Unusual Network Affiliates

[crainbebo]

Two PBS members in the Seattle area, KCTS 9 (Seattle) and KBTC 28 (Tacoma).

-crainbebo

 

[azumanga]

What exactly is Outlet Broadcasting, LLC anyways? I saw that at the end of WVIT-TV's newscast last night. Last I checked, WVIT-TV was still an NBC O&O.

Don't know if they're related, but it was Outlet Broadcasting that originally bought the former WYED-TV 17/Goldsboro from Beasley Broadcast Group (that's right- WYED was the radio conglomerate's first and only TV station) in 1994. Outlet owned NBC affiliates WJAR/Providence and WCMH/Columbus at the time and won the Raleigh-Durham market NBC affiliation for their newly acquired channel 17 (which they renamed WNCN). NBC bought Outlet in 1995. All three stations were spun to Media General in 2008.

The Outlet Company was a retail chain in Rhode island that would later branch into broadcasting in the 1920s. The Outlet Company sold off its department store chain in 1982, but kept broadcasting operations until 1996, when they sold off its three remaining TV stations, flagship WJAR Providence, WCMH Columbus and WNCN Raleigh/Durham, to NBC -- with Media General getting these three in 2006.

More Here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outlet_Company

WVIT got the Outlet Broadcasting licensee in 1997, when NBC swapped the station with Viacom in exchange for LMAs of WLWC in Providence and WWHO in Columbus -- both stations owned by Fant Broadcasting, which was 20% owned by Outlet, with its share included in the deal of NBC's acquisition of the Outlet stations.

Then again, according to FCC records, "NBC Telemundo License, LLC" is the actual licensee of WVIT, not Outlet Broadcasting.

Miami is sometimes called "the 6th borough of New York City" so NBC's presence there isn't surprising.

However, in 2008, NBC received FCC approval to sell WTVJ to Post-Newsweek, the owners of ABC affiliate WPLG -- the sale was possible because, according to the FCC, WTVJ was "not ranked among the top 4 stations in terms of audience share." The sale was cancelled by the end of 2008, due to poor economic conditions.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

viewing habits to change - which can take some time.

That's your key phrase here.

A new operator would have to A) change viewing habits away from the Boston stations for NBC, CBS and Fox, and B) probably have to get the cable systems to dislodge the Boston stations from their lower channel placement.

B happened in the tiny market of Wheeling WV/Steubenville OH, where WTRF/7 eventually got Comcast to bump existing ABC and Fox stations from Pittsburgh for its own subchannels carrying ABC and Fox.

And that's another point. Any other networks would, these days, have to come to NH as subchannels of the only two full power stations, WMUR and WZMY.

I don't know if Hearst or Mr. Binnie have any plans of adding "Fox NH" or "CBS NH".

 

[harrisburgpatv]

The Harrisburg-York-Lebanon-Lancaster PA market, up to 1983, had *three* CBS affiliates: 15-WLYH in Lebanon, 21-WHP in Harrisburg, and 43-WSBA in York. They actually comprised something called the "Keystone Network" where all three stations aired the same local programming in pattern. 21 jumped out in the early 70's but 15 and 43 continued the arrangement (although they had their own newscasts) until September 1983.

43 was the first one to defect from CBS, going independent and changing their call letters to WPMT. They joined the FOX Network in 1986 and have been with them ever since.

15 stayed CBS all the way up until December 1995, when they joined UPN. They are now CW.

 

[KeithE4]

Miami is sometimes called "the 6th borough of New York City" so NBC's presence there isn't surprising.

However, in 2008, NBC received FCC approval to sell WTVJ to Post-Newsweek, the owners of ABC affiliate WPLG -- the sale was possible because, according to the FCC, WTVJ was "not ranked among the top 4 stations in terms of audience share." The sale was cancelled by the end of 2008, due to poor economic conditions.

Wasn't WTVJ's poor showing due to their weak rimshot signal on Channel 6, and wasn't that corrected when the analog signal was shut off? How are they doing now?

 

[taylorjsdad]

I wonder why New Hampshire doesn't have its own TV market?

Let me see if I remember this from my Research in Broadcasting class.

