TV Market Question

[Red_Bull_Ed]

I have a question about the Philadelphia TV Market. On the southern and eastern sides of the Philly market and within parts of the Philadelphia market it seems a TV sub-market or seprate market could have been formed or maybe was ment to be formed many years ago. Let me explain.

Take WMGM NBC 40 Atlantic City - Wildwood, then WBOC CBS 16 Salisbury, MD - Dover, DE, WMDT ABC 47 Salisbury, MD, and WCPB PBS 28 Maryland Public Television in Ocean City, would make up a Television market back in the 1970s or 80s (the days before FOX, CW, ect.)

You have a NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS station serving a market that could be Cape May County, New Jersey - Kent and Sussex Counties in Delaware, and all the counties in the Ocean City - Salisbury, MD areas. With maybe Atlantic County, NJ and some of the counties on Maryland's and Virginia's eastern shore fringe areas.

Market

NBC - WMGM 40 Atlantic City, NJ
CBS - WBOC 16 Dover, DE - Salisbury, MD
ABC - WMDT 47 Salisbury, MD
PBS - WCPB 28 Ocean City, MD

Then for example, a cable TV linup in Wildwood - Cape May, NJ might look like this:

2 - WCPB 28 PBS Ocean City, MD
3 - KYW 3 CBS Philly, PA
4 - WMGM 40 NBC Atlantic City, NJ
5 - WBOC 16 CBS Salisbury, MD
6 - WPVI 6 ABC Philly, PA
7 - WMPT 47 ABC Salisbury, MD
8 - WNJS 23 PBS Camden, NJ
9 - WTXF 29 FOX Philly
10 - WCAU 10 NBC Philly
11 - WPHL 17 My Philly
12 - WHYY 12 PBS Philly
13 - WPSG 57 CW Philly

On zap2it if you type in Cape May, NJ zip code: 08204 all of these stations are available over the air with a roof top antenna. I suppose if there was a bridge on the southern end of the Garden State Parkway from Cape May to Lewis instead of just a ferry service the market might be more justified, but radio and TV singials don't travel by bridge and cross the water both ways with no problems over the air. If you ever vacationed in Cape May, NJ or Ocean City, MD you know you can pick up the radio stations from Ocean City, MD in Cape May and from Cape May / Wildwood in Ocean City, MD.

It's an intresting thought. Was a market like this ever disscussed? Did it ever exist? Maybe in the days before cable TV in these areas?

 

[hopdevil]

"Was a market like this ever disscussed? Did it ever exist?"

Counties are assigned to markets based on what over-the-air stations receive the majority of viewing. Despite what zap2it states, many of the stations from Salisbury/Dover have little-to-no signal coverage in South Jersey (and vice-versa). So creating a market that encompasses all those counties simply wouldn't make sense.

WBOC signal coverage:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=TV519785.html

WMDT coverage:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=TV667668.html

WCPB coverage:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=TV210836.html

WMGM coverage:
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=TV148298.html

 

[pabsungenis]

There nearly was a South Jersey Shore market. Remember that in the 1950's the three network stations in Philadelphia didn't reach Cape May County very well (and wouldn't until the mid-late 1970's) and there wasn't much cable penetration.

WFPG-TV 46 signed on first, and was affiliated with all four networks in 1952, picking and choosing from programming offerings. They didn't last long.

WCMC-TV 40 went on in the 1960's and grabbed the NBC affiliation.

There was an effort by Howard Green to sign on WOND-TV on Channel 53, which would have had an ABC affiliation, but plans were dropped when he bought Channel 40.

WRBV-TV 65 in Vineland had signed up an ABC affiliation before signing on, but objections from Capital Cities (then owners of WPVI) led to it being pulled.

If things had worked out differently, you might eventually have seen all three networks affiliated at the shore on UHF stations by the mid '80's. However, the increased penetration of (and programming offerings by) cable and improved signals on Channels 6 and 10 rendered the need for ABC and CBS to operate New Jersey stations moot.

As for WMGM-TV's affilliation, remember that they've been with NBC for 30 years longer than WCAU has. The network isn't going to end that long a relationship.

 

[rch66]

Although the history and length of the station's affiliation keeps it on status quo mode, it's not really the length of the arrangement in which NBC must continue, legally or financially. CBS pulled a long standing affiliate in Jacksonville, ABC pulled one in San Jose, and NBC pulled a long standing affiliate in San Francisco.

WMGM is Atlantic and Cape May's only source of local televised news. If WMGM were to lose NBC affiliation, their newscasts would have no lead-ins, less advertiser support- thus a public backlash against NBC would begin in the Atlantic City, Cape May NJ area. And then the topic of NJ television arises - one the NY based networks try to avoid. Besides, WMGM isn't too strong/successful that it adversely diminishes WCAU's rating shares in Southern NJ.

On the other hand, NBC could find another affiliate such as WWSI 62, buy it and run it themselves with Atlantic City news, but servicing such a smaller area, which isn't too far from CH.10's main viewing area, isn't in their corporate objectives.

I would think a network station would make sense perhaps in central Delaware, given DE size, where one station could physically service all of the state, be completely state oriented without PA, NJ or MD unrelated news and advertising, and be within 50 miles of each side. Not too large or really diverse as a state as Maryland or New Jersey, where in DE its more possible. New Hampshire enjoys that with WMUR 9, and Rhode Island has its own market.

 

[number one fan]

Hey! A TV station on the edge of one or more major markets does not need a network affiliation to become a strong news contender.

Have you all forgotten WFMZ-TV, channel 69. For my money, the best TV news.... the only realTV news in the region. They get outside video from CNN.

The AC station would do better dropping NBC and operating as an independent with a similar news set up to channel 69.

A statewide Delaware news station is the last thing anybody wants. Downstate Delaware is very well-served by Salisbury's two UHF stations, both with active bureaus in Dover. Down-staters don't want to hear what happens north of the canal... unless it's really bad. South of the canal, they hate Wilmington.

 

[Markxxx]

There are a lot of places where markets started to be established but never got in full. Like Utica NY, Dolthan AL, all lacking one or more of the Big Three and or Big Four.

Eastern cities got more markets because TV was new and the population shifts hadn't started then.

The classic example is San Jose with around 95,000 people in 1950. Today it has over 957,000 people. Definately San Jose would be it's own market if TV was just starting out today.

With digital TV it will be interesting to see if these smaller "almost complete" markets can get other networks on their subchannels. I guess that will depend on new HDTV compression. Right now I have read at best a station can get six regular digital channel or ONE HDTV and one standard digital. (And some people have said the HDTV is inferior if the station tries to broadcast a regular channel at the same time as any HDTV signal). Though I'm sure in time technology will improve enough to get more than one HDTV channel per station.

 

[FrankB-town]

thats Dothan, AL, and yes, they dont have an NBC...but, Panama City shares their NBC with Dothan, and Dothan shares their CBS with Panama City...and they arent far apart, so it works well...

 

[RickRose]

Generally Montgomery's WSFA-TV 12 is considered the default Dothan market NBC since it has better coverage of the Dothan market with a tall tower southeast of Montgomery. WTVY-TV 4's tower is across the border in Florida and provides good coverage in Panama City.

 

[chuckydoll]

Teaser Thread = Ridiculous Question

There's a reason why TV stations on the Eastern Shore do not cover Cape May County and vice versa. It's called Delaware Bay.