Political Coverage Is going Overboard!

[rch66]

My guess is WMUR in Manchester New Hampshire wouldn't like it either as they now make millions each election cycle.

Good point on WMUR - New Hampshire's ABC. It's cheaper to advertise in WMUR than one of the Boston stations, but effective in reaching a mass and just the N.H. mass, so WMUR is an attractive station to run and own.

Does WZMY get significant advertising revenue from political ads as well or are they not treated as seriously in that respect? I wonder if it could be profitable for Fox to perhaps buy out WZMY flip it to New Hampshire's Fox and compete it on ground to WMUR for that political advertising and N.H. submarket advertising within the Boston DMA.

Delaware has a commercial station as well - WPPX Ion. Though its not run like a DE station and not viewed as that - but more as an ancillary Philly station. The stations that care about DE are in Salisbury MD.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Delaware has a commercial station as well - WPPX Ion. Though its not run like a DE station and not viewed as that - but more as an ancillary Philly station. The stations that care about DE are in Salisbury MD.

I guess technically WPPX channel 61 is licensed to Wilmington even though their studio and tower are in Philly and as you said don't target Delaware at all in their programming. I'd also agree that Lower Delaware gets excellent coverage from the Salisbury MD stations.

Electoral College: 3 votes out of 538 = 0.56%
Popular vote: 783,600 out of 281,421,906 = 0.27% (Population: 2000 US Census)
Would you care to reconsider your opinion on the Electoral College, Mike?


At least statistically it would seem that my vote has more power with the Electorial College, so maybe the founding fathers realized that this would also help to protect the smaller states as having equal representation in the Senate also protects the smaller states. Good point.

 

[BRNout]

My guess is WMUR in Manchester New Hampshire wouldn't like it either as they now make millions each election cycle.

Good point on WMUR - New Hampshire's ABC. It's cheaper to advertise in WMUR than one of the Boston stations, but effective in reaching a mass and just the N.H. mass, so WMUR is an attractive station to run and own.

Does WZMY get significant advertising revenue from political ads as well or are they not treated as seriously in that respect? I wonder if it could be profitable for Fox to perhaps buy out WZMY flip it to New Hampshire's Fox and compete it on ground to WMUR for that political advertising and N.H. submarket advertising within the Boston DMA.

Delaware has a commercial station as well - WPPX Ion. Though its not run like a DE station and not viewed as that - but more as an ancillary Philly station. The stations that care about DE are in Salisbury MD.

A couple of quick (and unrelated) points on what is rapidly becoming a more interesting discussion. Yes, WMUR makes a mint on presidential election years. Not to mention that NH has been a "swing state" over the past few elections. Meaning that the ads flood in during the fall of election year as well. Boston and Portland stations also reap some of this windfall, but not like WMUR. And, WMUR also gets national stature during primary season. A position that they handled magnificently this time around. It's a great little station - by the way; very well run by Hearst-Argyle.

About WZMY, I know that they do get some political ads too - and make some extra coin from it. But, because the station's viewership is so much lower than that of WMUR, there is much less money involved. I also understand that there aren't nearly as many political ad buys on that station, but I heard that second-hand.

On the issue of Delaware, I do not understand why this state is so poorly served by television newscasts. Yes, it would seem that Salisbury market stations spend a lot more time on Delaware news and Philadelphia market stations almost totally ignore the state. In fact the neglect is terrible. New laws, taxes, etc. proposed for Delaware are never covered on Philly TV. Given this, I am somewhat surprised that cable systems do not carry at least one Salisbury market station throughout the state.

And, before someone schools me on which DMA certain counties are in, let me cite the example of Fairfield County, Connecticut. Cable systems in Greenwich and Stamford (less than 40 miles from NYC) still carry the big 3 Hartford/New Haven market stations. This, despite the fact that Hartford is more than twice as far from these locations as Manhattan is. It's done in order to provide Connecticut news to viewers in these areas. Why can't the same thing happen for viewers around Wilmington/Newark? They are very poorly served by local TV news at this point. And, no I don't count the very dry "Delaware Tonight" newscast on WHYY (PBS).

 

[MikefromDelaware]

If the Comcast Cable didn't want to carry the entire Salisbury stations' programming, maybe they could make an arrangement with channel 16 WBOC or channel 47 (I forget their calls) to simulcast their newscasts on CN8 for New Castle County Comcast customers or put the simulcast on channel 99 which is Cable Radio Network. Of course Channel 12, which just added a Dover news studio for their Delaware Tonight newscast, would have a royal fit about adding the Salisbury newscasts to the upper Delaware cable lineup. As it is now they are the only statewide TV newscast for Delaware, which they do promote during their newscast.