Television markets are defined by viewership. In most cases the rating services take a county (or if the county is large or part of a county has different viewing patterns than another part of a county) and determines which area is most of the over-the-air viewership belongs to. In fact when Arbitron was rating local television markets they were called ADI's (Areas of Dominant Influence).

New Hampshire has a couple of things going against it which I think will prevent it from becoming it's own television market. First of all there is only one station (WMUR) affiliated with the 'Big 4' networks. The remaining commercial stations are affiliated with Ion (a satellite of Boston's Ion O&O), Telemundo (owned by NBC but operated by ZGS - owners of the low power Telemundo station in Boston), and MyNetwork TV. Even when Southern NH had two affiliates (Ch 21 in Concord was a CBS affiliate in the late 1980's - while I was away at college) viewers still were watching the Boston stations more than NH. While WMUR is widely watched in the Granite State and was even back then... the Boston stations as a total were much more watched than the NH stations. And the chance of stations in NH affiliating with CBS and Fox are close to nil since CBS and Fox own stations in Boston. I am not even sure that NBC would want to make their station in Merrimack, NH an NBC O&O.

The other thing NH has going against them is the majority of people moving into the state come from Massachusetts. Their viewing patters are closer to the Boston stations. That and what Southern NH has for stations right now really make it hard to make that area a market. When you get outside of Hillsborough and Rockingham counties... there is not another full power commercial station licensed in the state. WMUR has some translators in the North Country and there are some low power stations which Bill Binnie is putting together to create a statewide network (with the flagship being at WZMY in Derry). That is why two counties (Sullivan and Grafton) are part of the Burlington-Plattsburgh market and two other counties (Carrol and Coos) are in the Portland market.)

Two points of correction/clarification that I'd like to point out:

1) "Most" New Hampshire residents are NOT from Massachusetts. The majority are still natives and, although a solid percentage come from MA, the majority do not. Many of the transplants have come from other states such as CT, NY, NJ, PA and even ME. That comment is too rash of a generalization. Yes, sometimes it seems that way if you're from Salem or Nashua - but its not the case.

As an aside, many say that NH has become more politically liberal thanks to the people moving in from MA. That's a myth; over half who've moved in from MA tend to vote more conservatively. NH is where Massachusetts' Republicans have gone. Now, the transplants from the Mid Atlantic region are overwhelmingly liberal. The comment is based on some research that the Nashua Telegraph did back in 2004.

2) I've seen a couple of citations about WNHT-21 as if that's proof positive that another network affiliate cannot exist in NH. Sorry, but that's absolute nonsense. The station was hobbled with a poor signal that didn't even cover Manchester well and could not be received clearly anywhere in southern NH. The owners didn't have nearly the funds to ride things out long enough for viewing habits to change - which can take some time. They lasted, what, 8 months? You have to have more start up $$$ than that! And (this is important), that was 1989! The state has 400,000 more residents now. Most now have cable. Viewing habits are totally different. There's must-carry and negotiated channel positioning now (which did not exist then). No, I'm sorry but the WNHT thing means nothing. Had it been properly bankrolled and executed, it could have worked. It was neither.

Look, if Springfield, MA (a much smaller and less affluent market) can support 4 commercial network outlets now, even with bigger Hartford and Boston market signals available on the market periphery, so can the southern half of New Hampshire. For decades, viewers in Springfield watched channel 3 from Hartford as their CBS. No more, now that Meredith's low powered WSHM supplanted it from cable. Talk about a bitter way to break a viewership habit!!

A NH market would have a population of between 850,000 and 1,000,000 - depending on how it is divvied out. It is absolutely viable - and could immediately support a FOX affiliate. WFXT hardly comes in anywhere in NH anymore. With digital signals, most Boston stations' OTA signals have a harder time penetrating NH anyway. The whole thing makes sense.

Regarding WNHT. It could be argued that the plug was pulled too quickly. Most of their time with CBS was when I was at college in Upstate NY. If I remember they had some quality programming but most of it was still on the Boston stations (Wheel and Jeopardy come to mind.) We lived in Bedford and could get WNHT ok on the TV in my bedroom (which did not have cable.) Wasn't WNHT at that time owned by Flatley? They seemed to have enough money to run WSYT in Syracuse at the same time.

