Does anyone on here actually subscribe to your local newspaper's version of TV Weekly magazine? Which in most areas has replaced the paper's local, free weekend TV insert. If so, what local edition of TV Weekly do you get in your area (which appears to be different than what your area got in the old TVG regional version days), and what channels are included?
I was traveling with my wife last weekend and picked up a Kewanee Star-Courier (Henry County, IL--Quad Cities DMA but within 6 miles of Stark County, which is in Peoria/Bloomington) at a Casey's gas station. To my surprise, a complementary copy of TV Weekly was included in that paper although when other papers introduced it, the complementary copies would only go to delivery subscribers and not those papers purchased in stores.
However, the edition included in that paper was probably a mistake--it was the Central Illinois edition, which I assume is the edition for my local newspaper (Springfield State Journal-Register, which discontinued their free insert on Halloween and replaced it with TV Weekly). Of course, if you rarely watch OTA channels and mostly cable networks, then the channel offerings are top-notch (although it wouldn't hurt to also add Univision, Telemundo, and SEC Network in our local version). However, the OTA channels listed are a mess--and I hope what the Kewanee paper got was a mistake and not what the Star-Courier (as well as the Peoria and Galesburg newspapers) subscribers who decide to get TVW will have listed--as the channel offerings are nearly useless and incomplete for the Kewanee area.
Sometime in the future I'll list a "fictious" version on the Fictious TV board here about how I would redo the TV Weekly Central Illinois edition for OTA channels, but here's what was listed in the actual version. With channels in Bold those which can actually be received in Kewanee:
2--KTVI (St. Louis) (Fox)
3--WCIA (Champaign) (CBS) (also relayed on 49.2 in Springfield)
7--KHQA (Hannibal/Quincy) (CBS) (7.1 only, no 7.2 ABC)
12--WILL (Urbana) (PBS)
14--WSEC (Jacksonville/Springfield) (PBS) (no mention of also being available on 22-WMEC Macomb or 27-WQEC Quincy)
17--WAND (Decatur) (NBC)
19--WHOI (Peoria) (still listed as "ABC 19" although the listings are for 19.1's current TBD "programming"--Channel 19 lost ABC in fall 2016 to WEEK-25.2)
20--WICS (Springfield) (ABC)
23--WBUI (Decatur) (CW) (listed as "THE CW 23")
25--WEEK (Peoria) (NBC) (25.1 only, no mention of the forementioned 25.2 ABC, 25.3 CW, or 25.4 ION--although ION listings are listed with cable channels)
31--WMBD (Peoria) (CBS)
43--WYZZ (Bloomington/Peoria) (Fox) (it occasionally may be received in the Kewanee area)
49--WCIX (Springfield) (My--listed as "MNT 49") (also relayed on 3.2 Champaign)
55--WRSP (Springfield) (Fox)
And that's it!
And even worse is the cable conversion chart. In addition to DISH and DirectTV Springfield/Decatur/Champaign DMA listings, as well as the Springfield AT&T lineup (but no Springfield Comcast lineup for some strange reason), the communities listed were mostly in the western part of the State Journal-Register's circulation area, or outside that area: Jacksonville (Mediacom), Rushville/Pittsfield/Virginia (Cass Cable TV), AT&T St. Louis, NewWave lineups in Carrollton and Jerseyville, IL; a cable lineup for Grafton and Jerseyville; Macomb (Comcast), Illinois Net Co-Mo (somewhere in Quincy DMA), and the Quincy area Frontier lineup. For most of those lineups, only one OTA station is listed!
I'll do a fictitious version of TVW for this area sometime later, but if they're going to list those cable systems in the conversion chart--and deliver the Central Illinois edition up to Peoria and beyond--then they need to do the Central Illinois edition right. Put all St. Louis, all Quincy/Hannibal, all Peoria, and all Quad Cities channels in TV Weekly's Central IL edition. Even if it means sacrificing article space (or printing a few more pages). Maybe even expand "central Illinois" to include the Champaign side of the Springfield/Decatur DMA. Or rename the Central Illinois edition the "Springfield" edition.
