TOP 50 TV markets 1963 vs. 2013

[KeithE4]

For anyone curious about the 1963 rankings, you may want to view the March 1963 issue of Television Magazine, also archived at AmericanRadioHistory.com, itself an absolute must-visit website for anyone interested in United States radio and TV history. The feature article in the March 1963 issue was an in-depth profile of the top 100 TV markets in the US at that time, beginning on page 77 of the PDF and continuing nearly to the end of the publication. Due to methodologies, the list differs somewhat from the one in the first post of this thread, even though that one also came from Television Magazine. One of the problems in researching that era of TV was that, unlike today with Nieslen, there was no single authoritative source in determining market definitions and rankings, so data can often differ from source-to-source, or even among the same source.

Anyway, again, view the March 1963 issue of Television Magazine for a detailed look at the top 100 TV markets in 1963 (plus a whole lot of neat advertisements and other articles).

For the record, San Diego was #54, Orlando/Daytona Beach was #56, and Phoenix was #77 - between Spokane WA and Madison WI.

 

[Fenway1912]

I am stunned at the size of the Providence market in 1963

 

[EJM]

Due to methodologies, the list differs somewhat from the one in the first post of this thread, even though that one also came from Television Magazine. One of the problems in researching that era of TV was that, unlike today with Nieslen, there was no single authoritative source in determining market definitions and rankings, so data can often differ from source-to-source, or even among the same source.

The OP has a broken link, but the other thread has the correct one: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/Archive-BC-IDX/64-OCR/1964-12-21-BC-OCR-Page-0009.pdf. Those rankings are from the American Research Bureau (aka Arbitron).

Updated because I think I've figured out why some of those markets (e.g., Wheeling/Steubenville) were much larger then: Today's Nielsen DMAs have each county (or county-equivalent) in only one market. It looks like at least Television Magazine's market definitions include some counties in more than one market; pay attention to how the bulleted counties are listed and counted.

 

[dhett]

There are a lot of inconsistencies in the counts provided in the 1963 document. It reports "VHF homes", even in then-#69 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre PA, which was always an all-UHF market during the analog days. On pg. 130, it says that if a market includes both VHF and UHF stations, only VHF stations are counted - no surprise, as VHF stations had superior coverage. Some markets include satellite stations; others don't. Scranton/W-B includes CATV homes, which was how my family got TV in that market in the late '60s/early '70s. Also, the TV homes counted were actual, not potential, so a market with low TV penetration, such as Zanesville OH (51%) wouldn't rank as high as a market with higher TV penetration, such as Amarillo (88%).

Remember also that the overall population of the U.S. has grown about 66% over the past 50 years, from about 189 million in 1963, to about 314 million in 2012. A market would have to have grown 66% just to keep up; many of the Rust Belt markets have about the same population as or even fewer people than 50 years ago, so because they didn't keep up with the national growth, their rankings dropped.

No surprise that the Phoenix market (including 9 of the state's then-14 counties) rose from #77 then to #12 today. The 1963 report counted about 253,100 actual TV homes. With 89% penetration, that represents about 285,000 potential homes. Based on 1963 US population estimates and total US household count on pg. 131, a household represented about 3.4 people (today, it's closer to 2.5), so the Phoenix market had about 970,000 people living in it, versus about 5 million today. The Phoenix market's 400%+ growth easily surpasses the nation's average.

On the other hand, Providence reported 710,400 TV homes then with a 95% penetration rate, or about 748,000 total households, for a population of about 2,540,000, about 2/3 of that number in Massachusetts. In 2012, Providence reported about 620,000 TV homes (I'm guessing near 100% penetration now?) for a population of about 1,575,000. Rhode Island gained about 200,000 population, so the Massachusetts part of the market lost over 1 million people. I'm guessing that a lot of that loss was due to counties transferring from the Providence market to Boston. If I were living in Southern Massachusetts, I'd much rather tune to a Boston station for a more professional product and for Massachusetts-centric news.

 

[dougw9wi]

There are a lot of inconsistencies in the counts provided in the 1963 document. It reports "VHF homes", even in then-#69 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre PA, which was always an all-UHF market during the analog days. ... Scranton/W-B includes CATV homes, which was how my family got TV in that market in the late '60s/early '70s.

There still exist on the east side of Madison, Wis. a few channel 3 antennas pointed *east*. The channel 3 analog station there always transmitted from a site on the *west* side of the city. Those east-side antennas were used to receive WTMJ-TV from Milwaukee, during the period between 1947 (when WTMJ signed on the air on channel 3) and 1953. (when two local UHF stations signed on in Madison)

Is it not possible something similar happened in the Scranton/W-B market? Some number of VHF-only receivers installed before 1952, for the purpose of receiving the VHF stations from Philadelphia? (and possibly WGAL and maybe in some parts of the market, NYC?) Further, stories I've read from the time suggest that many of these VHF-only setowners wouldn't have bothered to convert for UHF when the local UHF stations signed on. Do we know what counties these VHF-only receivers were in? (is it possible to correlate it with terrain to predict where Philadelphia & WGAL would have been receivable? Keeping in mind that in the 1950s people would have tolerated signals far weaker than anyone would watch today...)