I think the biggest obstacle to Southern NH becoming a DMA is the real need to have affiliations with CBS/NBC/FOX. If I am CBS or Fox do I want to have an affiliate going against my O&O for any part of the DMA viewership? I could possibly see NBC on a subchannel of WMUR as insurance against WHDH (especially since Sunbeam and NBC are not the best of friends and Hearst has a good relationship with NBC.) Getting a CBS or Fox affiliate is just not going to happen as long as both networks have O&O's in the market.

 

[azumanga]

Two PBS members in the Seattle area, KCTS 9 (Seattle) and KBTC 28 (Tacoma).

That ain't as unusual as you think -- many parts of the country have two or more PBS stations, such as Los Angeles (KOCE, KLCS and, until recently, KCET), Chicago (WTTW, WYCC and WYIN), New York City (WNET, WLIW, Connecticut Public TV and NJN), Cincinnati (WCET, WPTO and KET station WCVN), Tampa Bay (WEDU and WUSF), Miami (WPBT and WLRN), Orlando (WDSC, WBCC and, until June, at least, WMFE), and Flint / Saginaw (WDCQ and WCMU), among many others.

 

[fybush]

Getting a CBS or Fox affiliate is just not going to happen as long as both networks have O&O's in the market.

Let me expand on that:

Boston is still a top-10 TV market, and being a top-10 TV market makes those O&Os spectacularly valuable to their networks. Splitting off New Hampshire into its own separate market at this point would probably peel enough population out of the market to push it out of the top ten, either right away or eventually as other markets keep growing at a faster pace.

So it's absolutely in Fox's and CBS's best interest to keep NH in the Boston market. (That's without even getting into the issue of political ads every four years; if NH were its own market, those political buys from NH wouldn't go to Boston stations, which would be a huge hit to their revenues.)

And it's in Hearst's interest, too, since they get the best of both worlds - WCVB gets to be a top-10 outlet for them, and they get the separate NH ad revenue from WMUR.

And it's in Sunbeam's interest, since they get NH ad revenue flowing to WHDH/WLVI and they get to claim top-10 status for both.

And it's in the best interest of WZMY and WNEU, which get Boston-market cable and satellite carriage that they wouldn't get if NH were a separate market. Those stations would be far less valuable if they reached only NH viewers, even if they got big-4 affiliations in the process.

In short, there's absolutely no motivation by any of the stations involved to split NH off as a separate market, and a lot of reasons for them to want to keep the status quo.

 

[kilamanjero]

What exactly is Outlet Broadcasting, LLC anyways? I saw that at the end of WVIT-TV's newscast last night. Last I checked, WVIT-TV was still an NBC O&O.

Don't know if they're related, but it was Outlet Broadcasting that originally bought the former WYED-TV 17/Goldsboro from Beasley Broadcast Group (that's right- WYED was the radio conglomerate's first and only TV station) in 1994. Outlet owned NBC affiliates WJAR/Providence and WCMH/Columbus at the time and won the Raleigh-Durham market NBC affiliation for their newly acquired channel 17 (which they renamed WNCN). NBC bought Outlet in 1995. All three stations were spun to Media General in 2008.

Despite WNCN's being an NBC O&O, from 1995-2008, it was, as it is now even moreso under MG, never a serious contender in this market, and NBC didn't really seem to put a lot of resources into trying to do so. Really the only signs NBC 17 was an O&O were the graphics packages and the copyright at the end of their newscasts. There was definitely a noticeable difference when compared to our market's ABC O&O, WTVD. Under Media General, the station went HD and has a new news set. MG did bring in their standard graphics package, but didn't outfit WNCN with one of their standard wide-number, crescent-style logos, they retained their somewhat hard-to-see logo from the NBC ownership days (likely due to the MG stations, with the standardized logo--now sans-crescent--in neighboring Roanoke/Lynchburg (WSLS), Greenville/New Bern/Jacksonville (WNCT) and Florence/Myrtle Beach (WBTW) markets).

It is related. Outlet Broadcasting was the licensee for the most of the lower market O&O stations except for WVTM, which was "Birmingham Broadcasting Company, LLC" WVTM was placed into a trust by New World (because they owned WBRC at the same time whom they spun off to Fox) before NBC bought them outright, but keep the licensee tag for their duration as an O&O.

