( WRTV and WTHR ) considered the hobby "retarded"?

 

[KML0224]

I didn't get called retarded, but I did have some stations giving me the treatment too. I also used to write to stations around the country and a few in Canada as well. Some wouldn't send until I told them why I needed the page ("Channels Listed In" page) or if I were an employee of another TV station. Ah memories! (LOL) Say, just for fun, did a station anywhere ever end up sending an entire edition to you? I had that happen a few times.

 

[mleach]

Say, just for fun, did a station anywhere ever end up sending an entire edition to you? I had that happen a few times.

Mainly stations from the south sent me an entire edition. Dallas' WFAA sent me three copies as did KXAS and both stations sent me a nice letter too. WFAA even told me if I were to visit Dallas anytime soon to stop by and they would be more than happy to give me a tour. OTOH I received NOTHING from the Houston stations or Austin. Huntington, WV's WOWK sent me TWO seperate editions of TV Guide.. the West Virginia edition and the one that served Columbus, Ohio ( Figure that out ).

Cleveland's WEWS, Kansas City's KMBC, Cincinatti's WLWT, Detroit's WXYZ and Boston's WBZ all of them wrote me back telling me they would send me a copy if I would mail them the money first for them to buy the local TV Guide. No I didn't...All the money those stations were making such as WBZ or WLWT and they didn't have a dollar to spend ? ? ?

Pittsburgh's WTAE sent me the Pittsburgh edition of course however WTAE had cut out the ads for the other Pittsburgh stations such as KDKA, WPXI..even for WQED but they did ( of course ) left the ads for WTAE intact..so in that case I "almost" got a full edition.

Hampton Roads' WAVY-TV 10...this becomes interesting. They sent ME a complete copy of their local TV Guide in December 1984. A few months later a friend of mine tried to do the same thing, however he did not get a TV Guide. Instead he got a rather bizarre letter from WAVY asking him why he wanted a TV Guide from them since he didn't live in Hampton Roads ( OK Tidewater as it was called back then ) But WAVY did send him instead a bunch of 8X10's of their anchors Bruce Rader & Don Slater ( both of whom are still at WAVY ) and a poster of Diana Morgan. WAVY didn't send me those. LOL