What edition of TV Weekly do you get in your area and what OTA stations are offered in it?
I was traveling with my wife last weekend and picked up a Kewanee Star-Courier (Henry County, IL--Quad Cities DMA but within 6 miles of Stark County, which is in Peoria/Bloomington) at a Casey's gas station. To my surprise, a complementary copy of TV Weekly was included in that paper although when other papers introduced it, the complementary copies would only go to delivery subscribers and not those papers purchased in stores.
However, the edition included in that paper was probably a mistake--it was the Central Illinois edition, which I assume is the edition for my local newspaper (Springfield State Journal-Register, which discontinued their free insert on Halloween and replaced it with TV Weekly). Of course, if you rarely watch OTA channels and mostly cable networks, then the channel offerings are top-notch (although it wouldn't hurt to also add Univision, Telemundo, and SEC Network in our local version). However, the OTA channels listed are a mess--and I hope what the Kewanee paper got was a mistake and not what the Star-Courier (as well as the Peoria and Galesburg newspapers) subscribers who decide to get TVW will have listed--as the channel offerings are nearly useless and incomplete for the Kewanee area.
Sometime in the future I'll list a "fictious" version on the Fictious TV board here about how I would redo the TV Weekly Central Illinois edition for OTA channels, but here's what was listed in the actual version. With channels in Bold those which can actually be received in Kewanee:
2--KTVI (St. Louis) (Fox)
3--WCIA (Champaign) (CBS) (also relayed on 49.2 in Springfield)
7--KHQA (Hannibal/Quincy) (CBS) (7.1 only, no 7.2 ABC)
12--WILL (Urbana) (PBS)
14--WSEC (Jacksonville/Springfield) (PBS) (no mention of also being available on 22-WMEC Macomb or 27-WQEC Quincy)
17--WAND (Decatur) (NBC)
19--WHOI (Peoria) (still listed as "ABC 19" although the listings are for 19.1's current TBD "programming"--Channel 19 lost ABC in fall 2016 to WEEK-25.2)
20--WICS (Springfield) (ABC)
23--WBUI (Decatur) (CW) (listed as "THE CW 23")
25--WEEK (Peoria) (NBC) (25.1 only, no mention of the forementioned 25.2 ABC, 25.3 CW, or 25.4 ION--although ION listings are listed with cable channels)
31--WMBD (Peoria) (CBS)
43--WYZZ (Bloomington/Peoria) (Fox) (it occasionally may be received in the Kewanee area)
49--WCIX (Springfield) (My--listed as "MNT 49") (also relayed on 3.2 Champaign)
55--WRSP (Springfield) (Fox)
And that's it!
And even worse is the cable conversion chart. In addition to DISH and DirectTV Springfield/Decatur/Champaign DMA listings, as well as the Springfield AT&T lineup (but no Springfield Comcast lineup for some strange reason), the communities listed were mostly in the western part of the State Journal-Register's circulation area, or outside that area: Jacksonville (Mediacom), Rushville/Pittsfield/Virginia (Cass Cable TV), AT&T St. Louis, NewWave lineups in Carrollton and Jerseyville, IL; a cable lineup for Grafton and Jerseyville; Macomb (Comcast), Illinois Net Co-Mo (somewhere in Quincy DMA), and the Quincy area Frontier lineup. For most of those lineups, only one OTA station is listed!
I'll do a fictitious version of TVW for this area sometime later, but if they're going to list those cable systems in the conversion chart--and deliver the Central Illinois edition up to Peoria and beyond--then they need to do the Central Illinois edition right. Put all St. Louis, all Quincy/Hannibal, all Peoria, and all Quad Cities channels in TV Weekly's Central IL edition. Even if it means sacrificing article space (or printing a few more pages). Maybe even expand "central Illinois" to include the Champaign side of the Springfield/Decatur DMA. Or rename the Central Illinois edition the "Springfield" edition.
What edition of TV Weekly do you get in your area and what OTA stations are offered in it?