 

[BRNout]

If the Comcast Cable didn't want to carry the entire Salisbury stations' programming, maybe they could make an arrangement with channel 16 WBOC or channel 47 (I forget their calls) to simulcast their newscasts on CN8 for New Castle County Comcast customers or put the simulcast on channel 99 which is Cable Radio Network. Of course Channel 12, which just added a Dover news studio for their Delaware Tonight newscast, would have a royal fit about adding the Salisbury newscasts to the upper Delaware cable lineup. As it is now they are the only statewide TV newscast for Delaware, which they do promote during their newscast.

WHYY can have a big hissy fit if they want, but as a PBS station, they have no say. Besides, they're ultimately concerned about those rich donors in the Main Line suburbs and not Delaware. Their license is the ONLY reason that they pay any attention at all. It's the Philly 4 (ch. 3, 6, 10 and 29) that are the problem for you. They may not want to be bothered by carrying Delaware news but they would be very bothered by the incursion of network interlopers on cable in New Castle County! And, they'd play the exclusivity card.

Your idea about carrying just a newscast from a different market is not without precedent. I recall that an independent station in the Hagerstown/Winchester/Martinsburg market (WJAL-68, http://www.wjal.com/index_files/Page976.htm) actually carries the evening WV statewide newscasts of WOWK-TV 13 from Huntington, WV. This is because no West Virginia stations are carried on the system or are otherwise available in the WV panhandle area. At least, they were doing it as of last year because I watched it when staying in Chambersburg, PA.

Same situation truly exists for Delaware, who's news is very poorly covered by Philadelphia stations. I thought that Boston stations tended to ignore New Hampshire, but their coverage is great compared with what I see for DE. And, NH has its own statewide TV station - which Delaware does not have.

Personally, I think that your state has gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to media coverage.

 

[KML0224]

The calls on the Salisbury station are WMDT-TV (ABC). On a side note, isn't there some sort of rule that says a cable system has to carry a second PBS channel on your lineup? I live in central Connecticut and we get WGBY-TV channel 57 from Springfield, along side of WEDH-TV channel 24 of Hartford. Outside of the occasional show produced by WGBY, much of what they air is identical to WEDH.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

I don't know about a rule, but the Wilmington DE version of comcast cable carries Channel 12 (Wilmington), Channel 23 (New Jersey Network), and Channel 35 a small PBS station in Philly. Each seems to have different programming, however there is some cross over between channel 12 and 23, but not as often as I'd have thought.

 

[KeithE4]

On a side note, isn't there some sort of rule that says a cable system has to carry a second PBS channel on your lineup? I live in central Connecticut and we get WGBY-TV channel 57 from Springfield, along side of WEDH-TV channel 24 of Hartford. Outside of the occasional show produced by WGBY, much of what they air is identical to WEDH.

Not that I know of. Our cable system in Phoenix only carries local KAET/8 (with its digital channels on digital cable). The only other PBS in the state is KUAT/6 in Tucson. Both stations may be carried on some Pinal County (between Phoenix and Tucson) systems, but not in the Phoenix metro area.

 

[BRNout]

I think that the rule has to do with multiple PBS stations being allowed in the same market. For example, Boston has WGBH-2 and WGBX-44. Salt Lake City/Ogden/Provo has KUED-7 and KBYU-11 and so forth.

In such cases, i think cable systems have to carry two - but need not carry more. For many years, the cable system in Merrimack/Milford, NH carried WGBH-2 and WENH-11 but not WGBX-44 (an in-market signal). I called Adelphia on that and they told me that they didn't have to add channel 44. When Comcast took over the system, they did add it. But, if there's only one PBS station in a given market, the cable system doesn't have to carry another. They can, but are not required to.

About the PBS stations offered in northern DE, very interesting selection. WYBE-35 from Philly is an educational station, but I do not believe that it is a PBS affiliate. It's website says nothing about being affiliated with PBS and there is little or no PBS programming carried. It's more like an educational independent.

Oddly enough, here in the eastern half of Chester County, we get WHYY-12 and WLVT-39 (Allentown) as our PBS stations and not NJT from Trenton or Camden. Even though both places are closer and both stations more easily received OTA than WLVT. Not that I'm complaining, but the selection process for which channels to carry seems to pretty arbitrary.