You also mention early cable, which of course launched in the Scranton/W-B market. Is it possible VHF-only sets were attached to cable & receiving Philadelphia stations delivered over the cable? (there was no must-carry at the time and there are reports of cable systems not bothering to carry local UHF stations if more-distant VHF signals were available) Or receiving Scranton/W-B stations downconverted to VHF by the cable operator?

 

[dhett]

Is it not possible something similar happened in the Scranton/W-B market? Some number of VHF-only receivers installed before 1952, for the purpose of receiving the VHF stations from Philadelphia? (and possibly WGAL and maybe in some parts of the market, NYC?). Further, stories I've read from the time suggest that many of these VHF-only setowners wouldn't have bothered to convert for UHF when the local UHF stations signed on. Do we know what counties these VHF-only receivers were in? (is it possible to correlate it with terrain to predict where Philadelphia & WGAL would have been receivable? Keeping in mind that in the 1950s people would have tolerated signals far weaker than anyone would watch today...)

Possible, and even plausible, but not probable. Unlike Wisconsin, eastern Pennsylvania is mountainous and with Blue Mtn. (actually a long mountain ridge) standing between Allentown and northeast PA, reception of Philadelphia stations would have been unlikely, and then only limited to those on mountaintops in the southern part of the market. Some in the eastern part of the market were able to receive NYC stations, but again, only those on the mountaintops. The majority of the market lives in the valleys along the Susquehanna River, where reception of out-of-market stations is impossible due to terrain. By 1963, the market already had 3 local commercial stations, 2 signing on in 1953 and the other in 1954, so anyone buying a TV set locally would have had a UHF receiver in their set.

You also mention early cable, which of course launched in the Scranton/W-B market. Is it possible VHF-only sets were attached to cable & receiving Philadelphia stations delivered over the cable? (there was no must-carry at the time and there are reports of cable systems not bothering to carry local UHF stations if more-distant VHF signals were available) Or receiving Scranton/W-B stations downconverted to VHF by the cable operator?

We lived about 30 mi. N of W-B and about 35 mi. W of Scranton and received CATV. Our system had the 4 Scranton/W-B UHF stations, plus two from Binghamton, one a VHF station, and the other a UHF station. All of them were on VHF stations for us, so it's possible that since the market included CATV, some of the households would have had VHF CATV stations, but again, with the majority of the market living in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas, where CATV did not exist, the number of TV households reported would have been overwhelmingly UHF.

 

[EJM]

On the other hand, Providence reported 710,400 TV homes then with a 95% penetration rate, or about 748,000 total households, for a population of about 2,540,000, about 2/3 of that number in Massachusetts. In 2012, Providence reported about 620,000 TV homes (I'm guessing near 100% penetration now?) for a population of about 1,575,000. Rhode Island gained about 200,000 population, so the Massachusetts part of the market lost over 1 million people. I'm guessing that a lot of that loss was due to counties transferring from the Providence market to Boston. If I were living in Southern Massachusetts, I'd much rather tune to a Boston station for a more professional product and for Massachusetts-centric news.

Again, though, I think that the 1963 rankings/definitions double-count (or triple- or maybe even quadruple-count) some counties. Here, it may be more an issue of some counties being included in both the Boston and Providence markets--and maybe others. (Off-hand, New London County, Conn., appears in at least the Boston, Providence, and Hartford markets.)

 

[ding12]

No, Atlanta has been going for some time. Probably the late 80's and early 90's were a good time here. We like to build new things and then tear them down 20 years later to build something NEWER.

Atlanta also prospered with ATL, the Delta hub.

ATL is pretty central unlike say BOS for a hub.

It's closer to LAX than any of the NE airports (BOS, JFK/EWR/LGA, PHL, DCA, etc.) and still within the east unlike DFW for handling traffic flows in the eastern US.

Delta can capture Northern America - ATL - Southern America, West Coast - ATL - Europe, Northeast - ATL - Texas, Florida - ATL - midwest, and numerous traffic flows.

US does so with CLT but Charlotte remains a smaller market than Atlanta.

Having a lot of flights and international service really helps bring business locally and increase growth. Also it probably helped that Atlanta has warmer weather, lower cost of living and less bureaucracy and taxes than most of the states north of VA.

 

[ftballfan]

Many counties were included in multiple markets, especially outside metro areas. And some counties, especially those really far away from cities, weren't included in ANY market!

 

[Ccook55]

There seems to be some debate as to where Atlanta and Washington are in the current rankings. Some references have Atlanta at 8 and Washington at 9, while others have it the other way around. (An Atlanta Journal-Constitution article not too far back had the article headline "We're no. 8!")

 

[KML0224]

I was told that Hartford and New Haven were going to be separate markets originally. However, it was already one combined market in 1963. Presently, Hartford gets ABC and MY from New Haven. New London was mentioned up thread. Today, they're home to our ION affiliate.

Another former analog "UHF Island" would be Springfield/Holyoke, MA: NBC 22, ABC 40 and PBS 57. They always relied on Hartford for CBS and FOX. Today they have "CBS 3" fed from the WFSB-TV studio in Rocky Hill, CT (on antenna in the Springfield area as WSHM-LD) and ?"FOX 6" (WGGB-TV 40-2, with "6" referring to the analog cable channel number on Comcast in Springfield).