Places in markets that are geographically closer to another market

[Joey1986]

One that never made sense to me but it may be due to the remoteness of each town. Bishop and Independence, CA are only 41 miles apart on the eastern side of the Sierras. Bishop is in the Reno DMA while Independence is in the Los Angeles DMA 220+ miles away. One would think Fresno or Bakersfield would be a more logical choice being geographically closer. But getting a microwave relay up and over 14,000' peaks must be very difficult.

I think Bishop is actually in the Los Angeles DMA, because DirecTV and Dish both include KVME channel 20 (Me-TV), which is licensed to Bishop, on their lineups of local channels for L.A.

 

[Joey1986]

Also, for good measure, throw in the extreme southern areas of Orange County and Riverside County, CA which is geographically closer to San Diego but falls within the Los Angeles market.

Cities like San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Dana Point in OC are the main areas- as they're right around 60 miles from San Diego's downtown and about 80 miles from downtown LA.

Similarly, the southwestern portions of Riverside County like Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar, etc- which are about 60 miles from San Diego and about 90 miles from downtown LA, yet are still within the LA market.

Expanding on justpassingthrough's post, Ventura County (all of which is within the L.A. market) is also interesting in this regard. KJLA channel 57 (licensed to Ventura) and KBEH channel 63 (licensed to Oxnard) are geographically closer to the Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo market. than to L.A. In fact, in the 1990s, when channel 57 was KSTV (having signed on with those call letters in 1990, after initially-unsuccessful attempts to serve the L.A. market, it became the WB affiliate for SB-SM-SLO in the latter part of that decade. Channel 63, whose call letters were KADY at that time (having signed on in 1985 as KTIE), faced a similar situation, and became the UPN affiliate for SB-SM-SLO. In the analog days, these two stations transmitted from South Mountain near Santa Paula. Now, KJLA transmits from Mount Wilson and KBEH transmits from Mount Harvard, a peak adjacent to Mount Wilson; both of which are in L.A. County.