Places in markets that are geographically closer to another market

[crainbebo]

Astoria, OR gets Seattle and Portland on cable, but in reality is closer to Portland. Of course cable TV was invented there due to the line of sight to Seattle...

-crainbebo

 

[JayR]

The city of North Port (in southern Sarasota County) FL is closer to the Fort Myers tv market but falls under the Tampa/St Pete tv market. In fact, Fort Myers CBS affiliate WINK TV (which is available on cable in North Port) will actually cover newstories originating from North Port and Venice.

 

[Markxxx]

I haven't been to Michigan City since the digital switch but the VHF Chicago stations were a very easy pull with just rabbit ears. Same in LaPorte. I never had any issues getting a decent VHF signal, from Chicago, in LaPorte and WGN 9 and WLS 7 were powerhouses.

Heck I could pick them up with rabbit ears in Benton Harbor Michigan. Michigan City is even the last "common" commuter stop on the South Shore Commuter line to Chicago. (The line runs to South Bend, but doesn't go there as often in the day)

 

[bpatrick]

And, at least in the analog days, WSPA Spartanburg, SC's transmitter
was closer as the crow flies to Watauga County, even though the CBS
affiliates on cable there are WBTV and WJHL in the Tri-Cities.

I grew up in Watauga County. In the pre-cable days We could never pick up WSPA because of interference from WDBJ. We could pick up WBTV, WJHL, WCYB, and WXII. And WKPT if the wind was blowing in the right direction. Some neighbors could pick up WSOC.

Did you ever have any luck picking up WGHP (ABC until 1995) or WLOS? If not, you were basically without a reliable ABC affiliate until WSOC switched from NBC in 1978.

 

[ssetta]

Southern Worcester county, southern Plymouth county, and Cape Cod and the islands In Massachusetts all fall under the Boston market, but some areas really are closer to Providence/New Bedford. On parts of Cape Cod, OTA reception was always much better on the Providence stations than the Boston stations, especially WLNE-6 (CBS, later ABC) licensed to New Bedford.

 

[wncc]

And, at least in the analog days, WSPA Spartanburg, SC's transmitter
was closer as the crow flies to Watauga County, even though the CBS
affiliates on cable there are WBTV and WJHL in the Tri-Cities.

I grew up in Watauga County. In the pre-cable days We could never pick up WSPA because of interference from WDBJ. We could pick up WBTV, WJHL, WCYB, and WXII. And WKPT if the wind was blowing in the right direction. Some neighbors could pick up WSOC.

Did you ever have any luck picking up WGHP (ABC until 1995) or WLOS? If not, you were basically without a reliable ABC affiliate until WSOC switched from NBC in 1978.

No, Never really watched ABC until we got cable in the late 80's. The cable company carried WGHP and WSOC but not WKPT. Now they carry WKPT and WSOC.

 

[e-dawg]

In eastern Contra Costa, eastern Alameda, and Solano County, you will picked up Sacramento TV instead of San Francisco TV stations such as Pittsburg, Concord. They're in San Francisco DMA market, but cannot received SF TV stations due to Oakland/Berkeley Hills blocking the signal. Unfortuantley the cable only picks up KCRA and nothing else from Sacramento TV stations, maybe KVIE, but that is about it.

 

[crainbebo]

Vacaville and Rio Vista cable would get the Sacramento stuff, but I don't know about now...

-crainbebo

 

[Kent]

Most places in western Kansas are closer to Denver than Wichita, but still part of Wichita's market via full-powered repeaters. Again, they're far from everything.

Of course, at least prior to the digital transition, most of the Denver locals were available on cable at least as far east as Hays.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Most places in western Kansas are closer to Denver than Wichita, but still part of Wichita's market via full-powered repeaters. Again, they're far from everything.

Of course, at least prior to the digital transition, most of the Denver locals were available on cable at least as far east as Hays.

And Kansas City stations were available on cable as far west as Salina until recently, and you can't expect the Denver stations to cover K-state or kU or Kansas Republican one-party politics

 

[nomadcowatbk]

the Northwesten edge of Missouri is in the Omaha DMA but the Omaha stations don't cover Jefferson City or Mizzou, the Missouri boothill is in the Memphis DMA and they don't cover Jefferson City either, maybe they'll cover Mizzou a little more since the move to the SEC, the Cape Girardeau/Paducah DMA is split between MO/IL/KY/TN and the stations there only cover the news or sports or whatever town their based in

 

[RyanHoward]

There's also Pikeville KY, which is grouped in the Charleston/Huntington WV DMA but is much closer to the Tri-Cities(NC-TN-VA)
market.

 

[mgsports]

Denver would cover Colorado College Teams.

 

[recto101]

Vacaville and Rio Vista cable would get the Sacramento stuff, but I don't know about now...

-crainbebo

Sometimes Vacaville gets mentioned as the East Bay based on the fact that it is in the same county as Vallejo and Benicia are. But Vacaville is outright Sacramento Valley and Vallejo is outright Bay Area. The Border for the two norcal markets has to be in Travis Air Force.

 

[desertv]

SW Colorado (Cortez-Durango) is a part of the Albuquerque market, yet they are in mileage terms closer to Grand Junction (ABQ tv includes those areas as a part of their weather forecasts)

 

[azumanga]

SW Colorado (Cortez-Durango) is a part of the Albuquerque market, yet they are in mileage terms closer to Grand Junction (ABQ tv includes those areas as a part of their weather forecasts)

At one time, the local CBS affiliate, KREZ, was a satellite of KREX in Grand Junction, but in 1995, was sold off to the owners of KRQE, as the costs of maintaining a 270-mile microwave link became cost-prohibitive.

 

[Natheodan]

Fairfield, CA where Travis AFB is located is in the Sacramento DMA (according to Dish Network's website). Anything south on I-80 should be in the San Francisco DMA.
Looking at Comcast's lineup for Fairfield, It appears to lean toward Sacramento since I don't see channels KNTV 11, KICU 36, or KBCW 44.

 

[Natheodan]

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.

 

[TVCOOL]

Southeast MA is sandwiched between the Boston and Providence,RI markets so the number of OTA channels increase especially if you have a indoor HDTV Antenna.

 

[Avid Listener]

Southeast MA is sandwiched between the Boston and Providence,RI markets so the number of OTA channels increase especially if you have a indoor HDTV Antenna.

I'm a little bit curious about why this matters? When I lived in Pittsburgh, we could get NBC on channel 11 in Pittsburgh, but in the suburbs, we might also pick up channel 6 or 7. For CBS, we had channel 2 in Pittsburgh, or channel 9 from Steubenville. But what difference did it make? Regardless of where the tower was located, the network shows were the same.