Oh yeah, Media General bought the 4 stations from NBCU in 2006 not 2008. I wished it was that recent tho... :-\

 

[wncc]

Two PBS members in the Seattle area, KCTS 9 (Seattle) and KBTC 28 (Tacoma).

That ain't as unusual as you think -- many parts of the country have two or more PBS stations, such as Los Angeles (KOCE, KLCS and, until recently, KCET), Chicago (WTTW, WYCC and WYIN), New York City (WNET, WLIW, Connecticut Public TV and NJN), Cincinnati (WCET, WPTO and KET station WCVN), Tampa Bay (WEDU and WUSF), Miami (WPBT and WLRN), Orlando (WDSC, WBCC and, until June, at least, WMFE), and Flint / Saginaw (WDCQ and WCMU), among many others.

Charlotte has three PBS affiliates: WTVI; WNSC (SC ETV); WUNG (UNC-TV)

 

[dhett]

KECY 9 El Centro CA airs a network owned by the Big 4 on each of its subchannels: Fox on 9.1, ABC on 9.2, CW+ (partially owned by CBS) on 9.3 and Telemundo (owned by NBC) on 9.4.

 

[KeithE4]

Charlotte has three PBS affiliates: WTVI; WNSC (SC ETV); WUNG (UNC-TV)

So does Indianapolis: WFYI, WTIU, and WIPB, although the latter two don't cover the entire market, being 50 miles SSW and NE, respectively, from downtown Indy.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

And I thought I mentioned it here, but in another thread: Cleveland has two PBS affiliates - WVIZ/25 Cleveland and WEAO/49 Akron (the Cleveland/Akron market half of "Western Reserve PBS", also seen on Youngstown market WNEO/45 Alliance).

 

[taylorjsdad]

Two PBS members in the Seattle area, KCTS 9 (Seattle) and KBTC 28 (Tacoma).

That ain't as unusual as you think -- many parts of the country have two or more PBS stations, such as Los Angeles (KOCE, KLCS and, until recently, KCET), Chicago (WTTW, WYCC and WYIN), New York City (WNET, WLIW, Connecticut Public TV and NJN), Cincinnati (WCET, WPTO and KET station WCVN), Tampa Bay (WEDU and WUSF), Miami (WPBT and WLRN), Orlando (WDSC, WBCC and, until June, at least, WMFE), and Flint / Saginaw (WDCQ and WCMU), among many others.

Boston too... WGBH and WGBX (3 if you include NH Public Television.)

 

[bpatrick]

Charlotte has three: WTVI/42, owned by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
school board; WUNG/58 Concord, NC, part of UNC-TV; and WNSC/30
Rock Hill, SC, part of SCETV. Also WUNE/17 Linville, NC, also part of
UNC-TV, is considered part of the Charlotte DMA.

SCETV has three stations in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville market:
WNTV/29 Greenville; WNEH/38 Greenwood, SC; WRET/49 Spartanburg.
UNC-TV's WUNF/33 Asheville and WUNW/27 Canton, NC, are available
in parts of the market.

 

[bpatrick]

What exactly is Outlet Broadcasting, LLC anyways? I saw that at the end of WVIT-TV's newscast last night. Last I checked, WVIT-TV was still an NBC O&O.

Don't know if they're related, but it was Outlet Broadcasting that originally bought the former WYED-TV 17/Goldsboro from Beasley Broadcast Group (that's right- WYED was the radio conglomerate's first and only TV station) in 1994. Outlet owned NBC affiliates WJAR/Providence and WCMH/Columbus at the time and won the Raleigh-Durham market NBC affiliation for their newly acquired channel 17 (which they renamed WNCN). NBC bought Outlet in 1995. All three stations were spun to Media General in 2008.





Despite WNCN's being an NBC O&O, from 1995-2008, it was, as it is now even moreso under MG, never a serious contender in this market, and NBC didn't really seem to put a lot of resources into trying to do so. Really the only signs NBC 17 was an O&O were the graphics packages and the copyright at the end of their newscasts. There was definitely a noticeable difference when compared to our market's ABC O&O, WTVD. Under Media General, the station went HD and has a new news set. MG did bring in their standard graphics package, but didn't outfit WNCN with one of their standard wide-number, crescent-style logos, they retained their somewhat hard-to-see logo from the NBC ownership days (likely due to the MG stations, with the standardized logo--now sans-crescent--in neighboring Roanoke/Lynchburg (WSLS), Greenville/New Bern/Jacksonville (WNCT) and Florence/Myrtle Beach (WBTW) markets).

