Kind of a side issue here, the various state public TV networks often have a mandate, either actual or de facto, to cover the entire state, even if it duplicates a nearby PBS affiliate in another state. I wonder how the recent cuts will affect that sort of thing, even though these state networks usually consist of a central production facility and the various stations are just 100% repeaters of that facility. There are certain fixed costs involved in merely running a repeater station.
Also, they typically engage in a lot of "overkill" to provide a good signal to the entire state. Just to use South Carolina as an example, the stations in Greenwood and Sumter aren't really needed, very few if any South Carolinians would lose SCETV if they were shut down. And even though it doesn't significantly duplicate SCETV coverage, WNSC in Rock Hill is the third (!) PBS affiliate in the Charlotte market, if it went away, the only effect would be that a handful of counties in the far northern part of the state would lose SCETV. They'd still have PBS from WUNG and WTVI. Ditto the SC side of the Savannah TV market that has WJWJ Beaufort as its PBS station. The far southern tip of the state is probably a bit too far afield of Charleston to get a usable signal on WITV Charleston, but they would still have WVAN from Savannah.
Kentucky is another example. Virtually the whole state is blanketed with KET coverage, a lot of it duplicated, but much of Kentucky has challenging terrain, and a case could be made for having stations in Morehead, Hazard, and Pikeville. Except for the far north, South Carolina doesn't have significant terrain issues.