Mark said:
Did they LOSE all 500,000 or can most of those people get the station with an antenna. I just ask because I remember in the days before must carry, our cable TV provider at the time TCI didn't carry a lot of OTA stations in Chicago. They didn't carry the Spanish stations or WGBO (Channel 66 -then it wasn't Spanish) or WPWR Channel 50.
So it was no really big deal to throw up the rabbit ears for those channels. Though obviously clarity was a problem
I remember in Gary Indiana with TCI, the local channels they used to carry were 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 32, & 38. Then they slowly added 20, 60, & 66. Then when the must carry rulling took effect, 26 & 44 had to be added, even though the spanish language listeners were so little that TCI didn't want to add the 2 stations, but had no choice, because those 2 stations wanted to be on cable TV. Eventually 60 moved their programming to 50, and TCI changed it on their system, before they had to add 60 back to the listings due to Home Shopping Network being on that channel at the time. When 56 & 62 signed on, those stations were added as well. When the must carry ruling took effect, 2, 5, 7, 9, & 32 all demanded large amounts of money in oder to be on cable. Eventually, all 5 stations agreed to allow TCI to carry their local channels, as long as they carried certain cable channels in exchange for free local channels. I don't remember what the requirement was with 2 (CBS), but I know for 5, it had to carry CNBC & MSNBC. 7 I don't remember because Walt Disney didn't own them at the time. 9 required carrying CLTV. 32 required something, but forgot that too. But as part of adding all the local channels, TCI had to eliminate some cable channels in the process. They eliminated WWOR Superstation, CSpan (the government shot themselves in the foot because the must carry ruling forced many cable companies to eliminate channels, and CSpan was one of them at that time), MTV, QVC, and a few others. Because digital cable wasn't available in my area around 1998 & 1999 when AT&T took over TCI, I got DirecTV, and got most of the stations back, though DirecTV didn't have WWOR Superstation, but WGN Superstation. I wonder if WWOR Superstation is still on the air.