It is related. Outlet Broadcasting was the licensee for the most of the lower market O&O stations except for WVTM, which was "Birmingham Broadcasting Company, LLC" WVTM was placed into a trust by New World (because they owned WBRC at the same time whom they spun off to Fox) before NBC bought them outright, but keep the licensee tag for their duration as an O&O.

Oh yeah, Media General bought the 4 stations from NBCU in 2006 not 2008. I wished it was that recent tho... :-\

Interestingly, Post-Newsweek owns two former Outlet stations: KSAT San Antonio and WKMG Orlando (the latter was WDBO when Outlet had it, and for the record the calls had nothing to do with Outlet; they stood for "Way Down By Orlando," first used in the 1930s by WDBO radio).

 

[RadioDaze]

Charlotte has three: WTVI/42, owned by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
school board; WUNG/58 Concord, NC, part of UNC-TV; and WNSC/30
Rock Hill, SC, part of SCETV. Also WUNE/17 Linville, NC, also part of
UNC-TV, is considered part of the Charlotte DMA.

SCETV has three stations in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville market:
WNTV/29 Greenville; WNEH/38 Greenwood, SC; WRET/49 Spartanburg.
UNC-TV's WUNF/33 Asheville and WUNW/27 Canton, NC, are available
in parts of the market.

Counting UNC-TV stations (or "transmitters" as the network refers to them, since they all show the exact same programming with no local origination), the Raleigh-Durham DMA has two public stations in the DMA, flagship WUNC-TV 4 in Chapel Hill and WUNP-TV 36 in Roanoke Rapids (one of two stations on RF 36 in the market, the other being WFPX in Fayetteville). Just outside the DMA, in the Florence/Myrtle Beach market is WUNU-TV 31 in Lumberton, which serves Fayetteville. While some on the periphery of the market "may" be able to get weak signals from SCETV's WJPM-TV 33 in Florence, Richmond's WCVE-TV 23, or Blue Ridge Public TV's WBRA-TV 15 in Roanoke, there isn't really a non-UNC-TV public TV alternative in Raleigh-Durham, as in Charlotte.

Florence-Myrtle Beach gets two in-market PBS services: SCETV via Florence's WJPM and WHMC-TV 23 in Conway, as well as via UNC-TV's WUNU/Lumberton and WUNJ-TV 39, just outside of the DMA in Wilmington.

Norfolk-Portmouth-Newport News has two distinct in-market PBS services: WHRO-TV 15/Hampton as well as UNC-TV's WUND-TV 2 in Edenton.

 

[Ultimajock]

...multiple PBS affiliates: Milwaukee also has WMVS/v10 and WMVT/v36, and Tucson has KUAT-TV/v6 and KUAS-TV/v27, the latter pair duplicating programming on 6.1 and 27.1. When I lived in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market in 1986, there were also KTCA/2 and KTCI/17; both licenses are still active but KTCI appears to map to Channel 2.3 rather than 17.1, according to their Wikipedia listing...

 

[tripinva]

While some on the periphery of the market "may" be able to get weak signals from SCETV's WJPM-TV 33 in Florence, Richmond's WCVE-TV 23, or Blue Ridge Public TV's WBRA-TV 15 in Roanoke, there isn't really a non-UNC-TV public TV alternative in Raleigh-Durham, as in Charlotte.

Nobody in the Raleigh market can see WCVE due to the presence of WRAY on the same channel.

- Trip

 

[bpatrick]

In analog days I could pick up WDBJ, WSLS, and WSET;
I never picked up WBRA.

And another case of multiple outlets of UNC-TV: Greenville/
New Bern/Washington: WUNK/25 Greenville and WUNM/19
Jacksonville (which serves New Bern). WUND, while by the
way Nielsen divides the markets, is in the Norfolk market,
but gets into parts of Greenville/New Bern/Washington; it
was, in fact listed in the North Carolina edition of TV Guide
rather than the Eastern Virginia one.

Also, South Georgia/North Florida: WJCT Jacksonville and
WXGA Waycross, GA.