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Weirton, WV (August 9, 1974)

B

Bluenoser

from Weirton Daily Times via Newspapers.com

2 KDKA-CBS Pittsburgh
3 Local Origination/Time/Weather
4 WTAE-ABC Pittsburgh
5 WSTV-CBS/ABC Steubenville
6 WKBN-CBS Youngstown
7 WTRF-NBC/ABC Wheeling
8 WYTV-ABC Youngstown
10 WWVU-PBS Morgantown
* WFMJ-NBC Youngstown airs when WWVU is off the air
11 WIIC-NBC Pittsburgh
12 WPGH Pittsburgh
13 WQED-PBS Pittsburgh
 
WYTV was carried in St Clairsville, and possibly other places in and around the WV panhandle, presumably as a second ABC affiliate, as Wheeling-Steubenville didn't have one yet, and evidently another ABC option besides WTAE was desired.

I would almost swear my life that WBOY in Clarksburg went primary-ABC for a few years in the 1970s or 1980s before returning to NBC, and I have almost as much certainty that WTRF did likewise. I can't prove that, though, and the Wikipedia pages for neither station have anything to say about this. If WTRF did that, I don't know how WYTV would have been affected.
 
IM42A said:
WYTV was carried in St Clairsville, and possibly other places in and around the WV panhandle, presumably as a second ABC affiliate, as Wheeling-Steubenville didn't have one yet, and evidently another ABC option besides WTAE was desired.

I would almost swear my life that WBOY in Clarksburg went primary-ABC for a few years in the 1970s or 1980s before returning to NBC, and I have almost as much certainty that WTRF did likewise. I can't prove that, though, and the Wikipedia pages for neither station have anything to say about this. If WTRF did that, I don't know how WYTV would have been affected.
Click to expand...
The 1979 Television Factbook has an ad for WDTV with the CBS and NBC logos, which indicates that WBOY was ABC briefly before flipping back to NBC, likely after WTRF dropped NBC for CBS (WTRF had fairly widespread cable carriage in the Clarksburg-Weston market while WSTV/WTOV didn't cover that area as well).
 
ftballfan said:
The 1979 Television Factbook has an ad for WDTV with the CBS and NBC logos, which indicates that WBOY was ABC briefly before flipping back to NBC, likely after WTRF dropped NBC for CBS (WTRF had fairly widespread cable carriage in the Clarksburg-Weston market while WSTV/WTOV didn't cover that area as well).
Click to expand...
Yes, I remember seeing that, and again, I would have sworn my life that WBOY was a primary ABC affiliate for a time. Both the Wheeling and Clarksburg markets basically used WTAE as their default ABC affiliate until WTRF and WBOY put ABC on subchannels (which obviously wasn't possible in analog days).

At one time WTRF got all the way into Maryland --- they were carried on cable in Grantsville and, I'm pretty sure, Oakland. I always found it strange that a WV station to the west of the Pittsburgh market would be seen over such a wide area --- Television Factbook shows them even getting into Randolph County (Elkins). I have to wonder if there was something about the topography of that area, that was particularly kind to WTRF's signal and allowed it to funnel down between those mountains.
 
Speaking of far cable reaches in that part of the country, WJAC and WTAJ got into that area of WV between Randolph County and the eastern panhandle. I also know that WJAC was (and might still be) on a translator in that area. Also, I remember seeing a listing for WTRF on cable in parts of Somerset County PA in a 1990s newspaper.

I think WBOY preferred competing against WIIC/WPXI (historically a very weak NBC affiliate) in the CATV days than against WTAE (one of ABC's strongest affiliates).
 
ftballfan said:
Speaking of far cable reaches in that part of the country, WJAC and WTAJ got into that area of WV between Randolph County and the eastern panhandle. I also know that WJAC was (and might still be) on a translator in that area. Also, I remember seeing a listing for WTRF on cable in parts of Somerset County PA in a 1990s newspaper.

I think WBOY preferred competing against WIIC/WPXI (historically a very weak NBC affiliate) in the CATV days than against WTAE (one of ABC's strongest affiliates).
Click to expand...

So far as I'm aware, WJAC is still on a translator in Moorefield WV (Hardy County), W29DH. In Moorefield, you would have these little compact UHF antennas on rooftops for the local translators, yagis, etc., it reminded me of antenna configurations in the UK where all TV broadcasting is UHF.

At one time, neighboring Hampshire County was even in the Johnstown-Altoona ADI. In the middle panhandle counties (Pendleton, Hardy, Grant, Hampshire, Tucker, Mineral), TV reception is, and always has been, "catch-as-catch-can" --- mountains on all sides, though with long, deep northeast-southwest valleys. Cumberland, Maryland, which has no TV stations (curiously, you'd think they would have had a network affiliate, and would possibly have been part of a "Johnstown-Altoona-Cumberland" market), serves as a default trade hub for that entire area.

WTAE also had the advantage of having their transmitter probably 15-20 miles south of the other Pittsburgh transmitters, thus being able to penetrate more deeply into West Virginia. That, plus having the ABC affiliation, rendered them the default ABC affiliate for all of northern WV.
 
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